High thoughts must have high language

I have written before about the trials and tribulations around translating articles into Indonesian. My old friend Dr Erwin Widjono (the founder of the Jakarta Drugs Dependency Hospital or RSKO back in the 70's - but that's another story!) always complained that Indonesian is a very impoverished language. It's very difficult to express shades of feeling in the language. He told me that he first translates to Javanese, which he says is a richer language, and then back to Indonesian.

There's been a lot of correspondence on this recently in the Jakarta Post. It seemed to me that much of it was wide of the mark, But I do think that a language reflects the culture. For example, the fact that there is no word for 'accountable' (at least to differentiate it from 'responsible') seems to me to give some insight into the challenges Indonesia faces in combating corruption. If you get caught, give the money back and all will be well!

Our job has been a little simplified with recent launching of the fourth edition of THE Indonesian dictionary, Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, "The Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language." The Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia, Dr. Nikolaos van Dam, has just written a very learned but interesting mini-review of this in the Jakarta Post that is worth reading. He notes a number of shortcomings - and he has clearly spent a lot of time with the book - but he notes that it is a very welcome release. As with any language, there are a number of inconsistencies, but it does appear that these are slowly being addressed, as each new edition appears. He notes that the first edition only made it to the shelves in 1988, with only 62,000 entries. The second edition, which is the one I have at home, very dog-eared, was published in 1991 with 72,000 entries. The current edition takes this up to 90,000. I suppose it is unfair to compare this with English - many pocket dictionaries contain more entries than that - but this relatively low number (including, according to His Excellency, 20,000 'loan words', many from his own language) does reflect a degree of poverty.

Of course, English also has its shortcomings. Talking of 'responsibility', we face difficulties when we discuss what is now often called 'positive prevention' - the idea that HIV-positive people should also be involved in breaking the chain of transmission of HIV. A very sensitive topic, partly because they do want to be seen to be 'responsible' people, but clearly don't want to be held 'responsible' for the spread of the epidemic.

Sometimes language can be a barrier to clear communication...

Babé