Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk

Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk ( born February 23, 1824 in Malacca, Malaysia; † August 17, 1894 in Surabaya, Java, Indonesia), was a Bible translator and linguist who had linguistically specialized in the languages ​​Dutch East Indies.

• 4.1 Primary Sources
• 4.2 Secondary Literature

The early years and periods of study

Van der Tuuk was descended from the eldest son of the marriage of the Dutch lawyer, Sefridus van der Tuuk (1776-1853), with the one half German and Javanese Louise ( Louisa ) Neubronner ( 1794-1845 ), whom he met for professional reasons in Malacca and had married. Their surname, Neubronner, also found its way into the name van der Tuuks. He was born during the times of the Dutch colonial administration over Malacca, which lasted from 1644 to 1824. After the Malacca region with the British against areas in Sumatra ( with base Bengkulu (then Bengcoolen ) at the sumatrischen west coast) had been exchanged, the family settled in the framework of the British -Dutch Treaty of 1824 in 1825 to Surabaya in East Java over, where also other siblings van der Tuuks were born. Van der Tuuk grew up in the environment of strong cultural influences through the Aboriginal and European sailors, although he attended a European primary school. 1836 van was sent to his uncle, a pastor in the Dutch province of Friesland to continue forming the Tuuk school at the age of 12 years, where he was in intensive contact with the church. Subsequently, he enrolled in the University of Groningen. In 1843 he completed his doctorate there as a lawyer. Subsequently, he studied Arabic, Persian, Malay language and Sanskrit at the University of Leiden. He probably lived until 1849, before returning to the Far East to work for the Dutch Bible Society.

Linguistic meaning

Between 1851-1857 lived van der Tuuk worked as a representative of the Dutch Bible Society in the Batak of Sumatra. There he collected data for the detection of a dictionary and grammar book directory of Bataksprachen and their writing. The time 1857-1868 he spent in the Netherlands to sort his accumulated knowledge and publish several books on the subject, including Dictionary, a Bataksch - Nederduitsch, 1861, a four-volume Bataksch leesboek, from 1860 to 1862 and his famous two-volume grammar book for Toba Batak language Tobasche spraakkunst, 1864-1867. In 1868, he returned at the behest of the Dutch Bible Society to Far East Asia back to Bali, where he studies the Balinese language and writing was devoted to.

Between 1873 and 1894 van der Tuuk worked for the Dutch East Indies government responsible for the areas of education, religion and business in the capacity as an employee. During this time, van der Tuuk focused on the creation of a large-scale language anthology. For a result, these efforts had the four-volume Kawi Balineesch - Nederlandsch Dictionary (1894-1912), which was however not published until after his death.

Proficiency and Christianisierungsauftrag

The Dutch Bible Society 's aim was to evangelize the Far Eastern colonial territory and subjugate Christianity. We therefore considered it necessary to implement translations of the Bible into the local original languages ​​, which is why Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk was awarded the contract, to ensure this for the territory of the Batak of Sumatra. Van der Tuuk had, however, causing significant internal resistance to overcome, which is also based on the linguistic incompatibility as ethical Grundabneigungen.

1849 reached van der Tuuk Batavia, as Jakarta was a former trading post at the time of Dutch colonization, today the Indonesian capital, called. He expressed dismay at the state of the library there, for he found no habhaften information bases before and realized that many books were lost. A trip to the Batak banned, since monsoon rains foiled his crossing and he saw himself also subjected to a lengthy malaria disease that confined him to the bedside.

It was not until 1852 he managed to dive into the cultures of the Batak and to devote himself to the intensive study of those scriptures, songs, stories and other cultural customs. Outside the Batakzentren he encountered increasing Islamization of the region, triggered by the Malay population. It was to counter this process effectively, but especially the bridge between the possible different language requirements for a Christian mission. Van der Tuuk realized that advance a dictionary ( Batak / Dutch) is to create that would help resolve the linguistic inconsistencies and a religious conversion could be possible only after overcoming the linguistic differences. In order to curb the Islamic expansion parallel claim, van der Tuuk pleaded for a broad-based (school) education that would meet the interest to offizialisieren Batak languages.

Dictionaries

1857 van der Tuuk returned back to Amsterdam to create from the diverse materials collected a dictionary - like grammar book. For this he was awarded after painstaking work on the part of the University of Utrecht in 1861 an honorary doctorate, the year in which it was the Protestant missionary Ludwig ginger Nommensen also sent to the Batak Sumatra. According to van der Tuuk positive overcoming scientific hostility ( by and against him ), he could his famous grammar book for Toba Batak language in 1867 to finish. Van der Tuuk is described at this time as hard-boiled positivist.

At the behest of the Dutch Bible Society, van der Tuuk turned to the Balinese language area from 1868. In preparation for the new role, van der Tuuk studied Balinese and Javanese languages ​​( Kawi ) and Sanskrit. In parallel, he also dealt with a number of other languages, including Filipino ( Tagalog and Visaya ), Siamese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindustani and several sumatrische languages ​​( Nias, Ache, Redjang, Mentawai and Minangkabau ).

Due to frequent and now increasing differences to the Dutch Bible Society van der Tuuk 1873 broke off relations after there and took a well-paid service contract with the government Dutch East Indies. For this employment due among other things the Malay dictionary and the Kawi dictionary. Height of his creative power, however, was the 3600 -page and posthumously published Kawi Balineesch - Nederlandsch Dictionary.

Death

1894 died Neubronner Herman van der Tuuk from the effects of dysentery.

Bibliography

Primary literature

Secondary literature

• Grijns, C.D. " Van der Tuuk and the Study of Malay ". In BKI 152-3:353-381.
• Groeneboer, Kees. Een onder de taalgeleerden above. Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk. Afgevaardigde voor Indië van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap 1847-1873. Leiden, KITLV, 2002 ( on Van der Tuuk 's activities as a missionary translator ).
• Ngajenan, Drs Mohamad. Kamus Bahasa Indonesia Etimologi. Semarang, Dahara Prize, 19923 ("An Indonesian Etymological Dictionary" ).
• Nieuwenhuys, Rob. " Van der Tuuk ". Vader land in chicks twee. Amsterdam, Van Oorschot, 19883, p 85-158 ( an essay ).
• Saussure, Ferdinand de. Course in General Linguistics ( transl. Wade Baskin ), London, Fontana, 1974.