THE DAILY IF
article 04

Spanish language congress in Jakarta.
(story contributed by Mr. Luis Fernando Alva, Second Secretary/ Cultural Attache, the Embassy of Mexico, Jakarta)

Spanish Academies decide

Due to the discovery of an impressive number of words of Spanish origin in bahasa Indonesia, specialists from all Spanish language academies in Spain, Latin America and the Philippines are holding a congress in August 5, 2008 in Universitas Indonesia.

These words find their deep roots in the early contacts with Spanish colonists in the Philippines and Maluku islands. Many of them remained in these islands since late XVI century, importing beautiful words like: cameja, meja, pantalon, salero, nyonya. In Spanish, these words are spelled: camisa, mesa, pantalon, salero and doña.

These words entered bahasa Indonesia in a period of time when Spain and Portugal were a unified monarchy, so we find jendela, window, exactly the same as Portuguese.

Most of the contact between the Spanish and what is now Indonesia was through then New Spain, present Mexico. Presently, these two countries share the expression: “Awas, awas!” In Mexican Spanish: “¡Aguas, aguas!” (Water, water). We need to think of late XVI century to understand this expression. Since sanitary conditions inside houses were minimal, potties were emptied to the street, with just a loud warning: “¡Aguas, aguas!”, meaning: be careful with waters from the potty.

In both, Mexico and Indonesia, aguas! or Awas! has ended up meaning: be careful!, attention!

Thanks to this amazing peculiarities Yakarta will become host to Spanish language specialists from around the world.