History of English and
Indonesian Lexicography
DENY A. KWARY
WWW.KWARY.NET
2010
Today’s Topics
 History of English Lexicography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Bilingual beginnings
The first monolingual English dictionaries
The 18th Century
The 19th Century
The 20th Century
 History of Indonesian Lexicography
Bilingual beginnings
2. The first monolingual dictionaries in Indonesia
3. Bilingual dictionaries in Java
4. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia
1.
1. Bilingual Beginnings (1)
 Old English Period:
Murray (1900) traces the origins of English lexicography in
many Latin documents in some monasteries that survive from
the Old English period.
 Glosses were collected into a document called a ‘glossarium.’
 Such early glossaries originally listed the words in the order in
which they were read in texts.
 As these manuscript lists came to be copied and re-copied, it
was seen that their usefulness would be increased by putting
the words and phrases into alphabetical order.

1. Bilingual Beginnings (2)
 1548: The Nature of herbes in Greke, Latin, Englishe,
Duche & Frenche wyth the Commune Names that
Herbaries and Apotecaries Use by William Turner.
 1587: Latin–English dictionary: Dictionarium linguae
Latinae et Anglicanae by Thomas Thomas, 36 000 entries.
 1598: Italian–English dictionary: A worlde of wordes by
John Florio (in 1611, its 2nd edition, retitled Queen Anna’s
new world of words), 50 000 entries.
 1599: Spanish–English dictionary: Dictionarie in Spanish
and English by John Minsheu  Used to understand the
language of the enemy.
2. The first monolingual English dictionaries (1)
 1604: The earliest monolingual English dictionary: Table
alphabeticall . . .of hard usual English words, . . . gathered for
the benefit & helpe of ladies, gentlewomen, or any other
unskilfull persons, by Robert Cawdrey, 2500 entries.
 1616: English expositor by John Bullokar, 5000 entries. He
introduced discursive comments on herbs and beasts.
 1623: The English dictionarie: an interpreter of hard English
words by Henry Cockeram. He divided the vocabulary of English
into two sections: ‘‘the choicest words now in use’’ and ‘‘the
vulgar words.’’ There is also a third section, an encyclopedic
guide to mythological figures and literary allusions.
2. The first monolingual English dictionaries (2)
Thomas Blount vs. Edward Philips
 1656: Glossographia by Thomas Blount. Since Blount was a
lawyer, this dictionary includes many legal terms and other
technical words; 11 000 entries; the first English dictionary to
attempt to explain the etymologies of English words.
 1658: The new world of English words by Edward Phillips. This
dictionary borrowed heavily from Blount, though disparagingly
criticizing Blount at the front of the dictionary.
 Blount hit back with a pamphlet entitled A world of errors
discovered in the new world of words, in which he showed that
Phillips had not only made errors of his own, but had even
copied errors from the Glossographia.
3. The 18th Century: Nathaniel Bailey
 1721: Universal etymological English dictionary by Nathaniel
Bailey, a schoolmaster; 40 000 entries.
 Bailey catered to the needs of readers of literature of the past by
giving explanations of obsolete words used by Shakespeare,
Spenser, and Chaucer.
 Bailey’s dictionary was advertised as ‘‘for the Entertainment of the
Curious as the Information of the Ignorant, and for the Benefit of
young Students, Artificers, Tradesmen, and Foreigners.’’
 This dictionary established itself as the standard English
dictionary for the early 18th century and went through 30 editions,
the latest being published in 1802.
3. The 18th Century: Samuel Johnson
 1747: Plan of a dictionary
of the English language.
 1755: Dictionary of the
English Language.

Two volumes

40 000 entries
4. The 19th Century
 1850: The two volume Imperial dictionary: English,
technical and scientific by John Ogilvie. As its title
suggests, it included technical and scientific vocabulary.
 1898: The five volume English dialect dictionary by Joseph
Wright (1855–1930). It is based on Wright’s own research
and on materials collected by the English Dialect Society. It
contains vast numbers of traditional rural dialect terms, e.g.
fair dinkum (which Wright found in Lincolnshire, meaning
‘a fair share of the work’).
5. The 20th Century: The OED
 1878: James Murray was appointed editor of The Oxford English
Dictionary (OED).
 1928: A successful completion of the whole dictionary (600 000
entries) despite the death of Murray in 1915.
 1933: A supplement was published containing new words and
corrections.
 1972–1986: A supplement to OED was published in 4 volumes,
edited by Robert Burchfield.
 The supplement and the original work, integrated as an electronic
database, with support from International Business Machines
Corp. (IBM) and the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
were published in 20 volumes as the OED, 2nd edn., in 1989.
5. The 20th Century: The Five Main Strands
1. Monolingual dictionaries for adult native speakers.
2. Dictionaries for non native speakers of English.
3. Dictionaries for children – in particular, schoolchildren.
4. Dictionaries of slang, argot, cant, and informal English.
5. Dictionaries of special subjects, ranging from medicine,
science, and philosophy to chess, cricket, and baseball.
#2 will be discussed further in Week 11.
#5 will be discusses further in Week 13.
How about History of
Indonesian Lexicography?
1. Bilingual Beginnings
 The beginning of the 15th Century: Chinese – Malay wordlist,
500 entries.
 1522: Italian – Malay wordlist by Pigafetta.
 1603: Spraeck ende wordboek, Inde Malaysche ende
Madagaskarsche Talen met vele Arabische ende Turksche
Woorden by Frederick de Houtman.
 1623: Vocabularium ofte Woortboek naer order vanden
Alphabet in’t Duytsch Maleysch ende Maleysche-Duytsch, by
Casper Wiltens and Sabastian Danckaerts.
2. The first monolingual dictionaries in Indonesia
 In the 19th Century: Kitab Pengetahuan Bahasa by Raja Ali
Haji from Riau. This dictionary was published by Al
Ahmadiah Press Singapore in 1928.
 1930: Baoesastra Djawa by W.J.S. Poerwadarminta, C.S.
Hardjasoedarma, and J.C. Poedjasoedira.
 1948: Kamoes Bahasa Soenda by R. Satjadibrata.
3. Bilingual Dictionaries in Java
 1876: Praktisch Javaansch – Nederlandsch Woordenboek
by Jansz.
 1887: Nederduitsch – Soendasch Woordenboek by
Oostings.
 1898: Nederlandsch – Madoereesch Woordenboek by
Kiliaan.
4. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia
 First Edition, 1988, edited by Anton M. Moeliono; 62,100
entries.
 Second Edition, 1991, edited by Harimurti Kridalaksana;
72,000 entries.
 Third Edition, 2001, edited by Hasan Alwi; 78,000 entries.
 Fourth Edition, 2008, edited by Dendy Sugono; 90,000 entries.
cf. Oxford English Dictionary had 600,000 entries in 1928; and
has reached 1,000,000 entries in 2009.
cf. With less than 10 million speakers (<5% of the population of
Indonesia), Dictionary of the Danish Language has already had
180,000 entries in 1956.
That’s All For Today
See You Next Week
Deny A. Kwary
Airlangga University
www.kwary.net