Syair Sinyor Kosta

bibliography

text notes

list of words

rhyme words

Bibliography

title:		Syair Sinyor Kosta
edition:		A. Teeuw, R. Dumas, Muhammad Haji Salleh, R. Tol & M.J. van Yperen, A merry senhor in the Malay world: four texts of the Syair Sinyor Kosta. 2 vols. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004. [Bibliotheca Indonesica 30.] esp. pp.20-4; 201-38 (giving the text); 358-60; 401-8; 430-40.
manuscript:		Cod.Or. 1895, Leiden University Library ("Text D").
dates:		text:  before 1821;   other versions of the story go back at least to the 1700s;    manuscript:  1862.
provenance:		text:  claimed to be the composition of Sultan Badruddin of Palembang; manuscript:  from Palembang: apparently from a collection owned by a descendant of Sultan Badruddin of Palembang.
words:		11468 words, comprising 2949 verses.
references:		to the numbered stanzas (1-739) of the published text.

 

This text was kindly provided by Roger Tol

 

Editorial notes

    The editors have provided a fine edition, endowed with a very useful glossary and text notes.  For all reading of interest, kindly refer to the published volumes.

    The editors comment that the text has "obvious influences from the Palembang court circle, especially the typical Palembang flavour of the Malay used here, with its marked Javanese traits, lexical as well as grammatical.  ...  As regards the lexical aspect, we would observe that there are at least 50 words in this version that do not occur in ordinary Malay texts (whereas some of them do occur in wayang stories and other texts with a typical Javanese background).   Some of these words, such as tuna, nipis [sic], ngangsar, [and] semaya, represent perhaps an older phase of Javanese.  (p.360)

    Grammatically, traits of Palembang's Javanese-influenced Malay are the use of nasalisation only in place of me- plus nasalisation more common in Malay, often also with sublimation of initial h-.   Occasionally, for the sake of rhyme, final -kan becomes -ka.  Possibly this is also a Javanism, on the analogy of the Javanese equivalent -aké. (pp.384-386).

 

Preparation

Added:  November 2005

The digital text was provided by Roger Tol, and adapted to the MCP format.  In case of discrepancies between the MCP text and the published text, the published text is to be preferred.