Most Complete Sundanese Dictionary Launched
Friday, 19 January, 2007 | 12:52 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Bandung: A 40 thousand-entry Sundanese Dictionary that was compiled by R.A.Danadibrata was launched yesterday (01/18). The dictionary is viewed as the most complete Sundanese dictionary ever published.

According to President of Padjadjaran University Himendra Wargahadibrata, who is also chief of the team of editors, Danadibrata needed 40 years (1930-1970) to compile the dictionary. It is 2,000 pages and is written on lined foolscap-size paper by hand.

“Three days before he died, Danadibrata handed the manuscript over to me,” said Himendra. The entries consist of root words, reduplication, and combined words, with a very extensive range of meaning: spoken language, earthy language, polite language, dialects and slang.

The Danadibrata dictionary is considered as more complete compared to A Dictionary of the Sunda Language of Java by Jonathan Rigg (1862) with 9,308 entries; or Kamus Basa Sunda by R. Satjadibrata (1948) with 18 thousand entries. In 2003, R.R. Hardjadibrata published Sundanese-English Dictionary with 22,500 entries.

Danadibrata died on October 13, 1987. Born in Ciamis on April 23, 1905, he was appointed a wedana (head of a district) in Garut.

Rana Akbari Fitriawan