The Indonesian Language by James Sneddon is a 217 word canter through the development of a language that is now the official means of communication in the world's 4th most populous State. Sneddon claims his work to be the first history of Indonesian. He is an eminent Australian professor with a fairly readable style.

Sneddon's work begins with an introduction to Indonesian and the dispelling of some myths. The brief explanation of the range of other languages that have influenced Indonesian is somewhat interesting but more of use as a reminder for why certain types of words use particular features rather than a detailed etymology. The dispelling of myths is a bit annoying. Sneddon criticises those who claim Indonesian to be an easy language but is entirely unconvincing despite omitting the weight of evidence that brackets Indonesian alongside western European languages I'm classifying difficulty for western European language learners. Sneddon does not get off to a good start by railing against conventional wisdom without good use of comparable fact.

Fortunately after the introductory chapter it oa much more reasoned going. In particular discussion during the early chapters of the spread of ancient Malay is fascinating. Malay does not benefit from extensive ancient samples in the way other classical languages do so piecing together the development of its strands makes for intriguing reading. The success of Malay covers vastly different parts of the world. Sneddon only addresses language so leaves aside more politically charged questions.

Along with the history of early Malay comes a dip into the history of some of the peoples and places. As a primer for the early history of the region it is accessible and plausible. It is a fairly rapid diversion through hundreds of years of history but is enough to mark out the developments of people, religion, and language with the Sanskrit and then Arabic influences.

The role of the Portuguese and Dutch on the development of Indonesian is covered in detail given the relative recency and the more thorough record keeping of those times. Inevitably much more can be said in an historical analysis when a greater range of records exist. The absence of much record at all in the development of early Malay languages is a shared frustration.

Sneddon's history of the role of the Dutch in the development of Indonesian is especially in-depth with various Dutch names having had hands-on roles I'm quite a complicated policy question of how best to promote quality language use in the Ditch East Indies.

Fascinating that the well educated elite who eventually led the independence movement were more comfortable in Dutch than run their preferred language choice - Indonesian.

The role of English is of course a major issue for any modern language to consider. Sneddon does not really delve too far into explanation of why English has a relatively weak hold on modern Indonesian.

Far more impessive is Sneddon's analysis of formal vs informal Indonesian. The language as designed by committee and as expanded by dictatorial rule is not the language of Indonesians. The efforts of bureaucrats to define how others will speak is laughable. Sneddon commendably gives committee Indonesian credence by evaluating what appears to have been well-intentioned State building including the development of dictionaries and attempts at guidance. Sneddon never quite reaches the obvious conclusion explicitly. It will be what is now termed informal Indonesian that will be the dominant language of the Indonesian archipelago in years to come.

Sneddon devotes a good portion of his work to analysing contemporary issues and occasionally comes up with gold. His analysis of Javanese vs Indonesian is spectacular. The complex and archaic layers of Javanese communities are encoded into the Javanese language which makes it a complex and archaic language. Indonesian is simpler because the social designations are much less important. Sneddon's analysis implies that Javanese in its current form will not compete with Indonesian.

Less is offered on language issues elsewhere in Indonesia aside from brief mention of Timor, Aceh, and Western Papua. Indonesia oa remarkable for its breadth of active languages. Analysis of census data does not do justice to the historical and societal implications of language development away from Indonesian's Jakarta homeland.

Sneddon is left to study much less useful material such as the media which he repeatedly mentions often to criticise. He has to study such things because study of Indonesian itself is incredibly rare. Sneddon has begun the path and should be commended wholeheartedly for his readable analysis of Indonesian. It is a great first step for the subject and the reader but clearly barely scratches the surface of what might emerge in the future of the Indonesian language and its peoples. ( )