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In accordance with the study, a good pranatacara has to possess considerable organizational competence in the sense that he has been equipped with grammatical
competence and textual competence. Grammatical competence implies that he has to master vocabulary, morphology, phonology graphology and syntax of the language in
question Javanese. Meanwhile textual competence includes the ability to provide cohesion and rhetorical organization of the text.
In addition, a good pranatacara has to possess pragmatic competence which consists of illocutionary competence functional abilities and sociolinguistic competence
the mastery of dialect, register and cultural references. Apart from language competence as previously mentioned, communicative
competence includes strategic competence and psychophysiological competence. By strategic competence is meant that a good pranatacara has a thorough knowledge of what
to do and what not to do in a particular context of situation, while psychophysiological competence implies that a good pranatacara has to be psychologically and
physiologically matured. In other words, he is in a good state of mind and has no speech defects. Further requirements for a good pranatacara will be described in 2.7 below.
2.4 The Javanese Language: an Overview
The Javanese language—sometimes referred to a Javanese—belongs to Austronasian language as stated by Purwadi 2005:11 quoting Poerbatjaraka 1964 that
Basa Jawi punika kagolong basa Austronesia; inggih punika basa- basa ingkang kangge sawarnining bangsa pribumi ingkang
dudunung ing kapulowan iring kidul wataning jagad Asia: wates ler wiwit pulo Formusa mangidul; wates kilen wiwit pulo
Madagaskar babalas mengetan ngantos dumugi jagad Amerika kidul Purwadi 2005:11.
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The Javanese language belongs to Austronesian; which consists of languages spoken by the native people living in Southeast Asian
islands; bordered in the North starting from the island of Formosa to the South and bordered in the West starting from Madagaskar
island to the East up to Southwest America.
From the above quotation, it is logical to assume that Javanese belongs to groups of great languages spoken by people of almost half of the globe. Actually in the past the
above mentioned nations spoke one language. A comparative study revealed that …ing bab tetandhingan basa, ngantos saget nerangaken bilih
asal-usulipun bangsa wau, kala taksih kempal ngangge basa satunggal, wonten ing tanah Cempa, ing samangke kalebet tanah
Indocina. Malah saking pangudinipun P.W. Schmidt kenging dipun kinten-kinten bilih asal-usulipun bangsa Indonesian punika
saking Asia tengah Purwadi 2005:13.
…with respect to a comparative study, it can be seen that originally, when those nations lived together in Cempa, part of
Indochina, they spoke one language. According to P.W. Schmidt, it can be assumed that Indonesian people originated from Central
Asia.
Therefore, it is clear that language develops from what it was to what it is, and possibly to what it will be. It was a good thing that a group of linguists chaired by
Sudaryanto had tried to standardize the Javanese grammar 1992 on the basis of which I have outlined some different Javanese speech levels in Chapter I.
At the moment, apart from being used in three provinces, namely Central Java, Yogyakarta Special Region, and East Java with the population of 63,921,871 out of
179,321,641 of the total population of Indonesia census, 1990, Javanese is also used in other provinces, such as Jakarta region and the transmigration area of Lampung, South
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Sumatra etc. Outside of Indonesia, Javanese is used in Suriname. This enables Javanese to be used with distinctively different geographical dialects. Besides, there are also some
differences in use between the old and the young generations Sudaryanto 1992:3. However, when it comes to the discussion of Javanese as used by a Pranatacara,
people will turn to two styles gagrag, one of Surakarta and the other of Yogyakarta. This study refers to both without necessary attempts to differentiate since the differences
are allophonic in nature, and therefore do not constitute any differences in meaning. Some people say that Surakarta style is the original style, while Yogyakarta style is somehow
simplified and contemporary. This kind of difference does not count in the study.
2.5 An Outlook of Javanese Philosophy
