HERMAN NEUBRONNER VAN DER TUUK AND INDONESIAN LINGUISTICS IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY: LETTERS from the period 1847-1873

Kees Groeneboer

The object is to produce a comprehensive source-edition of the
collected letters of the nineteenth century specialist in
Indonesian languages Dr. Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk
(1824-1894). The letters concerned all date from the period Van
der Tuuk was employed by the Dutch Bible Society (Nederlandsch
Bijbelgenootschap), i.e. the years 1847-1873. A Dutch edition
(introduction, letters, comments, annotations, notes,
bibliography, index) will be published in late 1994 by the KITLV
Press in Leiden; an edition in Indonesian will be published in
Jakarta in the series Indonesian Linguistics Development Project
(ILDEP).
In 1994 it will be hundred years ago that Van der Tuuk (born in
Malaka in 1824) passed away in Surabaya. Between 1851-1857 Van
der Tuuk lived and worked as a representative of the Dutch Bible
Society among the Bataks in Sumatra. There he collected the data
for the compilation of a dictionary and a grammar of the Batak
language. He spent the period 1857-1868 in Holland collating his
collected materials and so produced several books, including a
dictionary of the Batak language (Bataksch-Nederduitsch
woordenboek, 1861), four volumes of reading materials (Bataksch
leesboek, 1860-1862), and his famous grammar of the Toba Batak
language (Tobasche spraakkunst, 1864-1867) in two volumes. In
1868 the Bible Society sent him once more to the Dutch East
Indies where he was based in BulŠlŠng in Bali. From 1870 he
worked on his studies of the Balinese language. Between 1873 and
1894 Van der Tuuk worked for the Dutch East Indian government,
employed by the Department of Education, Religion and Industry.
During this period he concentrated on the compilation of an
extensive dictionary. The result was his four-volume
Kawi-Balineesch-Nederlandsch woordenboek (1894-1912) which,
however, was only published after his death.

Van der Tuuk may considered to be one of the founders of
Indonesian linguistics. His place in nineteenth century
Indonesian linguistics is also validated by his various polemic
writings, in which he opposes all other Indonesian linguists of
his time, such as (in alphabetical order) J.A. Brandes, A.B.
Cohen Stuart, R. van Eck, W.H. Engelmann, J. Esser, J.J. de
Hollander, J.D. Homan, H. Kern, H.C. Klinkert, D. Koorders, J.
Pijnappel, T. Roorda, P.J. Veth, H. von de Wall and C.F. Winter.
Van der Tuuk's letters give a clear picture of this
controversialist both in relation to circles of the Dutch Bible
Society and in the circle of the leading Dutch Indonesianists of
the nineteenth century.

C.R. Groeneboer (1952) studied Dutch Linguistics and Literature
at the Free University of Amsterdam. During a period of six years
he taught Dutch linguistics at the Seksi Belanda of the
University of Indonesia in Jakarta, returning to the Netherlands
at the end of 1990. He obtained his Ph.D. at Leiden University
in November 1992 with a study on the history of the Dutch
language in the Dutch East Indies, 1600-1950. Among his
publications are: [Editor] Studi Belanda di Indonesia -
Nederlandse Studi‰n in Indonesi‰ (Jakarta: Jambatan, 1989), Het
ABC voor Indi‰; Bibliografie van leermiddelen Nederlandse taal
voor Nederlands-Indi‰ (Leiden: KITLV Uitgevery, 1991) and Weg tot
het Westen; Het Nederlands voor Indi‰ 1600-1950; Een
taalpolitieke geschiedenis (Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 1993).