Mahdi, W: Malay Words and Malay Things

The book traces the development of German acquaintance with the Malayan world and language as reflected in publications up to 1700. Beginning with a perusal of earliest cartographic renderings and a recapitulation of economic and political circumstances of German involvement in European Far-Eastern trade after 1500, the volume proceeds to systematically inspect 16th and 17th century German travellers' memoirs and translations of foreign sources. Relevant text passages are quoted in the original with English gloss. Citations of renderings of Malay items are accompanied by transliterations in modern spelling. Ultimate and intermediate sources and the routes by which various items reached the German public are followed, as well as virtual networks of information. Etymologies of numerous real or assumed Malayisms are elaborately reinspected, and corrected where necessary. The development in usage of the acquired Malayisms after 1700, reconstructed from entries in dictionaries and encyclopaedias and through direct quotation from German literature, is shown to reflect fluctuations in public attention towards features from exotic regions.