A Lovely Indonesian Parang With An Amazing Pedang Lurus Style Hilt

A. G. Maisey · 29th August 2016, 02:59 AM

Not quite Charles.

To cut with a pedang is "medhang".

To chop is "marang", and the chopping can be with a knife or other chopper, but "marang" comes from "parang", thus a parang is a chopper, but a knife or sword can be a parang, depending on how it is used, and a parang can be a sword (pedang) depending on how it is used.

So if you "medhang" with a parang, during the course of that action, the parang becomes a pedang.

In Javanese a golok can be a dagger, in BI it is a something like a machete, and in current common usage I believe most Javanese would call a short dagger that can be used for chopping, a golok.

To slash with a klewang is "nglewang".

In Jawa/Bali/Madura it is not just a matter of looking up the form and name in book, or going to a dictionary and looking for the equivalent of sword. To use a language, and this includes words from a language we need to be able to think as the native speakers of that language think.

I've gone on record previously about the name game, so I will not now say any more, except that this "correct name " thing is not as easy as it might appear, at least not with weapons from Indonesia.

29th August 2016, 02:59 AM	#10
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	Not quite Charles. To cut with a pedang is "medhang". To chop is "marang", and the chopping can be with a knife or other chopper, but "marang" comes from "parang", thus a parang is a chopper, but a knife or sword can be a parang, depending on how it is used, and a parang can be a sword (pedang) depending on how it is used. So if you "medhang" with a parang, during the course of that action, the parang becomes a pedang. In Javanese a golok can be a dagger, in BI it is a something like a machete, and in current common usage I believe most Javanese would call a short dagger that can be used for chopping, a golok. To slash with a klewang is "nglewang". In Jawa/Bali/Madura it is not just a matter of looking up the form and name in book, or going to a dictionary and looking for the equivalent of sword. To use a language, and this includes words from a language we need to be able to think as the native speakers of that language think. I've gone on record previously about the name game, so I will not now say any more, except that this "correct name " thing is not as easy as it might appear, at least not with weapons from Indonesia.