I take the elements of this discussion to be:-
1. the correct name of the pamor in question
2. the correct meanings of words
3. the way in which those words are interpreted.
1. Correct name of the pamor.
In most, if not all recent publications this pamor name will be given as "buntel mayit":- "corpse wrapping".
More than twenty years ago I was told that this name is incorrect, and that the correct name is "buntel mayat":- "slanted wrapping".
I was told this by Empu Suparman Supawijaya (alm.), who at the time was a man in his 60's, whose experience with keris went back to before WWII, and who was a part of the Karaton Surakarta hierarchy.
In the matter of this correct name, I choose to believe my teacher, rather than to follow the popular trend.
I choose to do this for two reasons:-
A) I have absolute faith in my teacher's traditional knowledge.
B) The name "buntel mayat" is logically supportable, the name "buntel mayit" is poetically, or philosophically supportable. I prefer logic.
Apart from these two reasons, an argument for "buntel mayat" can also be built on a historical foundation, drawing upon the case of Lombok.
2. Correct word meanings.
In the Javanese language "mayat" means "slanted, or sloping", "mayit" means "human corpse".
There can be no dispute about this.
In Indonesian "mayat" and "mayit" both mean "human corpse".
There can be no dispute about this.
Keris terms are rendered in the Javanese language, not the Indonesian language.
If the pamor name is "corpse wrapping", it must be rendered as "buntel mayit".
If the pamor name is "slanted wrapping" it must be rendered as "buntel mayat".
The name cannot be rendered as "buntel mayat", and its English language meaning given as "corpse wrapping".
3. Interpretation of the pamor.
The words mayat and mayit are very close in sound, and in speech can probably only be differentiated by the listener when taken in context. Taken out of context it would be difficult for any but the most expert user of Javanese to differentiate one from the other.This similarity in sound is probably the root of the confusion, and taken together with the well known Javanese propensity to play with the spoken form of the language, and the poetic, symbolic, and philosophical factors inherrent in interpretation of the name as "buntel mayit", rather than "buntel mayat", it is easy to understand the foundation of the current interpretation of the name.
Interpretation in many matters, and this could be one of those matters, is always an individual prerogative.
If one wishes to interpret "slanted wrapping" as "corpse wrapping", then, that is a matter for that person, or those people.
However, if one wishes to name a pamor as "corpse wrapping", rather than "slanted wrapping", and one wishes to do this in the Javanese language, then one is obliged to use the words "buntel mayit", rather than "buntel mayat".
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