HOW ARE YOU CALLED?

In an internet conversation with someone overseas, the other person addressed me as 'mas', followed by a Javanesation of my name, with a kromo pronunciation. Which inadvertently left me somewhat handicapped, because I am not a native fish in those waters. Differently put, I am unsure how to address him appropriately. That, of course, was not his intent. But such things are inherent in talking with people from Java and other similar cultures.

[He probably did that to lend me aanzien among the others in that discussion. Very gracious.]


Mas roughly equates to "older brother" using a respectful term that's also a noble rank word. You use it to older men within the same general status. Kromo terms and pronunciations are formal. So while 'mas' by itself would be roughly similar to 'ah suk' (阿叔) or 'lou pak' (老伯) in Cantonese conversations, kromoizing the personal names renders it closer to 'lou pan' (老闆、老板), 'sinsaang' (先生), or 'lou yeh' (老爺).
All of that, more or less, is similar to 'taai lou' (大佬) in a gang, or among drinking buddies and mah jong friends. Cantonese is rather Freemasonic in that regard.

The more casual version of 'mas' is 'abang' (older brother), for more formal and stiff it's 'tuan' (mister, lord), and somewhat jocularly to older men it would be 'datuk' (chief, grand father).

It's complicated, and one has to have an ear for it.
Which unfortunately I do not.

Such usages tend to be region-specific, shifting from place to place. Our local Chinatown Cantonese is not quite the same as harbour (Hong Kong) Cantonese, or mainland speech. Central Javan Kromo and Kromo Madya from Yogyakarta can be quite different from Surakarta, Surabaya, or Semarang. In Western Java, where Sundanese is the daily language as well as the respectable court tongue, many of the same words are used. Similar, but different. And then you get standard Indonesian, which of course is anything but standard.
Far less honourific in it's focus.
Often no less subtle.


The Malay (Indonesian) which I learned during my childhood was fairly regional, from Eastern Borneo, before the war. Quite a different box of kittens, and barely applicable.
Suitable, perhaps, for speaking to elderly Dutch engineers.
Basically a separate language entirely.

So, in our place I would address my friend thusly: "kuwang-hu".
Rather than formally-distant "ingkuwa" ('kuwa).
Certainly not "kamo".

I would refer to myself as "deng", instead of "sahaya".
Absolutely never as "ako".

If I wanted to be somewhat self-abnegatory: beta.
Which Moluccers would also understand.



Ampon, beta enti dapet tjakap bahasa Djawa atawa kromo.




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