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Javanese-Balinese idiom developed. In the western parts of Java first the district of Cërbon, and secondly, by zealous fighters for the Faith starting from Cërbon, the west ernmost districts Jakarta and Bantën were conquered for Islam and partly Javanized. Sundanese authority was superseded by Javanese in these parts of West Java. Extensive areas in Central Java east of Cërbon, even as far as the Diyèi} highland, may also, in the pre-Islamic period, have been inhabited by people speaking Sunda nese or a closely related idiom. Names of rivers and mountains, and West Javanese historical traditions, seem to warrant this supposition. Nowadays Javanese dialects are spoken in these districts. Anyway it is certain that in historical times Javanese speech gained ground upon Sundanese in the western parts of the island. But then it is a well-known fact than in East Java, especially in the districts east of the Tai}gër-Sméru massif, Madurese superseded Javanese. Madurese settlers were known in East Java already in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and in the subse quent centuries their number steadily in creased. They were forced to emigrate by unfavourable economic conditions, a conse quence of the poor yield of the meagre fields of their native island. In Bunuwarp, however, the easternmost district of Java, opposite Bali, a Javanese dialect subsists up to the present time, resisting the Madurese influx. In present-day spoken Javanese dialects a distinction can be made in accordance with the above mentioned geophysic facts and historical developments. In Central and East Java the a is pronounced a in “open” syl lables. Perhaps future students of the spread

of Javanese dialects should also pay some attention to the different negations which are in use (ora in Central Java, dak in East Java, sit} in Banuwaqi etc.). No doubt in several cases the idiom of written literature and the spoken language will appear to di verge. In studying literary works, making fine distinctions between dialects is more difficult than in describing everyday speech, because authors always feel constrained by literary rules as applied in admired masterworks which they take for example. In the present Synopsis as far as possible distinctions have been made between the following five groups of texts (see also 00150). They are based on idiomatic peculiarities and the origin of the authors. 1. Old Javanese texts written in the pre- Islamic period. 2. Javanese-Balinese texts written in Bali and Lombok. 3. Texts written in East Java and Madura, in the literary idiom developed in the basins of the river Brantas and the lower course of the Begawan. 4. Texts written in the Pasisir districts, along the North Coast. 5. Texts written in the interior of Central Java, the basin of the upper course of the river Beijawan and the basins of the rivers Opak and Praga, the modern Surakarta and Yogyakarta districts. Ad 1 (cf. 00020, era A). A very small minority of the Old Javanese texts which have come down to us seems to have been written in Central Java. By far the greater part was written in districts situated in the basin of the river Brantas, or elsewhere in East Java. To what extent the idiom of