Djoko and Joko Are the Same Name — Epoche A2
My grandfather's identity card says Djoko. My cousin's says Joko. It is one name, said the same way, and nobody made a mistake on a form. In August 1972 Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to write their languages with one spelling system, and some letters changed overnight. "Dj" became "j". "Tj" became "c". So Djakarta became Jakarta, and tjinta, the word for love, became cinta. A schoolbook printed in 1971 and one printed in 1973 do not look like the same language. But nobody reprinted the identity cards. A legal name stays as it was first written. So the old letters did not disappear; they retired into people. My grandfather is Djoko on every document he owns. My cousin is Joko on every document he owns. What surprised me most was the shop signs. Walk down our street and the old spelling is still there in the names of businesses, painted years ago and never painted again. The new spelling won the schoolbooks completely, and the street only partly. I used to think spelling was a small thing, a matter of being right or wrong. Now I think a spelling is a date. My grandfather's name tells you roughly when he was born. So does my cousin's. And the two of them are sitting at the same table.