This is a register of twenty thousand loan-words in Indonesian and Malay, deriving from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Tamil, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, English and Japanese.
Given for each are the Indonesian or Malay headword, the word in the source language, and, for foreign scripts, the page where it is to be found in a bilingual dictionary of the source language. Since each headword is provided with an English translation, this is a potentially convenient reference base for compilers of dictionaries of European languages who will find it useful to draw on this material to improve their etymologies. More importantly, it provides a resource for researchers into the etymologies of other languages of Asia, a somewhat undeveloped field, since many of the loan-words (from Arabic for example) are veritable Wanderwörter which may turn up anywhere.
With this publication, Indonesian is served with an etymological resource which few other Asian languages can claim, and from which many may benefit. The dictionary is accompanied by a DVD with a facsimile of Carstairs Douglas' Amoy dictionary, with Chinese characters written in by hand, and Thomas Barclay's Supplement to this dictionary.