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span class="caption" style="width: 338px;">Claude Hagege. Courtesy of Pasar Malam Paris Members and a general audience recently attended a lecture organized by the Franco-Indonesian association in Paris recently to listen to one of the world'€™s most famous linguists: French professor Claude Hagege who still works for the prestigious College de France.

Hagege breezed into the private dining room of Restoran Indonesia wearing a batik shirt given to him by his younger Indonesian female companion.

The juvenile 77-year-old then delivered a quick-fire explanation of linguistics to listeners who at first had some trouble following his ultra-rapid remarks.

The trim professor explained the genesis of language in general, followed by more information about the different groups of languages in the world. Hagege rounded off his introduction by explaining the multiplicity of languages in Indonesia and their historical development.

To conclude, the French linguist, who was born in Tunisia, then made specific remarks about modern Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia).

The professor gathered that it was the mirror of contemporary Indonesia comprising politics and societal phenomena in the archipelago.

Not all listeners were convinced by his explanation as many were university professors themselves, although not in the same discipline. Generally they spoke Indonesian more fluently than Claude Hagege.

Others pronounced words with a very different accent according to which part of the Indonesian archipelago they were from.

A lively discussion ensued while the Indonesian menu was gradually served and the dynamic professor went on explaining his theories. All question and answers ensured generally riveting topics throughout the evening.

Although Hagege himself lectured in fluent French, he was able to pronounce Indonesian expressions albeit with a slight Mingakabau-West Sumatra accent.

Hagege himself speaks at least 20 different languages and still lectures at the College de France in Paris to highly qualified university students in France. He also travels the international lecture circuit and often appears as a guest speaker on television.

Claude Hagege'€™s basic assumption is that the varied human languages of the world did not originate from one specific early vehicle of verbal communication, but has different sources.

French for example, is an Indo-European language while Indonesian is part of the Austronesian family, but then Papouasian languages belong to the Indo-Pacific group of languages. He went on to mention Chamito-Semitic langauges, Amerindian languages, Sino-Tibetan languages, Austro-Asiatic languages and many others.

The professor maintained that he had no particular preference for any single language; he seems to be able to bring forth a smattering of 30 languages, 20 of which he has truly mastered.

Hagege thinks that the more languages one learns, the more one is able to comprehend the connections between various words and grammatical structures. He again reiterated the fact that he had no particular preference for a specific language and no emotional ties to any of the languages.

Born in French Tunisia, Hagege has Jewish-Christian heritage. His family later moved to France after Tunisia became independent. His teaching career began there as a school teacher in a French Lycee

Reverting to Indonesia, he stressed the importance of the young nationalists during the 1920s, who put forward the concept of one national language, in particular President Sukarno'€™s role in creating a national language to unite a large nation spanning thousands of islands.

Hagege explained the peculiarities of the Indonesian languages with its system of prefixes and affixes, with other ways of expressing different passive and active modes, based on a root word. This he said is very similar to the way the main Filipino language Tagalog was created and spoken.

Another characteristic in Indonesian was the use of inclusive and exclusive terms such as kita/kami (we), which do not exist in French; nor the use of the basic root word without any prefixes, such as baca (read) instead of saying membaca.

Hagege remarked that in Sundanese for example, among several other languages, is richer than modern Indonesian because it displays three levels of language to designate the same basic term for a word like big for example: agen, ageung, or gede.

However in Bahasa Indonesia, one also differentiates between aku and saya (informal and formal forms of the word me).

The professor then went on to explain the varying origins of certain words in the Indonesian language such as Chinese, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Dutch, English, Portuguese and even French, all of which enrich the vocabulary of modern Indonesian.

He cited the Indonesian book, 9 dari 10 Kata Bahasa Indonesia adalah Asing by Alif Danya Munsyi, as an interesting work that illustrated his statement.

The vigorous delivery of his lecture provoked a lively discussion among those who were present and ended a remarkable evening.

Those present were forced to actively follow the explanations and many went home with unanswered questions.

Some may even have remembered their school-days or university studies in Indonesia where Professor Jos Daniel Pereira, a graduate of a Catholic seminary in Flores, used to teach high-school students before continuing to lecture at the University of Indonesia in a distinguished career. He is a linguist of the highest calibre in Asia, on par with Claude Hagege'€™s international status.

In any case, Claude Hagege is a prime example of a human being who keeps his brain sharp while also keeping fit physically and it is a true privilege that he also is attracted to Bahasa Indonesia.