Nyai

The njai ([ɲai]; Perfected Spelling: nyai) were women who were kept as housekeepers, companions, and concubines in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia). In the original Balinese, the word njai meant "sister", but the term later took a more specific meaning. Author Rob Nieuwenhuys described the position of the njai as always subservient, being the white man's housekeeper and companion, before she was his concubine.

The word njai (also nyai, njaie, nyaie, nyahi or nyi) comes from a Balinese word meaning sister. In Sundanese the term nyai refer to "miss" or young woman, while in Betawi dialect, nyai refer to "grandmother" or elderly lady. The Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language of the Language Center gives three definitions for njai: as a term for referring to a married or unmarried woman, as a term for referring to a woman older than the speaker, and for the concubine of a non-Indonesian. It is this last definition which is used here, a definition which gained traction in the 17th century when Balinese njais first became common in the colonial capital of Batavia (now Jakarta). The word, in discussion of the Indies, is sometimes simply translated as "mistress".

A variety of other terms were used to refer to the njai, with a varying degree of positive and negative connotations. In the 19th century the term inlandse huishoudster, or simply huishoudster (housekeeper), was common. The njai were also known as moentji, from the Dutch diminutive mondje, meaning "mouth", and the more negative snaar ("strings"); both referred to the njai's verbal propensities. As the njai could also serve as a translator and language teacher, terms such as boek ("book") and woordenbooek ("dictionary") are also noted. Objectification of the njai was found in terms such as meubel ("furniture") and inventarisstuk ("inventory items").

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