Madurese  (2024)

The Little Prince in Madurais was presented to the Indonesian press and other guests at the historic Majapahit Hotel in Surabaya on 7 February 2024. These included Sandra Vivier, the director of the IFI (Institut Français d'Indonésie) in Surabaya, Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, the translator of the 2014 edition into Indonesian, Royyan Julian and Anitha Silvia, two Madurese writers, and Karmila Minardi, a Little Prince enthusiast who came especially from Jakarta.

This new translation was made possible thanks to the excellent coordination work of Syauqi Ahmad Zulfauzi (translator of the Soundanese edition in 2018 and director of the Javanese edition in 2022). In his introduction, Syauqi Ahmad Zulfauzi explained that, thanks to his previous experience, this edition has been produced in excellent conditions.

In his speech, Afrizal Maulana Abdi (the translator) explained some of the difficulties he had encountered. These included the peculiarities of Madurese, which has several levels of language, like Javanese or Soundanese. This means, for example, that the Little Prince's "good morning" will vary depending on who he is addressing.

With over 13 million speakers, Madurais is Indonesia's fourth regional language after Javanese, Soundanese and Malay. It is mainly spoken on the island of Madura, from which it takes its name, and on the north coast of the province of East Java.