Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk (23 February 1824 – 17 August 1894) was a Bible translator and linguist specialising in the languages of the Dutch East Indies.
Linguistic studies were taken up with a view to translating the Bible into Indonesian languages, and Malay and Javanese served as starting points.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, religious linguists were ready to turn to research into other indigenous languages and to translate the Bible into them.
Roman Catholic missionaries, who had been banned from carrying out their activities, were re-admitted to the colony from 1807, and throughout the nineteenth century were in tough competition with their Protestant opposite numbers.
The Malay population of East-Sumatra and of the coastal regions had become predominantly Muslim by this time, but the ethnic groups in the interior had not been converted, and were, as contemporary terminology had it, still “pagans”.
Protestant mission from the Netherlands was in the hands of Nederlands Bijbel Genootschap (“Society for the Translation of the Bible”, NBG).
These interior regions of Sumatra were still largely unknown to westerners at that time, so it was left to Van der Tuuk to decide which Batak language to research with a view to translating the Bible into it.
The remedy chosen in his case was a sulphur treatment, which appears only to have worsened his condition, and in letters which testify to his confusion, Van der Tuuk requested that NBG relieve him of his duties.
The need was now felt for a Bible translation into Balinese, and Van der Tuuk was to be stationed on the Isle of Bali.
In 1868 he became a correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences[1] and returned to the Dutch East-Indies, first travelling to the Lampung region of South Sumatra to write a dictionary of its language.
Once more he was struck by illness, and returned to Java in 1869, in passing making a study of the Sundanese (West Javanese) language, and in 1870 left for Bali.
Van der Tuuk bequeathed his entire collection of manuscripts, scholarly notes, drawings, photographs and books to Leiden University Library.
On the one hand, he sought the company of native speakers, and for that reason he had avoided Siboga with its strong Malay influences when he had wished to study the Batak languages instead.
Van der Tuuk's second Law states that the phonemes /r/, /d/, and /l/ are likewise interchangeable: pari beside padi and palai, and ron beside daun beside laun.
Van der Tuuk has often been alleged to view Christianity unfavourably while at the same time earning his living with missionary activities, and this has led people to believe that his position was less than straightforward.
Indeed, when Van der Tuuk was considered for the post of NBG missionary translator, Professor Taco Roorda in a letter of recommendation stressed the fact that this candidate was “not a theologian”.
An advisory document to that effect by NBG to the Dutch government was based on a report by Van der Tuuk.
He had made such a thorough study of their customs and habits that one of their elders noted that “if we are faced with a problem, we consult with Tuan Dertik [Mr Van der Tuuk]”.