To Kabayan and other Indonesians

nes perez   Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:34 pm GMT
This is a guestion for anybody from Indonesia:

I've been hearing from people that there is a language shift/change going on in Indonesia: that people are starting to use the standard national Bahasa Indonesia instead of their own dialects. For example, do teenagers/children speak to each other in their regional langauge, or in Bahasa Indonesia?? Does anyone speak Bahasa Indonesia better than their own regional langauge?? What do people use on the street?? Just wondering

-Nes
Kabayan   Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:52 am GMT
That's true nes perez, there is a language shift going on in Indonesia. I can list some facts for you :

1. People in Big cities/rural areas tend to use National language when they meet a stranger, because they are not sure if one they meet speaks their own regional dialect. I have experiences asking someone in sundanese and then I got ashamed because I had to repeat myself in Bahasa.

2. School Teachers use bahasa except in very remote areas.

3. TV, films, and newspapers use mostly national language, TV and film may use local dialect if the dialect has many speakers such as Javanese, Sundanese, Balinese, minangkabau, bataknese, madurese.

4. Official and legal documents are written in Bahasa.

5. There are some cases when teenagers prefer to speak in Bahasa (Esp. slang/betawian style) than their local dialects because they think Bahasa is more prestigious. However, there are young people who still proudly use local dialect in daily basis, because their local dialect serves them better.

6. Some people, no matter how proud they are of their local dialect, tend to avoid using their own local dialect in formal occasions becuase they are too afraid to make mistakes. Some Local dialects obliged their users to use "Precise words", on the other hand, In informal occasions, these "precise words" allow us to express better.

7. There is a tendency that the number of some local dialects speakers is increasing while the number of other speakers is decreasing. The speaker of Sundanese and Javanese is increasing because there are more people come to Java Island (where Javanese and sundanese are spoken), to study or to work, than go out from The Island.

You are welcome to ask me further.
nes perez   Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:07 am GMT
I am very interested in this issue

Approximately, with percentages, how many people (specifically teenagers) use their dialect with their community friends and how many use Bahasa?? For example, if a group of Javanese teenage friends go to the movies or to a restaurant, will they speak to each other in Javanese or in Bahasa, or in both?? What would most teenagers speak to each other in??

Does anyone have Bahasa as a mother tongue, in the sense that they speka Bahasa much better than their regional language?? Are there many people like this, or just some isolated cases??

Apart from Bahasa/Malay, what is the most used dialect in Jakarta?? What do teenagers from Jakarta use on the playground or with their friends??
Kabayan   Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:16 am GMT
Just for intermezzo.

Kabayan is a name of a humorous and smart, sometimes very tricky, character, in Sundanese folklore. However he is not too dilligent, not a hard worker.
He always try to avoid to do his obligations/jobs in "normal" way, he then try to find another way creatively and smartly. However, sometimes his "creative" ways lead him into more troubles. :)
Non-Sundanese always associate sunda people to this character, they say Kabayan is perfectly describe Sunda people, a bit stereotyping of course.

I use the name kabayan not because I'm a kind of lazy people. I use this name to remind me that I have to always to try to work smarter than harder.
Kabayan   Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:50 am GMT
There was a research ( I hope I can find its resume. ) that said, teenagers in urban area tend to use bahasa more than their local dialects.
In public areas, more than 75 % of teenagers use bahasa. In neighborhood areas the number is lower. In fact, I found that people ( not just teenager ) mix the use of languages.

My wife is a Betawian ( An ethnic group from Jakarta and sorrounding areas ). Her family and relatives speak a dialect of malay called, Of course ome who understand Bahasa can understand Betawian dialect quiet well. To some extent, I can say that my wife's mother tongue is Bahasa. One more thing, teenagers in Jakarta, who are not betwian, and other big cities speak Bahasa ( not betawian dialect ) in their own style, they call it "bahasa gaul" (. Their style is different than the style of Older people.

There is a tendency that mixed ethnicity families teach and use only Bahasa to their children. We can say that, their children's mother tongue is Bahasa.
Kabayan   Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:58 am GMT
sorry, "Bahasa gaul" means "language for socialisation".