Should we prevent traditional language?

Javanese Language Will be Extinct Soon.

by Balqist Hamada

 

Indonesia is known as a nation that is rich by culture and also languages. Language that is owned by Indonesia is around 652 languages according to a research conducted by Ministry of Education Culture Language Development Agency in 2017 (Liputan6.com, 2018). One of its language is Javanese. Javanese language has 80 billion speakers that spread in archipelago (Oglobin, 2005). This number is equal to 40% of Indonesian society. However, nowadays just like other languages, the speakers of Javanese is decreasing every time. Some say that the reason is due to practicality. Moreover, some other say, it is because of the emerged of foreign language that is considered as the modern language.

According to Louise Baird theory in Puspitorini (n.d.), the decreasing of the number of speaker of local language is caused by negative assumptions of society regarding that local language. The assumptions are: first, a local language is something ancient, so the speaker of it will be ashamed to use it. Second, people think that local language is useless. Third, language local is usually used by low class. People here categorize themselves as mid and high class, so they are reluctant to speak using local language. Next, they assume that local language has possibility to prevent learning and teaching process. Then, they also assume that local language inhibit the advancement. Last, they consider that local language is not prestigious.

Besides that, according to a research done by TribunJogja (2018) in Jogja, the speakers of Javanese language in there are also decreased sharply. It is caused by the limited time of learning and teaching process of Javanese language. Usually, local language, especially Javanese language is taught maximum two hours in a week. Even, local language is considered as something unimportant, so it is okay to be deleted from curriculum. Moreover, the environment in house does not support children to practice they vocabulary of Javanese language which they get from school, so the vocabulary that they just get in that time just gone. It means that, nowadays family prefer to speak national language, Indonesia when talking to their children.

As Indonesian, especially Javanese we need to prevent Javanese language from extinction. There are some reasons why Javanese language is worthy to be prevented. First, according to Gunawan (2016), Javanese is reach of noble values that contribute to the nation’s personality. It means that, by using Javanese language, especially Krama Inggil, we unconsciously learn how to be polite when we are talking. Moreover, speech level in Javanese language contains lessons on manners, humbling, and how to respect others, especially those who are older than us and have higher status than us. Therefore, we need to prevent this language because there are so many benefits we can take from learning and implementing this language. In line with Juhroti (2011), when we speak with Javanese language especially krama, it shows that we have a high respect to whom we are talking to. This kind of manner is our identity as Indonesian. In other words, Javanese language can be interpreted as a scientific system where there are values that are owned by the community which influence the behavior of the community itself (Setyawan, 2011).

Second, we must preserve Javanese language because it is one of the cultural inventories of our ancestor. It means that local language, especially Javanese is a wealth and inheritance of the sense of creativity and human intention of the past that is very meaningful (Setyawan, 2011). If we lost it, we would never have any other language like this because our ancestor is already gone. Then the regional language functions as a symbol of pride, regional identity, and means of contact within the family and the local community. Moreover, according to Suwita, in Radar Banyumas (2015), Javanese language is Javanese identity. If Javanese language extinct means that Javanese is the loss of Javanese society.

  In my opinion to the way to prevent the death of local language, the family at home must support their children in learning local language by having communication with Javanese language. By doing this way, the children unconsciously can add more vocabularies in local language to their mind also they build identity as Javanese. Another method must be done in school. School also have important role in this case. School are expected to have a new strategy of teaching local language so they will enjoy and have much interest in learning local language.

References

Banyumas, R. (2015, February). Gawat, Banyak Remaja Malu Berbahasa Jawa. Radar Banyumas.

Gunawan, H. I. (2016). Melestarikan Bahasa Jawa Sebagai Warisan Budaya . Guru Ngapak.

Juhroti, S. (2011). Penggunaan Bahasa Indonesia dan Bahasa Jawa dalam Proses Pembelajaran di TK MAsyitoh Kecamatan Larangan Kabupaten Brebes. Semarang: Universitas Negeri Semarang.

Liputan6.com. (2018, Agustus 16). Berapa Jumlah Bahasa Daerah di Indonesia Saat Ini? Liputan6.com.

Setyawan, A. (2011). Bahasa Daerah dalam Perspektif Kebudayaan dan Sosiolinguistik: Peran dan Pengaruhnya dalam Pergeseran dan Pemertahanan Bahasa. Diponegoro University.

TribunJogja.com. (2018, Februari). http://jogja.tribunnews.com. Retrieved from http://jogja.tribunnews.com/2018/02/28/eksistensi-bahasa-jawa-semakin-terpinggirkan.

Oglobin, Alexander K. 2005 “Javanese” dalam Alexander Adeelaar dan Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (ed.) The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. Routledge Language Family Series.