Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 166 4th PRASASTI International Conference on Recent Linguistics Research (PRASASTI 2018) Gay Language in Bali (Sociolinguistic Study on Homosexual and Bisexual Men in Bali)
Ni Kadek Ary Susandi Ni Putu Rusanti Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKES) Bali Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKES) Bali Bali, Indonesia Bali, Indonesia [email protected]
I Putu Gede Sutrisna Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan (STIKES) Bali Bali, Indonesia
Abstract—In community, people may use different language or community identification and/or belonging. Changes or variation accordance with their age, gender, education, variations may occur in grammatical rules, vocabularies (e.g. profession, ethnic origin, etc. (Holmes, 2013). Many homosexual formation of new words or word substitutions), meanings, and bisexual men in Indonesia speak a language variation that suffixes, the way to pronounce the words, etc. The new words they call Bahasa Bencong/Banci or Bahasa Gay (Gay language), a have special meaning according to the applicable provisions of linguistic phenomenon based on the national language, Bahasa Indonesia (Boellstorff, 2004). This study aimed at investigating our group or community. the linguistic features, derivation and function of language used A numerous number of research on language and social by homosexual and bisexual men in Bali, Indonesia. Eight class, language and ethnic origin or language and gender and respondents involved in this study were selected through the snowball sampling technique. The data were collected by tape- so on (Couplan & Jaworski, 1997; Richards, Platts & Platts, recording respondents’ conversation in natural settings and 1997) have been conducted by academics around the world, interviewing them. The findings revealed interesting facts of the but there is a small number of research conducted on features of gay language, particularly the lexicon. It was created homosexual-focused linguistic features or in other words gay in a very creative way with the semantic alteration to the original language, especially in Indonesia. The reasons why there has words. The new words they used were formulated by adding not been much attention on gay language studies are that the affixes to the morphemes or existing words. Other types of word society is homophobic towards gay men. In some countries, formation found in the study including syllabic substitution, including Indonesia, a discourse on gay-related things is even blending, vowel shift, backformation, borrowing, reduplication, considered as something disgracing and sinful, thus not many clipping and acronym. Another interesting point from the lexical researchers are willing to conduct research on it in comparison feature was the connotation through female name of a person or famous public figures which signify different meaning. In with those in other countries in the world. addition to the lexicon, the use of homophobic words were found In the past 20 years, there were only a few number of relatively often during this study, in which they often call each research on gay speech conducted in Indonesia (Oetomo, other with homo or banci (transvestite). Feminine pronouns were also another prominent feature of gay language found in this 2001; Boellstorff, 2004) and these studies found that study. They addressed each other by employing feminine homosexual and bisexual men in Indonesia speak what they pronouns and feminine names. Further, they also used “feminine call as bahasa gay. It is a linguistic phenomenon based on the technique” in the way they pronounce words. Most of them used national language bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). The bahasa the high-pitched tone and rising utterance-final intonation gay is also known by gay and bisexual men and other resembling women’s intonation. In this study, it was also found Indonesians as Bahasa bencong/banci or Bahasa binan, a very that the gay language served many functions for its community closely related language variety (Oetomo, 2001). and among those functions were as a secret language, an identity Bencong/banci is a nationwide terminology for male to female of the community and language that provided sense of similarity transvestitism which have a disparaging meaning. and belonging to the member of the community. The gay language also functioned to show humor and aided them to speak Gay is a term refers to the people, practices and cultures in a friendlier and fun way. associated with homosexuality. A gay person (i.e. especially Keywords—gay language; homosexual and bisexual men; man) is someone whose sexual orientation is to members of linguistic features; word-formation; gay language function the same sex. Sexual orientation refers to a person’s sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and I. INTRODUCTION membership in a community of others who share those attraction. Sexual orientation is closely tied to the intimate In our daily interaction in the community, we may use personal relationship that meet deeply felt the need for love, different language variation accordance with our ethnic, attachment, and intimacy. In brief, a gay person is a man who gender, profession, age or even intention; and could also is romantically, sexually and emotionally attracted to men and create a new language variation which might serves as a group
Copyright © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). 204 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 166 a bisexual is a person who attracted romantically, sexually or way people use language in different social contexts provides both to people of any sex or gender identity (APA, 2008). a wealth of information about the way language works, as well as about the social relationships in a community, and the way Meanwhile, transgender is a broad term for persons whose people convey and construct aspects of their social identity gender identity, behaviors, expressions does not fit to that through their language. typically associated with the sex to which they were thought to Akmajian, et al (2010) stated that human language is not be when they were born (Lev, 2004). Gender identity refers to uniform or fixed. All languages show internal variation in that person’s internal sense and knowledge of being male, female, actual usage varies from one speaker to another. In or something else. Gender expression refers to the way a sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a form of a person presents gender identity to others through behavior, language used by speakers of that language. Variety includes clothing–including cross dressing, hairstyles, voice, or body different accents, different linguistics styles, different dialects characteristics (NCTE, 2016). The example of transgender is and even different language which contrast each other for people who were assigned female at birth but identify and live social reason (Holmes, 2013). as male and alter their bodies through medical intervention Hudson mentioned that (1981, p. 25) “the defining such as surgery to more closely resemble their gender identity characteristic of each variety is the relevant relation to society are known as transsexual men or transmen (also known as – in other words, by whom, and when, the items concerned are female-to-male or FTM). In the term of sexual orientation, used”. Language variety is a general term that may be used in transgender people may be straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or some societies. This term can be used to distinguish between asexual, just as non-transgender people may be (APA, 2011). the varieties of language or give the identification of the Previous research on bahasa gay (e.g. Oetomo, 2001 and language and the user. In some speech community, they use Boellstorff, 2004) found that majority of the lexicon of bahasa variety of language when they speak with others according to gay derived from Indonesian and only few from the context and purpose. The term of linguistic variation refers local/indigenous language, such as Javanese language. Based to regional, social, or contextual differences in the ways that on those findings, it is interesting to examine whether the gay particular language is used (Nordquist, 2017). Most of this and bisexual men in Bali use exactly the same bahasa gay as variation is highly systematic. The speakers of language make what was found in the previous research, or is the case choices in pronunciation, morphology, word choice, and also different in Bali, in which there might be some substituting grammar. For example, sometimes there are differences words come from Balinese language. between the speech of men and women, different social classes, and differences between age groups. As one of the most famous tourist destinations in the Register is a variety of language used for particular world, Bali has always been very open to people from other purpose or particular social setting. Holmes (2013) stated that parts of Indonesia and around the world. Bali is also overtime the language of groups develops more and more considered as a friendly place; accepting people from different characteristics which distinguish their communication from backgrounds–including those with different sexual orientation those of other group. Register is usually known only by people such as the lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT). who used the words. According to Flores (2006) the term There are many tourists, including the LGTB group that spend register refers to language of groups of people with common their holiday in Bali and some of them even decided to stay interest or jobs or the language used in situational associated and establish business in Bali. They mingle very well not only with such groups. with other LGBTs in Bali, but also with the straight or Gay language refers to register because gay language heterosexual people. Although not all of them could live belongs to a variation of language which used by certain openly as gay / bisexual men due to personal or other reasons, speech community. This language uses words and expressions but they could live comfortably well and safe in any area with additions and alterations in meaning aiming at creating around Bali. and retaining its identity (Dang, 2013). It can be stated that Based on those facts and reasons, a research on gay gay language is distinguished by differences in vocabulary and language used in Bali is interesting and merit to conduct. This being concerned with variation in language conditioned by study aimed at investigating the linguistics features and the uses, user and involved consideration of the situation or variation of gay language spoken by homosexual and bisexual context of use. men in Bali. This research also aimed to explore the functions Some researchers had conducted research on gay language of gay language used by gay and bisexual men in Bali. such as Rosa (2016) analyzed the morphological characteristics of queer language in a state university in the II. LITERATURE REVIEW Philippines. Gay men in Philippines speak the language that Sociolinguistics explores language in relation to society they invented, mixing English, Tagalog, Visayan and and examines the relation between language and social factors sometimes even Japanese. Gay men in the Philippines have which include gender, social class, age, ethnic origin, and so their own rapidly shifting linguistic code known as on (Morgan, 2003). This means that it is concerned with Swardspeak. It has its dynamic and creative term because it language as used for communication amongst different social does not conform itself on a single culture but allows more groups of people in different social situations (Georgieva, freedom to its speaker. It is original and creative in a manner 2014). Social context recognizes that people use language that though it is taken from a local word. The use of gay based on social situation. Language which is delivered by the language was firstly because to avoid having other people hear speaker has different meaning and intention. Examining the what they were talking about especially when it comes to sex.
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Dang (2013) investigated the features and function of First, data reduction referred to the process of selecting, language used by Vietnamese gay men in Ho Chi Minh City focusing, simplifying, and transforming the data that appear in especially their discourse. It was found that the Vietnamese the transcription. Since there was a big amount of data, it was gay men used five major characteristics including the needed to be classified based on the theory. In this research, derivational process that involve –i and suffixing and kh- the utterances spoken by the gay and bisexual men were prefixing, the use of taboo words, the use of feminine personal categorized based on the word-formation theory. pronoun and female name in addressing each other. In term of functions, Vietnamese guy men use them in order to foster a Second, data display means that the data can be displayed sense of belonging to their gay community, conceal things in the form of table, chart, diagram, pictogram that provide a from others, speak freely when they are around heterosexuals new way of arranging and thinking about the more textually and encourage the freedom of self-expression among gay embedded data. It makes easier to assembly information which people. permits conclusion drawing. In this study, the classified data Oetomo (2001) and Boellstorff (2004) conducted research was displayed in the form of table. on gay language in Indonesia and found that majority of the Finally, conclusion drawing involves stepping back to lexicon of bahasa gay derived from Indonesian and only few consider what the analyzed data mean and to assess the from local/indigenous language, such as Javanese language. implication. The data were verified its reliability and validity, Although some terms transform words from local languages so that it can be taken the conclusion. like Javanese, at overall grammatical level gay language is always based on Indonesian. They found that Gay language The data were then analyzed descriptively based on was more than just a situational variety of language. However sociolinguistics and language variations theories (Hudson, it might be considered a counter language of a counter society. 1981; Holmes, 2013; Nordquist, 2017) and previous related A counter society is set up within a larger society as a studies (Oetomo, 2001; Boellstorff, 2004; Cage, 1999; Dang, conscious alternative to it. The counter language uses words 2013; Rosa, 2016). and expressions in the dominant language of the dominant IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION society, with additions and changes in meaning. A. Major Linguistic Features III. METHOD 1) Lexicon This study was a qualitative research which employed Based on the taped conversations among the gay and focus group method for data collection. The sample of study bisexual men in Bali, the first noticeable characteristic of gay was gained through purposive sampling technique. The language of Bali is the use of lexical items. The lexicon is population of this study was homosexual and bisexual men in created in a very creative way and some even with the Bali, Indonesia. The respondents of this study were those who semantic alteration to the original words. The new words they agreed and gave their consent to participate in this study. used are formulated by adding affixes to the morphemes or There were a total of 8 respondents involved in this study. existing words. Other types of word formation found in the study including syllabic substitution, blending, vowel shift, Two instruments were used in this study. The first backformation, borrowing, reduplication, clipping acronym instrument was the tape-recording natural conversations of the and connotation through the name of a person or public figure. gay and bisexual men in Bali. The second instrument was a The majority of words are based on the national language, list of open-ended interview questions for the gay and bisexual Bahasa Indonesia, some are based on English and there is only men in Bali. These interviews were also recorded. one word found that is based on the indigenous language, The data were collected through observation and tape- Balinese. recording the gay and bisexual men in Bali in their natural The competence in using gay language includes not only settings. In addition, interviews were also conducted through the lexicon, but also the intonation, pragmatics and ideology focus group discussion (FGD) with respondents in order to about bahasa gay itself, however, the most noticeable is further investigate the linguistics features and gain more always the lexicon (Boellstorff, 2004). This lexicon is more information to answer the research questions. Interviews were than just a set of collection of new words; it is a set of conducted in Indonesian to ensure their understanding of patterned derivational processes, in which the bahasa gay questions and allowed them to speak more freely and similar to not only prokem, but also the swardspeak (gay accurately. language of the Filipino), Polari (gay language of the British) The data were gained from 6 different tape-recordings, and the Vietnamese gay language. The lexicon was developed including the interview sessions. Each recording lasted for for use only in a gay social context, certain situational contexts about 1.5 to 2 hours. The taped conversations were then and does not substantially affect the mother tongue of the transcribed for analysis and only the relevant specific forms of speakers. verbal interaction were transcribed and described. After that, There are several ways in creating the Indonesian gay the data were classified based on Miles and Huberman theory. terms, most of which are the syllabic substitution. The syllabic Miles and Huberman (1984 in Sugiyono, 2009) stated there substitution in the Bahasa Gay is generally implemented by were three activities on data analysis: data reduction, data retaining the first syllable of the standard Indonesian words display, and conclusion drawing. and altering or modifying the last part of syllable, for example the word emang (indeed) is substituted with ember which the
206 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 166 original meaning in Indonesian is “bucket”. Another example name of hang-out places with geographic terms such as Jalur is on the word jahat (bad, cruel, evil), in which the final Gaza. In original, Jalur Gaza means the Gaza Strip, a self- consonant “t” is deleted and then replaced by a new syllable. governing Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Jahat then becomes jahara in Bahasa Gay term (see table 1). Mediterranean Sea, however, in the Bahasa Gay spoken in Bali, Jalur Gaza is an area/street in Seminyak, where most TABLE I. SYLLABIC SUBSTITUTION IN BAHASA GAY popular gay clubs are located in Bali. Interview with the Bahasa Gay Meaning Replaces Original Meaning in respondents did not yield any further information on why that Term Indonesian Indonesian specific location is named Jalur Gaza. However, we all agree Term that this name could be related to the fact that Gaza Strip is a endes; endol; delicious enak delicious conflict area, thus perfectly representing the image of gay endul (neologism) clubs area – the area of conflict in which gay men are seen by ember; indeed emang bucket embur; embi (semantic shift) the heterosexuals as troubled people or people with disorder gedong big (usually used gede big and conflicts. to refer to the size of penis) As seen on table 1, neologism and semantic shift are begindang just like that begitu just like that related to the syllabic substitution. Neologism belongs to the (neologism) Indonesian term that is replaced by a form that share a similar kesindang come here kesini come here first syllable but has no prior/original meaning of its own in (neologism) Indonesian. Another process is the semantic shift, in which an hamidun pregnant hamil pregnant Indonesian term is given a new meaning. Examples on (neologism) neologism and semantic shift are further provided in the table jahara bad/evil jahat bad/evil jelita Ugly jelek lovely/pretty 2 and 3. (semantic shift) TABLE II. NEOLOGISM IN BAHASA GAY organda person/people orang organda stands for Bahasa Gay Term Replaces Indonesian Term Meaning organisasi angkutan darat = organization akika Aku I of land apose; aposka Apa what transportation cucok Cakep handsome kampina it refers to kampungan ice cream brand – dimandose; Dimana where personality of campina (semantic dimandoska someone who is shift) lambreta Lama taking (time) too long not modern, lesbiola Lesbi lesbian narrow-minded, malida Malu shy old-fashioned pewong Perempuan female and having bad sense of fashion. hombreng homosexual homoseksual homosexual TABLE III. SEMANTIC SHIFT IN BAHASA GAY (neologism) Bahasa Gay Original Meaning Meaning in Bahasa Gay tinta no tidak ink (semantic shift) Term mawar to want mau rose (semantic shift) brondong Popcorn younger man purit pure replacing original meaning in kucing Cat male escort / sex worker (refers to English term English is “pure” meong cat (vocalization of to have sex someone who is “pure” cat) completely/ bungkus to wrap; to take-away taking someone home (or purely gay and some food other places such as hotel) for not a bisexual). sex kriting Curly effeminate manner There is usually no semantic link between the substituted words and the original words and this semantic dissension is Another important derivational process which formulate showing more the humor and creativity in Bahasa Gay. many gay terms is the vowel shift and suffixation. This Examples are organda (land transportation organization) derivational process relates to the change of standard replacing orang (a person/people) and mawar (rose) replacing Indonesian words into gay terms by shifting the vowels and mau (to want). modify the suffixes. The most common suffixes are –ong, - es, and –i (Oetomo, 2001), however, other suffixes such as – The syllabic substitution happens not only on Bahasa ang is also found in this current study. Indonesia, there are also some terms created from English, such as purit, in which the original meaning in English is In the case of–ong suffix, the vowel of the immediately “pure”. In the gay term, purit refers to someone who is a preceding the syllable of the lexeme is changed into é. Oetomo pure/complete homosexual man, not a bisexual. (2001) also stated than the same process occur with the –es suffix. Oetomo (2001) further claimed that the vowel shift and Sometimes the substituting word comes from a popular suffixation firstly appeared in Jakarta and areas most directly product name such as kampina (ice-cream brand campina) influenced by Jakartan dialect of Indonesia and might be replacing kampungan (personality of someone who is not derived from prokem. Although Bali is not an area directly modern, narrow-minded and have old-dated/bad sense of influenced by the Jakartan dialect, but it is found that the gay fashion). The use of place name is also seen on naming the language used by homosexual and bisexual men in Bali is
207 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 166 similar with those used in Jakarta. It is not a surprising fact mabora getting drunk mabuk rame - getting drunk because as a famous tourist destination, Bali has attracted together rame together many people of Jakarta to spend their holiday, work and even fubu Original Replaces two persons (through Meaning in English Term: friendship or mutual live in Bali, thus exposing the local gay and bisexual Balinese English: fuck buddy fondness) engaged in and non-Balinese who live in Bali with the Jakartan dialect two persons sexual gratification and Jakartan Bahasa Gay. In addition, nowadays the mass (through without involving media such as TV and social media such as Facebook and friendship or feelings, caring, Twitter; and dating applications such as Tinder and Grindr mutual commitment, etc. fondness) (friends with benefit also play a significant role in spreading this language. engaged in is the more polite TABLE IV. VOWEL SHIFT AND SUFFIXATION IN BAHASA GAY sexual term in English). gratification Indonesian / Bahasa Meaning New Bahasa Gay without Gay Term Term involving Banyak many, much, a lot benyong feelings, caring, jalan-jalan to go out; go around; jelong-jelong commitment, hang out etc. Mahal expensive mehong makan to eat mekong The acronym found in this study is formed by the word kawin to get married kewong kaya raya very rich keyong reyong formation process, consisting of the first letter of each word laki man lekong and which is pronounce as full words. Example of acronym in sakit sick; ill sekong bahasa gay is provided in the following table. mati dead metong
janda widow; divorcée jendes TABLE VI. ACRONYM IN BAHASA GAY gunting to cut gentes Bahasa Original Replaces ngangkang the position of opening ngengkes Gay Term Meaning in Indonesian Meaning both legs Indonesian Term lonte prostitute luntang TTM being friends TTM = being friends but but wanting teman tapi wanting more, such In addition to syllabic substitution and suffixation with more, such as mesum as sex, etc. vowel shift, there are other minor word-formation processes in sex, etc. creating the bahasa gay vocabulary which were found in this study and among those are acronym, blending, clipping, Other word-formation process found in the gay language reduplication, back-formation, connotation through the name spoken by homosexual and bisexual in Bali are clipping, back- of person and public figure, homophobic items and feminine formation and reduplication. In the case of clipping, the word pronouns. Boellstorff (2004) in his research mentioned about is reduced or shortened without changing the meaning of the the acronym, however, other word-formation processes were word (Kosur, 2014). Back-formation differs from clipping, in not mentioned in his work, which possibly indicates that the which the meaning or class of the original word is changed. other word-formation processes may did not appear or did not Back-formation is the word formation process in which an exist during his period of research and only later emerge as the actual derivational affix is removed from the base form of a language developed and more creativity come into place. word to create a new word (Kosur, 2012). Reduplication is a word-formation process in which meaning is expressed by Blending is the word formation process in which parts of repeating all or part of a word (Urbanczyk, 2017). Examples two or more words combine to formulate a new word whose of clipping, back-formation and reduplication are provided in meaning is often a combination of the original words (Kosur, table 7, 8 and 9. 2014). Examples of bahasa gay vocabulary which formed through blending are provided in the following table. TABLE V. BLENDING IN BAHASA GAY TABLE VII. CLIPPING IN BAHASA GAY Bahasa Original Replaces Meaning Bahasa Gay Original Meaning Replaces Gay Term Meaning in Indonesian Term in Indonesian Indonesian Meaning Indonesian Term Term balon balloon banci salon transgender/ transvestite who versa Original meaning - Able to perform works in a beauty (derived from in English: the role and gain salon. English - embracing a pleasure either in bronis bronis = a sort bronis = cute younger man “versatile”) variety of subjects the “top” or bakar of cake brondong with muscular body - turning with ease “bottom” position (brownies) manis from one thing to when having sex. bakar = grilled bakar = another berbadan kekar - having many uses or functions bronis bronis = a sort bronis = sexy, skinny cute
kukus of cake brondong younger man (brownies) manis leh uga ok; quite good boleh juga ok; quite good kukus = kukus = kurus steamed – kurus seksi
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TABLE VIII – BACK-FORMATION Hamidah an Indonesian hamil pregnant Bahasa Gay Original Replaces Meaning (Wanda actress and Term Meaning in Indonesian Hamidah) currently a Indonesian Term member of the parliament bina animal binatang Someone who has Machica an Indonesian macet traffic jam or date a “sugar Mohtar singer daddy” (older Debora a female name dubur loose anus (due man), in which to performing everything he anal sex / needs is usually receiving penis provided by the penetration too “sugar daddy”. often) cin love cinta Addressing Lulu a female name lonte prostitute someone without Maharani a female name mahal expensive calling the name. Usually used for addressing This use of female names also manifests itself in the use of someone who is feminine personal pronouns in certain segments of gay- familiar / close, culture. Female names are usually the names that gay men such as friends, give to each other, but sometimes these names are also chosen long-term clients / customers, etc. by themselves. They choose the names which they think can represent themselves and create certain image that they want TABLE IX. REDUPLICATION IN BAHASA GAY for themselves. For example, the use of the name Dewi Bahasa Gay Original Replaces Meaning (Goddess) may give them the sense of being beautiful, elegant Term Meaning in Indonesian and praised by people. The name Dewi is often chosen by the Indonesian Term Balinese gay and bisexual men and the name Ningsih is usually chosen by gay and bisexual men who are Javanese. remaja- teenager remaja teenager remaji Ningsih is widely known as a name of Javanese women. jola-joli to sell jualan Provide sex in On the use of feminine personal pronoun, it is found that exchange for money the Balinese gay and bisexual men often address each other with the pronoun in Balinese “weng”. The complete form of The lexical feature that I really find interesting is creating weng is luweng which means woman. This pronoun is the only new words by using female names of person or public figure word that I find derived from the indigenous language, that connote different meaning (see table 10). These female Balinese, during I conduct the research. An example of the use names are flexible and linguistically multi-functional. These of this pronoun in the Balinese gay community is as follows: names can be used with different parts of speech and function Balinese : Eh, ke kija ci weng? Adi enggal-enggal? either as nouns, verbs or adjective. Let’s have a look at the English : Hey, where are you going girl? Why such a rush? following example of sentences of Bahasa Gay. • The use of hamidah as an adjective. Bahasa Gay : “Eh, deyse hamidah?” (deyse is TABLE XI. FEMININE PERSONAL PRONOUN IN BAHASA GAY you, hamidah is hamil in Indonesian and pregnant in Bahasa Gay Original Replaces Meaning English). Term Meaning in Indonesian English : “Are you pregnant?” Indonesian Term • The use of machica mohtar as a noun. nek grandma nenek woman Bahasa Gay : “Udin mawar nyampe tapi kena mak mother mamak woman machica mohtar ciiinnn…” weng woman luweng woman (machica mohtar means macet in Indonesian and traffic jam in English). 2) The Use of Homophobic Lexical Items English : “I’m about to arrive but I get It is quite surprising that the gay and bisexual men in Bali stuck in a traffic jam”. use the word homo or banci / bencong (transgender) to call to each other quite often. The heterosexual people usually use the TABLE X. CONNOTATION THROUGH FEMALE NAMES OF PERSON word homo and banci/bencong as pejorative terms for OR PUBLIC FIGURES homosexuals and to mock men who are seen looking like gay Bahasa Gay Original Replaces Meaning Term Meaning in Indonesian or those who are looking rather feminine, behave and dress in Indonesian Term an effeminate manner like the drag queens and transgender.
Betaria an Indonesian berak to defecate Although these words have derogatory connotation; hence Sonata singer none of homosexual and bisexual men like to be addressed Brooke an American berak to defecate with homo or banci, however, somehow these words are Shields actress and popular and widely used in the gay community in Bali. This supermodel phenomenon resembles those found in South Africa (Cage,
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2003) and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Dang, 2013). Cage with the high-pitched tone and rising intonation which similar (2003) called the use of homophobic lexical items as the to the sounds produced by females. Boellstorff (2004) stated linguistic process of reginisation. that this high-pitched tone and rising intonation are associated with the images of femininity and softness; images that All the respondents of this study reported that they often somehow found in and expressed by many homosexual and banci cong call each other by using the word homo or or (in bisexual men. Examples are illustrated below: complete: bencong) just for fun. These homophobic words function as humor among gay and bisexual men. They also a) Ya ampun maaaaakkkk… lama tak jumpa! Kemana aja stated that the “manly” gay and bisexual men are often use ciiiiiinnn..???? these homophobic words to call their gay and bisexual friends (Oh My God girl, I haven’t seen you for a long time! who behave in an effeminate manner or when they find these Where have you been girl?) friends are busy gossiping about other people. They will say: b) Akika sibuk ciiiinnnn...Kerjaan kantor benyong. “dasar mulut banci!” Somehow banci implies the personality (I’m busy girl. I have a lot of work). of a person who loves to gossip and talk about others behind The two examples illustrate how the gay and bisexual men their back. in Bali usually talking to each other or to heterosexual people TABLE XII. HOMOPHOBIC LEXICAL ITEMS who tolerant to them. They lengthen the final sounds and use the high-pitched tone and rising intonation. Bahasa Original Meaning in Replaces Meaning Gay Term Indonesian Indonesian A. Lexeme in Gay Language in Bali that Derived from Term Balinese banci transgender banci transgender In this research, the majority of lexemes / lexicons found /transvestite /transvestite are based on the national language, Bahasa Indonesia and (derogatory meaning) cong transgender bencong transgender some are based on English. There is only one lexeme found /transvestite /transvestite based on the indigenous language, the Balinese. The word (derogatory meaning) weng is formulated through “clipping”, in which the original homo homosexual homoseksual homosexual word is luweng and it means woman in Balinese. This is also an example of the use of female personal pronoun by gay and 3) The Use of Loan Words bisexual men in Bali. Many terms in gay language used by the gay and bisexual B. Function of Gay Language for Gay and Bisexual Men in men in Bali are adopted from other languages such as English and local language Makasar and Javanese with little or no Bali modification at all. In this study I find some terms that are In this study, it is found that the gay language serves many adopted from English and examples of those terms are functions for its community and among those functions are: provided in table 13. 1) Concealment (secret language) The religious intolerance and prejudice towards TABLE XIII. LOAN WORD homosexuality and bisexuality have forced them consistently to have a second, concealed life. Living in a country where Bahasa Meaning being LGBT is considered as a sin makes gay and bisexual Gay Term men in Bali and Indonesia living their gay life inside the “closet” to avoid condemnation, discrimination or even top A person who gains pleasure from sex when in the persecution. They only live openly as gay and bisexual men position of being on the top or giving penetration of his penis into the anus of his sexual partner. when they are surrounded by people who are tolerant and bottom A person who gains pleasure from sex when in the accept them for who they are. To be able to exist and to live position of being on the bottom or receiving the penis co-exist with heterosexuals, they need to be able to penetration in his anus from his sexual partner. communicate secretly with each other without any fear of top lady A gay or bisexual man who behaves in effeminate manner exposure. but act as a top when having sex Gay and bisexual men in Bali use this language to conceal Although the term “top” and “bottom” in many gay-culture things from others, to make the meaning inaccessible to those situations may represent their role in the relationship – who who are not belong to the gay and bisexual community. The acts as the girl-friend and who act as the boy-friend, in which language allows messages to be sent among gay/bisexual the “top” is usually the manly one and the “bottom” is usually people in close proximity to people who are unaware to the the girly one; however this situation does not necessarily true real meaning of the verbal interchanges (Cage, 1999). For to all gay or bisexual men relationships. The term is more instance when they need to talk about something taboo or representing their preferable position or on how they gain related to sex, they would definitely use the gay language. The pleasure when having sex. language allows them to talk freely when they are around heterosexuals and encourage the freedom of self-expression 4) Intonation within their community. Intonation is another interesting point of the feature of gay’s speech. The result from the taped-recorded 2) Identity, sense of belonging and solidarity conversations showed that they tend to lengthen final sounds Gay language used in Bali resembles to language which arise in other anti-societies, which gives the sub-community
210 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 166 the sense of belonging, unity and solidarity (Halliday, 1978). V. CONCLUSION The use of gay language gives the members of the community This study has yield findings about features and functions a mean to identify one to another as the member of the of gay language used by homosexual and bisexual men in community and that they are belong to the community. The Bali, Indonesia. The majority of lexicons used are based on language forms a part of gays/bisexuals’ identity and allows Bahasa Indonesia, some are based on English and there is them to show his identity and self-image (Oetomo, 2001; only one lexeme based on Balinese language. The gay Cage, 2003). language is unique, under constant renewal and its terms are The gay language has become a “badge” of someone’s created in a very creative way. Creativity in creating and in the identity in the gay community in Bali. Someone could use it as use of bahasa gay is a passage for the creative nature of many a way to ascertain the sexuality of some other people whose gay and bisexual men. The gay language allows speakers to sexuality is ambivalent. By dropping some gay terms into the outmaneuver each other verbally and entertain their listener at conversation, the listeners’ reaction may provide an important the same time (Cage, 2003). Within gay community in Bali, information regarding the listener’s sexuality. Bahasa gay in bahasa gay appears as an identity and register of belonging Bali is also a symbol of gay culture, thus through the and solidarity. It also functions as concealment, a social acquisition of this linguistic register, the speaker automatically networking device and to show humor and have fun. adopts a value system advocated by that culture. The speakers of gay language use the language in a specific cultural context to facilitate a successful verbal communication and provide References them with the opportunity to choose a language variety which will give them a real chance to succeed in his interaction, Akmadijan, A., Demers, R.A., Farmer, A.K., Harnish, RM. outside their innate ethnic identity (Haarman, 1991 in Cage, 1999). (2010). Linguistics: an introduction to language and communication. (6th Edition). Retrived from https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/9780262013758 _sch_0001.pdf American Psychological Association. (2008). Answers to 3) Showing humor and friendliness questions: for a better understanding of sexual orientation The homophobic words found in the gay language spoken and homosexuality. Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved by gay and bisexual men in Bali, like “homo”, banci, cong / from http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.pdf bencong are used more for fun than anything else. Parody and American Psychological Association. (2011). Answers to your self-irony for humorous effects are implicit in many of the questions about transgender people, gender identity, and lexical items of bahasa gay, especially the female names. The gender expression. Retrieved from feminism element in bahasa gay used in Bali could be http://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender.pdf interpreted as an assertion by gay and bisexual men of their Boellstorff, T. (2004). Gay Language and Indonesia: feminine identity. The lexical items are used in an effeminate Journal of Linguistic manner for humorous effect (Cage, 1999). They do it for fun, registering belonging. to have a laugh. Anthropology, 55(2), 248 – 268. Cage, K. (1999). An investigation into the form and function of 4) A social networking device languange used by gay men in South Africa. [Master Bahasa gay is usually used by the gay and bisexual men in thesis]. South Africa: Rand Afrikaans University. Bali in a controlled environment where they feel safe to use it. Cage, K. & Evans, M. (2003). The Language of kinks and These places include gay people’s homes, gay clubs, beauty queens: a history and dictionary of gay language in South salon and the gyms – gays and bisexuals in Bali are well Africa. Cape Town: Jacana Media. known for maintaining their body fitness and shape in gyms. Coupland, N. & Jaworski, A. (1997). Sociolinguistics: a In the field of work and social networking, the gay reader and course-book. New York: MacMillan Press language aids them to speak in a more friendly and humorous Ltd. way not only with people in their community but also with Dang, T. H. (2013). A preliminary study of gay spoken heterosexuals, particularly their clients in the beauty salon or language in Ho Chi Minh City. Retrieved from other hospitality fields. Using the gay language to talk to the http://www.languageinindia.com/sep2013/tridanggaylang heterosexuals creates a sense of relax, fun and triggers laughs, uagefinal.pdf thus allowing them to mingle better with their clients. Flores, G. (2006). Language, dialect, and register: Although it seems quite safe to speak bahasa gay with their sociolinguistics and the estimation of measurement error own clients, however, they remain cautious about the clients in the testing of english language learners. Teacher or heterosexuals that they speak to, because there are some College Record, 108(11), 2355-2379. people who simply cannot tolerate homosexuality. This makes Georgieva, M. (2014). Introducing sociolinguistics. United bahasa gay is an informal register of a larger language(s), Kingdom: University of Sofia Press. Bahasa Indonesia or English in this case (Cage, 1999).
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