JTE Journal of Teaching of English Volume 6 No. 2 (June 2021) e-ISSN: 2548-6810

Java Language Maintenance In Muna

Rajabindra Jaya1, Hanna2, Lelly Suhartini3 [email protected] 1,2,3Halu Oleo University,

ABSTRACT This research discussed language maintenance by living at Bangunsari, Muna. It focused on condition in several domains as family, school, neighbourhoods, mosque, and mass media as well as the researcher reviewed in terms of age groups, and causal factors leading to the language maintenance. The data were interview and conversation with the Javanese people at Bangunsari. Design used was qualitative research through ethnography approach. The researcher used observation, recording, and interview as the instruments to get data. The result showed that Javanese people who lived at Bangunsari village more frequently used Java language in their daily life. In the domain of family, Javanese people were monolingual as personally, bilingual with code mixing and code switching as well as in the domain of neighbourhoods. As in the domain of school, they personally were qualified as monolingual speakers with code switching. Religion domain showed that the Javanese people personally were qualified as monolingual speakers with code mixing in bilingual situation as well as in groups of age in 10 up to 50 years old and above still used Java language even though they mixed or switched into bahasa. The causal factors that lead the language maintenance of Java language were number of speakers, loyalty and awareness of Java language, continuity of Java language usage, and the power of Java language and other factors reviewed from sociolinguistic perspectives such as population mobility, culture and tradition, education, and religion.

Keywords: Language Maintenance, Java Language, Javanese, Monolingual, Bilingual

1. Introduction Indonesia is a country that consists of many islands and provinces. It is also a great nation that has a lot of diversities. One of which is language. There are many languages used by the people in each region of the province. The total number of regional languages in Indonesia is 652 regional languages. This is as stated by the Head of the Ministry of Education and Culture Language Development Dadang Suhendra (2018) that based on the latest data, Indonesia has 652 regional languages, such as Muna language, Bugis language, Java language, Madura language, language etc. Each area in Indonesia has own vernacular which is used by local

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Journal of Teaching of English Vol. 6 No. 2 (June 2021) community that makes the community is different from other areas. Every vernacular language has its own rule to arrange a proper conversation politely. Many people in Indonesia use vernacular in communicating and interacting among them in their daily life. The general function of regional language itself is as an identity symbol of an area. Vernacular is also sometimes used to talk about something secret in a community. In the law itself, it is stated that language is a wealth that must be protected by the country, as explained in Republic of Indonesia Law Number 24 of 2009 concerning flags, languages, and state symbols, as well as national anthem article 42 paragraphs (1), (2), and (3). Part of the content of the law is that regional government is obliged to develop, foster and protect regional language and literature so that it continues to fulfil its position and function in community life in accordance with the times and to remain a part of Indonesia's cultural wealth (Kamaludin, 2016). Thus, regional languages must be maintained and preserved by people who use the language because regional languages are the wealth of Indonesian nation itself. In a community, there are various people and tribes who also bring their own language in the community. Besides using national language that is Bahasa Indonesia, many societies in Indonesia also use their vernaculars for communication. For example Munanese people use Muna language as a daily language to communicate between them and also Javanese people use Java language as well as the other tribes. Hence, it could be stated that Indonesian people are bilingualism or multilingualism. Commonly, each tribe in Indonesia has their particular region, but there are phenomena where one area consists of different vernaculars. In such area, there is a possibility that vernacular of minority people will be affected by dominant one and also there is a vernacular that can survive even though it is from minority groups. Therefore, we can get a language maintenance and also language shift from the case. Language maintenance occurs when a language community still maintains its language usage. According to Siregar in Manik (2015), language maintenance is the use of language that occurs in a language society that still uses its language in the domains of language usage which is traditionally controlled by the language. It is often found linguistic cases in society that the use of native language by a number of speakers of a bilingual or multilingual society tends to decrease due to the existence of other languages that have a higher function. The use of Javanese at Bangunsari by the people in the village is more predominantly used than the use of other languages such as Indonesia or local language which is Muna language. This is due to factor of the large number of Javanese people at Bangunsari. So, the condition of Muna language itself in this village is quite weak because its role is replaced by Java language which makes some of ordinary people affected by using Java language. Society who lives in a multi-ethnic environment can get the culture and language of each ethnic group. This can cause a shift or extinction in terms of language or culture for groups that are unable to maintain their language and culture. However, this is different from the Javanese people who lived at Bangunsari. Although the Javanese people in the village have been there for a long time, but they are able to maintain their mother’s language.

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Regarding the issue, this research discussed language maintenance of Java language by Javanese people who lived at Bangunsari. It is about monolingual and bilingual aspects that happen when Javanese people interacted in daily life.

2. Methods The design of this research was qualitative research in the form of ethnography approach. It was conducted at Bangunsari Village, Muna. The researcher focused on Javanese people who lived in an area of Muna regency in the village of Bangunsari and the researcher divided them into four domains to be analysed, namely family domain, neighbourhood domain, school domain, and mosque domain as well as divided into aspect of age. They were group of age 10-19 years old, 20-29 years old and 30-50 years old and above. There were seventeenth informants selected as the source of data in this research. Data source of this research was the spoken language used by Javanese people in their daily communication formal or informal situation that researcher got when observing. The researcher also interviewed informants that had been selected by researcher to obtain further or complete results. The data were collected by using some techniques; namely interview, and observation. In interview, the researcher asked some questions to the interviewee related to language maintenance situation for Javanese at Bangunsari. Furthermore, the researcher also did an observation to all Javanese there. The researcher had observed the informants’ condition and their daily activity by visiting their home one by one. To analyze the data in this research, the researcher used the following steps: a. Transliterated all recorded data into the written form. b. Identified and selected the data based on the researcher needs. c. Explained the analysis result about the language shift phenomenon in a community, and classified the cause factors which lead to the language maintenance d. Made a clear conclusion based on the finding data.

3. Result 3.1 Language Maintenance of Java Language at Bangunsari Bangunsari village is a village which is inhabited by several tribes including Javanese, Muna, and tribes. Of the three tribes, Javanese was the most dominanted. When we enter this village, we cannot distinguish between Javanese and non- Javanese because in general, the majority of the people there use Javanese as their daily language. As expressed by interviewee 1: (1) “...karena bahasa kita sehari-hari menggunakan bahasa Jawa...” “...because our daily language is using Java language...” (first respondent, 1 November 2018). From the first respondent statements’ above, it can be argued that Javanese people there use Java language in their daily life. Respondent 2 also reveal:

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(2) “karena itu bahasa jawa bahasa kita sehari-hari..., ....sedangkan dengan yang suku Muna yang ada di desa Bangunsari pakai bahasa Jawa...” “Because Java language is our daily language..., ...whereas the Munanese tribe at Bangunsari uses Java language...”. (second respondent, 26 Oktober 2018) The respondent’s expressions above indicated that almost all Bangunsari villagers used Java language as their daily language including those who were not Javanese people like the second respondent’s wife which is Makasarnese. The use of bahasa is very rare except for certain people, namely those who cannot speak Javanese. As respondent 3 said: (3) “....kalau orang Muna yang bisa berbahasa Jawa ya kita gunakan bahasa Jawa. Kalau yang nggak bisa berbahasa Jawa ya kita gunakan bahasa Indonesia” “...if the Munanese people can speak Java language, we use Java language. If they cannot use Java language, so we use bahasa”. (Bakri/ third respondent, 2 November 2018). The third statement above indicated that some people from other ethnic groups had not been affected by the use of Java language so that they still used bahasa when interacting with people around them. So that, the Javanese people in this village used bahasa to communicate with them. Although the Javanese in the village of Bangunsari had lived in this village for a long time, their enthusiasm in using their language, namely Javanese, still existed. They were not affected by other languages such as Muna language itself although at certain times they need to use bahasa. Being a fairly majority society in this village made Javanese itself difficult to shift or become extinct. Moreover, we know that the awareness of Javanese people themselves in maintaining their language is very great wherever they are, even though they live in the midst of a society which is not Javanese and lives far from the island of Java itself. The development of Java language in this area was very strong, so it can influence the use of language to other communities such as Munanese people in this village. So, they used Javanese when communicating with people in this area. Some of Javanese people in this village did an intercultural marriage with tribes from outside the Javanese tribe. For example, some of them are married to Munanese and some others married to Makassar people. But, the intercultural marriage did not affect the use of Java language. Javanese people in this village still maintained or continue to use their language even though they married to people from other ethnic groups they were able to influence their partners to use Javanese as well, like respondent 2 who married Makassar people. From their marriage, it did not cause respondent 2 to change his language and used other languages to communicate with his wife. He was able to influence his wife to follow him in using Java language as her daily language. This was revealed by respondent 2 when conducting interviews with researcher. He said: (4) “ketika saya berbicara dengan istri saya pakai bahasa Jawa. Meskipun saya punya istri bukan orang Jawa, dia orang Makassar tapi dia pakai bahasanya bahasa Jawa dan dia gunakan bahasa Jawa sehari-hari”. “When I am talking to my wife I am using Java language, even though my wife is not a Javanese. She is from Makassar but she uses Java language everyday ". (Mujikar/ second respondent, 26 Oktober 2018) 206

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Based on the second respondent’s statement above, it indicated that the use of Java language in his family was still running well. It could be seen by the ability of respondent 2 to influence his wife's language, so that she participated in using Java language. But, this was not felt by respondent 4’s family who also did an intercultural marriage with different ethnic groups, namely Muna tribe. Because of respondent 4’s husband cannot speak Java language, she must use bahasa to communicate with her husband. But, it did not make respondent 4 leave her language, namely Java language. She still used Java language everyday when she communicated with her neighbors, her brother and also her nieces. This was revealed by respondent 4, where she said: (5) “...kalau dengan kakak saya menggunakan bahasa Jawa. ...ya begitu, karena sudah memang lingkungannya kita di sini sering menggunakan bahasa Jawa. ...kan kemanakanku banyak dan ketika mereka memanggil saya atau saya yang memanggil mereka kita menggunakan bahasa Jawa” “... with my sister I use Java language. … Yes like that, because our environment here often uses Java language. … I have many nieces and when they call me or I call them we use Java language”. (Asnani/ fourth respndent, 30 Oktober 2018). From the results of the interview above, we can assume that the extinction of Java language at Bangunsari village, Muna district was very difficult. This is indicated by the number of Javanese speakers themselves who still maintained their language by always applying it in their daily lives. The defense of Javanese at Bangunsari village, Lasalepa sub-district, Muna regency, can be seen from the extent to which the Java language is spoken by the speaking community. As known from previous explanations, besides being fluent in Javanese, the Javanese people also sometimes used bahasa. Thus, it could be said that the Javanese community in this village was bilingualism which used two languages. The Javanese people in the village of Bangunsari understood and knew two or more languages because of the element of bilingualism or ethnicity. It means that most of the Javanese speakers were able to converse in bahasa. As for other languages, such as Muna, they only understood the intentions discussed but they cannot say it. So that the results of the study showed that the maintenance of Javanese can be seen from the use of the Java language itself from several domains, namely family domain, neighborhood domain, school domain, and mosque domain and also in age aspect.

4.2 Factors Causing the Maintenance of Javanese at Bangunsari The number of speakers is a factor of language maintenance. Based on observation of the researcher during the field, the majority of the people at Bangunsari village were Javanese. The use of a language that is done routinely will cause the language to survive, in addition to the number of speaker of the language which is majority. According to Jendra in Rusli (2016), more numbers of speakers of a language can make the maintenance of a language happen in a community. It can be seen that the large number of Javanese speakers at Bangunsari village of Lasalepa sub-district, Muna

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Regency who were used to use Java language in their daily lives, making Java language in the village difficult to shift or becoming extinct. Language loyalty is an important factor in language maintenance. It means that loyal attitude as attitude in general can be something which cannot be observed, but its characteristics can be inferred from observable behavior. Loyalty to the Java language can be seen from the behavior of speakers who tended to use Javanese in their daily lives. Besides, continuity in the use of language is one of the factors in maintaining a language. The point is the use of the language continuously from previous generations to the next generation. This happened because of the number of speakers from the language who remained consistent in using their mother tongue. This can be seen in Javanese community at Bangunsari village. They had lived in the village for a long time, but their loyalty and awareness of their mother tongue, which symbolizes the existence of their tribe, making them consistently used Java language in their everyday life and forward it to the next generation. This led to the continuity of the use of Java language in this village. The power of the Java language is a supporting factor that has made Java language survived at Bangunsari, Lasalepa, Muna According to Tsitsipas in Yulianti (2016), languages that have more power will be able to shift languages that do not or lack of power. Language that has more power at Bangunsari was Java language because the Javanese tribe in this village was the majority. This was revealed by one of the village officials who were also a Javanese. The entire Javanese tribe in this village uses Java language in their live. This was also felt by the Muna tribe because it was influenced by the power of the Java language itself. This could cause the Muna language at Bangunsari village can shift and switch using Java language

4. Conclusion

Based on the analysis of the findings and discussions the researcher concluded that the maintenance of Java language at Bangunsari had happened, and it happened in every domain that had been determined by the researcher. The domain were family, neighbourhood, school, and mosque. Then, it happened in group of age that had been determined by the researcher. It was age group of 10-19 years old, 20-29 years old, and 30-50 years old and above. Each domains and groups of age showed that Javanese people at Bangunsari village were bilingual and monolingual as personally. In these domains and groups of age, there were code mixing and code switching that occurred due to bilingual situations. It showed that there was still language mantenance in their daily lives, there were several factors that cause the occurrence of language maintenace at Bangunsari village Lasalepa sub district Muna regency, namely number of speakers, loyalty and awareness of Java language, the continuity of Java language usage, and the power of Java language

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