Border and Mobility – Kerr Et Al

The Bawean ethnic language: Attitude and diglossic community culture

S.W.B. Utami Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

ABSTRACT: The Bawean ethnic group is known as the “Boyans”. The Baweans have been identified as a group with a deep ethnic consciousness in terms of their language and culture. The purpose of this study was to understand the characteristics of the language and culture of the Bawean ethnic group. This study used a qualitative approach, particularly the ethnog- raphy of communication inquiry. The Bawean society is enriched with multi–ethnic groups such as Javanese, Madurese, Bugis, Mandailing, Banjar and Palembang. Merantau (migrating) has been a unique local custom of the families living on this island. Historically, early settlers were immigrants from different regions or islands. The adoption of other cultures and languages shows a typical acculturation pattern, which is one of the distinct characteristics of the Bawean society. Therefore, the Baweans regard themselves as a unique society and consider their language to be different from the Madurese language.

Keywords: Migrating, Diglossic, Boyan, Language and Cultural Attitude

1 INTRODUCTION

Bawean Island is one of the small islands in Indonesia, located about 150 km north of Java Island, which can be reached within 3.5 hours by a speedboat from the Gresik port. The Bawean local government is part of Gresik regency. Bawean people are known to be perantau (travellers). More specifically, perantau refers to the custom of migrating. Historically, the majority of the Bawean residents were immigrants from various regions in Indonesia. This custom of migrating has endured throughout gener- ations. Consequently, many of its inhabitants travel to other cities, or even to other countries, to work or make a living. This phenomenon—that is, migration to other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and Christmas Island in Australia –has been ongo- ing since the 18th century (Vredenbergt, 1990; Usman, 1996). Many Baweans who work in other countries are often identified by different ethnic labels. For instance, Orang Boyan is the name for Bawean people settled in Malaysia and Singapore. In both countries, the Baweans live in an area known as the Boyanese village, possessing dual citizenship. Apart from the migrating and mixed marriage tradition with other ethnic groups, Bawean Island’s geographical position as a transit or stopover island has also created a typical socio- cultural impact. This is represented in the ethnic and cultural varieties as well as language and speech varieties, forming a unique acculturation pattern. The history of power and religion in Baweans shows that Javanese and Sumenep (Madurese) are two major ethnic groups on Bawean Island. However, after the spread of Islam, the Madurese ethnic group played an important role (Kartono, 2003: 1) in building religious systems in the Bawean society. Islam has been the only religion practised in Bawean. One of the premises for this assertion is that many Baweans have originated from a Madurese ethnic background. With regard to language, as the Bawean language is similar to the Madurese language, it is often mistakenly referred to as Madurese. The Baweans are often thought of as Madurese by people who live outside Bawean Island. The long migration of the Baweans

27 to foreign locations does not make them forget their native land. This claim is enshrined in the local Bawean proverb that the Baweans who were born on the island will travel but will return and wish to be buried only on Bawean Island. Furthermore, Bawean people are multi-dialectical and multilingual. This is due to several factors. First, the island’s geographical position as a transit or stopover region for many ethnic groups has built a multicultural and multilingual society. Second, the community’s high mobility has amplified the variety of cultures and languages on Bawean Islands. Third, access to education and communication media has created an opportunity to be exposed to diverse languages. Such exposure and contact, particularly in relation to language, is defined as diglossia in bilingualism. These circumstances have fostered the Baweans to become a diglossic community. As Fishman (1972: 92) stated, “diglossia exists not only in multilingual societies which officially recognize several ‘languages’, and not only in societies which employ separate dialects, registers, or functionally differentiated language varieties of whatever kind”. In this regard, apart from their local language, the Baweans attach importance to mastering other languages with all their functions and use. It is therefore interesting to investigate the Bawean people’s attitude towards their local language, particularly in relation to their speech variety, and their loyalty towards their local language. This study was conducted in stages, which included observations, questionnaires and interviews about the evaluation of the growing culture and language. Respondents in this study were important authorities and figures such as community figures, cultural figures and village administration staff.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 Stopover island Bawean refers to the word pawean that originated from the word pawiwahan which in turn is derived from the old Javanese word wiwoho (meeting or encounter). This name projects Bawean Island as a meeting place for many ethnic groups who then resided in Bawean. Among the islands (Java, Madura, Masalembo and Makasar), the geographical location of Bawean Island has made an open place for both stopovers and settlement. The village Pajinggahan in the Tambak subdistrict was apparently named after boat and ship “transit” from other islands. Some remains of old seaports on Bawean Island can be viewed even today in Kumalasa village. Its existence as a transit island is also reflected in the existing Bawean legends. According to Bascom (in Dundes [ed.], 1984:5), a “legend is a spoken narrative prose whose story is believed by the community as a true fact”. In Bawean legends, the important messengers/ figures of cultural teaching generally came from other islands. For example, the Jujuk Campa legend in Bawean tales tells the story about an eminent figure from Campa, Cambodia, which is supported by the remains found in Kumulasa village such as kris, vessel, sekedub and graves. According to other cultural findings, Diponggo village is the only village in Bawean that tend to assimilate the Javanese language. As a transit island, Bawean is highly influenced by cultures from other areas or islands. As Al-Attas (2009) describes, during the colonial period in the 18th century, the Minang, Bugis and other seafaring communities used Bawean Island as their stopover. When appointed as the KPM (Konenklijke Paketwaart Maatschapi) sailing agent, they became influential traders and dominated trade and the economy in the Bawean areas. At that time, most of the Minang ethnic groups migrated to Bawean Island. The strong assimilation of the local culture has led to the non-existence of their unique identities in the Bawean society.

2.2 Migrating culture Despite the availability of jobs in Bawean, the migrating tradition is still upheld by Bawean families. This migrating custom to Malaysia and Singapore began in the 18th century, with many Bawean people becoming citizens of these countries (Usman, 1996: 66). 28 As Vredenbregt (1964:129–139) explains, in 1849, some Bawean people who settled in the area then called Malaka were known as the “Boyans”. According to the Singapore statistics, there were a total of 763 Boyan people with 720 males and 43 females. Their number had increased in 1957 and reached a total of 22,167, with 11,580 males and 10,587 females. Migrating to foreign lands has been the cultural tradition of Bawean. Males (and now more females) are expected to go out of Bawean Island at least once during their lifetime in order to learn by their travel experience. The migrating tradition is reflected in the following proverb: “Ajj moka?-moka?samper? m nghitaangarsailange?, Ben ajj ngokerlange? m nghitangoasaeelmolahir ben elmobatin”. “Do not take off a woman’s sarong before carving the sky, and do not carve the sky before mastering physical and mental knowledge” (Interpreted as “Do not get married before going to other lands for a living, and do not travel before mastering self-defence and the Quran”). The word samper, in East Javanese dialect sewek, indicates a piece of sarong used by women to wrap their lower bodies, from the navel to the ankle. The unwrapping act, such as taking off a woman’s sarong, symbolically means to marry a woman, while “carving the sky” expresses gaining experiences in other lands. Migrating to other lands is a prerequisite for men’s marriage. Symbolically, “carving the sky” is an experience that poses a number of strong challenges, for which training in family responsibility of being the head of the family is compulsorily undertaken. Apart from the teaching of migrating to other lands (merantau), the knowledge of self-defence and moral teaching are necessary to live safely in other lands as well as to prepare them to be good travellers/settlers. The “migrating” characteristic of the Bawean ethnic group enables the adoption of other cultures. Multilingualism is welcome in Bawean communities. Many residents are bilingual or multilingual and thus can speak one or two languages other than their mother tongue. Mackey (1962) explains that bilingualism is a practice of using “language” by shifting from one language to another (p. 12). This is demonstrated through the practice of “code switching” among the Baweans. Hence, they chat in the local ethnic language, and then use Malay when meeting with neighbours from other lands and speak in Indonesian on formal occasions. The choice of language domains shows that the Baweans are a diglossic community.

2.3 Language attitude and cultural identity Attitude involves a psychological phenomenon manifested in behaviour or acts based on viewpoints, beliefs or opinions as a reaction to something or some events. According to Anderson (1974), an attitude may refer to language and non-language (political, social, religious) attitude (p. 37). The non-language attitude is related to cultural identity. There are two types of ethnic attitude: “revivalism” is an ethnic attitude towards cultural identity and “revitalism” is an attitude related to the wish to access other cultures for the purpose of “catching up with” them (Alqadrie, 2008:197–198). The results of data analysis indicate that the Baweans’ attitude towards their cultural identity is reflected in their reluctance to be identified as the Maduran ethnic group. This is perhaps considered as a unique language attitude given that their language is similar to Madurese, as even the Bawean vocabulary carries the same or similar diction and meaning to Madurese. Some people regard the Bawean language as a dialect of Madurese. The similarity between Bawean and Madurese is reflected in the use of aspirated sounds [d ],[ b ],[ g ], [ j ] → (dh, bh, gh, jh) as follows: d âra → dove bâd he → place, location rob u → collapse b iru → blue g ule → sugar g eg er → fall 29 j erre → learn one’s lesson, be cured j uel → sell

The morphological structure is reflected in the affixes in Bawean /N/,/a-/, /é-/, /ma-/, /-a/, /-na/, /é-a/ that show similar functions to Madurese. For example: (N-) +énom → ngénom = drink (é-) +j uâl → éj uâl = be sold (a-) +j âlân → aj âlân = walk (ma-) +târros → matârros = continue méllé +(-a) → mélléa = will buy d âlâm +(-na) → d mna = the house (é-) +pélé + (-a) → épéléa = will choose Its similarity with Madurese is further supported by the similarity of vocabulary. Lexicos- tatistically, 80% of Bawean base words present similarity to Madurese. As Baker (1992) states, the attitude of the Baweans can be elaborated based on instrumental and integrative motivations. Instrumental motivation aims to achieve social acknowledgement (p. 32). Integrative motivation includes social and interpersonal attributes related to their ethnic identification and activities living together with other ethnicities (p. 32). Such an identity claim is evident in the attitude of the Baweans, as shown in this study, and is apparent within the communities known as the “Boyans” who live in other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. There is indeed reluctance on the part the Baweans to be identified as part of Maduran ethnicity. They consider themselves different from the Madurese ethnic group. Based on the interviews and questionnaires, the Baweans in this study had their origin in Madura. In addition, they generally state that they came from Pamekasan or Sumenep. Both areas are “stereotypically” identified as a better, “refined” or a more educated part of Madura. In this context, the Baweans symbolically put priority on virtues such as refinement, proper conduct and honesty, non-violence, obeying the law and harmony. From the Bawean perspective, the Madurese are known to be strong-willed, rough and dishonest. The Madurese carok tradition and their habit of carrying sharp weapons, to kill or steal, are regarded as despicable and thus shunned by the Baweans. The Baweans living in other lands are expected to demonstrate good citizenship behaviours, show honesty and avoid commotion. They would rather shake hands than attack with a sharp weapon when there is a disagreement. This means that they want to resolve disagreement through peace. The Baweans show themselves to be a people with honesty, enthusiasm and zeal and good behaviours. Such an ethnic identity is shown by the Baweans to distinguish themselves from the Madurese. Ethnic identity describes the attitude of positioning abstract ideas in a specific decision dimension (Baker, 1992: 11). As Azjan (1988) argues, attitude is the tendency to give favourable or unfavourable responses to objects, people or events (Baker, 1922:11). Language attitude has been a feature that characterises ethnic identity that is commonly known as ethnolinguistic identity. From the perspective of ethnolinguistic identity, the Baweans call themselves Bawean people, similarly to when someone calls himself Indonesian or Japanese to show language ownership. As described by Fishman (1991), ethnolinguistic identity is closely related to ethnic identity (p. 22). In this regard, many elements in culture are verbally spelled out in songs, tales, proverbs and all non-material cultures. Despite the similarity of language lexicon and structure, and the acknowledgement of their Madurese origin (from Sumenep Madura), the Baweans dislike to be identified as part of Madurese ethnicity. They consider themselves different from the Madurese cultural and ethnic group. The mention of Sumenep or Pamekasan (Madura) as the place of origin symbolically shows that the Baweans are characterised by “refinement”. This shows their strong ethnicity attitude and special cultural identity. In other words, they can be identified as a unique Bawean ethnic group from their attitude and behaviour. 30 Table 1. Language choice tendencies and domains of language use.

Frequency Domains of language use of language use Bawean Indonesian Indonesian – Bawean Malay Arabic

Often at home at school in office while texting while reciting to family the Quran in mosque in office while texting in other in rice field on Instagram on Instagram countries in the market on Facebook on Facebook to neighbours in official meetings Sometimes to newcomers to newcomers in official meetings to neighbours while from Madura from other preaching Never to newcomers at home at home places in official meetings to neighbours to neighbours to newcomers in office

As Lebar (1972) explains, the Baweans are also identified as the Babian or Phebian people. Etymologically, the word /phebian/ has its origin in /pawiwahan/ which represents an assimilation process. In this sense, the Baweans have assimilated through the encounters with diverse people from Madura, Java, Bugis, Minang and Palembang for hundreds of years. This assimilation is a social process that has resulted from the meeting and intense contact between different cultures which finally formed a typically mixed culture (Koentjaraningrat, 1985:254). This factor may explain the reluctance on the part of the Baweans to be identified as Madurese. The Bawean language has several speech varieties that can be grouped based on the ethnic origins and village names. For example, Daun variety refers to Daun village, which is a mixture of Bugis and Palembang ethnic groups. Pater Selamat variety comprises the villages of Bulu-Lanjang, Sungai Rujing, SawahMulya and Kota Kusuma. Sungai Teluk variety is asso- ciated with a mixture of Madurese and Bugis ethnic groups. Kumulasa variety in Kumulasa village can be traced back to the descendants of Champaland. Diponggo variety is closely related to Javanese ethnicity. These associations are often expressed in funny remarks among the villagers in comments such as “during language divisions, all the villagers were listening, except for the Diponggo people, because they fell asleep”. Dialect speakers have no difficulty in interaction. Therefore, a bidialectal language pattern is common in Bawean. In this sense, apart from using speech varieties within the local Bawean dialect in their own village, they also understand dialectal speech varieties from other villages. The Baweans are not only bidialectal but also bilingual. This is due to the fact that Bawean people migrate to other lands. The long migrating pattern of the Baweans has indirectly placed them in contact with languages other than their mother tongue. This custom has allowed strong influences on their cultural behaviour. This is reflected in the language atmos- phere on Bawean Island. Malay, Bawean and Indonesian languages have become key languages of communication. Technology advancement enjoyed by Bawean communities and improvement in transpor- tation facilities have influenced the high intensity of contact among communities/ethnicities. High mobility to other areas and good communication facilities enable the Bawean people to become bilingual, so that they are able to know and use other languages beside their mother tongue. This is outlined in the following language use. The domain data show that the Baweans are a diglossic bilingual community. They generally understand that Indonesian possess a more important function than the Malay or Bawean language.

3 CONCLUSION

The Baweans generally feel that they have the same identity in terms of tradition and religion. The migrating tradition has greatly influenced ethnic solidarity and consciousness of 31 the community oriented towards group identity or identification of a people known as the “Boyans”. For the majority of the ethnic groups, it might be rather easier to claim a distinctive language and cultural identity. For example, Javanese ethnicity and Madurese ethnicity can claim their ethnic identity simply from the observation of their language and culture. However, the circumstance is quite different for the Baweans. As a major ethnic group, the Baweans’ attitude and representation of themselves ethnically have not reached a similar level of spread in language and culture. The migrating tradition and influences from other languages and cultures may have an impact on the susceptibility of their presently shifting identities. Never- theless, ethnic consciousness of the Baweans has motivated their desire to regard their local language guidelines as substantially indispensable in order to present themselves as an ethnic group with unique characteristics. As a diglossic community, the Bawean ethnic group has special attributes. Cultural adoption has enabled the assimilation and acculturation processes to form their cultural identity with ethnic uniqueness. Such acculturation and assimilation have formed a cultural and language identity that is positively valued as their special ethnic characteristics.

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