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Influence of Other Languages and Cultures

On Indonesian Language and Culture

By: Pandhu Wismono

English Literature Study Program

Semarang State University

crying_Scarecrow@rocketmail.com

On 28th October 1928, delegates of the Indonesian youth were gathered at the second
Indonesian youth congress. In that congress the delegates of the Indonesian youth
from all over Indonesian made a vow known as the youth pledge. In one of the vows
they made, they proclaimed Indonesian language to be the language they uphold for
the national unity. The decision to proclaim the language as the national language had
undergone a very long process, even long before the youth pledge was conducted.

Indonesian language gained its form from the root of Malay language. At the
time it was proclaimed as the national language, it was actually a minor language
which only spoken by 5% of the Indonesian people. Furthermore, the youth, who at
the time gathered in the Indonesian national youth Congress, mostly spoke in Dutch.
In Indonesia itself, there have been more than 500 languages from different ethnics
and cultures, and the most spoken language was actually Javanese and Dutch.

Malay, as the root of Indonesian language was chosen to be the national

language because of some considerations. First, it has been a Lingua Franca in the
archipelago even since the era of Portuguese. Second, it is a neutral language which
has no stratification on its use, compared with Javanese. Third, even though it is only
spoken by 5% of the Indonesian population at the time, it was widely known by the
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entire population. The last but not the least, it is a simple language which can be learn
quite easily, compared with the Dutch and Javanese.

After being proclaimed as the national Language, Indonesian Language had

undergone many developments. Its developments included the development of
grammar, spelling system, and the usage, not to mention vocabularies. In the
developments of the language, government took part as the director of the language
planning. To take care of the language development, the government established a
special department to conduct the language planning; the special department called
Pusat Bahasa. This department had responsibilities in the language development
including the socialization of the developed language. In socializing the use of the
developed language, the Pusat Bahasa conducted a campaign of the use of good and
correct Indonesian. However, people then became like alienated from the good and
correct Indonesian because it is rather formal and frozen. Moreover, it is also mostly
used in formal occasion so that it eventually has become the High form of the
language.

Following its High form, there is also the Low form of the language, which
people regard as daily language. Fergusson in Sneddon (2003:121) defines this
dividing of the language as diglossia. He also describes that a High language is a
relatively stable language situation in which there is a very divergent, highly codified,
superposed variety which is learned largely by formal which is learned largely by
formal education and is used for most written and formal spoken purposes but is not
used by any sector of the community for the ordinary conversation. Thusly, it goes
without saying that the High language eventually became the Prestige of the language
which is rather alienated from the community, especially those who are not well
educated.

In addition, in developing the language, there are at least three influences that
affect its process. The first influence is from the historical factor, colonization for
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instance. The second influence is the power of the reigning government. And the third
is the influence of the popular culture and globalization.

The influence of the other cultures and languages on the language has started
even since the Portuguese era, even long before. However, the influence is mostly
because of the result of cultural penetration which happened in the colonization era.
During the colonization, the cultures and languages of the colonizing countries, in
this case, Portuguese, Dutch and Japanese, started to affect the language, especially
the vocabularies. The cultural penetration which affects Indonesian language and
culture also still happens in the modern era. Nonetheless, the influence is no longer
through the colonization, but through the popular culture and globalization.

Instead of the cultural penetration, the power in the government also affects
the development of the language so much. The influence of the power on the
language has even started since the era of the first president, Soekarno. Soekarno
influenced the language development indirectly, through his speech, because he was
also an orator instead of a politician. In his speech, he usually inserted Javanese
accent and words, so that people who listened to his speech at the time, of course
started to copy his words and the way he delivered the speech.

The influence of Colonization on the Development of the Language and Culture

Since the coming of Portuguese to Indonesia in 16 th century, Malay, as the root of

Indonesian language had started to get influenced with Portuguese language.
However, the influence of Portuguese toward the language itself is not as significant
as the influence of the Dutch which came to the archipelago after the Portuguese.

Dutch, started to penetrate the Indonesian people’s cultural life even since in
the early time of their coming. For around 3,5 centuries Dutch had reigned the
country, and obviously the Dutch language had become so common among
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Indonesian people. the influence of the Dutch on the language especially in the
scientific and technological terms, even though there are also so many Dutch terms
can be found in the other field such as religion, daily life, and others. During the
centuries when the Dutch reigned the archipelago, there are also so many influences
on the cultural life, especially in the high class position such as in sultanate and the
capital cities. In the sultanate, for instance, the noble used Dutch style wagon as their
means of transportation. People even consider wagon as the high class transportation,
and wagon got its position on the prestigious place. In the Yogyakarta sultanate for
instance, there are so many wagon used by the sultan of Yogyakarta; even each of the
wagon has name and the names are Javanese names. The cultural diffusion can also
be seen from the old building in the cities. Dutch culture spread out to the whole
nation even until now. In addition, at the time Indonesian language proclaimed as the
national Language, the delegates of the Indonesian youth mostly used Dutch as their
lingua franca (Sneddon, 2003).

Furthermore, in the development of the language, Dutch and Portuguese

vocabularies are still used until today as the borrowed words. Even though there are
actually alternative vocabularies which provided from the new-coined words, but
people somehow still prefer to use the Dutch and Portuguese terms. It is basically
because Dutch and Portuguese words have been so familiar with people’s life. Even it
seems that people even feel more comfortable using the borrowed words rather than
the new-coined terms.

Instead of Portuguese and Dutch, Japanese also influences the language and
culture. However, its influence is not as significant as Dutch and Portuguese. Japan
colonized Indonesia for only around 3,5 years, during that short period, Japanese
government forced people to learn Japanese. Dutch was banned from its uses in
government, education, and other fields.
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The Influence of Political Power on the Language and Culture

Instead of cultural penetration, political power also took part in the language
development. The influence of the political power on the language development can
be seen especially on the vocabularies and the spelling. The political power, not only
influenced the language, but also the major cultural life. For example like the
choosing of Batique as the national uniform. It happened because mostly, the
presidents are originated from Javanese.

In addition, political power also influences the low language or what so called
daily language (bahasa sehari-hari). Just like what happened to the choosing of the
national dress, Javanese, mostly influence the practical use of the language. The
influence includes the use of the interjection, suffix, prefix, and even borrowed
words.

In the Soekarno era, there are so many abbreviated terms coined by him. the
coined terms are not only for the governmental terms, but also for daily terms. The
terms created by Soekarno such as ABRI, BERDIKARI, JAS MERAH, etc. Instead
of the coined abbreviated terms, Soekarno also influence the spelling of the words,
just like what can be found in the proclamation text.

There are purposes of the political influence on the language and culture. One
of which is actually to show the real identity of the reigning power. It also has a
purpose to legitimate the political power. The legitimation can even be seen from the
choosing of the second name in the Tionghoa ethnic. They usually have Javanese
second name instead of Chinese name.
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Influence of Popular Culture on Indonesian Language and Culture

At the time being, Indonesian language and culture have also been influenced by
popular culture. Popular culture always brings about changes in people’s cultural life.
Through the popular culture, cultural penetration happens. There are two kinds of
cultural penetration, cultural penetration by force, and peaceful cultural penetration
(Barker, 1999). Cultural penetration by force happens when the culture of a country is
penetrated by forcing act such as colonization. While peaceful cultural penetration
happens when the culture of a country undergoes a cultural change caused by a
penetrating culture that comes to the country without any force, in this case we can
take a look the phenomenon of popular culture.

Popular culture is a mass culture which usually created by certain group of

people for a certain purpose. In the cultural studies, it is explained that the existence
of popular culture is created by the capitalists, mainly in purpose to increase the sale
of their products (Dewojati, 2010). In this global era, especially when there are so
many new mass cultures infiltrate the country, obviously there is also a cultural
change which includes the change of the daily language and cultural perspectives.

The popular culture spread up though mass media such as television,

newspaper, advertisement, even internet. It goes without saying that popular culture
can affect the language and culture of Indonesia so fast because the media used to
spread up the popular culture are always the mass media.

Recently, we can see that there are so many phenomena of the influence of
popular culture originated from the other countries. For example we can take a look at
the phenomenon of K-Pop, which then influence people’s perspective on the Korean
language and culture. People even then mixed their language with Korean or sing
Korean songs. The other example of the popular culture influence is the popularity of
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Harajuku style, Manga (Japanese comic genre) which then urge people to mix their
speech with Japanese terms, or even sometimes use Japanese lexical bundles when
they are talking to each other such as ganbatte kudasai(good luck), oyasumi nasai
(good night) ,etc .

Nowadays, the popular culture even influences the usage of the foreign
language. Even people consider that foreign languages have more prestige in the
usage. The prestige use of the foreign language even influences the high class society
such as politicians, lawyers, and such. They often use English terms for instance,
when they are speaking in front of the public, or even when they are speaking in a
formal forum. Even in the low language (daily language) people also often use mixed
language such as so what gitu lho, and other mixed slangs.

The influence of the popular culture on the national language and culture can
also be seen in Indonesian popular culture. In the music industry for instance, there
have been so many songs using foreign titles, even some are mixed with foreign
language. There are some example of it such as aisiteru, aitakata, heart, and other
popular songs. This phenomenon then shifts the prestige of Indonesian language and
culture. Using the perspective of popular culture, people start to underestimate the
prestige of Indonesian language and culture. Worse, people even feel ashamed when
they speak in Indonesia when the other people speak using the foreign terms from
popular culture.

Conclusion and Suggestion

Indonesian language and culture have undergone so many developments in the usage,
terms, grammar, spelling, and vocabularies. The development of the language
underwent a very long process which involved many people from many different
classes.
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The forming of the Indonesian language itself has been influenced by many
different languages and cultures. Even the language has also been influenced by the
political power of the country. Those influence are really important in the
development of the language because the language has to be dynamic for all people in
different field.

At the time being, the language and culture are influenced by popular culture
which arbitrarily brings about socio-cultural changes. It also obviously has both good
and bad impacts to the development of the language and to the preservation of the
national culture. The influence of the popular culture on the language has an obvious
potential in shifting the prestige of Indonesian language, thus people should be able to
maintain their nationalism motivation, so that the language will always be prestigious
for the people, especially the young generations.
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References

Sneddon, James, 2003, The Indonesian Language: Its History and Role in Modern
Society, UNSW Press, New South Wales.

Cahyaningrum Dewojati, 2010, Wacana Hedonisme dalam Sastra Populer Indonesia,

Pustaka Pelajar, Yogyakarta.

Barker,  Jwm, 1999, Filsafat   Kebudayaan, Sebuah  Pengantar; penerbit  kanisius;

Yogyakarta.