BAHASA INDONESIA IS MY LANGUAGE

Most of Indonesian probably forget or even do not know that October is the month of language. A month to appreciate the existence of Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian as an official language in this republic.
The origin of Indonesian became an official language of Republic Indonesia begins with the second Indonesian youth congress that was held in October 1928. Indonesian young nationalists realized that Indonesia consists of many groups of ethnic and hundreds of regional language and local dialects. And a language to bridge the diversity is absolutely needed.
On account of Riau Malay language is a neutral language than others in Indonesia , they chose it as base of Indonesian, the unifying language they would declare. Riau Malay language does not apply caste of language. Therefore it would be more acceptable in any society in Indonesia.
The declaration of Indonesian as unifying language represents at the third part of Youth Pledge:
We, the sons and daughters of Indonesia, respect the language of uniity, Indonesian.
And finally with the declaration of independent on 17 August 1945, Indonesian was elevated to status the official language .
Indonesian is very rich in its pronunciation, diction, spelling, accent and vocabulary. It gets influences from foreign and our own regional languages. Many words we use everyday actually derived from foreign languages. For example’’ sabun’’ and ‘’jendela ‘’ ( soap , window) derived from Portuguese ‘’sabao’’ and ‘’ janela’’; ‘’ kamar’’ and ‘’kantor’’[ chamber, office ] derived from Dutch kamer and kantoor or ‘’kolam’’ that derived from South India Tamil. Even the slang terms ‘’ gue’’ and ‘’elu’’ derived from Hokkien ‘’goa’’ and ‘’lu’’.
Regional languages enrich also Indonesian by replacing some foreign terms so that the terms be more Indonesia and easier pronounced by Indonesian native’s tongue. For example ‘’canggih’’ and ‘’pakar’’ replace ‘’sophisticated’’ and ‘’expert’’.
What a pity only few native Indonesian speaker use correct version of Indonesian. The good and correct Indonesian[ Bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar] is usually used in formal situation and places such as schools, universities or government bodies. One can find it also in books, newspapers or TV and radio news programs.
Most of Indonesians think it is unusual to communicate orally with the good and correct Indonesian in casual situation. They generally use regional languages and slang in daily conversation. Indonesian slang, the informal version of Indonesian often function as primary language for people living in more urbanized regions of Indonesia. Indonesian slang is abundant also in popular media and TV and radio entertainment programs.
Indonesian slang changes time to time not only the terms or phrases but also its native name. For example bahasa prokem we could find in early 1980’s. Or the term bahasa gaul was coined in late 1990’s and we can even buy dictionary of bahasa gaul. And the newest one is slang use combination of English and Indonesian slang in one phrase. For example ‘’so what gitu loh’’ or ‘’sa’ik my man’’ that generally used by teenagers.
Nowadays more young generation feel awkward use good and correct Indonesian even in formal situation. They prefer insert slang or foreign terms in their conversation following modern day trends and so that they seem smart. However smartness is not always indicated by how many foreign terms used in someone’s conversation, is it?
Indonesian vocabularies are very rich and kept being improved. Choose correct Indonesian words, then you can create interesting conversations, even casual conversations. It is just a matter of willingness.
Let us begin use our mother language more intensively. If more foreigner seriously learn and speak good and correct Indonesian, why don’t we?

Diposting oleh wahjoe wigati's blog di 17.06