The Prediction on Sociolinguistic Situation in Surabaya in the Next Fifty Years

What would Surabaya like in the next fifty years from now on? Is a question that this paper is

trying to predict by using the framework of what have been learned from the sociolinguistics class. The

discussion from any variables and framework will be divided into two major points of view: intentionally

and unintentionally or universal and personal.

To predict this, I should go back far fifty years ago and try to reflect this and scheme it along with

phenomena that most likely to influence the change. Bahasa Indonesia is Indonesia’s national language.

Bahasa Indonesia is one of things that unifies Indonesia that consists of thousands of islands and ethnic

groups along with their languages and culture. With Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia has been growing and

developing.

Seeing this background of languages in Surabaya, this following discussions are the prediction on

how the situation of languages in the next fifty years. First of all is Javanese. Javanese has survived all the

surrounded other languages. It is shifting but not dead. Javanese was spoken less and less since

Indonesia got its independence. Before and after the independence, Javanese was also hit by Dutch.

There were people who tend or chose to speak Dutch than Javanese. Most of them spoke Dutch because

they were educated since the education system was governed by the Dutch.

Within its development in macro level as William Bright (Coulmas, 1997:82) states that the

change that has effect on large group of people to entire society is called macrolinguistic. People also

began to use Indonesian names instead of Javanese names. There were names like, Sri, Siti, Bejo,

Paiman, Pon, Kliwon (Javanese day terms.) Indonesia has been growing and more children are sent to

school. The occupation as farmers is going less. People are exposed to the world outside Indonesia with

movies and news and there was an automatic thing to be influenced by this change. So, the closest thing

was: names for children. There were more Indonesian names, Budi, Sekar, Gunawan, Wati for example.
 In micro level, people seemed to be reluctant to speak Javanese but not those who work as

housemaids. So, there is a thought that Javanese is low but not in some Chinese ethnically families.

Some of them still use it. Javanese is still spoken by senior or older people. Most of grandparents live

with their son or daughter in cities if they do not stay in their hometown or villages. These people may

stay in villages and if they do not, they will choose more to speak in Bahasa Indonesia. Moreover, they

will not speak it with their grandchildren.

Most of Surabaya citizens are ethnically Javanese. Javanese is taught at school from elementary

to junior high school level. It is taught as local lesson that is only taught once a week. Students learn

some of Javanese part, if it cannot be said, a little. The students do not really use it and teachers are the

only source they have. These students are “rememberers” as Craig said (Coulmas, 1997:259). They are at

early age of native speakers and have lost much of their earlier linguistic ability. Moreover, they are

encountered by Suroboyoan, a vernacular in Surabaya. Children play with their friends at school and

around their neighborhood mostly speak in Suroboyoan and then Javanese.

Javanese is shifting. It is beginning to drift. Collete Grinevald Craig (Coulmas, 1997:259) give a

definition from Dorian of characteristic of speakers of the language death are imperfect speakers. They

are very passive speakers. Javanese is still used by older people but only a few of them use high

Javanese. It also can be found in some art performances, like ketoprak or wayang kulit. Some people still

use high Javanese for formal occasion like in ritual ceremony in marriage and only a few of them really

understand what the mc is saying. This describes what Craig (Coulmas, 1997: 261) says: “the loss of

higher functions, like the language in the public arena, including the sociopolitical and religious traditions

which necessitate the handling of some formal style of language.”

Even so, this part of culture is also getting less. People are now more aware of living in a religious

way. They begin to abandon some if not all the part of culture that is not in line with the religion system

or ways. They do this because they want to live, practice what the religion teach in the way that it is
supposed to be without any interference of culture where they live. Some of them do not wear the

ethnical wedding dresses. They do not want to do Javanese ritual before marriage. Puppet show is

considered as not the religion part for some people and they begin to abandon this. Consequently,

Javanese culture is getting less in society.

Craig (Coulmas, 1997: 262-3) gives the effects of language death on language structure. Two of

them are loss of morpheme and phoneme. Some of morpheme and phoneme are missing in Javanese. It

is used to be said: Bu(t)dhi . It is “t” pronounced by biting the tongue with “d”. Also, in koncone (the

friend of) becomes koncoe.

Having less people speak it and has been seen as low because it is spoken by those who are from

villages, the language of old people and is difficult to learn, Javanese is getting subordinated. Inferring

from this, Javanese will still revive and exist within next fifty years with a few people speak it well

because there are some people who still speak it at home. Javanese will be used as the language of ritual

and within culture related activities and children who will be adults will be passive speakers in Javanese.

It is always possible for the next generation of the children (adults in next fifty years) to trace down

Javanese culture.

There is an interesting fact about Javanese. Chinese speak Javanese more than those who are

ethnically Javanese. They speak Javanese both at school and at home. This will lead to look back to the

history.

Politically, in 1960s Indonesia had a really close relationship with China. It was legal for a

communist ideology party in Indonesia. Farmer was most of Indonesians’ occupation at that time. The

ideology of Marxism or socialist seemed to fit with the situation of the life of the most of Indonesian

people. This ideology easily spread and got many of its partisans. There were Chinese shop house with

Chinese letters and there was the lion and dragon dance in public.
 In the second president’s supremacy, Chinese subsided. Chinese shop houses and letters were

not on the walls. There was no more lion and dragon dance. There were not Chinese names anymore.

People use Indonesian names.

Chinese also undergoes language loss and language contact. Ethnically Chinese people who live

in Surabaya speak Javanese, Bahasa Indonesia and then other languages. Most of them speak passive

Chinese or Mandarin. Their ancestors arrived and lived in Surabaya since before Indonesia’s

independence. Some of them because of trade had learned to speak Dutch. Eventually, because they are

minority, their language is displaced by the local language as what Matthias Brenzinger (Coulmas, 1997:

279) describes, “The long-term contacts among neighboring groups may have resulted in language

displacements… Minorities which had been living in symbiotic relationships with dominant group for a

long time might have been forced to abandon the old language at some point.”

Most of the Chinese immigrants’ son and grandchilren become businessmen. They work in

trade. Some of Chinese words are still used. Numbers and simple sentences are spoken in trade. This is

done together with some Javanese (ngoko/low) and Bahasa Indonesia. Most of the grandchildren get

better education at good schools in Surabaya. So, other languages are also used by them and yet they

speak Javanese, sometimes, better than the Javanese people themselves.

The next language to be discussed is Bahasa Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia was spoken

structurally and grammatically correct, like “saya tidak tahu” (I do not know) which was spoken without

lessening or changing of any letter. Back fifty years ago, Bahasa Indonesia had a place even though it was

still in old spelling, for example the letter “u” was written, “oe” (Soerabaja), the letter “c” was written “tj”

(Tjandra) and the letter “j” was written “dj” (Djakarta). This is because of the sound or the phonetic in

Bahasa Indonesia was still influenced by Javanese.

 During its development under the two first presidents of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia had gone

through some metamorphosis and got a “hit” from other language; Chinese. Chinese got the attention

during the first president supremacy.

Bahasa Indonesia went to a new thing. The second president had brought influence to Bahasa

Indonesia. He was famous because he always never used any other language besides Bahasa Indonesia

even in international events. He was a general and it never believed that he could not speak English; as

English is an international language.

He used to use a variation in phoneme. The vowel sound of suffix “kan” became “ken”. This habit

was followed by the ministers and it was a usual thing. It was not allowed to use other language terms

for public areas, places and buildings. Bahasa Indonesia was growing into a new stage and rule: Ejaan

Yang Disempurnakan or The Approved Spelling. Bahasa Indonesia had a very special place at that time. It

was studied as the foreign language at schools in some countries, like Australia and Japan. Dr Aspar

Rahman , a senior lecturer of linguistic in Universitas Hasanuddin on

http://greatindonesia.tumblr.com/post/219634549/bahasa-indonesia-learned-in-40-countries states

that countries with intense promoting Bahasa Indonesia as foreign language at their local schools are

Japan, Malaysia, Australia and Singapore.

Nowadays Bahasa Indonesia undergoes many things. It gets “hit” from English and bahasa gaul.

Bahasa Indonesia is the official language at schools. Students learn it from elementary level to college.

Bahasa Indonesia in grammar or rules is quite simple compared to English.

The alphabets are the letters and also the sounds (phonetic). Nouns play role as subject as well

as object without any changing in forms. Verbs do not change in forms when they are used together

with time signals.

Bahasa Indonesia is seen a good or better than local language because the local language,

Suroboyoan and Javanese are not spoken well. Most people do not use or understand high Javanese.
Using high Javanese impresses as having good attitude but only a few people can speak it. Suroboyoan

tends to be outspoken, powerful (stressed in any syllable) and direct. One example, the way Surabaya

people say something that really good: enak (delicious) is uenak. Swearing is also a sign of friendship in

Suroboyoan. So, Soroboyoan strikes as coarse language. Moreover, there are variations in Surabaya.

Some Surabaya people are not originally from Surabaya. Some of them were born outside

Surabaya. The reason why they come to Surabaya is usually to seek for jobs. They bring their local,

dialect to Surabaya and this influence the society where they live. Edward Sapir (Coulmas, 1997: 47) in

James Milroy and Lesley Milroy’s article, says, “variability is within everyone’s experience of using and

listening to language…” There are variation for the word, kamu (you) becomes koen, kon in Suroboyoan

and for suburban will be riko, peno and for some people from Ngawi, for instance will be awakmu.

Javanese will use sampeyan, jenengan or panjenengan (kromo) .

Based on these reasons, people tend to choose to speak in Bahasa Indonesia for it gives the

impression of as not working class and it is proper for middle class. Code switching is a choice. Aure in

Carol Myers-Scotton’s article (Coulmas, 1997: 218) adds that code switching is used a device in discourse.

Inevitably, people still speak Javanese, Suroboyoan along with Bahasa Indonesia at home but they

choose “mild” word from Suroboyoan, simple Javanese (usually ngoko but not to older people) and the

most safe way is to use Bahasa Indonesia with accent. It is easy to recognize where a person is from

when they are speaking because of the accent that he or she is speaking though they speak in Bahasa

Indonesia.

Borrowing is an issue in Bahasa Indonesia. Now bahasa gaul is famous among youngsters.

Borrowing words from Bahasa Betawi, one of the ethnic languages, like gue (I), elo/ elu (you)and some of

the words will get the stress like the way Suroboyoan, for example, gue geethoo loh (it’s me). There is

also borrowing and code mixing between Bahasa Betawi and English that is so famous today. It is: elo

gue…ends (you and I…finish or we are finished).

 Bahasa Indonesia is also influenced by English. Bahasa Indonesia has some words that are

English. Words like, support, entertain, c(s)elebrity, escalator are borrowed from English. They are used

in sentences without any changing in form or meaning.

English, Chinese and other languages terms are very familiar these days in Indonesia. Public

places and buildings are not afraid to put other languages for names. In mall, it is written: underground,

upper ground, ground floor, toilet, restrooms. It is possible to find Japanese letters in a Japanese

restaurant as well as Chinese. From the law perspective, campaign street rules are mostly use English. In

the main streets of Surabaya, there are banners and posters that say: safety riding. They are issued by

the police of the Republic of Indonesia.

This also spreads to family life. People name their children using names from other languages.

Chinese names go back again. Also there are Indonesia children with Arabic, American, Greek or Italian

names. It is a freedom even though people might get stunned when they see a Javanese faced child with

an Italian names.

At the same time, English has been a foreign language at schools in Indonesia. English was

studied from the high school level. Students learned English in the former ways that was led by

behaviorism school.

Apparently, this generation of students speak English better in term of formal language. They are

better grammatically and they pronounce the words better because they had the model and were

immersed into English almost all the time. These students are well educated because back then,

education was an expensive need, only a few people could attend school. University was the place to

prove, to practice and to learn English as a whole or active language.

English is taught at school since the earliest level of education. It is seen as prestigious to be able

to speak English. As a result, parents send their children to learn English since the early age. Toddlers are

taught English in pre-schools. These children go to school a couple of times a week.

 Elementary students get English from the first grade until they are university students. English is

considered to be difficult and it is. Because there are differences between Bahasa Indonesia and English,

then the students get difficulties in learning it. The similarities will facilitate and the differences will

impede to learn new language, as H. Douglas Brown (2000: 207) states in discussing Contrastive Analysis

Hypothesis.

Both English and Bahasa Indonesia have rules. English has tenses, copula, irregular verbs and

nouns (singular/ plural, subject/ object) that change in form when they are used while Bahasa Indonesia

does not. The students tend to translate word to word. They will not have difficulty in making a

sentence: I drink milk because in Bahasa Indonesia it will not change in any form: saya minum susu. The

difficulty arises when they are faced adjectives because it requires copula. For example: I am smart

which in Bahasa Indonesia simply becomes: saya pintar. There is no difference in making a sentence

using verbs or adjective in Bahasa Indonesia.

The next difficulty is verbs and tenses. Bahasa Indonesia does not use tense or changing form for

verbs. Whether the activity is done now, habitual or yesterday or even tomorrow, there will not be any

change. Saya makan nasi setiap hari (I eat rice every day) will remain the same as: saya makan nasi

kemarin (I ate rice yesterday). The difference only lies in the meaning of adverb of time:

every day yesterday

Nouns is another thing. In making nouns plural, Bahasa Indonesia only adds a word: banyak,

para, beberapa before the nouns. The nouns will stay the same no adding like that of in English, for

example:

book books

sheep sheep

fox foxes
There is changing in form of nouns in English whether as subject or object. Saya is still saya both as

subject or object in Bahasa Indonesia. I gave him the book. He will change into him when it acts as

object.

English is an international language and it is a foreign language in Indonesia. Students learn this

at school with the target to understand information. America is leading in this world and the language

that is used is English so it is automatically, English is learned by other countries. Most of information,

news, and the development and innovation in technology are released using English.

Students are expected to understand English with more focus on listening and reading.

Therefore, in national examination, for English subject, the problems are measuring the students’

listening and reading skills. These two skills are passive skills.

The teachers are one of the source and model in learning English. There are Hollywood movies,

shows, and news broadcasted from other part of this world that is easily accessed. This helps the

students a lot in learning English but they do not have much opportunity to practice their English. Most

of them who do not have chance to join English course, might have difficulty in producing English;

speaking and writing. The quality of the students’ English is quite well in receptive skill but not well

enough in production.

Javanese, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia and English are not separated from social life in Surabaya.

Javanese will still remain and probably revive. There are some words that might wear off because only

few people use or say those words. Later these words will be gone and the children now who will be

adults may not know that such words exist. When there is an appreciation to the culture and ritual,

Javanese may revive. Children are still learning it at schools and their neighborhood is surrounded by it.

Grandparents are speaking in it sometimes among the same age people. Parents use it sometimes when

they speak to their parents. There is always an opportunity for Javanese to survive.
 Chinese will increase for more and more schools are teaching it. There are native speakers who

still speak it even though it is limited to their own group. China is a very big country with the largest

population on earth. Logically, there are Chinese people who speak Chinese besides other language

where they live, in all around the world. China has become a new leader in economy so there will be no

surprise when the requirement of those who can speak Chinese or Mandarin increases every year.

Probably, letters are still an issue for the learners because Chinese letters are thousands and they change

in form when they come together with different words.

Bahasa Indonesia will live and develop in various ways. It borrows and absorbs words from other

languages both local and foreign. People especially youngsters will be still creative in inventing new

words and they play with them. That makes it popular and help Bahasa Indonesia exist. Its role as the

national language will be steady.

English will be still an international language that use and spoken by most people all around the

world. English has strengths compared to other international languages. It is somewhat simpler because

it is not a sexist language and it does not have gender for the article for nouns, like in German or French.

Because of the history of colonialism of the British, more people understand and speak English longer.

This is what I have predicted for the next fifty years. The sociolinguistic condition of the society

and the choice of languages taught at our schools will develop but not very far from the situation and

condition in Surabaya now.