Globalization and Language Endangerment: “The Existence of Jawa Krama Ingil as a Minority Language in Era Globalization”
Nowadays, local language in
Indonesia become one of the main issues facing by Indonesian, especially, for
linguists. Most of local languages star becoming extinct especially, Java Krama
Ingil, is now in danger. Why the Krama Ingil is in danger? And what should the
government be done to save it? These two questions are the basic questions
should be considered by the government. This time, the age of globalization
refers to the current times of growing interdependence and interconnectedness
of the modern world. The existence of Krama Ingil should be saved from the endangerment,
and its extinction.
Indonesia
has many local languages, every district has its own language and dialect even
it united in one island. But the problem is those languages are not secure
anymore in this 21th century, the globalization is now going through
indeed toward the countryside. The effect of globalization at first positive
toward the aspect of social –such as home language, culture, etc. yet in long
period time, it shows its bad effect toward social aspect especially local
language, for instance, Jawa krama– especially krama Ingil Sungko which only be spoken by nobility
people. Even there are some old people are able to speak the language, it is
not more than 10 % of all Javanese. Can we imagine that! On the one hand, the
krama Ingil –Sungko, I can predict that 10 years later, it will be extinct
because the fact that it is now in danger. The future of the local languages
depends not so much on the strength of the national languages as on the
relationship of the local language to education, government, and commerce
(Garland, 2006: 34). Obviously stated that the engagement of government toward
to maintain and to save the local language from extinction is important because
its role to set the system of language learning in formal institution such like
in school.
Furthermore,
the involvement of the government toward saving the Krama Ingil Sungko, they
try to input the lesson of local language into learning curriculum. This is one
of the ways to save local language which is in danger, or it is known as
“Muatan Lokal”, this system has been applied since 2006 and in every School of Java
Island but this not the efficient one because it is still general, it must be
focus much more to the language learning which in danger –such as Krama Ingil
Sungko.
For
some instances, I orally do interviewing my friend, his name is Vino –Javanese
people, he said that, this modern era, most of the teenagers are not capable of
speaking Jawa Krama Ingil Sungko –which only be spoken by the nobility person,
which presentence no more than 10 % of its speakers rather that Jawa Krama Madya
which has the speakers still approximately 50%. What the government must
concern with is the learning of krama ingil Sungko must be more focused on. Bahasa
mati karena penduduknya mati semua karena wabah penyakit parah, seperti yang
dialami penduduk asli Tasmania (Crowley dalam Purwo, 2000). This will probably
the same case with the nobility persons which use Krama Ingil Sungko. I am
worried about it when they die the language will also die either. To avoid the
extinction of Jawa Krama Ingil Sungko, the rule of the government is the main
key to maintain it from language death. For example, the curriculum must
include the language learning toward some languages which are in danger
–related to the countryside where a language almost in danger of extinction. As
we have already known that in Indonesia the language which is in danger not
merely in Java Island but also in other islands have the same case.
In this modern era some people argue
that, Indonesian language is in danger because of globalization, in the case,
we know that a language which is in danger when its speakers are less than 50
per cent. A very broad definition of minority language provided by the United
Nations captures the salient features of minority languages: “The term minority
includes only those non dominant groups in a population which possess and wish
to preserve stable, ethnic, religious or linguistic traditions or
characteristics markedly different from those of the rest of the population.
(UN Yearbook for Human Rights 1950, 490; quoted in Chaklader 1981, 16).” Srivastava
(1984) provided a new approach towards defining minority-majority languages
based on two principles, “quantum” and “power”, as shown in the diagram.
Power
+ −
Quantum + (a) majority (b) Janta
−
(c) elite (d) minority
According
to this view, a language can be of four types: (a) powerful as well as majority
(e.g. Marathi in Maharashtra State); (b) powerless but majority (e.g. Kashmiri
in Jammu and Kashmir); (c) minority but powerful (English in all states); (d)
minority and powerless (tribal languages in all states). In this case, krama
ingil is related to point d, minority and powerless. It is because of its
people do not really care about the existence of the language. In contrast,
some minority linguistic communities seem to have strong language loyalties
which they use for retention of their ethnic identity as well as to secure
sociopolitical rights (Mahapatra, 1979). If the krama ingil belongs to the
second point of those four types. It will be good, unfortunately, it does not.
Most people out there claimed that
globalization brings much more negative effect toward the existence of local
languages, in case, spoken language of Jawa Krama Ingil. According to Xiulan,
says that “the technological, social, cultural, and, economic trends of globalization
seem to contribute towards the endangerment of languages (2007).” It is
absolutely right that those aspect of modern devices can destroy local languages
as long as the people cannot wisely use it in its usage. In contrast, if people
know more about how to take advantage of globalization itself they will probably
use it for increasing and retaining the Jawa Krama Ingil Sungko by using those
kind of things. For instance, the current technologies, such as androids,
notebooks, laptops, etc. can be used to maximize language learning process in
case of maintaining the local language which is in danger –Jawa Krama Ingil
Sungko. The increasing mobility of
people, goods, and information has driven a powerful trend toward cultural
uniformity and the extinction of local languages. But languages that have young
people, business, and government on their side are alive and thriving (Garland,
2006: 31). Actually, on Garland’s
point of view, he extremely does recommended to the government to maintain the
language. The existence of a language whether it can be resisted or not in this
era it depends on the government and the young generation of the language
itself. If they do not care about it, I can quarantine that minority language
will be extinct and death. In addition,
they have to take benefits of globalization such as using android, smart phone,
etc. to facilitate them in learning process. Do not just blame that the
globalization brings much negative effect toward the language endangerment.
In short, the language is called
minority when its speakers are less than 50 per cent, but it can be saved by
the involvement of government through education system or include the language
learning of Jawa Krama Ingil into the curriculum. Hopefully, for further
researchers, they will be able to find out another things which can save and
maintain the Jawa Krama Ingil Sungko from the excitation in this era
globalization.
References
Garland,
Erik. (2006, June). Can minority language be saved? “Globalization vs. Culture”, 1, 31-34.
Koenig, Matthias. (2002). International journal on multicultural societies
(IJMS), “Protecting Endangered Minority
Languages: Sociolinguistic Perspectives”, 4, 115-117.
Purwo and Tarniaty, E. (2012). Kemerosotan
Pemakaian Bahasa Jawa. Retrieved, Augustus 01, 2014 from: http://embunsayan.blogspot.com/
Xiulan, Zuo. (2007). China’s policy towards minority
languages in a globalizing age. “Is
globalization a threat to the future of minority languages?” 4, 1.
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