LANGUAGE SHIFT BY THE JAVANESE IN BALEE VILLAGE,
NORTH ACEH
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
MUSLIADI
Registration Number: 8146111040
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
i ABSTRACT
MUSLIADI. Registration Number: 8146111040. Language Shift by the Javanese in Balee Village, North Aceh. A Thesis. Post Graduate School. English Applied Linguistics Study Program. The State University of Medan. 2016.
ii ABSTRAK
MUSLIADI. Nomor Induk Mahasiswa: 8146111040. Pergesaran Bahasa Jawa di Desa Balee, Aceh Utara. Tesis. Sekolah Pascasarjana. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris. Universitas Negeri Medan. 2016
.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, in the name of Almighty ALLAH, the most Gracious and
the most Merciful, first of all, the writer would like to thank God for His blessing
in the completion of this Thesis. Praises are also addressed to our prophet
Muhammad SAW who guided us to the better life.
In the completion of this Thesis, the writer wishes to acknowledge his
deepest gratitude for all generous guidance and assistance which has been given to
him by a lot of people.
The highest appreciation goes to his two advisors, Prof. Amrin Saragih,
MA., Ph.D. as his first advisor and Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed. as his second
advisor for their all guidance through the completion of this Thesis.
Then, his appreciation also goes to Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed. as the
Head of English Applied Linguistics Study Program and Prof. Dr. Sri Minda
Murni, SS., MS. as the Secretary of English Applied Linguistics Study Program
who have assisted him in processing the administration requirements during the
process of his studies in the postgraduate School of the State University of Medan.
The writer’s great thank also goes to his reviewers and examiners, Dr.
Zainuddin, M.Hum., Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed,. TESP., and Dr. Siti Aisyah Ginting,
M.Pd.. They had given valuable inputs, suggestions, criticisms, and improvements
for this thesis. He also would like to express his thankfulness for all lecturers
iv
Finally, his special gratitude is dedicated to his beloved parents,
Muhammah Husen HS and Ti Hasanah who have given their pray, motivation,
support, and also endless praying. And also special thank for his sister, brother,
and the whole families who always support him, there is no suitable word that can
fully describe their everlasting love and express how much he love them.
Then his gratitude goes to his lover Cut Nur Efiyana who has motivated
and supported him to conduct this Thesis. Then, last but not least, his gratitude
goes to his friends of LTBI A3 XXIV who have supported him to conduct this
Thesis.
Medan, ……… 2016 The Writer,
Musliadi
v
CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 4.1. The Data and Data Analysis……… 44
4.2. Findings………... 63
4.3. Discussion……….... 64
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1. Conclusions ... 68
5.2. Suggestions ... 68
REFERENCES……… ... 70
vi
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1.1 The Number of Ethnics in Balee village, North Aceh 6
Table 2.1 The domains of language use according to Fishman. 24
Table 4.1 Bilingualism of Javanese in Balee Village 45
Table 4.2 Migration of Javanese in Balee Village 48
Table 4.3 Economic Factor that Influences of Language Shift 49
Table 4.4 Social Factor that influence the shift of Javanese 52
Table 4.5 The Influence of Demographic Factor in Javanese Language
Shift 56
Table 4.6 The Influence of Institutional Factor in Javanese Shift 57
Table 4.7 The Influence of Attitude in Javanese language Shift 59
Table 4.8 The Language Use of Javanese in Family Domain 60
vii
LIST OF DIAGRAM
Page
Diagram 2.1. Construct used to investigate the Language Shift 36
viii
LIST OF FIGURE
Page
Figure 3.1 Miles & Huberman’s Interactive Model 40
ix
LIST OF APPENDICES
Page
Appendix 1 73
Appendix 2 77
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study
Almost all researchers found that the most dominant factors influencing
language shift are migration, social factors, economical factors, attitude and
values meanwhile political factors were less influential, but in fact in Balee
Village, North Aceh, based on the observation and interviews with the people who
lived in Balee Village, North Aceh for a long time, the researcher found that
language shift from Javanese to Acehnese occur when the conflict happened in
Aceh. In this case the researcher is confident to claim that political factor can be
dominant one influencing a language shift in Balee village, North Aceh. Thus a
studies political factors needs doing.
Language is very crucial in the survival of human life in the delivery of
information, ideas, or expression through sounds or symbols that came out of the
human articulation. Mesthrie, Swann, Deumert & Leap (2009:1) state that
language is a purely human and non – instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.
These symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the
so-called „organs of speech‟.
Language is an important thing to learn because it has a major objective
and role in human life. The main objective of language is as a communication tool
used by everyone, starting from the walking up, doing the activity, and until going
2
to sleep again. In general, all human activities always involve language as a means
to interact among people. A person can express idea and thoughts convey the
opinion and information through the use of a language, thus a language is a
primary means of communication.
In communication, people use language in a practical way. We use it
virtually in everything we do. Language is so automatic and natural that people
pay less attention to it, but sometimes emphasized by the fact that they do not
speak quite good as other do. Many people need to have professionals to learn
about language, although to simply being able to use it.
For society that have more than one language, they usually will use the
dominant language among them, or sometimes they will use more than one in
their interaction, but basically in a society that have more than one language one
of them will be shift because rare used in a society, generally the society will use a
dominant language for their communication, as Holmes (2001:56) says that the
dominant language is used as a means of communication because of status,
prestige, and social success.
People need a language (status of the language is as lingua franca) to
communicate in the wider society. They choose it because it has higher position
than their vernacular and it is more highly. If they can communicate in the wider
situation, they will get success or fit in the society. It hopes that by using a
dominant language they can communicate by easily with each other and also their
3
When a society uses a dominant language the other language will be lost
or death, it means that one language will be shift to other language. As Schiffinan
(1995:12) states that if language is not maintained, there can be several results.
One is language death, the speakers of certain language become bilingual and the
younger speakers become dominant in other language. If the language is not
spoken anywhere, it will be endangered and lost. The process of language transfer
or language replacement by a speech community of a language shifts to speaking
another language is called language shift.
According to Hoffman (1991) when a community does not maintain its
language, but gradually adopts another one, this involves language shift. In
addition, Holmes (2001:56) describes language shift as a shift or displaces of one
minority language mother tongue to a language of a wider society. The order
domains in which language shift occurs may different form different individual
and different groups, but gradually over time the language of the wider society
displaces the minority‟s mother tongue.
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language
replacement or assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community of
a language shifts to speaking another language. Often, languages perceived to be
"higher status" stabilize or spread at the expense of other languages perceived by
their own speakers to be "lower-status".
According to Edwards (1985:71-72) there are some indications ongoing
language shift. Firstly, the language is lost its basis of domain and the numbers of
4
domain as the basis domain. The languages users reduce in numbers less language
users overcome the language. Secondly, the majority language become dominant
on minority language and endanger on the minority language. Majority language
or the dominant language replaces the minority language in every domain. The
minority language no longer use and it gradually makes the loss of the minority
language. Thirdly, the minority language is used only in the rural then in the urban
area. The minority language is founded only in the isolated area or in the village
where the community of the minority language originates and the numbers of the
language users of the minority language are the biggest.
In addition Romaine (2000:53-54) states that in some cases shift occurs as a
result of forced or voluntary immigration to a place where it is not possible to
maintain one‟s native language, e.g. Italians in the United States, or as a result of
conquest, e.g. the Gaels in Scotlandia and Ireland . The ultimate loss of a language
is termed „language death‟. Many factors are responsible for language shift and
death, e.g. religious and educational background, settlement patterns, tie with the
homeland (in the case of immigration bilingualism), extent of exogamous
marriage, attitudes of majority and minority language groups, government policies
concerning language and education. Where large groups of immigrants
concentrate in particular geographical areas, they are often better able to preserve
their language.
Language shifts may also occur among immigrant populations in much the
same way that they do in indigenous populations. Children of immigrants are
5
favor as immigrants become more adapted to the surrounding culture. It means
that the process of language shift happened when a certain language has shifted
the use of their mother tongue to the use of dominant language, and usually it
happens to young generation. This condition typically happens to migrants. They
are virtually monolingual who use their mother tongue as mean of
communication, their children are bilingual, and their grandchildren are often
monolingual in the language of the “lost” language. This implies that usually the
old generation is monolingual. Then, the second generations are usually bilingual
because they can speak using their mother tongue and they also can speak another
language that is used in a particular place where they moved, but the third
generation usually only speak one language of a particular place or area where
their parents moved and stayed.
This research related with the previous study done by Musgrave (2006)
from Monash University, which discussed about language shift and language
maintenance in Indonesia. But the explanation which is given by him is not clear
enough. That is the first reason why the writer chooses language shift as his topic.
The second reason, Indonesia consists of many ethnics and languages. So, there is
a tendency that inter-ethnic marriage happens. Inter-ethnic marriages are a
combination of two people from different ethnics and languages also. It means
that there are two languages exist in interethnic marriage couple. The existence of
two languages means the competition between two languages. So, the writer is
interested in investigating this phenomenon. And the third reasons is from the
6
some other ethnic language such as Mandailingnese, Karonese, Javanese,
Bataknese and so on, but for Acehnese still less, so in this research the writer is
interested to do the research in Acehnese because language shift also happens to
Acehnese from the other language.
Balee village, North Aceh is one of the areas where the conflict occurs,
basically in this village lived some Javanese families which in their daily life
always speak Javanese but in Mei, 19nd, 2003 when the conflict occurs all the
Javanese learn Acehnese because they are afraid of being killed by GAM and in
this time where language shift occurs. It is obvious that Javanese language has
shifted to Acehnese language and has lost in Balee village, North Aceh.
Based on the data that researcher got from the secretary of Balee village,
North Aceh the number of population are 600 persons that consist of 150 families.
From 150 families above 100 families are Acehnese and 50 families are Javanese.
To shows the percentage of Acehnese and Javanese in Balee village, North Aceh
it shows the table below:
Table 1.1 The Number of Ethnics in Balee village, North Aceh
Number Ethnics Families %
1 Acehnese 100 66.66
2 Javanese 50 33.33
Total 150 100
7
Below some examples of interaction consisting language shift:
8
For younger generation R : Kepiye kabare Putri?
(How are you putri?)
C : Peunyan bang, hana meuphom lon, pakek Bahasa Aceh mantong.
(What‟s going on, I don‟t understand, could you use Acehnese
(No, I can‟t. Because I never learn it, my mother never taught me.)
From the two conversations above we can see that for the older generation
she still master about Javanese Language but for the younger generation she can‟t
understand at all.
In 2002, one years before conflict occurs in Aceh most of ethnics like
Javanese, Chinese, Padangnese, Bataknese use their vernacular to communicate
by each other but when conflict occurs as soon as all of them try to learn Aceh
language because they afraid with the GAM, because they will kill every one that
cannot speak Aceh language. So, because of they often uses Aceh Language than
9
occurs for language but the religious also. Most of Chinese, Christiane, and Hindu
move their religious to Muslim because they afraid will be killed by GAM.
Based on the explanation above that is why in this research the researcher
would like to do the research with the title Language Shift by the Javanese in
Balee Village, North Aceh.
1.2. The Problems of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problems are formulated as the
following.
1. What factors influence language shift by the Javanese in Balee Village,
North Aceh?
2. How is the pattern of language shift by the Javanese realized in Balee
Village, North Aceh?
3. Why does the shift by the Javanese occur in Balee Village, North Aceh
in the way it does?
1.3. The Objectives of the Study
In relation to the problems of the study the objectives of the study are.
1. to explain the factors influencing language shift by the Javanese in
Balee village, North Aceh.
2. to describe the pattern of language shift by the Javanese in Balee
10
3. to give reason for shift which occurs among the Javanese speakers in
Balee Village, North Aceh.
1.4. The Scope of the Study
Language shift covers various. This study is focused on the factors, pattern
(indication of an ongoing process of language shift) and reasons for the shift of
the Javanese by its speakers into Acehnese language. The three aspects are in
focus since they are highly assumed to be related in the study of the shift. It is of
interest to note that the shift is suspected to be related aspects in the study.
1.5. The Significance of the Study
Findings of the study are expected to be useful and relevant theoretically
and practically.
1. Theoretically, the findings of the study are expected to justify or to
refuse theories of language shift. In addition, the findings are expected
to be the one having more academic in the issue of language planning.
2. Practically, the findings are expected to maintain the awareness about
the necessity in using Javanese among Javanese speakers in their
community. Besides, the findings will be relevant to language planners
68 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. Conclusion
The study which is concerned with the Javanese shift to Acehnese
language was aimed at describing the factors influencing Javanese language shift,
the pattern of the language shift and the reasons for the Javanese shift into
Acehnese Language. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn as the
following.
(1) The shift of Javanese into Acehnese Language in Balee village, North
Aceh was influenced by bilingualism, migration, economic factor, social
factor, demographic factors, institutional factor, and attitude.
(2) The Javanese language shift to Acehnese language occurred in pattern of
relationship between parents and children and between or among children.
(3) The reasons for the shift were conflict, the social success and the status of
Acehnese language. The shifts of Javanese to the Acehnese are mostly
caused by social conflict.
5.2. Suggestions
In relations to the conclusions, some constructive points are suggested as
the following.
(1) It is suggested that the Javanese parents in Balee village, North Aceh
69
domain in order that the children as the next generation can learn and
speak Javanese.
(2) It is suggested that the Javanese in Balee village, North Aceh should
promote Javanese traditional attractions or other Javanese ceremonies in
their society to enable the Javanese to be familiar and accustomed to
Javanese use.
(3) Finally, it is suggested that the Javanese in Balee village, North Aceh
should promote Javanese by establishing some speech contest of
attractions relating to Javanese language in Balee village in order to
motivate the Javanese to appreciate and use Javanese.
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