What does ‘local language’ mean in the context of Indonesia?
- Keywords
- local language, Bahasa, Indonesia
- Abstract
This paper has the modest aim of exploring and problematising the ways in which the terms bahasa daerah and local language are used. It does this at two levels: the societal and the individual. This brief discussion has examined some elements of the terminology employed at the societal and individual levels to talk about the languages used by communities and individual members of society respectively. We have seen that, although the term ‘local language’ is very widely used, it is also problematic. This is partly because it can be interpreted as being disrespectful and partly because it has no standard definition and is used with different senses in different contexts. In the Indonesian context, it is unclear whether the term bahasa daerah suffers from the same disadvantages as the English term ‘local language’. Legislation makes unambiguous statements about the respective functions of Bahasa Indonesia (‘Bahasa Indonesia berfungsi sebagai pengantar pendidikan’ (Republik Indonesia 2009, Bab III, Pasal 25)) and bahasa daerah (‘… sebagai kekayaan budaya negara’ (Republik Indonesia 2002)).
- Copyright
- © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Hywel Coleman PY - 2018/11 DA - 2018/11 TI - What does ‘local language’ mean in the context of Indonesia? BT - Proceedings of the International Seminar on Recent Language, Literature, and Local Cultural Studies (BASA 2018) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 19 EP - 22 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/25906061 ID - Coleman2018/11 ER -