Language Shift and Language Maintenance

I. Introduction
The existence of language surely cannot be separated from our daily life.
Through language, the interaction among tribes and religions can be delivered
smoothly. As a system of communication, language also helps humans to
complete all of their activities without facing the scarcity in understanding of
ones another language. That is under the condition they share the same
knowledge of a certain language and utter it as the medium of communication.
They also share the same understanding in all of their vernacular aspects, like the
grammatical, structure, and the choice of words (either it is formal or not). And
they should have agreed about some puns and slangs that are allowed to use in
the middle of conversation. But how about people from different ethnic groups or
tribes understanding what people from out of their groups say? Are they going to
face difficulties as the result of not having clear mind about the dominant
language they find in society?
If there are some people from certain countryside, like Boyolali, came to
the city and they still speak using their own vernacular, thats when we know the
language shifting occurs eventually. While in the city, like Jakarta for example,
the percentage of languages used by people is 60% Bahasa Indonesia and the rest
is Betawi. There must be language shift occurs when people from Boyolali have
interacted with people from Jakarta. The dominant language that is used in
Jakarta can be so hard to understand for people from any tribes at the first time.
This is because Indonesia has almost 1.128 tribes spread all over the nation, we
cant expect they can understand the dominant language used in the big city like
Jakarta. There must be language shift and language maintenance which is like
two sides of the coin. One side of it is a language that dominates bigger scope due
to the big number of people using it in daily life, while another one is a language
that can be shifted by the first one. Either the other one is opened or closed; these
two features have some consequences for sociolinguistic change.

II. Content
Language shift occurs when the people in a particular culture or subculture change their primary language for communication. It is also the process
by which a speech community in a contact situation which is consisting bilingual
speakers gradually stops using one of its own vernaculars in favor of the other.
The casual factors of language shift are generally considered as social needs in the
era of globalization, where people speak using more modern language, like
English and Bahasa Indonesia with more improved spelling. That will link to the
social status or prestige of the speakers. The more often they speak with
dominant language, the easier they get along with people with higher status
social. Language seems to show how well-educated you are and that is why we
can see the importance of being good at English language nowadays. What about
the dialects possessed by people from different communities then? The only way
to answer that is by preventing for the vernaculars to die. This is why the role of
language maintenance is important. However, there are three different
communities that may get a chance for their vernaculars shifted;
1. Migrant Minorities: People from Cirebon (born and raised at) come
to Jakarta to stay for a long time. Then at the first time they will still
speak using Cirebon dialect when they meet other Cireboneses. But
when they have to interact with other than Cirebonese, the language
shift occurs between them. They will gradually stop using their former
vernaculars due to the social need (to live their life in Jakarta). But
Cirebonese cant easily get rid of their dialects (like the intonation).
This is also why some people even make their own community in
Jakarta and often gather around together so that they can freely use
(maintain) their own vernaculars. Whatever city they might go, they
will always find their own people in order to be what they used to be
before they moved to big city. That can be one of satisfactory ways to
cure the longing of going back to their hometown too.
2. Non-migrant Community: Non-migrant community can also
experience language shift as the result of todays world era which is
forcing a new term of a good life. The new term here means, if you

want to get a good job and beautiful wife, then you have to be able to
speak English fluently. Speaking English fluently will bring you a
better job and that also resulting in a better life. That also creates new
fact of why English language is important in globalization era these
days.
3. Migrant Majority: This is quite rare to be found in Indonesia. For
smaller scope, we can almost find Minangkabau people in Java Island.
They came moderately in order to have a better life in big city, like
Jakarta. But they cant be considered as migrant majority until the
population of them in an area is bigger than the former population.
But for broader example, we can see how the Whites came to America
which formerly inhabited by Indian tribes. They came as migrant
majority and brought their own language, that is English language and
later on it became the first language used by them up until now. This is
because they killed the Indian people (almost all of them) until their
language became extinct, leaving only Wichita language as a moribund
Caddoan language spoken in Oklahoma. However, the tribes offer
classes to revitalize the language and works in partnership with
Wichita Documentation Project of the University of Colorado,
Boulder. Either the Minangkabau have to kill all of Javanese people in
certain area or they will never be migrant majority which have rights
to shift or switch the vernacular into Minang language. But that is just
so hard to imagine, right?
We can see clearly some factors contributing language shift from those
explanations are economic, political, social, demographic, attitude and values.
Those three can be elaborated in deeper explanations, like below here;
-

Economic: This is when people see the importance of learning the

second language for a better job and living. For instance, most of
Indonesians eagerly learn English and Mandarin because those two
languages share a great contribution in economic and political aspects.
Holmes says that job seekers see the importance of learning a new
language which is widely used in business (60). This is resulting in

bilingualism which makes language shift occurred. The high demand

from industries for employees with fluent English has successfully
encouraged job seekers to equip themselves with English. In fact,
being competent in English leads to well-paid jobs. We can see from
here, what we repeatedly do will become new habit.
-

Political: In a multilingual country, the authority usually chooses one

language as the lingua franca to unify various kinds of ethnic groups.
Consequently, the number of ethnic language speakers decreases. As
an example, the political situation in 1947 led to the partition of India.
Sindhi Hindus fled from the Sind. They spoke Sindhi at home but had
to adopt the local languages. This process has led to language
displacement leading to language loss among the Sindhis (Bayer,
2005).

Social: The dominant language is always associated with social status

and prestige. As stated by Holmes, young people are the fastest to shift
languages (60). This is why a lot of teenagers are in race for being
updated with everything from Western, including the language. It is a
good thing, though sometimes it can be like two sides of a coin too,
which the other side offers them negative things while they are
absorbing new stuff from Western. They still need to maintain their
own mother tongue and filter everything they absorb from Western.
For another example, where a migrant minority group moves to a
predominately monolingual society dominated by one majority group
language in all the major institutional domains school, TV, radio,
newspaper, government administration, courts, work language shift
will be unavoidable unless the community takes active steps to prevent
it.

Demographic: This factor plays the role in the process of language

shift. When there is a community of speakers moving to a region or a
country (urbanization) whose language is different from theirs, there
is a tendency to shift to the new language. Every time an immigrant

learns the native language of the new country he/she will pass it down
to their children and replace the old language with a new one. For
example, Tutik was born in Banyuwangi so her mother tongue is
Javanese which was used as the language in her former neighborhood
and the medium of instruction in her elementary school. She moved to
Jakarta in 2009. Since then, she only uses Javanese at home with her
sister only and her Javanese neighbors (though it is quite rare).
Because there is a high frequency of contact with people coming from
different ethnic groups who use Bahasa Indonesia, she gradually shifts
from Javanese to Bahasa Indonesia. She also goes to UNPAM, which
makes her to speak and communicates with her friends using Bahasa
Indonesia. At times she uses her vernacular when she is with her
boyfriend who is a Javanese too. This is an evidence the size of the
group can be one of critical factors; the bigger the group size, the more
they seem to resist the language shift.
-

Attitude and Values: Language shift is slower among communities

where the minority language is highly valued, therefore when the
language is seen as an important symbol of ethnic identity, it will be
maintained longer and vice versa. People with other vernaculars like
Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, etc., should be proud in using their
vernaculars as it tends to slow down the language shift.

How about language maintenance? According to baker {2000}, language

maintenance is the protection and promotion of the first or native language in an
individual or within a speech community, particularly among language minorities
{e.g. bilingual education}. The term is often used with reference to policies that
protect and promote minority languages. To put it simply, language maintenance
is a process where a speech community decides to continue speaking using their
vernaculars rather than shift it for some other languages. With well-planned
efforts in education, political, government and law institutions, minority
languages can be maintained very well. There are other ways to maintain
minority languages, like some below here;

A language can be maintained and preserved, when it is highly valued

as an important symbol of ethnic identity for the minority group.

If families from a minority group live near each other and see each
other frequently, their interactions will help maintaining the language.

For emigrate individuals from a minority group, the degree and

frequency of contact with the homeland can contribute to language
maintenance.

Intermarriage within the same minority group is helpful enough to

maintain the native language.

Ensuring that the minority group language is used at formal setting

such as schools or worship places will increase language maintenance.

An extended normal family in which parents, children and

grandchildren live together and use the same minority language can
help maintaining it.

Institutional support from some domains, such as education, law,

administration, religion and the media can make a difference between
the success and failure of maintaining a minority group language.

When the speakers in a speech community feel their vernaculars are in

danger and they become more aware that their language can disappear in no time
is actually the perfect time to do revitalizing to the language loss. This moment
when people get awareness about the language loss, can also be called as language
revival. There are some examples of language revival conducted by some tribes,
like in Israel, Hebrew language was formerly used for religious ceremonials, but
the government decided to use it as their national language. The Hebrew
language has been already saved from language loss. Because of the preexistence
of frequency and people who use the language makes this language remains alive.
It will be different if all of the people who speak a certain vernacular die. Then it
can be considered as language death since the entire speakers die with the
language itself. As for the examples in Indonesia, have you ever heard of Chinese
ethnic groups in Peunayong, Banda Aceh? This ethnic group has inhabited Aceh
for a long time (6th centuries) and they keep speaking Mandarin (Haak) in their
daily life, even they inherit the language to their children. This can be seen from
the ability of children from Peunayong to speak both Mandarin (Haak) and Aceh.

Even though they live as minority groups, they can still preserve their vernacular
very well.

III. Conclusion
It can be concluded that language shift is an interesting linguistic
phenomenon. This inevitable phenomenon will keep going as long as there are
still humans in this world. Remember that languages will die along with the
speakers. So if there is any language shift occurs it depends on the intention of
the minority languages speakers to prevent the languages from death. Just like
todays conditions in Indonesia, people may think a person should be good in
speaking English, but if they come from countryside, they shouldnt forget how
their vernacular was once become their pride. Therefore, language revitalization
or reversing language shift can be one of attempts to interested parties for
reversing the decline of a language or even reviving an extinct one. Some parties
like linguists, cultural or community groups or governments can be such a help in
revitalizing the almost-extinct languages. When there is no balance both from
language shift and language maintenance, the minority language will suffer to
death until it completely disappears like some of Indian languages in the USA.
Almost 50% of 5.000 languages in the world are threatened with
extinction or for every two weeks, a language disappears. The speakers leave it
and switch it with new language which is advantageous in economic, political,
social or even psychology sides. In Indonesia, some vernaculars from Java, Bali,
Banjar, Lampung, Bugis, Makassar, and Toraja are facing language shifting each
day. It can be seen from the less of speakers contributing in preserving the
languages in their daily life. Other sources, like Tempo even mentioned that there
are 10 dialects or vernaculars have been declared extinct, while dozens, even
hundreds dialects are endangered. Those 10 extinct dialects can be found in the
Eastern of Indonesia (9 dialects from Papua and 1 from Maluku Utara). Up until
now, Indonesia has already lost almost 700 dialects. Those languages are all
extinct.

IV. References

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