Abstract

Javanese shifting to bahasa Indonesia can be identified in Javanese young generation’s utterances. This paper aims at finding out how Javanese is getting to shift to Bahasa Indonesia and an alternative speech level. To investigate this phenomenon, we used DCT (Discourse Completion Task) and recording techniques to collect the data i.e the utterances produced by the English Department Students of Diponegoro University whose parents are Javanese. we used referential, inferential, and distributional methods to analyze the data. The results indicate that the students’ utterances can be identified as congruent Javanese speech level, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia mixed with Javanese items, Javanese mixed with Bahasa Indonesia items,  incongruent Javanese speech levels, and alternative Javanese speech levels. The mixing codes  may be used for mitigating the force of threatening, or for hedging.

Introduction

Javanese as the biggest local language in Indonesia is not always used independently as a complete utterance. Even, it must contact not only bahasa Indonesia but also English. The language contact between Javanese and bahasa Indonesia or English can be seen in English Department students ’ utterances. For the English Department students, those languages are used not only in different speeches but also simultaneously in the same ones, that may result in mixed utterances. An utterance like (1) Mah, nyuwun sangu ne nggih?Kemarin uange udah abis kepake, nyuwun nggih? may be frequently overheard i n a conversation amo ng Javanese family members. The utterance contains both Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese expressions. T he expression Mah, nyuwun sangune nggih? (Mom, will you give me some pocket money?) can be identified as Javanese with mix ed speech style (Purwoko, 2011)1 and national or Bahasa Indonesia one. The word nyuwun (ask) can be an indicator of Krama, sangune (pocket money) is n goko,while the vocative Mah tends to be considered as bahasa Indonesia or national addressing term rather than Javanese one. If we look at the utterance Kemarin uange udah abis kepake, nyuwun nggih?, we can identify it as bahasa Indonesia mixed with Javanese. The words kemarin (yesterday), uange (the money), udah (already), abis (finished), kepake (used) can be classified as bahasa Indonesia, while nyuwun (ask) and nggih (yes) are Javanese. The example indicates that Javanese people acquire equally both bahasa Indonesia and Javanese. They can understand each other eventhough they use different codes.

   Looking at the example (1), we can find a phenomenon interesting to discuss namely the use of different speech levels when speaking to her or his mother. The suffix – ne in sangune indicates ngoko style, while nggih indicates basa style. This is an example of using different speech levels spoken to the same person at the same situation. Usually, Javanese uses the same code to speak to another speaker.

Using mixed codes may imply in mutual intelligibility or comprehensibility. The mut ual comprehensibility or intelligibility among the participants of the conversation can be used to measure whether the linguistic systems used belong to a language or dialects. According to Chambers and Trudgill (1998:3-4)2 mutual intelligibility can be used to measure whether a certain code belongs to a certain language or a part of a language. However, there are many factors to consider not only linguistics but also politics, sociolinguistics, and the language the listeners exposed to. Linguistically, mutual intelligibility is determined based on the words understood by the speakers involved in the conversation. From linguistic point of view, for example, Malay has similar linguistic aspect with bahasa Indonesia, but it is different from bahasa Indonesia due to a political factor.

   If we look at the examples mentioned before, we can say that the utterances are mixed code systems which are linguistically different languages namely bahasa Ind onesia as the national language and Javanese as a local language. Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese are different in some ways, i.e linguistically and sociolinguistically. However, the spe akers can understand each other when they are talking each other. Bahasa Indonesia has only one speech level, but Javanese has more than one speech level. According to Errington (1998)3, Javanese has three speech levels i.e ngoko (the lowest level usually used to speak with friends), low basa (the higher level usually used to speak to older people or respected people like parents or strangers, and high basa (or krama ) (the highest level usually used to speak to kings or nobblemen by lower working class people ). For example, a Javanese person asking his grandparents whe re they are going, when he uses bahasa Indonesia, he will say Kamu mau (pergi) ke mana, Eyang ? (Where are you going, Grandpa/ma?). However if he speaks in Javanese, he will say Panjenengan badhe tindak pundi, Eyang? (Where are you going, Grandpa/ma)?. When he ask s his friend, in bahasa Indonesia, he will use the same utterance he speaks to his grandparents. In Javanese, we use different speech levels namely ngoko for friends but krama for grandparents. If you speak to your friends you will say like kowe arep neng ndi? ( ngoko ) but to your grandparents you will say Panjenengan badhe tindak pundi ? (high basa).

From the data collected, we have a question how Javanese people can alternate or mix both languages namely bahasa Indonesia and Javanese fluen tly. They are different systems in terms of their form, function, and domain. However, the speakers can comprehend each other although they mix their language like what we can see in the example s above. Are there any factors that determine the use or choice of the language systems?. In another word, why do they mix the different systems in their utterances? This paper is aimed at finding out the shifting phenomenon of Javanese into bahasa Indonesia which results in mixed Javanese, bahasa Indonesia mixed with Javanese, incongruent Javanese speech level to different sociolinguistic context.To answer the questions, we use d politeness strategies and princip les, and embodiment perspectives.

If we can refer back to the example (1) above, the use of the word nyuwun indicates that the speaker uses a performative verb nyuwun (ask) indicat ing that the speaker uses negative politeness, meaning that the speaker creates a distance indicating that s/he is less power. In Javanese, creating such distance can show a respectful act toward a person considered respected like parents or elder people. Embodiment theory is used to analyze an utterance containing an experience stored in the mind that shows an attitute of the speaker.

Discussing Javanese language status is not a new topic. Purwoko (2011)1 argued that ngoko Javanese speech styleFootnote 5 can be a strong indicator of the Javanese vitality. Since ngoko style is used actively at home domains. Purwoko ’ s argument is supported by King (2008 ) stating that family policy in choosing language exposed to children can determine the existence of the first language acquisition. This also affects family attitudes toward language used at homes. Further, King (2008 ) says that family language policy can determine the language attitudes of the family members toward the language acquired and used in the family. This leads to t ransgeneration of the mother to ngue of the children.

Another writer studying Javanese is Yacinta Kurniasih (2005)4. Kurniasih (2005) investigated Javanese used in Yogyakarta. She investigated that the children especially girls from middle class group prefer bahasa Indonesia to Javanese and have less favorable attitude s to Javanese than children of the working class groups. Another study was done by Errington (1998)3.

There are some theories used here.The first is the theory about politeness. It is used to show how the speakers consider politeness in using their mixed codes or bahasa Indonesia.The theories are adopted from Brown and Levinson (1987)5 inspired by the authors like Goffman (1967:5)6 in discussing the concept of face. According to Goffman (1967)6, face is an image value that someone must be aware of. In interaction, everyone has an image to be approved of or declined. To mitigate the threat of others ’ face, someone will use a strategy called a politeness strategy, that may sometimes save others ’ face. The second is the embodiment theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1999)7 dealing with how an expression is affected by the experience stored in the mind. What people say is based on the embodied experiences. In the theory it is mentioned that the words like ‘ come ’ and ‘ go ’ in English are based on the perception of the humans that we live in a space where we can come and go. There is a spatial experience in the human mind. The experience is embodied and represented in the words.

Politeness refers to how people communicate tactfully. For being tactfull, humans have three scales to consider namely the cost-benefit scale, the optionality scale, and the indirectness scale. The cost-benefit scale deals with the cost and benefit credited to the speaker or hearer; the optionality scale deals with whether the speaker gives option to the hearer to do or not to do; and the indirectness scale can be used depending on how close to reach the goal of illocution (Leech, 1983:123-124)8. The principles of being tactful can complete the cooperative principles. Since in communication, it is not enough for someone to be only cooperative but also tactful or polite. Politeness strategies consisting of bald on record, positive and negative politeness, off record, and don ’ t do FTA are intended for making communication smooth in reaching its goal.

Embodiment theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1999)7 is used in this study to deal with the embodied experiences represented by the mixed expressions spoken by the English Department students whose parents are Javanese. It is assumed that if they have Javanese parents, their first language must be Javanese. However, it is not always true. In embodiment theory, it is believed that language represents experiences stored in the mind. When someone wants to use an expression representing the experience, s/he uses the expressions creatively. Maybe, s/he uses them by combining with other expressions, or add their meaning components, or blend them with different units. Related to this theory, theory of mappings proposed by Fauconnier (1997:1)9 can also support the study, since it deals with meaning construction which is mentally done. Besides, it is related to the social world of language. Since language is used for social interaction.

Studying mixed utterances implies studying language contact. One of the eviden ces of language contact is code-switching and code-mixing. The utterances studied indicate those phenomena. From the students ’ utterances, I can identify the mixed codes of the utterances of a single speaker. The mixed codes can also show the tendency of shifting. Besides, the mixed codes are also the indicators of someone ’ s competence. If s/he mixes her/his codes, s/he can use the codes that can be identified in the utterances. If she/he is not fluent or competent, how can s/he use the codes?.

What alarming toward the shifting is the loss of the language. The shifting can be influenced by language family policy like what King (2008)10 said. Family policy has a big influence on the choice of language exposure to children. For example, what language will be acquired by their children? Who will teach them?. These questions can lead to the family policy about language choice and the purpose of choosing that.

Research Method

To investigate what we proposed, w e used Discourse Completion Task (or DCT for short) and observation with recording technique for collecting data, and referential, inferential, and distributional methods for analyzing data. In the DCT, we gave informal situations situation used by the respondents talking with their family members or house-mates. we asked the respondents to respond to the situations, and the respondents produced utterances in compliance with the situations. From the utterances we can identify the mixing codes in terms of their form, function, politeness and embodiment perspectives. By doing so, we can infer the factors used to uncover the backgrounds the speaker s produce the utterances. From the aspects, we can infer that the shifting of Javanese into bahasa Indonesia really happen s.

The DCT that was designed for data collection is a list of questions in which the speech situation was provided. The following is the example.

The situations on the list require the response from the respondents. From the response, we can infer what forms or expressions p roduced. To analyze the forms, we used tran slational method, meaning that we change the utterances into the same language. For example, the utterances are spoken in re spoken in Javanese mixed with bahasa Indonesia, we changed them into both Javanese and bahasa Indonesia to show the shift. If we found different speech styles, we translated them to show the different styles used. With substitution technique, we can show what codes are used. Besides, we could find which code is more dominant than the other code.

Results and Discussion

From the analysis, it can be obtained that the utterances spoken by the English Department students whose mother tongues are Javanese show that the utterances have various forms that can l ead to shifting processes. The different forms and functions can be seen as an evidence of a shifting process from Javenese to bahasa Indonesia.The following is the illustration how the shifting process happens.

Forms and Functions of the English Department Students’ Utterances

In terms of their forms, t he utterances used by the English Department students whose parents are Javanese can be characterized as bahasa Indonesia, bahasa Indonesia mixed with Javanese items, or Javanese mixed with bahasa Indonesia items,or Javanese with congruent speech levels, Javanese with incongruent speech levels, and alternative Javanese speech levels. However, in terms of their functions, the different forms may indicate different functions that can be seen from politeness and embodiment perspectives. The following will be the discussion.

Bahasa Indonesia Used at Home Domain

Bahasa Indonesia utterances can be identified from the utterances spoken by the English Department students whose first language is Javanese. They are used at home domain among family members to talk about issues to meet their basic needs like meal, clothes, room, cooking, children education, parents ’ job, daily menu, washing, ironing, sweeping the floor, cleaning the rooms.

At home, family members may use the expressions like (2) Ma, tolong ambilkan handuk ya (Mom, can you take my towel?) (3) Helo Ma Pa, abis darimana aja? (Hello Mom and Dad, where have you been?). The expressions are spoken to parents. The word Ma (a short form of Mama or mother ) is a vocative to call mother, while Pa (a short form of Papa ) is used to call father. Since the expressions taken from the respondents whose age is around 20 years, this indicates that a shifting process is happening to Javanese dis placed by bahasa Indonesia.

   Since bahasa Indonesia does not have speech levels which can show different strata of the speakers, u sing bahasa Indonesia shows egalitarian relationship among the speakers in this case children and parents. As Javanese, the relationship between children and parent s is not an equal relationship, it is a vertical relationship. Therefore, in Javanese, parents are considered as respected people, meaning that with parents they use basa speech level instead of ngoko.But with friends they use ngoko.This can be inferred that in bahasa Indonesia, children play themselves as they are in the same position with their parents.

Bahasa Indonesia M ixed with Javanese Items

In the previous subtopic, it is explained that full bahasa Indonesia is used at home domain. In this subtopic, bahasa Indonesia used is not full but mixed with Javanese items. The utterances that can be clas sified into this form are those utterances used by the persons whose relationship is child and father when the child asked about the school fee. This form is characteri zed by bahasa Indonesia dominating items and mixed with a Javanese item like wayah, nggo, telat like in the following utterances.

(4) Pah, besok udah wayah nya bayar UKT.

Dad, tomorrow already time its pay school fee

‘ Dad, tomorrow is the time to pay the tuition fee’

(5) Pak, minta uang nggo mbayar SPP.

Sir, ask money for pay tuition fee

‘ Dad, will you give me money for the tuition fee? ’

(6) Ayah, SPP nya paling telat tanggal 15 ik.Mau bayar kapan?

Father, school fee its most late date 15 particle. Will pay when?

‘Dad, the tuition fee payment deadline will be on the 15^th. When will I pay?’

From the examples (4), (5), and (6 ), it can be said that the use of bahasa Indonesia is dominant in their utterances. T he use of Javanese items mixed in the bahasa Indonesia utterances seems to make the utterances become informal. It looks closer relationship between father and kids. If we change the Javanese words in the utterances into bahasa Indonesia, the utterances seem formal. For example, the word wayah is changed into waktu,the utterance (4 ) looks formal. The use of Javanese words may emphasize what the child wants to do. For example, in (4 ), the child in this case the speaker wants to emphasize on the duration they can pay the tuition fees. It can be inferred that the duration is important to inform to the father. It can be used to remind the parents about when the suitable time is for paying the school fees. This indicates that paying the school fees is the father ’ s or parents ’ responsibility. Children are d ependent on the parents. From the utterances, I can infer that the use of the code can mitigate the threat. The use of Javanese can show closeness between children and parents. If speakers feel close they will feel comfortable to talk each other.

This also happens to the example (5 ). The Javanese item used is preposition indicating a purpose. The use of the preposition nggo [ηgo](for) considered as ngoko level can be inferred that the child wants to show her/his closeness to her/his father that the money will be used for paying the tuition fee not others. However, if s/he uses kangge [kaηge](for), it can be inferred that s/he wants to show distance, that can show his cautiousness asking for tuition feeFootnote 6.

Javanese Utterances mixed with bahasa Indonesia items

If we look at the place where the conversation happens that is home or family domain, the use of Javanese is appropriate. In this case, the Javanese expressions used are not fully used but mixed with bahasa Indonesia, meaning that there is bahasa Indonesia items incorporated in Javanese utterances. The example (7) Mangga Budhe mpun malam, mangga Budhe tindak sare rumiyin (Please, Auntie, go to sleep, it ’ s late). In the example (7), the word malam (night) is bahasa Indonesia item, but the rest is Javanese. Evan the Javanese used can be characterized as basa speech level.This means that the speaker uses an appropriate form to speak to elder people i.e her or his aunt. Since basa is used to speak to elder people or respected ones.

Javanese Utterances with C ongruent S peech Levels

The utterances that can be characterized as those with congruent speech levels are the utterances which contain full Javane se with suitable speech levels used to speak to appropriate persons or relationship. For example, the utterance spoken to mother should be in basa or krama but not ngoko,since parents are considered as elder or respected people. As the agreement that ngoko is used for speaking with friends or persons having the same age or equal stratum, t he expression Mengke 3 nggeh buk (4.8) is considered congruent since the speaker uses this when speaking to her or his mother. The congruency can show respect or politeness.

Javanese with Incongruent Speech Levels

The English Department students use Javanese at home but they sometimes use incongruent speech levels. In Javanese, ngoko speech level is used for speaking with friends or people with the same stratum. When speaking with parents or respected people, they should use krama like what is in the previous sub topic.However, in the data, we can see the use of ngoko spoken to parents like (8 ) Bar seko ndi wae ?. Ngoko is used when speaking with friends or with whom the speakers have the same social level, like siblings who have the same age or the same level in family relationship. Speaking with parents or elder people or respected people, they should use krama like (8 a) Saking tindak pundi kemawawon or mawon 4, Pak?. Since bahasa Indonesia does not have speech levels which correspond to whom we are talking with, the ide a of respecting others is not transfered from bahasa Indonesia to Javanese.

Another example (9 ) Eyang, sampun maem ? (Granma/pa, have you got your dinner/meal?(4.3) can show the incongruency of the use of the expression. The word maem (eat) is usually used when talking with a child, while the dhahar [ dhahar] is used for talking with elder people like grandpa/ma. The incongruency can also be seen in the example (10 ) Mbah ayo turu wis wengi (Grandma/pa, let ’ s go to sleep, it ’ s late) (4.4). The example (10) is not appropriately used for talking to grandma/pa, but it is appropriately used for kids or friends because it is ngoko.T he incongruency also happens to (11 ) Wes to eyang bobok wae wes yah mene ( Stop Grandma/pa, It’s late. W hy don ’ t you go to sleep? (4.3).

Alternative Javanese Speech Levels

From the example above, we can see that from the forms of the utterances, we can categorize the utterances that can be grouped into those indicating an alternative speech style since the style can not be categorized into ngoko, low basa,or high basa (Errington, 1998).The alternative speech style is the mixing bahasa Indonesia with Javanese particle items. Since Javanese has particles that can show for example emphasis ( ta ), ( men), enquiry ( kok ). The example can be seen in (12 ) Pergimu kok lama men ta ? (Why did you go too long?). The word men (mƏn) is particle used for emphasis or admiration. In bahasa Indonesia,the word sekali c an be used. For example, the word sekali in cantik sekali, lama sekali, terlambat sekali.In Javanese, the w ord men (mƏn) in suwe men, telat men, apik men is also used for the same purpose namely emphasis and admiration.

Factors Influencing the Utterances Spoken by the English Department Students of Undip

The mixing phenomenon in the English Department students’ utterances indicates that the language used at home shows various forms which are not fully Javanese eventhough the speakers ’ first language is Javanese. The various forms may indicate a shifting process that may imply the reason for changing the codes used by the English Department s tudents of Undip. The following are the factors that can be identified from the data collected.

Politeness Perpectives

From the politeness perspective, we can say that Javanese parents now are getting to be more egalitarian in building relationship with their children. By allowing their children to use bahasa Indonesia at home, it shows that Jav anese parents accept the shifting role relationship among them and their parents. They consider that their children have the same position as their parents. If they think that they have lower position, they must remind their children to use always higher speech level namely krama speaking with them.

   Therefore, t he use of Javanese with different speech levels at the family domains confirms different positions of parents and children. When children use krama, they want to show that they are in the lower position than their parents. However, when they use ngoko to speak with their parents and their parents accept it, it shows that they are in the same le vel as camaraderie relationship. This can also happen when Javanese Children use bahasa Indonesia speaking to their parents.The use of bahasa Indonesia may imply bald on record without redressive action.

Embodiment Perspectives

The mixing codes used in family may also indicate that the shifting process may also be influenc ed by the embodied experiences they have at schools or campuses. At campus, bahasa Indonesia is mostly used. For example, when they communicate with academic staff, friends from different regions, lecturers, faculty members, they use bahasa Indonesia. Even they sometimes use English when they join classes conducted in English. Besides, they also have past experience in joining schools prior to higher education.

The embodiment experiences happening at campus deal with academic experiences, specific terms, and formal duties like rapat, sidang, diskusi, ceramah, pidato which are expressed in bahasa Indonesia.Since bahasa Indonesia is used in formal domain, it is easily used in the domain. However, when Javanese is used at home or family domain, the expressions used are those relevant to informal domain or situation. Therefore, when bahasa Indonesia is used in informal situation like homes, it is mixed with Javanese particle which can signify the informality of the expression resulting in alternative speech styles.

Shifting Phenomenon of Javanese toward bahasa Indonesia

A language shifting process is a gradual process. It can be identified from the evidences of lang uage contact like mixed language repr esented by the utterances spoken by the users.The mixture may indicate the speaker ’ s competence in the languages used. When someone mixed his/her language, he/she uses more than one language. F rom the examples (1) to (12), it can be seen that the utterances spoken by the English Department students indicate a shifting phenomenon whi ch can be characterized from their form, function, and domain.

From the fo rm, we can see the using of mixed code and even full bahasa Indonesia utterances. The mixed code can be characterized from the elements mixed in the utteances. It can be seen from the following example.

(13) Aku ra nggawa duit i. Aku pinjam kamu dulu ya

I not bring money PART I borrow you ago yes

‘I don’t bring money, can you lend me some?’

(14) Sing kuat ya, aku ikut bela sungkawa

Which strong yes, I follow defend condolence

‘Be strong, I am sorry’.

In the examples (13) and (14), we can find two languages mixed namely bahasa Indonesia and Javanese. In the (13), aku ra nggawa duit i ( I don ’ t bring money) is Javanese, but aku pinjam kamu dulu ya (Will you lend me some money?) is bahasa Indonesia. If the bahasa Indonesia in the (13) is changed into Javanese, the resulting utterance will be (13a) aku ra nggawa duit i, aku nyilih kowe dhisik ya. Alternatively, if it is changed into full bahasa Indonesia, the utterance will be (13b) Aku tidak bawa uang, aku pinjam kamu dulu ya?.

From the domai n, full bahasa Indonesia, previously was used at formal situation like schools, offices, conferences, now it is used at home domain. The utterance in (15) Buk, uang sakunya adek habis. Besok kirimi adek bisa ndak Buk? (Mom, I am broke, can you transfer some money, Mom?). The utterance (15) was spoken by a daughter to her mother at home. This indicates that there is a shifting process. Full bahasa Indonesia is also used by a grandchild to grandmother and to the house mates.

From the function, the mixed forms indicate the awareness of the speakers in considering politeness. Besides, they proclaim their embodied experiences that they used to have at campus situations or school ones.

Conclusions

From the analysis, we may conclude that this study can support other studies showing that Javanese is going to be dis placed by bahasa Indonesia in the future. The displacement may be identified lingu istically, sociolinguistically, and pragmatically. Eventhough the Javanese ngoko speech level is still used but it may imply a shifting process from sociolinguistic or pragmatic points of view. The key is family language policy that can affect the family members ’ exposure and comprehensibility. Since Javanese, from its speech level, can indicate politeness in this case respect others expecially the elder people or repected people, Javanese will be still v ital in Javanese people speech due to transgenerational process.