NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE SCIENCES
MA CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION + MA Applied Linguistic and
TESOL
Module code and name: Sociolinguistic CCC8015
LEVEL M
Title : Osob Kiwalan Malang as a Variant in Malang, East Java,
Indonesia
Name of the module leader: Dr. Peter Sercombe
I declare that this submission is wholly my own work:
140328093
Actual date of submission:28/05/2015Word Count:3065
wordsIntroductionLanguage is the foremost means to communicate with
each other. Every community has their own language to show their
identity and to socialize among their society. A nation can be
cosidered as community of speech by having one national language,
yet it is possible for a country to have more than one language
used in the smaller society within the country. Indonesia is one
example of a country which has more than 500 languages besides its
own national language.Large number of language variety in Indonesia
is due to its diverse culture, ethnic, and regions. Throughout its
thousand of islands, each island, even each region in the island
has their own distinct languages. Most of people in Indonesia are
bilingual, meaning that they master more than one language to
communicate. Even based on the survey done by Swiftkey.com in 2015,
Indonesia is on the top of the chart of the most trilingual
countries. The survey which was done through social media shows
that 17.4% of people in Indonesia are trilingual. They mostly speak
Bahasa Indonesia (national language), Javanese (vernacular language
of Java island), and English. It infers that the domination of the
vernacular language is as big as Bahasa Indonesia as national
language. Based on the research done by Nababan (1985) vernacular
language in Indonesia is used for intra-region communication and it
was the first language of most Indonesian meanwhile Bahasa
Indonesia is the medium to be used in education and trade between
regions. Though there is a shifting that Bahasa Indonesia is now
the first language (Nababan, 1985), vernacular language is still
used as a daily language among people in one community. The
coexistence of Bahasa Indonesia and vernacular language in society
can generate another variant of language too, for example bahasa
prokem[footnoteRef:1] (Collins & Chambert-Lois, 1984), Jakarta
Backwards Youth Slang (Dreyfuss, 1983), bahasa gay[footnoteRef:2]
(Boellstorf, 2004; Oetomo, 2003) and bahasa gaul[footnoteRef:3]
(Smith-Hefner, 2007). [1: Bahasa Prokem is a register like slang
which is used in a certain community, for example a punk community]
[2: Bahasa Gay is a variant used by homosexual community] [3:
Bahasa Gaul is a variant used among Jakarta teenager]
In Malang, East Java, Indonesia, this non-standard register also
exists among its people; the Malangese uses term Osob Kiwalan for
this variant. Osob Kiwalan is an averted language which derives by
averting vocabulary from both Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese. The
term Osob Kiwalan (OK) itself is the implementation of averting
words; Osob is formed from Boso which means Language in Javanese
while Kiwalan is from Walikan which means averted. The coinage of
this variant appeared during the Dutch occupation. Likewise other
non-standard variants in Indonesia that happened to be codes and
secret languages (Collins & Chambert-Lois, 1984; Dreyfuss,
1983; Boellstorf, 2004; Oetomo, 2003; Smith-Hefner, 2007), Osob
Kiwalan also had the same use back then. The shifting of the use of
OK itself appears to be means to promote and foster a shared
identity (Espree-Conaway, 2012). The objective of this study is to
find out the purpose of the user of OK in using it. Further, this
study aims to follow up the presumption of the existence of OK that
it is now a variant that is used by Malangese to share the same
identity. There are also additional aims to conduct this study,
firstly is to find out the range of age of OK user and secondly to
find out whether this is slang language or a place language. As
Espree-Conaway claimed (2012), OK can be classified into place
language because most of the people use it, yet it is still a vague
notion knowing that place language is similar to vernacular
language which most/all people will use to communicate within their
speech community regardless the background, age, or education of
the speaker. On the other hand, some researchers claim that OK is a
slang language (Hoogervorst, 2014; Jason and Rahmat, 2013;
Rachmawaty, 2012). Therefore, the last objective of this study is
important in order to classify the existence of OK among
Malangase.Those study objectives will be explored and evaluated by
disseminating questionnaire and interview which will be analyzed
quantitatively thereafter. The questionnaire will be given to the
native Malangese who resides in Malang. The participant I will have
is approximately 30 people from different background and different
range of age. I would like to seek only native participants to get
a reliable data from the instrument. Meanwhile, the interview is a
semi-structured interview which will be conducted through the
Internet. There are three people who represent a different range of
age. The first range of interviewee age is 14-20 (teenager), 21-29
young adult, and over 30 (adult). After the submission of the data,
I will analyze the data quantitatively.To begin with, the study
will elaborate the history and structure of OK. Then to follow up
the third concern of this study whether OK is a slang language
rather than a place language, I would like to give the concise
explanation of slang language and place language. The underpinning
theory of these two registers will be combined with the data I will
have gathered from the questionnaire and interview and then drawing
the conclusion after. Osob Kiwalan Variation Style Osob Kiwalan was
firstly used by Gerilya Rakyat Kota Malang (Malang People
Guerrilla) at post-independence of Indonesia back in 1949. The term
Osob Kiwalan is coined from Javanese language which means Averted
Language. Osob is from Boso (Javanese) means Language, Kiwalan is
from Walikan (Javanese) means avertion. The existence of OK was
first initiated due to the military invasion of Dutch after
Indonesia independence on March, 1949. Dutch placed a spy within
Malang patriot. The Malang patriot had known of this problem and
tried to overcome the problem by having a secret code to
communicate that only Malangese would now. Then OK was created to
keep the confidential report and to communicate among Malang
patriots. By the time goes by, the shifting use of OK emerges, OK
has widely changed of the use and community which actively uses it.
This language shifting appears to be the effect of external side of
a language which is social factor (Crystal, 2008).OK adapts most of
its vocabulary from the combination of Bahasa and Javanese. It
infers that the root of OK is the same of the two languages
mentioned previously. Those two languages belong to the
Austronesian language family, which is one of the largest language
families in the world. Lewis (2009) estimates that there are 1,257
variants of this language root. According to that fact, OK belongs
to Austronesian language family. Additionally, OK adapts East Java
variant which spread across Malang as the vernacular language. (see
figure 1).
Figure 1 (taken from Espree-Conaway, 2012)The Structure of Osob
KiwalanThe notion of OK that is assumed to only avert a word
directly is not fully right. There are also several words that coin
and use only in Malang. Those vocabularies are included in OK as
Malangese appoints them as their distinctive language.Looking for
its structure, taken form the study conducted by Icuk (2013), OK
structure covers abbreviation, naturalization, and averted phoneme
position. In brief, those categorizations explained as bellows: A.
AbbreviationAn abbreviation is a letter or group of letters that
is/are shortened into a word (Kerner et al, 2010). Non-standard
register usually is flexible including OK. OK has many variations
that distinguishes it to other language variant in Indonesia. Below
is the list of some abbreviations are only used in
Malang.AbbreviationLong FormMeaning
Suhat => su-hat => Sukarno-Hatta The name of the most
crowded street in Malang
Simek => si-mek => sikil mejaSikil=leg, mejo=tableThe leg
of a table
Cacat => ca-cat => calon cantikCalon = candidate, cantik =
beautiful Girl who will be beautiful if she grown-up
Kotik => ko-tik => kodew mbetikKodew= a girl,
mbetik=naughtyNaughty girl
B. Naturalization OK adopts some of the words from other
languages besides Indonesia and Javanese. The words then are
averted to match which the basic principal of OK for example Okir
which is derived from Riko (Banyumas [footnoteRef:4]variant) which
means You. OK also adopts foreign language namely Arabic like in
the word Ebes which means Father/Dad. Ebes derives from Syebe which
is Arabic and means father/dad. [4: Banyumas is a region in Middle
Java and it has a Banyumas variant which derives from Javanese]
C. Averted Phoneme PositionThis variation of OK appears more
often that other since it is the salient form of OK. This variation
of OK is formed by directly avert the word. For example libom which
is formed from Mobil as translated Car. The other example as listed
below:OKOriginal FormEnglish Meaning
kera Arek (Javanese)Boy/Girl
ketam Matek (Javanese)
Die
nakam Makan (Bahasa)Eat
oges Sego (Javanese)Rice
hamur Rumah (Bahasa)House/Home
(More examples are attached)OK also affects the sound of the
vowel whenever a word is averted. It happens in /e/ vowel which has
/e/ and //, and /u/ that has /u/ and /U/ for example:Original
FormOKMeaning
Dewe [dewe]ewed[wd]Self
edan[edan]nade[nad]Crazy
dulur [dulUr]rulud [rulUd]Relative/sibling
Moreover, if there is two consonant in the middle of a word, the
consonants are more likely not averted due to the easier
pronunciation. For example:OKOriginal formMeaning
KomparRampok (Bhs)Robbery
LandasSandal (Bhs)Slipper
Kampes Sempak (Jv)Underwear
There is also averted phoneme with erasing a letter to make it
simpler, for example in the word oker which comes from rokok
meaning cigarette and silup from polisi meaning police. Another
variation is the addition in word after being averted such as in
Roti becomes sitor meaning bread and Bawa transforms into kawab
meaning carry. In addition, there is also a free form of averting
phoneme to adjust with Malangese mother tongue namely ngingub and
ublem. Ngingub is from bingung which means confused and ublem is
from mlebu meaning enter.Slang LanguageAccording to the previous
researchers, slang is rather difficult to define. Slang is most
likely related to its informal or colloquial tone, its
inventiveness, its playfulness, its ephemerality, its association
with specific, often marginalized, sub-groups, and its rebellious
opposition to formal or dignified discourse (Chapman 1986; Eble
1996; Lighter 2001; Battistella 2005; Allan and Burridge 2006;
Adams 2009; Dalzell 2009).Eble (1996) stated that the salient
feature of slang is the emphasis of it to generate such bound to
promote sociability. By uttering the same slang language as a
register to the particular community, people among this community
will get along better as a reflection of an egalitarian solidarity.
People who talk in the same slang language consider themselves as
an equal position. The next typical characteristic of slang is that
it tends to stick to the marginalized society. As it is a
non-serious and playful register, slang considers as the media of a
marginalized society to comfortably communicate each other. This
stereotype of slang often misinterpreted as the rebellious language
to oppose the authority, yet Bucholtz (2011) shows evidence in his
study that rebelliousness is not a paramount reason of slang
existence.Another distinguished feature of slang is the playfulness
of both of its lexicon and structure. Adams (2009) appoints that
playfulness is a prominent characteristic to define slang as it is.
People who use slang tend to find a way of communicating in an
easier and more comfortable way. The change of the structure,
phoneme, or pronunciation often follows the use of slang.
Furthermore, the use of vast variety of adapted or even novel
vocabulary also shows how playful and flexible a slang language
is.
Place LanguageThis term is used by Espree-Conaway (2012) to
determine the existence of OK among native Malang. He defines that
place language is a language that has a specific social niche that
creates a sense of friendly intimacy, social equality, and communal
solidarity. He claims that place language is different with slang
language although the three features his mentioned in the preceding
resemble to the characteristics of slang language. The interesting
features that distinguish place language with slang is that place
language will be used by everyone in the same place to join
together in the society. Unlike place language, slang covers only
the particular group of people, usually youth cohort, within a
region, meaning that not all of the people in that region use the
same slang language to communicate.
Finding and DiscussionAfter distributing the questionnaire and
conducting interview, I have found some information to be discussed
in order to answer these study objectives. The questionnaire
distributed is 30 questionnaires and only 20 of them could I
collect. In addition, there were three interviews conducted to the
three chosen respondents who are native Malang. The age range of
the respondents of questionnaire and interviewees is between 15 to
50 years old. Particularly, three of the interviewees are 16, 24,
and 51 years old respectively. And in this chapter, I would like to
discuss the finding qualitatively. Firstly is about the existence
of the OK, as many as 55% respondents had no clue about the history
of OK although they have used it several time. Most of the
respondents (13 respondents, or 65%) stated that they often
associate OK with football supporter so they assume it is created
by football supporter in Malang. Knowing that football is very
famous in Malang, this typical answer is not really surprising.
From three of my interviewees only the eldest interviewee who knows
the history of OK, he could explain that OK is originally a secret
code to deceive the Dutch.From 20 respondents, only 15% of them
admitted to use OK in daily situation. It is quite surprising that
that most of the respondents said that they barely use OK; they
only use it once in a while, they choose to communicate in formal
Javanese most of the time, it seems backlashing with their
statement that all of them (20 respondents) want to preserve OK.70%
of the respondents assume that OK is used mostly by adults and
teenagers, children and elderly rarely use it. In addition, the
community that is spotted to use OK quite often is among the
football supporter in Malang. Most of the respondents also limit
the use of OK among their same-aged friend. This result shows that
intense OK users are not wholly Malang people, but there is only
particular age of group or community that will use the language.
However, all Malangese recognizes and understand if someone speaks
OK to them and they can respond necessarily. Malangeses have a
variant answer regarding to the question of the purpose they use
OK. However, it can be inferred that 65% of them use it because
their neighborhood society uses it. They want to create a bonding
that they can share among the OKs users. They feel more intimate
when they meet their friend who uses the same variant as them.
Secondly, the reason why Malangese speaks this variant is because
they feel proud as native of Malang City. This pride for being
different and unique from other regions helps to define their
identity. Is Osob Kiwalan a slang language?Based on the
questionnaire and the interview, the answer given by the
respondents addressing that OKs identity is quite vague. Looking
for the purpose of why people use it, OK could be considered as a
slang language since people use it to be different, and to share
the same identity (Moore, 2012). On the other hand, the spread of
this language in the entire region of Malang strengthens the
existence of OK as the place language like what Espree-Conaway
suggested. Most of the respondents in every range of age and
different community know OK well, although some of them do not use
it every day, yet at least it shows that OK has well-known among
Malangese, the same as Geordie as a variant in Newcastle.Looking
from the structure of Osob Kiwalan, this language variant has some
similarities with slang language characteristic. As I already
explained previously that slang tends to be playful, it occurs to
its structural form as well. Slang which comes from a certain
language then being used in a certain community of speech has been
up to create a particular variation in vocabulary mostly, from the
main language where it comes then use it within a particular
community. Slang has a tendency to generate a free from of
variation. It happens in the OK as well.Structurally, OK averts the
phoneme in rather free-formed way. Some of the vocabularies are
directly avert, but in some cases like in the word ojrit which is
from iyo means okay and hewul which is from luwe means starving, it
needs creativity to add the world in order to be distinct.
Moreover, the choice of the adapted vocabulary is adjusting
Malangeses pronunciation and to get an easier access to avert the
word; hence OK derives from Bahasa and Javanese in which they can
use more word choices instead of sticking to one language only. For
example they use nakam to avert makan which means eat. Makan is
Bahasa, they choose it rather than Javanese word of makan, which is
mangan, because makan is much easier to be
averted.ConclusionAccording to the data I have collected and review
of the theory, it can be concluded that the speakers purpose in
using this language is in order to blend with their surrounding
society. 65% of the respondents have the urge to speak OK to be
able to feel the sense of belongingness with their society, as it
is also can strengthen their bond with one another.Ok has a vast
distribution as a variant in Malang. Almost all Malangese recognize
this variant. Some of them use it to communicate to their friend
and some to their community. The user of OK also varies from the
age level. Although commonly the active user is teenager and adult,
the elderly people still could comprehend someone who speaks
OK.Secondly, OK usage and structure is likely a slang language
rather than a place language. However, it is differs from most
slang since most slang is only used in particular community and
particular length of time. Moore (2004) defines this variant of
slang as a basic slang since its longevity endures from more than
one generations and there is no significant changes except the
shifting of its use.
ReferencesAdams, M. (2009). Slang: The Peoples Poetry. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.Allan, K., Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden
Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.Battistella, Edwin L. (2005). Bad Language: Are
Some Words Better than Others? Oxford: Oxford University
Press.Boellstorf, T. (2004). Gay Language and Indonesia:
Registering Belonging. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 14(2),
pp. 248-268.Bucholtz, Mary. (2011). White Kids: Language, Race, and
Styles of Youth Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.Chapman, Robert L., ed. (1986). New Dictionary of American
Slang. New York: Harper and Row. Based on the Dictionary of
American Slang, compiled and edited by Harold Wentworth and Stuart
Berg Flexner (New York: Crowell, 1960).Collins, J. T. &
Chambert-Loir, H. (1984). Those Who Speak Prokem. Indonesia, 37,
pp. 105-117.Crisytal, David. (2008). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Dalzell, Tom, ed.
(2009). The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and
Unconventional English. New York: Routledge.Dreyfuss, J. (1983) The
backwards language of Jakarta youth (JYBL), a bird of many language
feathers. In James Collins (Ed). Studies in Malay Dialects.Eble,
Connie. (1996). Slang and Sociability: In-Group Language among
College Students. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press.Espree-Conaway, D. A. (2012). Language Attitudes,
Acquisition, and Usage of Osob Kiwalan Ngalam: An Indo-Javanese
Language of Malang. Language.Lighter, J. E . (2001). Slang. In The
Cambridge History of the English Language, vol. 6, English in North
America, edited by John Algeo, 21952. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.Moore, R. L. (2012). On Swearwords and Slang.
American Speech, 87(2), 170-189. ISO 690Moore, R. L. (2004). We're
cool, mom and dad are swell: Basic slang and generational shifts in
values. American Speech, 79(1), 59-86.Nababan, P. W. J. (1985).
Bilingualism in Indonesia: ethnic language maintenance and the
spread of the national language. Asian Journal of Social Science,
13(1), 1-18.Oetomo, D. (2003). Memberi suara pada yang bisu
[Voicing the muted]. Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta: Pustaka
Marwa.Smith-Hefner, N. J. (2007). Youth Language, Gaul Sociability,
and the New Indonesian Middle Class. Journal of Linguistic
Anthropology, 17(2), pp.
184-203.Swiftkey.com/en/blog/celebrating-international-mother-language-day/
(retrieved on 14th of May, 2015)
AppendicesSemi-structured Interview GuidelineNo Question
1Do you know the history of Osob Kiwalan?
2Do you use Osob Kiwalan?
3Why do you use Osob Kiwalan
4What do you think about Osob Kiwalan?
Questionnaire GuidelineBoso Walikan QuestionnaireName:Age:Sex:1.
Are you familiar with Boso Walikan?a. Yesb. NoIf yes,2. When do you
use Boso Walikan?a. On a daily basisb. Once in a whilec. Rarely use
itd. Never use it
3. Do you know the history of Boso Walikan?a. Yes I dob. No I do
not know
4. Since when have you use Boso Walikan?a. Since I was 10 years
old or priorb. Since I was 15 years oldc. Since I was 20 years
oldd. Since I was 30 years olde. Since I was 40 years old
5. Why do you use Boso Walikan? (you may answer more than one)a.
Because my surrounding society uses it b. Because I am a supporter
of Arema FCc. Because I am Malangesed. Because my parents use ite.
To be different from people from other regionsf. Other ..
6. With whom do you speak Boso Walikan?a. With familyb. With
same-aged friendsc. With my communityd. Other
7. What crosses your mind when you hear someone speaks Boso
Walikan?a. Football supporterb. Cool teenagerc. Thug d. Studentse.
Other .
8. Who used to talk in Boso Walikan in your neighbourhood? a.
Childrenb. Teenagerc. Adultd. Elderlye. Other..
9. On a scale of 1-10 (not proud very proud), how proud are you
when using Boso walikan? (circle the appropriate number)1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10
10. On a scale of 1-10 (negative-positive), how do you think the
impression of Boso Walikan in a daily communication? (circle the
appropriate number)1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11. Do you think Boso Walikan should be preserved?a. Yesb.
No
12. Will you teach Boso Walikan to your children, later in the
future?a. Yesb. NoReason
13. What is your general opinion about Boso Walikan?.....
Example of Questionnaire
5