Indonesian Studies Colloquium with Abigail Cohn, Professor of Linguistics and Director of Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University
Thursday, May 10, 2018
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
6275 Bunche Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095
The instatement of Bahasa Indonesia as Indonesia’s national language is widely cited as a successful example of language planning; yet it also has implications for endangerment of local languages. With over 700 local languages, Indonesia is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. It is widely acknowledged that “small” languages are at risk of endangerment, but what is the fate of the “big” languages? Ravindranath & Cohn (2014) found that there is not a close correlation between size and risk of endangerment. In a multifaceted project, we address this issue investigating language shift among the languages of Indonesia with over 1 million speakers.
Previous work has taken either a “macro” approach, using a single global measure of vitality for a whole language or a “micro” approach using in-depth ethnolinguistic interviews. Here we report on two projects attempting to find middle ground to lead to a fuller understanding of nature of language shift. In joint work with Tom Pepinsky, we use 2010 census data, to assess the likelihood that speakers of the largest languages speak Indonesian at home. We find that size alone doesn’t account for these results. For instance, “inner” island speakers from Java and Bali are less likely to report speaking Indonesian than “outer” island speakers from Sumatra and Sulawesi. We also report on results from a questionnaire (Kuesioner Penggunaan Bahasa Sehari-hari, Cohn et al. 2014), developed to collect detailed data from subjects from different backgrounds. We provide cross-group comparison, focusing on differences between types of communities in Indonesia, including non-Malayic vs. Malayic language groups, inner vs. outer islands, and social and demographic differences. We show that both census data and survey data can further elucidate language maintenance and shift in this rich complex linguistic landscape. (Work done collaboratively with Dr. Maya Ravindranath Abtahian, University of Rochester.)
Nguyet Tong
cseas@international.ucla.edu
Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Linguistics