The UGM Student Team Veronika Diah Oktaviani, Muhammad Dian Saputra Taher, Vincent Yosafat from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences and Kafi Dewanda from the Vocational School, and supervising lecturer Dr. Aprilia Firmonasari, revealed the phenomenon of language shift in the Bengkulu Malay-speaking community as a step to preserve the contemporary era of regional languages.
The interaction between the mother tongue and Indonesian, Rejang, and Serawai makes the Bengkulu Malay community a bilingual and even multilingual speaker. What is happening today, especially among teenagers, is that they cannot differentiate in speaking using Bengkulu Malay or other languages. This is called code-mixing and code-switching, which makes Bengkulu Malay currently under pressure, and if left uncontrolled, the language will die.
This research involved 2 Bengkulu Cultural People, Bencoolen Speak Community, the Bengkulu City Customary Consultative Body (BMA), the Bengkulu Province Education and Culture Office, the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol) Bengkulu Province, Bengkulu Malay speakers as informants, and teenagers who are still in school as respondents.
“Bengkulu Malay is on the list of 148 regional languages that face the risk of extinction. Only about 50% of the people of Bengkulu City still actively speak the language, namely the residents who inhabit the coastal area of Bengkulu City called “Kampung Lamo.” Overall, Bengkulu Malay has a score of 44%, indicating an endangered status because it is in the 41-60% range,” said the team when explaining the results of the research conducted for three months.
This research indicates the urgency to maintain the existence of the Bengkulu Malay language by strengthening the philosophy of Bengkulu Malay culture and language, developing and increasing Bengkulu Malay language competitions and festivals, creating and maintaining Bengkulu Malay language through the use of the language in the agency environment (offices, schools, institutions), conducting language documentation, and compiling the Bengkulu Malay language module.
Learn more here.
Source: https://www.ugm.ac.id/id/berita/21651-mahasiswa-ugm-teliti-ancaman-kepunahan-bahasa-melayu-bengkulu
