Sociolinguistic Aspects of Jakarta Dialect Switching in Bahasa Indonesia in Eight Indonesian Novels.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the influence of Jakarta Dialect on Bahasa Indonesia, the national st and ard of Indonesia. As the formal language of communication, Bahasa Indonesia is often felt to be unsuitable for casual speech. The Jakarta speech community, using varying degrees of switching between Jakarta Dialect and Bahasa Indonesia, is moving towards a more casual st and ard. The present research concerns the sociolinguistic aspects of this switching as represented in popular novels. The initial hypotheses are that because of the influence of Jakarta Dialect Bahasa Indonesia is becoming a more casual language; that the use of Jakarta Dialect is not r and om but that certain types of Jakarta Dialect lexical categories are used in certain situations and to express certain moods; and that age, relationships between interlocutors and speaker mood play a role in determining the rate of switching. Two sets of forms were used to study Jakarta Dialect lexical items from eight novels: One form recorded lexical items, their frequency of occurrence, and sex and age of the user. The other registered sociolinguistic information from selected conversations, focusing on age and sex of participants, participant relationships, speech situations, speaker moods, locations and non-participant presence. It was found that Jakarta Dialect switching as portrayed in the novels closely paralleled usage in the speech community. Rates for JD switching were highest in close relationships, among younger age groups and in speaker moods that were more emotionally charged. No sex differentiation was found. Children and adolescents showed the highest rates of switching in the widest range of situations and moods.