Sociounguistical study on the use of Basa Krama: The High Level of Javanese Language by Malang Society

ABTRACT

Javanese language is one of the principal languages of Indonesia. There are approximately 70 millions people who consider it their mothertongue and use it in their daily communication. However, the language that has various levels of speech has been growing slowly. This is an impact of the government policy about Bahasa Indonesia as the national language. The government then socialize it, and people should speak it in every aspect of their life. Therefore, the use of basa krama as one of Javanese language styles also decreases. It is now only well spoken by certain people. Beside Bahasa Indonesia, people are now more interested in basa ngoko rather than basa krama. It has happened automatically since basa ngoko became more popular than basa krama because it offers more intimacy.

Based on those phenomena, this study was then conducted. It was aimed at elaborating the real use of basa krama and the consideration to the use and the avoidance of it. It, however, focused on Malang society as a model of Javanese society. Specifically, the writer chose Malang people who lived on Jalan Simpang Gajayana Kelurahan Dinoyo, Kecamatan Lowokwaru as the subject of the study since they were representative for Malang people as a whole. Meanwhile, the data were gained through observation and interview in both structured and unstructured one.

The complete data were then analyzed based on problems of the study. The analysis finally resulted in some phenomena: (1) The use of basa krama was somewhat limited in informal occasions. It was gradually replaced by Bahasa Indonesia in formal ones.(2) There were some groups of Malang people who kept using basa krama. They were those whose hometowns were Blitar, Kediri, Tulungagung, and Trenggalek, the aged people, those who were accustomed to speaking it since they were children, and those who had a good religious background. (3) Basa krama was spoken by certain people in the daily communication, weekly Yasinan and Tahhlan meetings, and the traditional Javanese wedding ceremonies. (4) People spoke krama because they wanted to respect and appreciate other people, they wanted to be recognized as “jawa” (polite and well behaved ) people, they wanted to get appreciation and respect from other people, they realized the intimacy it offered, and they had the strong feeling of fanaticism as the Javanese. (5) The considerations to the use of basa krama were the consciousness that it was one of the characteristics of the Javanese and should be preserved and its function to society as a stimulator to create a peaceful and harmonious society.

Finally, the writer, after discussing all the problems of the study, proposed some suggestions dealing with the preservation of basa krama and other further researches on Javanese language that should be done.