A study on the use of Indonesian language in Ambon

ABSTRACT

Indonesia is a very large country, which has more than 200 millions people who live in it. Because of the great number of Islands and people, there are dialects and local languages in the country. Everyone in the country speaks his local language and most people are bilingual: they speak their local languages and the national language, Bahasa Indonesia.

The result of such bilingualism is that the people are good at both languages and often use the two languages alternately when they meet with each other. In other words, they often switch from the local to the national language or the reverse linguistically, such an activity is called a ،code switching activity1’ (Suradji, 1983:23) or alih kode (Poedjosoedarmo, 1979:37).

The writer also often hears the words, which come from more than one language in conversation, for example, Javanese and Indonesian, Ambonese and Javanese etc. The sentences that are said usually contain words of other languages. Sometimes the writer hears her sisters speaking in Ambonese Malay but they are also using Indonesian words occasionally.

This phenomenon makes the writer interested in studying of the using of Indonesia language. That is why, in this thesis she decides to choose the title: A STUDY ON THE USE OF INDONESIAN LANGUAGE IN AMBON.

The problem of the study are what are the similarities and differences between Indonesian and Ambonese in using Indonesian language and how is the changing process of Indonesian words after they become the words of Ambonese Malay, based on spelling, pronunciation and meaning.

,The objectives of the study are to find out the similarities and the differences between Indonesian and Ambonese in using Indonesian language and to describe the changing process of Indonesian words, after they are to become the words of Ambonese Malay.

To make the problem in this study more thoroughly investigated, the writer decided to focus on the analysis of the use of Indonesian language among Ambonese both in written and spoken. She limits the study on the standardization of spelling, pronunciation and meaning.

This study is expected to be useful information for all who want to enlarge and enrich their knowledge about the characteristic and the form of languages and particularly for Ambonese people to know further and deeper about these two languages and their differences. The seconds’ significance is for further research, the result of this study can be used as a starting point to conduct wider investigation concerning the presentation of languages either based on the same topic under investigation or based on different field.

The data of this study are generally gathered from the daily communication of Ambonese in using Indonesian language, that the writer hears everyday. She applied an observation method. She communicates with the informants to speak, the she put down some expression on pieces of paper. She also takes the data from some songs of Ambonese Malay and Indonesian from the cassettes.

From the results of the data analysis, the writer can conclude that (1) there are many similarities of Indonesian words that are used Ambonese in spelling, pronunciation and meaning. (2) There are many differences of Indonesian words that used by Ambonese, they are vowel / d / in Indonesian will become / e / in Ambonese Malay, vowel / i / in Indonesian will become / e / in Ambonese Malay, vowel / u / in Indonesian will become / o / in Ambonese Malay, diphthong / au / in Indonesian will become / o / in Ambonese Malay, and diphthong / ai / in Indonesian will become / e / in Ambonese Malay.

The writer suggest that the result of this study can be used as a starting point to conduct wider investigation concerning the presentation of languages either based on the same topic under investigation or based on different field.