Embracing the Richness of Local Languages in Indonesia

Indonesia, the largest archipelago country in the world that is rich in biodiversity. As a result of its great number of islands that used to be isolated from each other, the country is also blessed with great linguistic diversity. Indonesia is second richest country in the world after Papua Niugini in terms of language diversity. There are more than 700 local languages in Indonesia not to mention their variants.

However, data from the Language Development and Fostering Agency of the Ministry of Education Culture Research and Technology showed that only in 2020, 11 local languages perished because their speakers passed away and the next generation no longer speaks the language. Embracing the richness of local languages in Indonesia.

In big cities, most families no longer use local languages as their mother tongue. There are even families who prefer to use foreign languages other than Bahasa Indonesia or local languages at home with their children. A lot of those families live far away from the home communities which makes it difficult for them to keep communicating in local languages.

There are also couples who are from different islands and as a result, they do not speak the same local languages. To make it easy to communicate at home, they choose to use Indonesian. Moreover, there are also couples who believe that mastering local languages will not help their children to go far in the future.

How important is it to preserve local languages, especially in Indonesia? Studies on local languages in Indonesia are not as many as studies related to foreign languages. Therefore, there are not many of us know the benefits of mastering local languages.

One reason of preserving local languages is that it contains knowledge that we might not master yet because they are understudied.

Let’s take a peek on some great knowledge that local languages in Indonesia have.

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Disaster Risk and Mitigation Knowlege

Indonesia is prone to disaster due to its location on different earth plates as well as on the ring of fire. There are various ethnic groups in Indonesia that have recorded big disasters experienced in their folktales in the form of oral traditions such as poems, songs, and stories that are told from generation to generation.

One example of this tradition is the oral tradition of Smong (tsunami) in the North end of Sumatera island. This tradition is strong in Simeulue where the lyrics containing knowledge about tsunami is sung in front of audience. The lyrics tell people on the nature signs prior to tsunami and what people need to do when that happens.

The tradition was proven effective in reducing the number of casualties. In 2006, when the island was swept by a massive tsunami, there were ten people who fell victims. This number was way smaller than the number of casualties from other areas.

Meanwhile, in the Central Sulawesi, there are areas which have traditions of forbidding people to do certain things. One example of this tradition was the warning not to pass Londjo area. Londjo used to be swampish land. In the local language, Londjo means planted soil. Traders who were about to got to the closest market were asked to take a detour so that they would not drown in the swamp.

This area was then changed into a residential area named Petobo. In 2018, it was proven that the warning was there for a reason. Liquefaction which followed a huge earthquake in Central Sulawesi, swallowed most of Petobo area. Its land structure came back into how it used to be, muddy and swampy.

Other than warnings, a lot of areas in Central Sulawesi are named after prior disasters. It is done to warn the next generation that the area is prone to a certain disaster so that they are well prepared to face the disaster.

The village of Rogo was destroyed by a natural disaster before, it was then named Rogo which means destroyed. There are also an area named Tompe meaning the overflowed sea water as a result of tide; Kaombona meaning fallen land which was hit by tsunami in 1927; and Palu which means risen land.

Environment Protection

Another knowledge that local languages have is the knowledge to protect the environment. As the issue of climate change is raising, local wisdom related to environment protection is being studied more seriously. Our ancestors had done practiced traditions that without they realized it, had helped in protecting the environment.

Suku Laut people have the Pantang Larang tradition. This oral tradition forbids people who are going to catch fish at the sea to refrain themselves from cutting certain trees and catching certain sea creatures.

Not cutting trees for sure helps trees to grow tall and fight pollution while not catching certain sea creatures will help those creatures to breed and avoid extinction

There is also a belief told in local language in Bajo related to the coral reef in the area. People of Bajo believe that the coral reef is the home of ghost spirits and people should not treat it badly. This tradition helps in preserving the coral reef in the area.

Knowledge on biodiversity

As it has been mentioned before, Indonesia is also rich in biodiversity. There are a significant number of species in Indonesia that have not been scientifically identified. These species might already have names in local languages. If our local languages are gone, the knowledge related to these plants and animals will be gone too.

In Central Java, there is a type of fruit that smells good named Kepel. Kepel in Javanese language means a fist. It is as big as an adult fist. It is no longer easy to find this fruit. People from outside of Java do not know this fruit and when Javanese language is gone, people might no longer know what fruit it is as well as whether or not the fruit is edible.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tree with lots of red fruits under it. No one dared to eat the fruit. They said it is not edible, until I met someone who knew the name of the fruit in her local language. She said it is edible although it is very sour. Those two fruits are only some of great numbers of species we have in Indonesia.

After looking at the richness of Indonesia local languages, shouldn’t we be more aware on how precious they are? Shouldn’t we start paying more attention to their vitality? Let us follow the slogan ‘Prioritize Bahasa Indonesia, master foreign languages, and preserve local languages.” It is not enough to only do one of them.

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Located in Indonesia, one of the fastest-growing digital economies in Southeast Asia, PeMad provide translation and localization services in more than 20 languages. We combine translation and research-based cultural adaptation to deliver the best results for global clients.