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group of young people were hanging out by a corner of a city college campus in Central Jakarta. Cigarettes, beers and snacks were served on the table to keep them company after class.

The meeting was composed of everyday conversation, poking fun at each other and singing to the latest radio hits.

Then a guy came and joined the conversation and began asking questions in a language that sounded different, but they could understand: Mau maks, bleh? Gue mau beli maks. In English this roughly translates to “Do you want to eat guys? I want to buy some food now”).

One of them gave this reply: Yoi, bleh! Jangan woles ya (Yes, sure, but don’t take too long). Then the other replied: OKs bro, Gue cabs dulu (sure guys, I am going now).

It is this jumble of sounds and borrowed terms that some in the city call the language of Alay, short for Anak Layangan (Children of Kite), the term used to refer to the group of teens from a certain social bracket who speak the language.

A university student, who gave his name as Ablay, 25, fluent in Bahasa Alay, also known as Bahasa Tongkrongan (informal street language) or Bahasa Gaul, told The Jakarta Post it was widely used and that different groups have their own styles.

“Groups for instance, can use either lo, loch or lau, even though they have the same meaning, ‘you’,” he said. “Loch is normally used by high school students whereas lau is prevalent among youths in Depok, West Java.”

But others are free to use any version they like. “Even Luna Maya used lau when she was still the host of Dahsyat,” he said, referring to the famous television personality hosting one of the most-watched music programs on television.

These words can even indicate the musical preference of their users. “Those who use lau are ones who are into punk, rock, emo and metal” he said.

And in a convention where only its users can understand, Bahasa Alay has its own rule. “In some words not only do we shorten them, we put ‘s’ behind the word such as maks for makan [eating],” he said.

Some other examples of the shortened type are braps (derived from berapa or how much), kemans (kemana or where to), gits deh (gitu deh or that’s the way it is), roks (rokok or cigarettes).

Another speaker, Gogot, 23, mentioned another rule, which completely reverses words’ structure.

Among samples of the new speak are rudit (derived from tidur or to sleep), woles (selow or to slow down), kobam (mabuk or getting drunk), naracap (pacaran or dating), and wece (cewe or girl)

“Eh, woles aje tuh bis (the bus is too slow),” Gogot gave an example.

Other styles do away with the original words and replace with new slang.

Some of these new words are kewets (girl), unyu (cute or sweet), toku (reference to an elder), cail/skub (weed), giting (to get drunk), skip/ngablu (hung over) and jayus (unfunny jokes).

Both Gogot and Ablay use the slang so much that they sometimes face problems speaking formal Bahasa Indonesia.

“We always talk like this with our peers, so we find it very difficult talking to those who do not understand our language,” Ablay said. The new language, however, gives them freedom. “By using our own language we feel that we are free from rules,” he said.

However, Ablay also admitted that the slang compromised their handle on Bahasa Indonesia.

Language expert Dendy Sugiono told the Post that the use of the new slang reflected the state of mind of youths today. “The use of such language will affect the youth’s way of thinking and character. Language is the tool by which they express themselves,” he said.

Dendy said some words of Bahasa Alay such as the word jablay (prostitute), were adopted by public figures, thinking it was cool, but using it with unintended consequences.

“Bahasa Alay allows users to be free from language rules by creating their own. This could be disregarding the proper language. There is no such thing as absolute freedom and that applies to language too.” (map)