F

ew young people in Banyumas, Central Java, may have heard of Ancas, a monthly magazine written in the local Javanese dialect of Banyumasan, colloquially called “Ngapak”.

Since its inaugural issue in April 2010, the magazine’s publisher has consistently used Banyumasan to deliver journalistic works to its readers.

“We are determined to preserve the use of Banyumasan as much as we can,” Banyumas Arts Council member and Ancas editor Bambang Wadoro said.

While Ancas, which means “goal”, may publish its articles in the local language, the magazine covers hot topics at the national level. “For the February edition, for instance, we chose International Mother Language Day as our main topic, while next month, we will cover National Film Day as our main topic,” said Bambang.

Local issues also get in-depth attention, such as the Banyumas election, which will be held simultaneously with 170 other regional elections in June.

Bali Post, the biggest local newspaper on the resort island, also has a mission to preserve the native language of the province. Since a decade ago, its publisher has dedicated four of its pages to articles written in Balinese.

“If the Balinese language goes extinct, the Balinese culture will also go extinct,” Bali Post editor-in-chief I Nyoman Wirata said.

Linguistics expert Rahayu Surtiati said one of best ways to preserve a language was through documentation, such as literature and local lore.

In one of her research projects, Rahayu found that an undocumented language would gradually see a decline in the number of its speakers, especially amid the era of globalization.

“A local language will survive if it is documented. One of the key ways of preserving a dialect is by creating an alphabet for the language,” Rahayu said, adding many languages in Indonesia did not have a unique alphabet.

Sandi Firly said the Banjar language of Kalimantan had more than 4 million active speakers. This was one of the few local languages that survived through literature, thanks to the Banjar ancestors who used it in folklore and poetry, such as the legendary Hikayat Banjar epic, a chronicle of the ancient kings of Kalimantan.

“We have contemporary works of literature too, such as the stories of Palui, who is similar to Kabayan, an inspirational, comical figure in the Sundanese culture,” said Sandi, a local author.

Palui was still preserved in a column of the Banjarmasin Post newspaper.

The Culture and Education Ministry’s language agency head, Dadang Sunendar, said language preservation involved three concentric levels — family, formal education and society — and stressed the need to reinforce teaching local dialects and languages in schools.

The ministry had identified 652 local dialects by October 2017 and assessed 71 languages, 11 of which have gone extinct.

A success story on teaching the local language can be found in Jambu in Central Java’s Semarang where five Islamic schools have been teaching the Javanese language as part of its school curriculum since two years ago.

“We teach this language because it contains the moral values of the Javanese people, such as to respect our elders,” said Jambu subdistrict head Edi Sukarno.

About 10 villages in the region, he said, had started the same program.

The use of Kaili, the native language of the Kaili people in Palu, Central Sulawesi, is also in decline. Kaili is the primary language of the indigenous culture, but at least 21 sub-ethnic groups use languages that were derived from Kaili.

Aiming to preserve the language, local daily Media Alkhairaat (MAL) created a dedicated column called “Palu Eo-Eo”, which publishes sociopolitical satire written in Kaili.

“We write about the increasing price of fish, for example,” MAL chief editor Darlis Muhammad said, adding that the column was highly popular among local figures.

In Kampung Enggros, a village of 600 on the shores of Youtefa Bay, Jayapura, the local language is being preserved through the efforts of Adri Mearudje, 62, a concerned resident who voluntarily teaches the endangered Enggros language twice a month to the children.

“The younger people here are no longer using our language anymore, even though they still live here,” said Adri. “If I allow it to continue, when us old people are gone, nobody will speak Enggros anymore,” she said. (srs)

— Aman Rochman in Malang, Arya Dipa in Bandung, Ganug Nugroho Adi in Surakarta, Nethy Dharma Somba in Jayapura, Ruslan Sangadji in Palu and Suherdjoko in Semarang contributed to this story.