Bandarlampung - Hundreds of the country`s 746 local languages will disappear forever unless the central and local governments work together to preserve them, a symposium heard.
This warning was heard at the two-day Congress of Local Languages in Western Indonesia, held from Nov. 12-13 and attended by some 150 participants from across the country.
Head of the Lampung Language Office, Agus Sri Danardana, said unless serious efforts were taken to preserve local languages, some 370 of 746 local languages across the country might soon vanish.
"Several local languages have started to vanish. They are threaten by rapid changes within the community in this global era," Danardana said.
The central and local governments, he said, must take real action, involving all stakeholders, including customary institutions and social organizations.
Congress participants said among the actions that needed to be taken was the formulation of standard languages for each region and researching various aspects of local languages and literature.
Efforts should also be made to document local languages and literature to help people appreciate and improve their skills in local languages.
The congress said support was needed for a draft bill to help protect, preserve and develop local languages.
It also underlined the need to empower institutions, customary institutions and local media to help preserve local languages.
Congress participants -- comprising language experts, cultural observers and teachers of local languages -- also urged provinces to issue ordinances to support local languages.
A linguist at the University of Indonesia, Multamia Lauder, attributed the declining popularity of local languages to the use of the national language as the sole medium of instruction in schools.
"In this matter, inter-generation transmission is one of the key factors for language existence.
"For us in Indonesia, schools should not only develop Bahasa Indonesia, but it should go together with regional and foreign language lessons," said Lauder.
He also said the lack of local language speakers and their negative attitude toward their own languages was speeding up the disappearance of these languages.
"In eastern Indonesia where there are fewer people than in western Indonesia, the number of local languages is higher, but most of them are at risk of vanishing," said Lauder.
Across the country, the number of local language speakers varies.
Javanese has the most speakers, with around 75 million. The Enggano language in Sumatra has 1,000 speakers, Punan Merah in Kalimantan has 137 speakers, Dusner in Papua has six speakers and Hukumina in Maluku has just one known speaker.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com (15 November 2007)
