Languages of Indonesia

P.W.J. Nababan

Map showing the languages of

Indonesia

I. Sociolinguistic Profile of Indonesia

II. Characteristic Structures of
Indonesian Languages
III. Sociocultural Context of Indonesian
Languages

I. Sociolinguistic Profile of Indonesia

*Indonesia has a complex sociolinguistic situation
*There are at least 400 languages (language and
dialect). These languages are not at all the same in
size or in sociocultural importance, but they are all
legally the same, with the sole exception of
Indonesian.
*The most important and uniquely placed language is
Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, which was declared
the state language by the 1945 Constitution, Section
XV, Article 36
*It is the national language and the only official
language in Indonesia

Halim (1976) formulates the functions of the

Indonesian languages as follows:
(1) As the national language, it functions as:
(i) the symbol of national pride
(ii) the symbol of national identity
(iii) a tool to enable the unification of the various
ethnic groups with different cultural backgrounds
and languages into a unified Indonesian nation,
and
(iv)as a tool for inter-regional and inter-cultural
communication

(2) As the state language, it functions as:

(i)the official language of the state
(ii) the medium of instruction in education
(iii) the tool for communication on the
national level for the planning and
implementation of national development and
governmental affairs; and
(iv) the tool for the development of culture,
science and technology

*Vernaculars- the other indigenous

language of Indonesia
- the greatest number of the population
about ninety percentstart life
speaking one of the vernaculars,
learning Indonesian later on usually in
primary school (in particular Hokkien,
Hakka and Cantonese, Tamil, etc)

Foreign languages
- Among them English is the most important
*English was selected by the Government as the language of
wider communication at the beginning of Independence
*It has occupied a special position in the country as the only
compulsory foreign language subject in public schools
*Other foreign languages learnt in certain schools are German,
French, Japanese, Russian, Mandarin and some others. Of these
languages, only German and French are fairly widely taught in
the upper cycles of secondary .
*Dutch occupies a special position, as it is used by a fair number
of the older generation and is being learnt as a spoken language
in private courses (in the larger urban centers) by an increasing
number of younger people, mostly women.

Linguistic Diversity
*Indonesia is a country made up of a
plurality of ethnic groups, cultures and
languages.
*The great diversity of languages is
reflected in the nations motto Unity
in Divesity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika)

*Indonesia is the worlds largest archipelago, extending over

4,500 kilometers along the equator, with a population of over
130 million.
*Due to the great number of languages spoken in the country
and the great variety of sociocultural systems, Indonesia is
considered one of the worlds sociolinguistics giants
*In spite of this multi-lingualism, there is homogeneity in that
most of the population is of the same (Malay-Indonesian) ethnic
stock and more than ninety percent of the Indonesians speak
languages of the Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language
family

*The Malay-Indonesian peoples migrated to the Indonesian islands

from the Southeast Asian mainland in two waves distinguished as
Proto-Malay and Deutero-Malay.
*There they mingled with, and largely assimilated with, and
replaced peoples of various ethnic groups which had already been
residents in the area---who were of Negrito, Veddoid, and
Melanesoid stock.
*It has been the tradition to assume that Southeast Asia, peninsular
and insular, has been mostly a receiver of cultural developments
originating elsewhere.
*It is known that by the beginning of the Christian era, Indonesian
seamen and traders ventured as far north as China and as far west
as the coast of Africa, and were in regular contact with these distant
localities.

*The major outside influences on the development of

Indonesian culture have been Indian (Hindu), Islamic, and
European (first Portuguese, then Dutch).
*There has been considerably migratory movement of ethnic
groups in the archipelago, leading among other things to
considerable language diversity in comparatively small areas.
*For this reason, multilingualism is the norm among
Indonesians.
*Bahasa Indonesia, based on Malay, has been adopted as the
national language and is being rapidly spread throughout the
country, being used as medium of instruction in all schools
from primary level upward.

Language Classifications (sources consulted are: the

population census of 1971, Roberts (1962), Noss (1967), Le Bar
(1972), and Halim and Latief (1973)
A.Sumatra
*There is considerable diversity of language and culture in
Sumatra. The coastal areas of the island were strongly influenced
by successive outside contacts,
- beginning with the Hindu influence from India
- the Malayu kingdom of the fifth century
- the Srivijaya empire from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries
- the influence of the Islamic religion
- then the influence of the Portuguese and still later the Dutch
from Europe

*Trade contacts also brought some influence of the Chinese and West
Asia. These contacts never took the form of a large influx of people;
therefore Indonesia can be considered as not significantly influenced by
outside physical traits.
*The interior of the island, because of the difficult terrain and isolationist
attitudes of the inhabitants, was less affected by these influences.
1. Achehnese: 1.75 million speakers in the province of Aceh,
northernmost Sumatra; very similar to the Cham languages of Indochina.
2. Gayo/Alas: 200,000 speakers in the interior of Aceh province; Alas
speakers are a smaller group.
3. Batak: 2.6 million speakers in north-central Sumatra, centering on Lake
Toba; five major dialects of varying degrees of closeness---Mandailing,
Toba, Simalungan, KaroDairi (Pakpak).

4. Minangkabau: 3.3 million speakers, in the west-central highland part of Sumatra

5. Kerinchi: There are 186,000 speakers of a number of related languages similar
to Minangkabau, of which Kerinchi (76, 000 speakers) is the most important.
6. Batin : a group of about 70,000 people, of mixed ethnic origin.
7. Pekal: 14,000 people of mixed ethnic origin, speaking a language closely related
to Minangkabau, with Rejang influence.
8. Rejang: in Southwestern Sumatra, 207,000 speakers; closely related to Malay.
9. Lembak: 30,000 speakers, closely related to Malay; has same traditional script
as Rejang.
10. Pasemah: a group of 84,000 speaking a number of related Malay dialects

11. Lampung: designates a group of Malay dialects

spoken by about 500,000 people in southern Sumatra.
12. Sikhule: spoken on Simalur island, off northwest
Sumatra.
13. Simalur: also on Simalur island
14. Nias: 372,000 speakers on Nias island, off the
western coast of Sumatra.
15. Mentawei: 20,000 speakers of various dialects
16. Engganese: small number of speakers on the
island of Enggano off South Sumatra, where the bulk of
the population is Malay, Javanese and Chinese.

B. Java
*The island of Java is the most heavily populated island of
the archipelago. It contains more than half of the
population of the country. There is however, much less
linguistic diversity among this population than in the
other areas of the country.
1. Javanese: the latest census (1971) says there are 47.4
million speakers of Javanese. The language has a literary
tradition that goes back to the eleventh century, in the
classic language known as Kawi (Old Javanese), with an
indigenous script. Javanese is distinguished by a complex
system of speech levels governed by social usage.

2. Madurese: 7.4 million speakers on the island of

Madura and in northeastern Java
3. Sundanese: 21.6 million speakers in western Java.
4. Jakarta Malay: a special Jakarta dialect of Malay
spoken by the local population.
5. Tenggerese: 16,000 speakers. The language is an
archaic form of Javanese.
6. Baduy: 1,500 speakers in Kendeng mountain area
of West Java.
7. Barweanese: 48,000 speakers on Bawean island,
north of Madura; the language of Madurese.

C. Bali
Balinese: two million speakers on the island of Bali,
and 60,000 on Lombok.
D. Lombok, Sumbawa
1. Sasak: 1.6 million speakers on the island of
Lombok.
2. Sumbawan: 242,000 speakers in western Sumbawa
3. Bimanese: 300,000 speakers in eastern Sumbawa.
4. Donggo and Sanggar: small groups in eastern
Sumbawa

E.NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR (SOUTHESTERN ISLANDS)

I.FLORES AND BANDA SEAS AREA
1.Sumbanese: 242,000 speakersEastern Sumbanese
(Kambera), and Western Sumbanese (Waijewa) with about
equal numbers of speakers
2. Sawunese: 33,000 speakers in the Sawu group of
islands, plus about 6,000 speakers on Sumba and Timor
islands.
3.Manggarai: 220,000 speakers in the western part of the
island of Flores.
4. Ngada: 144,000 speakers on the south coast of Flores
island.

5. Sikanese: 189,000 speakers in eastcentral Flores island

6. Ende: 179,000 speakers in southcentral Flores island.
7. Solorese: 130,000 speakers on
Eastern Flores island and on the
islands of Solor, Adonara and Lomblen.

II. ALOR AND PANTAR ISLANDS

*The coastal areas of these islands are occupied by immigrants
from other islands; the interior areas however, are occupied by
a diversity of language groups.
*These interior groups, although of Oceanic negroid physical
type, speak Malayo-Polynesian languages. These languages
include: Adang, Kawel, Abul, Kelong, Kamang, Kolana and KulKramang (all on Alor island); and Belagar, Nedebang, Deing,
Manta, and Lemme (on Pantar island).
*Total speakers of these languages are about 90,000. There are
also small groups of speakers of Papuan languages on these
islands.

III. Timor Archipelago

*The island of Timor contains at least fourteen different languages
*Some of these languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family,
for example, Atomi, Waikeno, Tetun, Galali, Mambai, Takoda, Idate.
Others are Papuan languages, for example, Makassai, kairui, Bunak.
*On the island of Roti, there are some 70,000 speakers of Rotinese,
and another 30,000 on Timor and Senau.
*On the very small (9 kilometers) island of Ndao, 12 kilometres
offshore from Roti, there are about 2,000 speakers of Ndaonese,
most of whom also speak Rotinese.

F. KALIMANTAN (BORNEO)
*The island of Kalimantan including Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei
is recognized as having been a cultural crossroads of prehistoric
and early historic times.
*there is considerable ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity in
the area.
1. Dusun: the term kadazan is also used, and Islamized Dusun
are known as Idahan; about 150,000 speakers. The word
Dusun means upriver people and is often used to indicate
___location rather than language.
2. Murut: the term murut is a word meaning hill people. It is
used by coastal people in Sarawak and Sabah to designate
groups living in the interior areas of Sarawak and Sabah and
extending across the border of Kalimantan.

(a)Idahan Murut: 35,000 speakers of a group of six languages (These

languages are related to Dusun, and resemble Philippine languages.
(b) Kelabit Murut: scattered groups, possibly 20,000 total, living along the
area of the border of Kalimantan with Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei.
3.Tidung: number is uncertain since they are generally classified as Murut
in census data. Tidung refers to a group of people rather than a language;
there seems to be no homogeneity of language.
4.Kenyah-Kayan-Kajang: a group of closely related languages, spoken by
about 100,000 people in central Borneo, including interior Sarawak. Some of
these groups appear to have lost, or to be in the process of losing.
5. Punan: less than 3,000 speakers, who are nomadic or semi-nomadic
forest-dwellers in central Kalimantan

6. Iban: 238,000 speakers living mostly in Sarawak, plus an unknown

number in Kalimantan.
7. Banjarese; in the area around the town of Bandjamasin and coastal
areas of central south coast of Sumatra.
8. Ngaju Dayak: large group in Central Kalimantan; has become a
widespread and standard form, chiefly due to its adoption for translation,
missionary activity, and school instruction by Dutch missionaries.
9. Maanyan Dayak: 35,000 speakers in South and Central Kalimantan.
10. Ot Danum Dayak: 30,000 speakers in Central and West Kalimantan, in
upriver territory.
11. Bidayuh: often called Land Dayak; 20,000 speakers in western and
southern Kalimantan and also in Sarawak.

G. SULAWESI (CELEBES)
*The island of Sulawesi is a transition area between the MalayoPolynesian languages of the Indonesian type and of the Philippine type.
1.Sanghir-Taland: 329,000 speakers . The languages are clearly related
to languages spoken in Mindanao and the Sulu area in the Philippines.
2. Minahesa: 777,000 speakers of a group of dialects and closely
related languages of the Philippine type in extreme northeast Sulawesi.
3.Belaang-Mongondow: 210,000 speakers, various dialects, Philippine
type language, Northern Sulawesi.
4.Gorontalo: 490,000 speakers, North Sulawesi. There is considerable
dialect diversity, with four principal dialect groups which might be
considered distinct languages.

5. Tomini: 50,000 speakers, North Sulawesi; various distinct dialects

(for example Tialo, Tajio, Lauje).
6. Toraja: toraja or kingly people is not a language designation but
rather designates the groups of people of central Sulawesi There are
there distinct language groups in the Toraja area:
a. Western Toraja: in interior central Sulawesi, 180,000 speakers of a
very diverse group of dialects (at least 32, in four principal
subgroups)
b. Eastern Toraja: the language of this area is called Baree, spoken
by 100,000 with comparatively little dialect diversity, in east-central
Sulawesi.
c. Southern Toraja (Saadan Toraja): southwestern and central
Sulawesi; 300,000 speakers.

7. Loinang (Madi): 14,500 in eastern Sulawesi and offshore islands, Philippine type
8. Balantak (Sian): 11,000 in eastern Sulawesi
9. Banggai (Aki): 2000,000 on islands of Banggai
Archipelago, off Eastern Sulawesi
10. Mori: 12,000speakers, central Sulawesi, Philippine
type
11. Tolaki: 100,000 speakers, southeastern peninsula of
Sulawesi, Philippine elements.
12. Bungku: 14,000 speakers, East Sulawesi, along Gulf
of Tolo. Mori, Tolaki, and Bungku are closely related
languages.

13. Maromene: small group at extreme southeastern

Sulawesi, and on island of Kabaeno.
14. Buginese/ Makassarese: two closely related languages,
often put together for classification (for example, in
Indonesian census). There are 4 million speakers of the two
languages. Makassarese speakers are in the area centering
on Ujung Pandang (Makassar) city, in South Sulawesi;
Buginese speakers are located in South Sulawesi, north of
Makassar territory.
15. Muna-Buton: two closely related languages spoken by
some 154,000 people, on islands off the southeastern coast
of Sulawesi. Butonese has a written literature. There is a
special official dialect, called Wolio, which is spoken by the
nobility of the territory.

H. MALUKU (MOLUCCAS)
I. SOUTHERN MALUKU ISLANDS
*This area contains eleven groups of islands lying between
Irian (New Guinea) and Timor. Total population of the area is
about 125,000; they are mixed of Malay and Papuan stock
but all the languages of the area seem to be of the MalayoPolynesian family.
II. CENTRAL MALUKU
*The predominant language of this territory is Ambonese. It
is spoken by 75,000 people on Ambon and adjacent islands.
* In the interior especially of the island of Ceram there are
various groups collectively referred to as Alfur (for example ,
Alune, Bonfia, Manusela, Seti, Wemale).

III. HALMAHERA
*The population of the area is about 372,000.
*Comparatively, little is known about the island situation of
Halmahera and adjacent islands. There may be as many as thirty
languages on Halmahera island.
*The people of Northern Halmahera speak languages which do not
belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family. Among these are Ternatan,
Tidorese, Lada, Galelarese, Tobolorese, Sahu, Pagu, and Kau
* The people of southern Halmahera speak Malayo-Polynesian
languages, among which are: Buli, Maba, Patani, Weda, Sawai,
Makianese, Kajoanese, and to the South, the Sula-Bacahnese group
of languages.
*The most prominent languages are Ternatan (42,000 speakers)
and Tidorese (26,000 speakers)

I. WEST IRIAN
* Little is yet known about this area and meaningful overall
classifications of linguistic and other cultural characteristics
are not possible.
*They belong however, to two major language families.
*Along the southern coast and off-shore islands, the
languages are of the Malayo-Polynesian family; there are
more than twenty languages in this area, each spoken by
quite small numbers of speakers (for example Misoi,
Kalabra, Mor, Biak, Nimboran).
*The predominant language of the coastal areas of West
Irian is a dialect of Malay (allied to Ambon Malay), spoken
by groups of Coastal Malays scattered throughout the area.

*This Malay dialect also served as a regional lingua franca,

spoken by groups of Coastal Malays.
*No estimate of the number of languages found in this
territory can be made, although the number is probably
over one hundred.
J. SCATTERED LANGUAGE GROUPS
*There are three groups rather widely scattered about the
territory, without any definite home territory. These are:
1.Moken (Orang Laut): scattered small groups, on coastal
areas and off-shore island of SouthernBurma, Riau islands,
east Sulawesi, north and east Kalimantan (Borneo), the
Moluccas, and the north coast of Flores, Sumbawa, and
Adonara islands.

2. Coastal Malays: the 1971 Census

indicates 13.7 million Malay speakers in
coastal areas, especially in East Sumatra,
Riau islands, Kalimantan, and West Irian.
3.Chinese: there are about 3 million Chinese
speakers in the archipelago, chiefly
speakers of Hokkien and Hakka, residing
especially in the port cities and urban
centers of Java, Sumatra, and even western
Kalimantan.

B. CHARACTERISTIC STRUCTURES
OF INDONESIAN LANGUAGES
*Most of the Indonesian languages are of MalayoPolynesian (Austronesian) stock.
*The differences between them range from fairly
high mutual intelligibility (simple correspondence,
for example, between Indonesian and Minangkabau)
to zero mutual intelligibility (for example, between
Gayo and Kia). On the whole, the degree of mutual
intelligibility is low.
*This linguistic fragmentation is still more severe
than in Europe, which is considered one of the areas
of the highest linguistic fragmentation in the world.

*This curiously, seems to have one factor for the

ready acceptance of Indonesian as the national
language, as the speakers of most of the
languages in Indonesia face the same difficulty (or
ease) in learning Indonesian as a second language.
*A summary description is given below of the
correspondences between Indonesian and
Minangkabau and a short comparative list between
Indonesian and Batak I(whose difference will be in
the middle rangelist 2)

SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT OF INDONESIAN LANGUAGES

Multilingualism
*So far, no extensive study has been made of the extent and
patterns of bilingualism and multilingualism Indonesia.
*It is clear, however that practically everybody is a bilingual
in the cities and towns of Indonesia
*In many cases, people speak three Indonesian languages,
sometimes with one or more foreign languages in addition
(with the older generation, the foreign language is often
Dutch; with younger people, it will likely be the English).
*The above remarks do not imply that the level of proficiency
will be the same in all the languages one speaks. However,
the proficiencies of an educated person bilingual in his first
language and Indonesian could be considered equally high

*The first language is most often used in personal,

intimate and affective domains and Indonesian in
more formal and public domains.
Language Attitudes
*Through a lucky combination of accidents of history,
geographical proximity of different languages, and
natural disposition, Indonesians have acquired a
relatively high degree of linguistic tolerance.
*Generally speaking, people take the funny ways
of speaking of other people without too much
annoyance.

*This tolerance has greatly helped in the ready

acceptance of Bahasa Indonesia as the national
language.
*The different ethnic groups of Indonesia do have the
common, and perhaps healthy amount of, prejudice
against other ethnic groups.
*However, these prejudices are generally expressed
in cultural and character stereotypes rather than
linguistic ones; that is, people more often express
dislike of the other ethnic groups food, customs,
behavior, etc, rather than the sound of their
language.

Language Usage Patterns

*Except in the remotest areas among the older generations,
bilingualism or multilingualism is the most common linguistic
pattern in Indonesia, especially among the younger people who
have gone through school
*As mentioned previously, the most common pattern is of
course the vernacular (that is, home language) and Indonesian.
*The situation is usually diglossic, the vernacular being used for
certain domains of interaction and Indonesian for others.
*An interesting phenomenon is the fact that certain people,
especially the uneducated (older) people , may have only a
certain level of receptive competence in Indonesian without any
productive ability to speak of the other language

*A special case of multilingualism that seems to be

growing in number can be found in the inter-ethnic or
inter-lingual family.
*The very common result is that Bahasa Indonesia
becomes the predominant language in the home with
either one or both of the parents vernaculars as the
secondary languages.
*The spread of Bahasa Indonesia throughout the
country and into all levels and sectors of society
through education, commerce and the civil service
has resulted in a sharp increase in multilingualism
among the whole population.

*For the literate population, especially in urban centers,

competence in three languages (vernacular, Indonesian
and other vernacular) is common.
*It will be clear that in addition to the normal code
switching, they have a great deal of code-mixing in
Indonesia. Code mixing may involve Indonesian and a
vernacular, Indonesian and a foreign language. This codemixing is a phenomenon only among the more educated
people.
*Closely related to code-switching and code-mixing is the
change that may be found in the speech habits of a
person, especially in the context of migration to urban
centers or to other language areas of the country.

Language Contact and Interference

*Since antiquity, the languages in Indonesia came in
contact with other languages through trade and
culture contacts.
*These contacts resulted in the adoption of artifacts
and religious practices which brought with them new
words and thus caused linguistic changes called
interference (Weinreich, 1953).
*The earliest source of linguistic change (around the
beginning of the Christian era ) was Sanskrit,
especially in the realm of religion (Hinduism) and
astrology.

*Bahasa Indonesia clearly shows the influence of

culture contacts.
*This is only natural as Bahasa Indonesia came
to be used in talking about and expressing the
life styles of the various ethnic groups and
cultures.
*Bahasa Indonesia has naturally also been
influenced by the vernaculars in the areas of
grammar and phonology, as the speakers tend to
transfer some grammatical patterns to their
Bahasa Indonesia.

Key to Symbols Used (Slight Modification of

Ferguson, (1962)
1. According to Status:
M= major language: a language which is spoken as a native language by
at least one million people (even though this is less than 25% of the
population)
S= secondary language: a language which does not meet the criterion of
a major language, but is spoken as a native language by more than
100,000.
m= Minor language
1. Spoken by less than 100,000 people
2. Not used as a medium of education, and has no significant written
production
Sp= Language of Special Status: a language, either classical or
modern, having a special but non-official status or function.

II. According to Function

1. g= Group language: used primarily for
communication within a particular speech community,
making it as an identifiable group in the nation
2. o= Official language designated by law as a
language in which government business may or must
be transacted, or which may or must be used for
education. May be official in a region, or in a nation.
3. w= Language of wider communication: used for
communication between different language groups;
lingua franca within a nation

4.e= language of education: used as medium

of instruction, has subject matter textbooks
printed in it.
5.r= language of religion: language used in
religious services
6.i= international language: language used by
members of the population for communication
beyond national boundaries
7.s= study language: language widely studied
in the schools as a subject (not medium of
instruction)

III. According to use in Writing

WO- not normally used for written
purposes
W1- used for personal written purposesletters
W2- used for other normal written
purposes- newspapers, books
W3- used regularly for publication of
original research in science, technology, etc.

Language in Education

*The two important categories of language in education are medium of

instruction (MI) and language taught as a subject (LS).
*Another interesting categorization is local languages (L1). Bahasa
Indonesia and vernaculars) and foreign languages (FL).
*Bahasa Indonesia is used as a medium of instruction from Kindergarten
to University
*In the first three years of primary school, the local vernacular may be
used as the medium of instruction;
*only nine of the major vernaculars are used as medium of instruction,
namely Achehnese, Batak, Minangkabau, Sundanese, Javanese, Madurese,
Balinese, Sasak, Makassarese/ Buginese.

*In a small number of Islamic religious schools (pesantren),

Arabic may be used as medium of Instruction , often
supplemented by the vernacular or Indonesian.
*Bahasa Indonesia is taught in primary schools (all standards), in
secondary schools (all forms), and one year in the university
(except of course, in Indonesian departments where the various
skills in the language are taught throughout the programme).
*The teaching of Indonesian has not been very successful,
mainly because too much emphasis is put on formal grammar
and not enough attention is given to the language arts and
communicative competence.

*Foreign languages may be taught beginning from the first year of

secondary schools (grade 7). The foreign languages that may be offered
are: English, German, French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, and Arabic.
*In certain university, other foreign languages may be taught: Dutch,
Spanish, Latin and Ancient Greek.
*English is a compulsory foreign language subject in secondary schools,
taught at an average of 120 hours a year.
*It is also taught in the first (freshman) year of university and other
tertiary institutions at an average of two hours a week; the major
objective is to enable the students to read scientific textbooks, that is
for academic purposes.

Language Functions
*Indonesian to some extent is also used for
international communication between Indonesia
and Malaysia.
*English is the designated language of wider
communication for the country. It is the language
used in international sociopolitical and scientific
contacts and commerce.
*The vernaculars are used for intra-group
purposes: Bahasa Indonesia is used for intergroup communication.

*The only official language in Indonesia is Bahasa

Indonesia. However, on the village level a great deal
of official business, administrative and judicial, has
still to be transacted in the local language because
of the inability of many villagers to understand or
speak Indonesian.
*The country is taking a pragmatic attitude towards
this situation; and it is envisaged that a gradual
increase in the use of Bahasa Indonesia on this level
will take place when the younger people who have
gone through the educational system start replacing
their elders on village councils.

*Despite the rapid increase of the practical use of Bahasa

Indonesia in Urban households and in village-level official
business, it is not envisaged that the vernaculars, except those
with only a handful of speakers, will never die out.
*In fact, the constitution (Explication of Section XV, Article 36)
guarantees the preservation of those vernaculars that are
properly maintained by their speakers.
*There has also been no public effort to discourage people to
use any of the vernaculars. In short, it can be said that
Language is not a sociopolitical problem in Indonesia and was
not an issue in any of the secession movements of the 1950s.

Thank you for your indulgence