Ujung Pandang: a Brief Sociolinguistic Overview |
As the administrative, commercial, and educational center of east Indonesia, Ujung Pandang has a diverse multiethnic population. While the lingua franca is unquestionably Malay/Indonesian, many regional languages are also widely used in city. Most belong to the South Sulawesi stock, although with a little effort one can locate speakers of many other languages.
Ujung Pandang is situated near the center of the old Makassarese kingdom of Gowa, and the Makassarese probably still form the largest ethnic group in the city. Since the 1980s, specialists have considered Makasar (Makassarese) to be a language family, rather than a single language. The largest member of this family is Makasar (proper), which is widely spoken in Ujung Pandang. The predominant dialect is Gowa (Lakiung), considered by many to be the most prestigious. However, the Turatea dialect is also widely used in Ujung Pandang, not least because most becak (pedicab) drivers hail from the regency of Jeneponto, where this dialect is spoken.
Bugis, which is likewise classified as a language family of the South Sulawesi stock, is also widely spoken in Ujung Pandang. There are three languages in the Bugis family: Bugis, Malimpung, and Campalagian. Of these, Bugis is by far the most prominent, in South Sulawesi as whole as well as in Ujung Pandang. Bugis has many dialects, of which Bone and Soppeng are considered as the most prestigious. Both are widely spoken in Ujung Pandang.
The third major language family of the South Sulawesi stock is Northern South Sulawesi, whose most prominent members are Mandar and Sa'dan Toraja. There is a sizable Toraja community in Ujung Pandang, as well as smaller communities of speakers of Mandar and other languages of this family. However, language loyalty and maintenance among these communities is not as high as among the Bugis and the Makassar communities in Ujung Pandang.
Makasar, Bugis, and Mandar all employ a native script called 'lontara(k)' (from Malay lontar 'the palmyra palm', because leaves of this palm were used as writing material). Like other indigenous scripts of Indoensia, it is ultimately derived from Indic. However, unlike other indigenous alphabets, it is still in used for everyday communication purposes such as letter writing. Nevertheless, romanization is now being introduced in schools, where regional languages are sometimes used in rural areas as the means of instruction for the first two years (as well as being taught as a subject until sixth grade). Moreover, Malay/Indonesian is rapidly replacing regional languages as the only accepted means of written communication.
Since practically all speakers of Bugis, Makasar, and Mandar are Muslim, most have some knowledge of Arabic, although this is usually limited to mechanical recitation from the Qur'an, with little or no comprehension of the text.
As mentioned above, Malay/Indonesian is the indisputable lingua franca in Ujung Pandang. In fact, Malay has been spoken in the city for centuries. A Malay community has existed in the area since the days of the kingdom of Gowa, and played an important role in its conversion to Islam in the early 17th century. After the Dutch gained control of the city following the Makassar Wars (1667-69), there were reports of Dutch children speaking 'low Malay' rather than Dutch. A war epic, Syair Perang Mengkasar, was composed here, although it is in classical Malay rather than in the local variety of Malay.
Today, the Malay/Indonesian speech forms used in Ujung Pandang form a wide continuum. Basilectal forms are characterized by a heavy interference from Makasar (and to a much lower extent from Bugis), most conspicuous in the phonology: final nasals are all neutralized to [-ng], schwa is replaced by [o] (at the lowest end of the spectrum) or [a] (and occasionally [e]), /h/ is deleted word-finally (and word-initially as well, at the lower end of the continuum), etc. Even acrolectal speech forms, which may be considered as "good" Standard Indonesian lexically and morphosyntactically, still have a distinct South Sulawesi "accent". Moreover, all but the most formal speech forms incorporate a number of high-frequency pragmatic particles borrowed from Makasar, such as mi, mo, ji, and pi (these will discussed in a forthcoming symposium paper). The pronominal system has also undergone restructuring under the influence of Makasar, and includes several outright borrowings (e.g. ko and kik, respectively the neutral and honorific second person clitics). Arguably most confusing for visitors is the use of 'kita' as a second person pronoun, as well as a first person (singular as well as plural), modeled after the use of Makasar 'katte'.
Finally, Ujung Pandang is home to one of the oldest Chinese communities in east Indonesia. Several southern Chinese languages are spoken, although in many families Makasar or Malay/Indonesian are used as the home language. Some older members of the community also speak (and are sometimes even literate in) Mandarin. Some effort is now being made to introduce Pali as a liturgical language in Chinese temples, but this has not been altogether successful.