BULUT OR BASAH? WHICH WET IS PRESERVED? AN INVESTIGATION OF DISAPPEARING ACEHNESE ADJECTIVES AMONG YOUNG SPEAKERS

Abstract

Purpose of the study: This study was aimed at finding out the potentially disappearing adjectives in Acehnese and the reasons that may contribute to the disappearance by looking at the backgrounds of participants and their language use. Methodology: This is a sociolinguistic study employing questionnaires, wordlist interviews, and focus group interviews (FGI) as methods of data collection. Fifty Acehnese adjectives extracted from the Swadesh list were tested to 10 younger speakers (age 13-14), who were selected out of 113 respondents who returned the questionnaires. The selection criteria are considered to include age, origin, and parents’ origin. The respondents were all students of years 7 and 8 of a junior high school in a suburban area of Banda Aceh, considered the hot spot for the contact between Indonesian language speakers and Acehnese language speakers. Responses of the 10 participants interviewed were qualitatively analyzed to get the insights and circumstances of the use of the targeted adjectives. Main Findings: The findings of this study show that 50% of the number of tested words was only known to 50% of the participants interviewed. While the other half of the participants show varied knowledge and understanding of the tested adjectives, the questionnaire response also indicates that these young speakers’ rather negative attitudes toward the Acehnese point to the decreasing domains of language use. Applications of this study: The finding of this study is expected to contribute to the field of sociolinguistics in the way that it informs about the status and vitality of Acehnese Language from the specific segment of its speakers, which can be taken into consideration in the language policymaking. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study looks at which vocabulary items (from Swadesh list) are still known to the younger speakers of Acehnese. Specifically, this study focused on the adjectives in Acehnese, which are still familiar to the speakers and which are not.