language

1. imandole
Rabu, 05 Mei 2010
LANGUAGE VARIETIES
1. Introduction
Communication will be running well if we use a medium. The medium that we use in
communication is always the language. Language is many things; it can be a system of
communication, a medium for thought, vehicle for literary expression, a matter for political
controversy, a catalyst for nation building (O’Grady & Dobrovolsky, 1989: 1 in Imansyah, 2008:
1).
The existence of language can’t be separated from human life. It can be seen from the fact that
all activities related to interaction among people necessitate a language. Language is an
important means of communication. Language reflects thinking; obviously we can’t say a
sentence until we have first thought of it. Often our thinking gets mixed with emotions and our
reasons become loaded with desires, wishes, prejudices, and opinions. The kind of thinking we
do is our business until we try to persuade someone else to agree to our point of view; then that
thinking becomes another’s business (Meade, et.al, 1961: 94).
Brown (1980) states that language is central to all communities of human beings. Holmes (1992)
states that every language represents the temple in which the speaker soul’s is his/her devote. It
seems that everything related to human life in society it involves language because it is through
the language that interaction among tribes, ethnics groups, and religions can happen. An
affirmation on the theory of language relativity which was postulated by Sapir and Whorf
maintained in that language is the national identity (Rampung, 2005). The forms and styles of
language that people speak are signified by individual identity. Burn, et. al. (1984) view language
as a cement of society, allowing people to live, work and play together, to tell truth or lies, and
to have knowledge and science.
The scope and diversity of human thought and experience place great demands on language.
Because communication is not restricted to a fixed set of topics, language must o something
more than provide a package of a ready-made message. It must enable us to produce and
understand new words, phrases, and sentences as the need arises. In short, human language
must be creative-allowing novelty and innovation in response to new thoughts, experiences, and
situation (O’Grady & Dobrovolsky, 1989: 1).

2. Language frees humans from the limits of time and place. It allows us to create culture. The
Wright brothers' successful flight did not come just from their own personal efforts. They built
their airplane according to principles of flight already existing in American culture. Through
language they could read, discuss, and recombine existing ideas and technology. Equipped with
language, humans can pass their experiences, ideas, and knowledge to others. Although it may
take time and repetition, children can be taught the dangers of fire and heights without being
burned or toppling down stairs. This process of social learning, of course, applies to other
cultural patterns as well, such as eating, showing patriotism, or staying awake in class.
According to Edward Sapir (1929) and Benjamin Whorf (1956), language is our guide to reality.
How we think about a thing relates to the number and complexity of words available to describe
that thing. In effect, our perceptions of the world depend in part on the particular language we
have learned. Since languages differ, perceptions differ as well. This theory is known as the
Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, or the hypothesis of linguistic relativity. What can vocabulary tell you
about a culture? When something is important to a society, its language will have many words
to describe it. The importance of time in American culture is reflected in the many words that
describe time intervals such as nanosecond, millisecond, moment, minute, hour, era, interim,
recurrent, century, light-year, afternoon, eternal, annual, meanwhile, and regularly, just to
name a few. When something is unimportant to people, they may not have even one word for
it. When Christian missionaries first went to Asia, they were dismayed because the Chinese
language contained no word for sin. Other missionaries were no less distressed to learn that
Africans and Polynesians had no word to express the idea of a single, all-powerful God. While
English has only a few words that describe snow, the Inuit (Eskimo) language has over twenty.
Does the hypothesis of linguistic relativity mean we are prisoners of our language?
Even if our view of the world is shaped largely by language, we are not forever trapped by our
own language. Exposure to another language or to new words can alter a person's perception of
the world. (This is one reason why it is important to avoid using racist slurs and stereotypical
labels.) People can begin to view the world differently as they learn a new language or
vocabulary. However, most people do confine themselves to the language and vocabulary they
learned from birth. They tend not to change their views of the world. You can either expand or
limit your outlook, depending upon how you use language.
Language, like other forms, has to be appropriate to the speaker using it. That is why, in many
communities, men and women’s speech is different. In other words, language varies not only
according to the social characteristics of the speaker, such as social class, age, sex, and ethnic
group, but also according to the social context in which he finds himself. The same speaker uses
different linguistic varieties in different situation, and for different purposes.
From the above elaboration, we can say that the context in communication is divided into two
categories. The first, context based on the social characteristics of the speaker. They can be
social class, age, sex, and ethnic group. The second, context based on the social context of the
speaker. They can be relationship/relative statues such as kinship relationship, intimacy, and

3. familiarity.
These two contexts play an important role in deciding the verbal repertoire (the totally linguistic
varieties used in different situation and for different purposes) in communication. According to
Hudson and Ferguson (Wardhaugh, 2002: 25), language variety is a specific set of linguistic items
or human speech patterns (sounds, words, grammatical features) which can uniquely associate
with some external factors (a geographical area or a social group). There are six types of
linguistic varieties in communication. They are dialect, accent, register, style, code-switching,
and diglossia (Trudgil, ).
Related to elaboration above, the writer will try to figure out and exemplify dialect, accent, and
code switching as language varieties.
2. Discussion
a. Dialect
Dialect is language varieties that are linguistically and generally and also politically linked to a
standardized language variety (Akmajian et. al, 1986; Luhman, 1990). Term dialect has generally
been used to refer to a subordinate variety of language. For example, we are accustomed to
saying the English language has many dialects. These dialects may be of different kind. A
regional dialect is a variety associated with a place. Dialects of a language tend to differ from
more from one another the more remote they are from one another geographically. In this
respect, the study of dialects or dialectology has to do with boundaries, which often coincide
with geographical features such as rivers and mountains (Romaine, 1994: 2). Boundaries are,
however, often of a social nature, for example, between different social class groups. In this
case, we may speak of social dialects. Social dialects say who we are and regional dialects where
we come from.
All people in the same place can talk to each other and for the most part understand each other.
Yet not two speak exactly alike. Some differences are due to the age, sex, state of health, size,
personality, emotional state, and personal idiosyncrasies (Fromkin, Rodman, Collins, and Blair;
1990: 245). That each person speaks somewhat differently form all others is shown by our
ability to recognize acquaintances by hearing them talk. The unique characteristic of the
language of an individual speaker are referred to as the speaker’s idiolect.
It is not always easy to decide whether the systemic differences between two speech
communities reflect two dialects or two languages. A rule of thumb definition can be used:
when dialects become mutually unintelligible-when the speakers of one dialect group can no
longer understand the speakers of another dialect groups-those dialect become different
languages. However, to define mutual intelligible is itself a difficult task.
Beyond these individual differences, the language of a group of people may show regular
variations from that used by other groups of speaker of that language. When the English of

4. speaker in different geographical regions and from different social groups shows systemic
differences, the groups are said to speak different dialects of the same language. The dialect of a
single language may thus be defined as mutually intelligible forms of a language that differ in
systemic ways from each other.
There are two kinds of dialect; they can be regional dialect and social dialect. Regional dialect is
geographically based. It means that a dialect that differs because of geographical area. The
differences can be in terms of pronunciation, choice of words, and syntax. Sasaknese, Lombok,
for instance, there exist five different regional dialects (Toir, 1993).. They are:
1. Ngeno-Ngene “that-this” dialect which is used by people around Aikmel, Pringgabaya,
Sembalun, Rempung, and Selong, located in East Lombok.
2. Nggeto-Nggete “that-this” dialect which is used by people around Suralaga, Wanasaba,
Sembalun Lawang, Sembalun Bumbung, and Ds. Lekong, located in East Lombok.
3. Meriaq-Meriqu “that-this” dialect which is used by people around Pujut, Bonkerok, and
Batujai, located in central and southern part Lombok.
4. Kuto-Kute “that-this” dialect which is used by people around Aikmel, Pringgabaya, Sembalun,
Rempung, and Selong, located in East Lombok.
5. Meno-Mene “that-this” dialect which is used by people around Pejanggik area and the
surrounding areas, located in West Lombok.
These five dialects lead to some variation of lexical item is Sasak community. These can be seen
in table bellow:
Dialect Kemarin Saya datang bicara rumah kamu sudah pergi
Meriak-Meriku uiq Aku leto baraqke balen side uah Lalo
Ngeno-Ngene Rubin Kami Dateng Bebadaq Balen Epe Wah Lalo
Kuto-Kute Tebin Kung Ketoq Ongkat Balen Diq Uah Injah
Meno-Mene Uiq Aku Leto Baraqke Bale Side Uah Lalo
Nggeto-Nggete Terbin Ku Dateng Rukat balem Epe Saweq Lalo
The table indicates that variants of lexical items emerge in several varieties. The adverb of time
‘kemarin’ for instance, is rubin in Ngeno-Ngene dialect, and terbin in Nggeto-Nggete, as well as
Kuto-Kete and uiq in remaining varieties. The same applies to 1st person pronoun which varies
between kami in Ngeno-Ngene and kung in Kuto-Kete, or ku in some others.a significant
variation also occurs in the verb leto ‘come’ for both Meriaq-Meriqu and Meno-Mene, ketoq in

5. Kuto-Kete, and dateng in Ngeno-Ngene.
While in Bima, there also exists regional dialect. They can be dialect of sila, dialect of
madapangga, dialect of rasa na’e, dialect of dompu, dialect of wera, and so on. In Sila dialect, we
can say long bean as bue, but in dialect Dompu, the term long bean is known as kalanggo. In
Wera dialect, word mbonga means lie, then in dialect Sila and others, mbonga means raba
(dam). In Madapangga dialect, they avoid to say nadu as spinach, as other dialects do because
nadu in Madapengga dialect means women’s genital.
The other type of dialect is social dialect. If regional dialect is geographically based, social dialect
originates among dialect social groups and are related to a variety of factors, the principal ones
apparently being social class, religion, and ethnicity. In Bali, for instance, caste, one of the
clearest of all social differentiators, quite often determine which variety of a language a speaker
uses. Take a look at the examples bellow:
Brahmana Ksatria Weisya Sudra Meaning
Ngrayunang Ngajeng Nunas Megaar Eat
Mijil Metu Embas Lekad Born
Ledang Arsa Ila Liang Gembira
Lubda Libya Lali Engsap Forget
Sregek Gelis Gangsar Enggal Hurry
Surup Wengi Peteng Sanja Afternoon
Weruh Pascad Wikan Dueg Smart
Menggah Bendu Berangti Gedeg Angry
Avis Makolem Sirep Pules Sleep
Taken from a teacher of Bali language
As well as in Bali, Bimanese also have their own social dialect besides regional dialect. The social
dialect of Bimanese reflected in the usage of bahasa kerajaan which is inherited by Sambori
people, in district of Lambitu. Sambori people tend to use some vocabularies/words that are
uncommon for common people. These words are used to use by people in Bima kingdom. Those
words can be:
Sambori Bimanese in general Meaning

6. Lima Rima Hand
Po’o Tuta Head
Out Maru Sleep
Langge Edi Foot
M’nga ngaha Eat
Ďangga lampa Walk
To’o Doho Sit
Wiro Viko Ear
Palai Rai Run
Paka Wangga Tight
Le’a Paki Throw
Mate Made Die
Ďiu Ndeu Bathing
b. Accent
Regional phonological or phonetic distinctions are often referred to as different accents. A
person in Indonesia is said to have a Javanese accent, a Betawi accent, a Balinese accent, a
Sasaknese accent, a Bimanese accent, a Batak accent, and so on. Thus, accent refers to the
characteristics of speech that convey the information about the speaker’s dialect, which may
reveal in what country or what par t of the country the speaker grew up or to which
sociolinguistic group the speaker belongs. People in Mataram, NTB, often refer to someone as
having a bimanese accent and Sasaknese accent.
The term accent is also used to refer to the speech of someone who speaks a language nonnatively. For example, a Bimanese speaking Indonesian is described as having a Bimanese
accent. In this sense, accent refers to phonological differences or interference from different
language spoken elsewhere.
Example:
a. Accent of Bimanese
Mau ke mana?

7. When Bimanese pronounce phoneme /ε/, they tend to pronounce it as /ē/. Just like when they
pronounce words such mengapa, menangis, and so on, they will not pronounce them as /
mεŋaрa/, and /mεnaŋis/, but as / mēŋaрa/ and /mēnaŋis/. They tend to change the mid front
short phoneme /ε/ as mid front long phoneme /ē/. Besides, Bimanese also tend to change the
voiced velar nasal /ŋ/ as voiced alveolar nasal /n/, and vice versa. For example, Bimanese will
pronounce word yang as /j ٨n/, not as /j ٨ŋ/. Another phenomena related to Bimanese
accent is that they sometimes do not produce the last sounds of consonant. Just take a
look at the examples below:
Melati becomes /mēlati/
Menari becomes /mēnari/
Belajar becomes /bēlajar/
Makan becomes /makaŋ/
Pemukiman becomes /pēmukima/
Barang becomes /baran/
Enak becomes /ena/
Ngantuk becomes /ŋantu/
b. Accent of Sasaknese
Different from Bimanese, Sasaknese tend to pronounce phoneme voiceless bilabial stop
/p/ as voiceless labiodentals fricative /f/, and vice versa. For example, word pilek will be
pronounced as /filεk/, not as /pilεk/, and word flu will be pronounced as /plu/. Other
examples are:
Pusing is pronounced as /fusing/ not as /pusing/
Pening is pronounced as /fening/ not as /pening/
Pikir is pronounced as /fikir/ not as /pikir/
Paksa is pronounced as /faksa/ not as /paksa/
Fulus is pronounced as /pulus/ not as /fulus/
Feeling is pronounced as /piling/ not as /filing/
Perfect is pronounced as /perpek/ not as /perfek/
c. Accent of Balinese
In Balinese accent, they tend to pronounce the voiceless alveolar stop /t/ and voiced

8. alveolar stop /d/ as palatal sound, not as alveolar. They make their tongue tip touch the
hard palate when they pronounce these sounds. Words toko, sepatu, bata, daun,
dalang, and so on can exemplify this phenomenon in Balinese accent.
d. Accent of Javanese
If in Balinese accent, they change alveolar sounds (/t/ and /d/) with palatal sounds, in
Javanese, they produce all stop sounds as fricative sounds. Fricative sounds such as /p/
and /d/ can exemplify this phenomenon. They will pronounce panco and dalam as
/phanco/ as in /phil/, not as /panco/ as in /pil/, and /dhalam/, not as /dalam/.
c. Code-Switching
Code-switching is a linguistics term denoting the concurrent use of more than one
language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals, people who speak more
than one language, sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with
each other. Thus, code-switching is the syntactically and phonologically appropriate use
of more than one linguistic variety.
Code-switching is distinct from other language contact phenomena, such as borrowing,
pidgins and creoles, loan translation (calques), and language transfer (language
interference). Speakers form and establish a pidgin language when two or more
speakers who do not speak a common language form an intermediate, third language.
On the other hand, speakers practice code-switching when they are each fluent in both
languages. Code mixing is a thematically related term, but the usage of the terms codeswitching and code-mixing varies. Some scholars use either term to denote the same
practice, while others apply code-mixing to denote the formal linguistic properties of said
language-contact phenomena, and code-switching to denote the actual, spoken usages
by multilingual persons.
In the 1940s and the 1950s many scholars called code-switching a sub-standard
language usage. Since the 1980s, however, most scholars have recognized it is a
normal, natural product of bilingual and multilingual language use.
Code-switching relates to, and sometimes indexes social-group membership in bilingual
and multilingual communities. Some sociolinguists describe the relationships between
code-switching behaviours and class, ethnicity, and other social positions. In addition,
scholars in interactional linguistics and conversation analysis have studied codeswitching as a means of structuring talk in interaction. Analyst Peter Auer suggests that
code-switching does not simply reflect social situations, but that it is a means to create
social situations.
Code-switching mostly occurs where the syntaxes of the languages align in a sentence;
thus, it is uncommon to switch from English to French after an adjective and before a
noun, because, in French, adjectives usually follow nouns. Even unrelated languages
often align syntactically at a relative clause boundary or at the boundary of other
sentence sub-structures.

9. Linguists have made significant effort toward defining the difference between borrowing
(loanword usage) and code-switching; generally, borrowing occurs in the lexicon, while
code-switching occurs at either the syntax level or the utterance-construction level.
Apple (in Chaer and Agustina, 2004: 107) defines code-switching as a symptom of
linguistics usage that switches over because of the situation change. This concept
emphasizes that situation can be an influential factor that leads a speaker or a speech
community to switch to another code in daily interaction.
Hymes gives a scope about code switching, that is, code-switching has become a
common term for alternate use of two or more languages. Code-switching is also seen
as a bilingual replacement or switchover of two languages or more, from various
languages, or even a manner from some styles. Similarly, Kridalaksana (1993: 9) state
that code-switching is the use of other language variety or other language to adapt with
role or other situation, or caused by other participants. Grosjean (1982: 145) limits the
concept of code switching as the alternate use two or more in the same utterance or
conversation. This opinion seems so general that there is not any clear distinction
between the concept of code-switching and that of code-mixing in relation to linguistics
forms. This is caused by the difference language grammatical system. The language
grammatical system between one language and each other is different. For instance, the
phrase of grammatical system in Indonesian is different from phrase of grammatical
system in English.
In general, the concept of code-switching that have been advocated by the linguists,
basically emphasize the same underlying point. Both Hymes (1979: 103) and
Kridalaksana (1993: 9) point out that code-switching is related to the use of two or more
languages in communication.
There are many types of code-switching committed by the speakers in a communication.
Grosjean (1982; 145) classifies code-switching into three types. They are intra-sentential
code-switching, inter-sentential code-switching, and inter-personal code-switching. Intrasentential code-witching is switchover from one code to others that happens in one
sentence. It occurs within a sentence or a clause. It means that the switchover of code
happens at the level of clause. Take a look at the examples in Bimanese and Sasaknese
switch in Indonesia below:
Mada kan wati mungkin weha ntau dou tanpa seijin dou mantau.
It’s impossible for me to take yours without asking any permission.
Mada kan dou taho, jadi pasti rajin solat
I am a good boy, so I do prayer everytime
Aro kembe ja tie, anda ini gimana sih?
Inter-sentential code-switching is switchover from one code to another that happens in

10. more than one sentence. It occurs outside the sentence or the clause level (i.e. at
sentence or clause boundaries). It means that switchover happens at the sentence level.
Take a look at the examples bellow:
Mada kan laina dou mpanga. Ngapain juga saya ambil
Di au kaija ku weha ntau nggomi. Toh nggak penting itu juga.
Sudah lama nggak ketemu sama si Amir. Brembe kabarne?
The first and second examples above are Bimanese that switch in Indonesia. Then, in
the last example, Indonesia switches into Sasaknese
Inter-personal code-switching is switchover that happens at speaker’s utterance
because it comes from the other participants. It means that switchover happens at
situation context. Take a look at the examples bellow:
Bimanese A: Au kamanae di mpa’a ngaha ndaike?
A: Au si ne’emu nggomi?
A: Gimana kalau kita makan bakso saja?
B: Boleh juga tu bang.
Sasaknese A: Ape tegawek nani?
A: Ape melekm side?
A: Cari makan yuk?
B: Asik tuh
Thus, according to Grosjean (1982), inter-personal code-switching is code-switching that
happens at two interlocutor utterances. It means that code-switching can also happen at
interlocutor utterance when making communication with other people. Code-switching
that happens at interlocutor utterance is called as intra-personal code-switching. Take a
look at the examples bellow:
Bimanese A: Au kamanae di mpa’a ngaha ndaike?
A: enaknya kita makan apa’an nih?
Sasaknese A: Ape tegawek nani?
A: apa nih yang harus kita kerjakan sekarang?
Transfer of code-switching from the first utterance in Bimanese and Sasaknese to the
second utterance in Indonesian includes intra-personal code-switching. Code-switching
above is committed by the first speaker by repeating the statement in the first utterance

11. to the second utterance.
Similarly, in line with Grosjean above, Poplack (in Romaine: 122) divides code-switching
from the aspect of textual and its distribution in sentence into three types. They are tag
code-switching, inter-sentential ode-switching, and intra-sentential code-switching. Tag
code-switching is code-switching which is happening at the end of a sentence. It is the
switching of either a tag phrase or a word, or both, from language-B to language-A,
(common intra-sentential switches). This code intrinsically functions to give emphasis or
affirmative at one particular utterance, either at the same language or at different
language. Take a look at the examples bellow:
Ayo kita come on (let’s go)
Maira ta cabut (let’s go)
Apa kabar, batur? (What’s up, bro?)
The first example above is an Indonesian language that is switched in English at the
end. This always happens in informal situation, which always done by teenagers and
register of anak gaul. As well as the first example, the second example also happens in
an informal situation in Bimanese, in which register anak gaul are common with this
switch. At the last examples, in Sasaknese, the switch occurs in an informal situation,
too.
3. Conclusion
Every person has an individual way of speaking. The language used by a group of
speakers may also show systemic differences called dialect. The dialects of a language
are the mutually intelligible forms of the language that differ in systemic ways from each
other. Dialects develop and are reinforced because languages change, and the changes
that occur in one group or area may differ from those that occur in another. Regional
dialects and social dialects develop for this reason. Regional dialect is a variety of
language in one part of the country, while social dialect is variety of language spoken by
people belonging to a particular social class.
There are five regional dialects in Sasaknese, such as Ngeno-Ngene dialect, NggetoNggete dialect, Meriaq-Meriqu dialect, Kuto-Kute dialect, and Meno-Mene dialect. While
in Bimanese, there are dialect of sila, dialect of madapangga, dialect of rasa na’e, dialect
of dompu, and dialect of wera as its regional dialects. Beside regional dialects,
Bimanese also has social dialect. It is reflected by Sambori people which inherit the
language that used to be used by people in Bima kingdom.
Dialects differences include phonological or pronunciation differences, vocabulary
distinction, and syntactic rule differences. The differences between dialects are not as
great as the similarities, permitting speakers of different dialects to communicate with
each other. In Indonesia,

12. The differences in phonology and pronunciation are called accent. Accent is the
cumulative auditory effect of those features of pronunciation which identify where a
person is from, regionally, or socially. It is a particular way which tells the listener
something about the speaker background. A person’s pronunciation may show the
region or country they come from. For instance, people in Mataram are said to have a
Bimanese accent, a Sasaknese accent, a Balinese accent, or Sumbawanese accent.
Code-switching is the events of using of more than one language, or language variety, in
conversation. According to Grosjean (1982: 145), there are three types of code-switching
committed by the speakers in a communication. They are intra-sentential codeswitching, inter-sentential code-switching, and inter-personal code-switching. Intrasentential code-witching occurs within a sentence or a clause. Inter-sentential switching
occurs outside the sentence or the clause level (i.e. at sentence or clause boundaries).
Inter-personal code-switching is switchover that happens at speaker’s utterance
because it comes from the other participants.
DAFTAR FUSTAKA
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Grosjean, Francois. 1982. Life with Two Languages. London: Harvard University. Press.
Gumpers, J.J. 1982. Language and social Groups. Standford: standford University
Press.
Holmes, janet. 1992. An introduction to Sociolinguistics. Second edition. London: WIP
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Hymes, Dell. 1979. “on Communicative Competence” In J.B Pride and Janet Holmes.
(eds). Sociolinguistics. Harmondswords. Penguin
Imansyah. 2008. The Grammatical Function of {na} and {ku} in Bimanese. A Case Study
of Bimanese Spoken in Sila. FKIP UNRAM
Kridalaksana, Harimurti. 1993. Kamus Linguuistik (edidi ke tiga). Jakarta: Gramedia
Rampung, Bone. 2005. Fatamorgana Bahasa. Flores: Nusa Indah
Richard, meade, et.al. 1991. Effective English. Chicago:allyn and Bacon. Inc
Romaine, Suzane. 1995. Language in Society: An Introduction in Sociolinguistics.
Oxford:Blackwell

13. _______________. 1988. Bilingualism. New York: basilblackwell.
Toir, Nazir, et.al. 1993. Metode Penelitian Ilmiah. Ghalia Indonesia
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