PRESERVING INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES THROUGH A MORE INTEGRATED NATIONAL CULTURAL STRATEGY 47

Abstract

By the end of this century, according to Unesco, more than 3000 languages people in various parts of the world use for communications today will disappear. In Indonesia, Unesco notes that 137 local languages are in the state of endangeredment. The causes for such a cultural change are varied from geographical to political, from sociological to linguistic, and from philosophical to pragmatic. An important aspect of the extinction of a language is the disappearance of certain philosophical and cultural values contained in the language expressions which are very relevant with the dynamics of the society needing more effective instruments for maintaining its identity against globalization values. With all the background in mind, this paper tries to investigate a number of steps a multilingual country like Indonesia could possibly take to enhance the preservation of indigenous languages by researching their philosophical and cultural values and formulating policies for future action plans. The basic assumption is that in every language there are living values the speakers believe and maintain from time to time. However, time changes and the language changes, too, to cope with, among other things, newer values coming from outside and the need to be accepted in wider communities. In the process of exchanging linguistic and cultural phenomena domination and submission take place as a consequence. Therefore, dominating languages would place a certain language as a receiver of the exchange and this is where the state of endangeredment begins. In cooperation with international organizations like Unesco and local universities the government must take an initial plan to maintain the submitting language from further unexpected situations. The big number of Indonesian endangered local languages necessitates attentions from the central government to make a national campaign for preserving indigenous languages thorugh a more intregrated national cultural strategy. This must be the first test case for the combination of educational and cultural affairs under a new ministerial roof.