THE REAL ACTIONS OF YOUNG GENERATION IN MAINTAINING JAVANESE LANGUAGE IN THE GLOBALIZATION ERA

Abstract

Javanese language is one of the local languages in Indonesia. It is widely used by people in Java to communicate among one another. Javanese language contains the value of the local language which is full of local wisdom, so, worthy, Javanese language becomes an identity for all people in Java. Those special values make the Javanese language as the local language that brings a pride for the language user. However, entering the globalization era, the Javanese language start getting replaced by another language and experiencing what we called language death. One of the real examples is what happens for young generation in which the Javanese language is rarely used in everyday life for communicating. In fact, the Javanese language is placed in the third position after Bahasa Indonesia and English. This is exacerbated by the demand on the use of Bahasa Indonesia as the national language, so it is used as the main language in education, science, and so on. This kind of situation stimulates the younger generation to get little chance to use the Javanese language in daily communication. In addition, looking at from the family aspect, only few children still speak using Javanese language with their parents. Of course, this habit will carry over to the communities where it is increasingly difficult to find young people who can communicate using Javanese language, especially Krama. More badly, the younger generation who is still using Javanese language for communicating will be considered as an old person due to the existence of foreign languages such as English or Japanese which is considered as a modern and qualified language. This language shift, time by time, can cause what we called language death, in this case, the Javanese language. To avoid it, people especially young generation, should take several efforts in maintaining the Javanese language in order not to be extinct and more interesting to be learnt and practiced in daily life as one of the identity and a pride for people in Java. This article will explain the efforts in maintaining the Javanese language that can be done by the young generation, involving the use of the Javanese language and some other concrete actions to avoid the language death.