Indonesian and adaptations

Indonesian and adaptations

I had been toying for some time with the idea of opening up a
lively debate, after all the "English English" correspondence, on
"Indonesian Indonesian," when all of a sudden Gilly Ellyanasari
(Indonesian language, Letters Jan. 17, 1996) takes (just a few
of) the words out of my mouth. But her letter only touches on the
tip of the iceberg (remember, only one-eighth of an iceberg shows
above the surface of the sea). I should therefore like to touch
on the concealed seven-eighths.

The recent law forbidding the use of foreign words and names
in advertisements and the like must surely rank as a very
retrograde piece of legislation. Indonesia and its language
should be moving forward into the 21 century, not indulging in
"linguistic cleansing".

There are hundreds, maybe thousands of words in the Indonesian
dictionary that are no more than adaptations of foreign words
(mostly English) -- all those words ending in "-asi", "-isi" and
"-itas" -- to say nothing of words like jendela (Portuguese
jenela) or sepatu (Spanish zapato). Even one very special word
for Indonesia, Proklamasi, is itself an adaptation of the English
word "Proclamation".

Strip all those words out of Bahasa Indonesia, and what is
left? A very stark language, ill fitted for the 21st century.
After all, Bahasa Indonesia is in effect Malay with very minimal
modifications. Indonesia is a young nation, so Bahasa Indonesia
is not a language rooted in the tradition of an ancient nation.

Therefore, why be so anxious to keep it free of foreign words?
Would it not be a far wiser course to say "Bahasa Indonesia is
still a very young language, deficient of certain words to
express certain things."

For example, the other day I had occasion to use the word
"verbiage" to an Indonesian friend. Having explained in English
what it meant, I then sought to reinforce my explanation by
showing my friend the Indonesian word in the dictionary, but what
did we find? "Verbiage" = terlalu banyak kata-kata yang tidak
berguna (too much talk and not enough facts). Why not enrich
Bahasa Indonesia by adapting numerous other words to which there
is no one-word equivalent by introducing a new word? In this
case, verbiasi.

English people are mostly in favor of keeping their
wonderfully rich language pure (over one million words in the
full 20-volume Oxford Dictionary); we nevertheless are happy to
introduce foreign expressions and words that we feel express
better in that foreign language what the English equivalent
means. For example, the French faux pas for "a social blunder";
the siesta for a nap, and mot juste (French) for "just the right
word". Would it not be a wise move for the Center for Development
Growth of the Indonesian Language, which Ellyanasari mentions, to
do what its name implies and set about enriching the language
with new words rather than allowing it to be diminished by
negative legislation?

R.B. SAWREY-COOKSON

Jakarta