Language and discipline

Language and discipline

From Pikiran Rakyat

In the framework of our effort to uphold discipline in using the national language, I would like to put forward some suggestions.

It should be realized that mistakes in spelling are quite often found in the mass media and in subtitles shown on TV, as well as in other usages. For that matter, I want to suggest that language watchdogs should be created. These agents would have the task of correcting and warning people, bodies and other users of Bahasa Indonesia if they use it incorrectly or violate the language rules.

I have come to this idea after reading an article in this paper titled Kemiskinan, antara realitas teoritik dan .... What sort of loan word is "teoritik"? I can give some examples of loan words whose origins can be traced to English, such as politik, diplomatik, medis and so on. But not "teoritik". There is no such English word as "theoritic".

Many other foreign words are not properly adopted into Bahasa Indonesia. Why should "developer" be translated into "pengembang". It would be more appropriate and also familiar to translate it into "pembangun pemukiman". Also "real estate" becomes "real estat". How do you pronounce this word? Why shouldn't they make it "ril estet"? Then "property" is changed into "properti". Why not "propertas", to be consistent with earlier adoptions (universitas, fakultas, prioritas)? "Mall" is unnecessarily adopted into "Mal". This will only cause confusion, as we have "malpraktek", "malfungsi", etc.

Finally, I would also like to suggest that "x" be adopted into the Indonesian alphabet (spelling) to replace "ks" in ekstra, eksklusif, taksi and so on. After all, we should prepare ourselves to enter the globalization era.

LEONARDI

Bandung, West Java