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