20 •
THE
INDONESIAN
LANGUAGE
(although many non-native teachers themselves have little or no facility in it). Nevertheless, development of a sensitivity to the social appropriateness of different styles is considerably more difficult than some proponents of the teaching of informal Indonesian in schools and universities imagine. In particular, the attitudes of Indonesians themselves to the type of Indonesian they expect foreigners to speak is rarely taken into consideration. Most older people are likely to expect more formal language use from foreigners than they themselves use on most occasions. This perhaps reflects the attitude that colloquial speech is inferior and not worthy of teaching to foreigners, and therefore should not be used by them. Others may regard it as an in-group code not for use by outsiders. On the other hand, many people with poor proficiency in formal language feel alienated from it and are much happier for foreigners to ‘speak like us’. Students and other youths are more likely to expect greater use of informal language from visiting youths from other countries. This is a topic that deserves serious study in any development of policy on Indonesian language teaching.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK The book traces the historical development of the language up to the present, with identifiable periods in the past assigned to separate chapters. The later chapters consider its position within Indonesian society in the modern period. Malay/Indonesian is a member of the large Austronesian language family. One group of Austronesians settled in western Borneo and it is from this group that the Malayic languages, of which Malay is a member, developed. Chapter 2 considers the origins and migrations of the Austronesian people and the emergence of the Malayic subgroup. The ancestors of the Malays travelled to southeast Sumatra, where they eventually built powerful kingdoms, as discussed in Chapter 3. It was in the kingdom of Srivijaya that the earliest known Malay inscriptions were made. Dating from the late 7th century, these inscriptions are the first direct information that we have on the Malay language. During this Old Malay period, the kingdoms were Hinduised and many Indian influences appeared in the language. As trade flourished throughout the archipelago, Srivijaya eventually gave way to Islamised kingdoms, as described in Chapter 4. There followed the period of Classical Malay and the literary court style, which was eventually to have such a strong influence on the emerging national language.