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ABSTRACTThe goal of this research is to investigate the degree to which the Sumbawa language, one of the minority languages in Lombok, is maintained by its speakers. It is also aimed at finding out if there is a correlation between language shifts, in the event that shift has occurred, and ethnic identity change on the part of the Sumbawa bilinguals. The population of the study is the whole Sumbawa speech community spreading out in several villages on the eastern part of Lombok. The main corpus of the data was extracted from the answers of the respondents by means of a survey questionnaire. Along with the survey questionnaire, the data collection was also triangulated with the ethnographic method, i.e. participant observations and interviews supplemented with the perusal of documentary. The quantified data were then analyzed using several statistical techniques, namely Spearman's correlation, Anova, and T-test in addition to the descriptive statistics.
This study shows several interesting findings. One of the clearest findings to emerge from this reserach is that the Sumbawa language in Lombok is still highly maintained by the Sumbawa speech community although it has been existing right there for approximately three centuries. This is shown by the overall mean score of language choice in the home domain, which yields a figure of 1.66 (the rating scale of language choice being 1-5, with 1= [almost] always bahasa Sumbawa [BSb] and 5 = [almost] always bahasa Sasak [BSs]). When correlated with the language attitude of the Sumbawanese speakers, it shows that there is a correlation between language choice as a whole and language attitude, which implies that the more positive the language attitude of the respondents are the more likely it is for the language to be maintained. This maintainance of the language, however, is not congruent with the maintenance of the ethnic identity of the Sumbawanese. There is a clue that the Sumbawa ethnic identity is now transforming into its new form, namely Sasak.
In response to the questionnaire items on self-identification, 47,5% agree and 14,0% strongly agree on the statements of self-identification proposed, the rest 12,1% neither agree nor disagree, 22,7 disagree and 3,3% strongly disagree (n = 244). This indicates that Sumbawa-Sasak bilinguals (SS) in Lombok tend to be more identified as Sasak rather than Sumbawa. Moreover, based on the overall mean score of self-identification and ethnic identity (scale 1-5) it reveals that the rate being identified as Sasak becomes higher as the age becomes younger (implicational scale being 83,33%). When asked if Sasak and Sumbawa share a common custom and tradition, 68,0% answered different, 17,2% stated the same, 14,2% were indifferent, and 0,4% did not respond. However, in terms of cultural habits or traditional custom practiced when having feast or traditional family ceremonies, 60,7% employed a mixture of Sasak and Sumbawa custom, 27,9% used Sasak and only 11,5% still used Sumbawa.
For the SS in Lombok, it seems that the language preservation is important for several reasons. The first and most dominant of all is that language is a symbol of its distinct intragroup identity as is clearly shown by the patterns of its language use. BSb is used as the main medium of communication in the home domain, neighborhood
domain, religious domain as well as in infra-villager group relations. In the meantime, BSs is used only for communication with inter-villager group relations. For communication in public sphere such as school or government offices and in certain situations, however, BSs is preferable beside bahasa Indonesia. Therefore, these two related languages form a kind of diglossic or poliglossic situation, whereby BSb serves the L function, BSs the M (medium), and bahasa Indonesia (BI) the H function. BI, however, is used only in a very formal situation. What is surprising is that the pattern of language choice and use tends to change along the age parameter, in that at the lower level of age group, when Sumbawan speech community begins to study and acquire BSs for a wider means of communication and socialization, the mean score is low. This score becomes higher and higher as the respondents grow older and get matured and reaches its peak at 31-40 age groups. After that it goes down as the respondents grow older and older. This may suggest that age group has no effect on the language choice, in the sense that the up and down movement of the language use as performed by the mean score shows that the Sumbawan needs BSs not only as lingua franca but also as a means of being accepted as members of the wider community for socialization. When they come back to their village they do not need it anymore and use BSb again.
Secondly, the use of BSb as a primary means of communication in the home domain and neighborhood is made possible because of the isolation of their residential areas from the dominant group, the majority of them live seperately from the Sasak karmpoerrg in Lombok They have their own mosques and sometimes elementary schools with homogenious students. These all may facilitate to use mother tongue as their medium of intra-group communication, which may then brings pride in their language. But this does not mean that they are also proud of their `ancestral ethnic' identity. The fact is that most of them said they are Sasak. However, eventhough inter-marriage rate is relatively high, this does not seem to discourage the use of BSb in the home domain for as long as they live in the Sumbawan community. The t -test statistical analysis shows that thre is no difference in the language choice and use between intra-marital couples and inter-marrital ones (the obtained t value is -.768 critical t value 1.960, and thus the null hypothesis is accepted).
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