K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Language and Literature (Jan 2013)
The English Borrowings and the Indonesian-English Codeswitching in Two Collections of Blog Short-Stories
Abstract
If one has ever read fiction works by prominent Indonesian authors from 1920‟s Abdul Muis, and Marah Rusli, 1930‟s Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana and Armijn Pane, 1945‟s Chairil Anwar and Achdiat K. Mihardja, 1950-1960‟s Pramoedya Ananta Toer, W. S. Rendra, and N. H. Dini, 1960-1970‟s Taufik Ismail, Goenawan Moehammad, and Sapardi Djoko Darmono, and compared their work with those of the 1990‟s Hilman Sriwijaya and Ayu Utami, and the 2000‟s Hirata, one must have found many differences among the works. More obvious distinction will be discovered if all of the works previously mentioned are contrasted with those of 2000‟s teen writers like Arunita, Mentari, Andries, and recently Dika, especially in terms of style and vocabulary. The most recent teen fictions have employed much colloquial Indonesian or Malay-Betawi dialect (Djenar, 2008), and English lexical items. This study shows that in Dika‟s blog short-stories alone, English borrowings and Indonesian-English code-switching were commonly found. English seems to be the third language after the colloquial and standard Indonesian with which the author thinks
