NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE

SCIENCES

MA CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION + MA Applied Linguistic

and TESOL

Module code and name:

Sociolinguistic CCC8015

LEVEL M

Title : Osob Kiwalan Malang as a Variant in Malang, East Java,

Indonesia

Name of the module leader:

Dr. Peter Sercombe

I declare that this submission is wholly my own work:

140328093

Actual date of submission:

28/05/2015
Word Count:
3065 words

Introduction

Language is the foremost means to communicate with each other. Every

community has their own language to show their identity and to socialize among
their society. A nation can be cosidered as community of speech by having one
national language, yet it is possible for a country to have more than one language
used in the smaller society within the country. Indonesia is one example of a
country which has more than 500 languages besides its own national language.
Large number of language variety in Indonesia is due to its diverse culture, ethnic,
and regions. Throughout its thousand of islands, each island, even each region in
the island has their own distinct languages. Most of people in Indonesia are
bilingual, meaning that they master more than one language to communicate.
Even based on the survey done by Swiftkey.com in 2015, Indonesia is on the top
of the chart of the most trilingual countries. The survey which was done through
social media shows that 17.4% of people in Indonesia are trilingual. They mostly
speak Bahasa Indonesia (national language), Javanese (vernacular language of
Java island), and English. It infers that the domination of the vernacular language
is as big as Bahasa Indonesia as national language.
Based on the research done by Nababan (1985) vernacular language in Indonesia
is used for intra-region communication and it was the first language of most
Indonesian meanwhile Bahasa Indonesia is the medium to be used in education
and trade between regions. Though there is a shifting that Bahasa Indonesia is
now the first language (Nababan, 1985), vernacular language is still used as a
daily language among people in one community. The coexistence of Bahasa
Indonesia and vernacular language in society can generate another variant of
language too, for example bahasa prokem1 (Collins & Chambert-Lois, 1984),
Jakarta Backwards Youth Slang (Dreyfuss, 1983), bahasa gay2 (Boellstorf, 2004;
Oetomo, 2003) and bahasa gaul3 (Smith-Hefner, 2007).
1 Bahasa Prokem is a register like slang which is used in a certain
community, for example a punk community
2 Bahasa Gay is a variant used by homosexual community
3 Bahasa Gaul is a variant used among Jakarta teenager

In Malang, East Java, Indonesia, this non-standard register also exists among its
people; the Malangese uses term Osob Kiwalan for this variant. Osob Kiwalan is
an averted language which derives by averting vocabulary from both Bahasa
Indonesia and Javanese. The term Osob Kiwalan (OK) itself is the implementation
of averting words; Osob is formed from Boso which means Language in Javanese
while Kiwalan is from Walikan which means averted. The coinage of this variant
appeared during the Dutch occupation. Likewise other non-standard variants in
Indonesia that happened to be codes and secret languages (Collins & ChambertLois, 1984; Dreyfuss, 1983; Boellstorf, 2004; Oetomo, 2003; Smith-Hefner,
2007), Osob Kiwalan also had the same use back then. The shifting of the use of
OK itself appears to be means to promote and foster a shared identity (EspreeConaway, 2012).
The objective of this study is to find out the purpose of the user of OK in using it.
Further, this study aims to follow up the presumption of the existence of OK that
it is now a variant that is used by Malangese to share the same identity. There are
also additional aims to conduct this study, firstly is to find out the range of age of
OK user and secondly to find out whether this is slang language or a place
language. As Espree-Conaway claimed (2012), OK can be classified into place
language because most of the people use it, yet it is still a vague notion knowing
that place language is similar to vernacular language which most/all people will
use to communicate within their speech community regardless the background,
age, or education of the speaker. On the other hand, some researchers claim that
OK is a slang language (Hoogervorst, 2014; Jason and Rahmat, 2013;
Rachmawaty, 2012). Therefore, the last objective of this study is important in
order to classify the existence of OK among Malangase.
Those study objectives will be explored and evaluated by disseminating
questionnaire and interview which will be analyzed quantitatively thereafter. The
questionnaire will be given to the native Malangese who resides in Malang. The
participant I will have is approximately 30 people from different background and
different range of age. I would like to seek only native participants to get a
reliable data from the instrument. Meanwhile, the interview is a semi-structured

interview which will be conducted through the Internet. There are three people
who represent a different range of age. The first range of interviewee age is 14-20
(teenager), 21-29 young adult, and over 30 (adult). After the submission of the
data, I will analyze the data quantitatively.
To begin with, the study will elaborate the history and structure of OK. Then to
follow up the third concern of this study whether OK is a slang language rather
than a place language, I would like to give the concise explanation of slang
language and place language. The underpinning theory of these two registers will
be combined with the data I will have gathered from the questionnaire and
interview and then drawing the conclusion after.
Osob Kiwalan Variation Style
Osob Kiwalan was firstly used by Gerilya Rakyat Kota Malang (Malang People
Guerrilla) at post-independence of Indonesia back in 1949. The term Osob
Kiwalan is coined from Javanese language which means Averted Language. Osob
is from Boso (Javanese) means Language, Kiwalan is from Walikan (Javanese)
means avertion. The existence of OK was first initiated due to the military
invasion of Dutch after Indonesia independence on March, 1949. Dutch placed a
spy within Malang patriot. The Malang patriot had known of this problem and
tried to overcome the problem by having a secret code to communicate that only
Malangese would now. Then OK was created to keep the confidential report and
to communicate among Malang patriots. By the time goes by, the shifting use of
OK emerges, OK has widely changed of the use and community which actively
uses it. This language shifting appears to be the effect of external side of a
language which is social factor (Crystal, 2008).
OK adapts most of its vocabulary from the combination of Bahasa and Javanese.
It infers that the root of OK is the same of the two languages mentioned
previously. Those two languages belong to the Austronesian language family,
which is one of the largest language families in the world. Lewis (2009) estimates
that there are 1,257 variants of this language root. According to that fact, OK

belongs to Austronesian language family. Additionally, OK adapts East Java

variant which spread across Malang as the vernacular language. (see figure 1).

Figure 1 (taken from Espree-Conaway, 2012)

The Structure of Osob Kiwalan
The notion of OK that is assumed to only avert a word directly is not fully right.
There are also several words that coin and use only in Malang. Those vocabularies
are included in OK as Malangese appoints them as their distinctive language.
Looking for its structure, taken form the study conducted by Icuk (2013), OK
structure covers abbreviation, naturalization, and averted phoneme position. In
brief, those categorizations explained as bellows:
A. Abbreviation
An abbreviation is a letter or group of letters that is/are shortened into a
word (Kerner et al, 2010). Non-standard register usually is flexible
including OK. OK has many variations that distinguishes it to other
language variant in Indonesia. Below is the list of some abbreviations are
only used in Malang.
Abbreviation
Suhat => su-hat =>

Long Form

Meaning
The name of the

Sukarno-Hatta

most crowded street

Simek => si-mek =>

Sikil=leg, mejo=table

in Malang
The leg of a table

sikil meja
Cacat => ca-cat =>

Calon = candidate, cantik =

Girl who will be

calon cantik

beautiful

beautiful if she

Kotik => ko-tik =>

Kodew= a girl,

grown-up
Naughty girl

kodew mbetik

mbetik=naughty

B. Naturalization
OK adopts some of the words from other languages besides Indonesia and
Javanese. The words then are averted to match which the basic principal of
OK for example Okir which is derived from Riko (Banyumas 4variant) which
means You. OK also adopts foreign language namely Arabic like in the
word Ebes which means Father/Dad. Ebes derives from Syebe which is
Arabic and means father/dad.
C. Averted Phoneme Position
This variation of OK appears more often that other since it is the salient form
of OK. This variation of OK is formed by directly avert the word. For example
libom which is formed from Mobil as translated Car. The other example
as listed below:
OK
kera
ketam

Original Form
Arek (Javanese)
Matek (Javanese)

nakam
Makan (Bahasa)
oges
Sego (Javanese)
hamur
Rumah (Bahasa)
(More examples are attached)

English Meaning
Boy/Girl
Die
Eat
Rice
House/Home

4 Banyumas is a region in Middle Java and it has a Banyumas variant

which derives from Javanese

OK also affects the sound of the vowel whenever a word is averted. It happens
in /e/ vowel which has /e/ and / /, and /u/ that has /u/ and /U/ for example:
Original Form
OK
Meaning
Dewe [dewe]
ewed[ w d]
Self
edan[edan]
nade[nad ]
Crazy
dulur [dulUr]
rulud [rulUd]
Relative/sibling
Moreover, if there is two consonant in the middle of a word, the consonants are
more likely not averted due to the easier pronunciation. For example:
OK
Kompar
Landas
Kampes

Original form
Rampok (Bhs)
Sandal (Bhs)
Sempak (Jv)

Meaning
Robbery
Slipper
Underwear

There is also averted phoneme with erasing a letter to make it simpler, for
example in the word oker which comes from rokok meaning cigarette and
silup from polisi meaning police. Another variation is the addition in word
after being averted such as in Roti becomes sitor meaning bread and Bawa
transforms into kawab meaning carry. In addition, there is also a free form of
averting phoneme to adjust with Malangese mother tongue namely ngingub and
ublem. Ngingub is from bingung which means confused and ublem is from
mlebu meaning enter.
Slang Language
According to the previous researchers, slang is rather difficult to define. Slang is
most likely related to its informal or colloquial tone, its inventiveness, its
playfulness, its ephemerality, its association with specific, often marginalized,
sub-groups, and its rebellious opposition to formal or dignified discourse
(Chapman 1986; Eble 1996; Lighter 2001; Battistella 2005; Allan and Burridge
2006; Adams 2009; Dalzell 2009).
Eble (1996) stated that the salient feature of slang is the emphasis of it to generate
such bound to promote sociability. By uttering the same slang language as a
register to the particular community, people among this community will get along

better as a reflection of an egalitarian solidarity. People who talk in the same

slang language consider themselves as an equal position.
The next typical characteristic of slang is that it tends to stick to the marginalized
society. As it is a non-serious and playful register, slang considers as the media of
a marginalized society to comfortably communicate each other. This stereotype of
slang often misinterpreted as the rebellious language to oppose the authority, yet
Bucholtz (2011) shows evidence in his study that rebelliousness is not a
paramount reason of slang existence.
Another distinguished feature of slang is the playfulness of both of its lexicon and
structure. Adams (2009) appoints that playfulness is a prominent characteristic to
define slang as it is. People who use slang tend to find a way of communicating in
an easier and more comfortable way. The change of the structure, phoneme, or
pronunciation often follows the use of slang. Furthermore, the use of vast variety
of adapted or even novel vocabulary also shows how playful and flexible a slang
language is.
Place Language
This term is used by Espree-Conaway (2012) to determine the existence of OK
among native Malang. He defines that place language is a language that has a
specific social niche that creates a sense of friendly intimacy, social equality, and
communal solidarity. He claims that place language is different with slang
language although the three features his mentioned in the preceding resemble to
the characteristics of slang language. The interesting features that distinguish
place language with slang is that place language will be used by everyone in the
same place to join together in the society. Unlike place language, slang covers
only the particular group of people, usually youth cohort, within a region,
meaning that not all of the people in that region use the same slang language to
communicate.
Finding and Discussion

After distributing the questionnaire and conducting interview, I have found some
information to be discussed in order to answer these study objectives. The
questionnaire distributed is 30 questionnaires and only 20 of them could I collect.
In addition, there were three interviews conducted to the three chosen respondents
who are native Malang. The age range of the respondents of questionnaire and
interviewees is between 15 to 50 years old. Particularly, three of the interviewees
are 16, 24, and 51 years old respectively. And in this chapter, I would like to
discuss the finding qualitatively.
Firstly is about the existence of the OK, as many as 55% respondents had no clue
about the history of OK although they have used it several time. Most of the
respondents (13 respondents, or 65%) stated that they often associate OK with
football supporter so they assume it is created by football supporter in Malang.
Knowing that football is very famous in Malang, this typical answer is not really
surprising. From three of my interviewees only the eldest interviewee who knows
the history of OK, he could explain that OK is originally a secret code to deceive
the Dutch.
From 20 respondents, only 15% of them admitted to use OK in daily situation. It
is quite surprising that that most of the respondents said that they barely use OK;
they only use it once in a while, they choose to communicate in formal Javanese
most of the time, it seems backlashing with their statement that all of them (20
respondents) want to preserve OK.
70% of the respondents assume that OK is used mostly by adults and teenagers,
children and elderly rarely use it. In addition, the community that is spotted to use
OK quite often is among the football supporter in Malang. Most of the
respondents also limit the use of OK among their same-aged friend. This result
shows that intense OK users are not wholly Malang people, but there is only
particular age of group or community that will use the language. However, all
Malangese recognizes and understand if someone speaks OK to them and they can
respond necessarily.
Malangeses have a variant answer regarding to the question of the purpose they
use OK. However, it can be inferred that 65% of them use it because their
neighborhood society uses it. They want to create a bonding that they can share

among the OKs users. They feel more intimate when they meet their friend who
uses the same variant as them. Secondly, the reason why Malangese speaks this
variant is because they feel proud as native of Malang City. This pride for being
different and unique from other regions helps to define their identity.
Is Osob Kiwalan a slang language?
Based on the questionnaire and the interview, the answer given by the respondents
addressing that OKs identity is quite vague. Looking for the purpose of why
people use it, OK could be considered as a slang language since people use it to be
different, and to share the same identity (Moore, 2012). On the other hand, the
spread of this language in the entire region of Malang strengthens the existence of
OK as the place language like what Espree-Conaway suggested. Most of the
respondents in every range of age and different community know OK well,
although some of them do not use it every day, yet at least it shows that OK has
well-known among Malangese, the same as Geordie as a variant in Newcastle.
Looking from the structure of Osob Kiwalan, this language variant has some
similarities with slang language characteristic. As I already explained previously
that slang tends to be playful, it occurs to its structural form as well. Slang which
comes from a certain language then being used in a certain community of speech
has been up to create a particular variation in vocabulary mostly, from the main
language where it comes then use it within a particular community. Slang has a
tendency to generate a free from of variation. It happens in the OK as well.
Structurally, OK averts the phoneme in rather free-formed way. Some of the
vocabularies are directly avert, but in some cases like in the word ojrit which is
from iyo means okay and hewul which is from luwe means starving, it
needs creativity to add the world in order to be distinct. Moreover, the choice of
the adapted vocabulary is adjusting Malangeses pronunciation and to get an
easier access to avert the word; hence OK derives from Bahasa and Javanese in
which they can use more word choices instead of sticking to one language only.
For example they use nakam to avert makan which means eat. Makan is
Bahasa, they choose it rather than Javanese word of makan, which is mangan,
because makan is much easier to be averted.
Conclusion

According to the data I have collected and review of the theory, it can be
concluded that the speakers purpose in using this language is in order to blend
with their surrounding society. 65% of the respondents have the urge to speak OK
to be able to feel the sense of belongingness with their society, as it is also can
strengthen their bond with one another.
Ok has a vast distribution as a variant in Malang. Almost all Malangese recognize
this variant. Some of them use it to communicate to their friend and some to their
community. The user of OK also varies from the age level. Although commonly
the active user is teenager and adult, the elderly people still could comprehend
someone who speaks OK.
Secondly, OK usage and structure is likely a slang language rather than a place
language. However, it is differs from most slang since most slang is only used in
particular community and particular length of time. Moore (2004) defines this
variant of slang as a basic slang since its longevity endures from more than one
generations and there is no significant changes except the shifting of its use.
References
Adams, M. (2009). Slang: The Peoples Poetry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Allan, K., Burridge, K. (2006). Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Battistella, Edwin L. (2005). Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others?
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boellstorf, T. (2004). Gay Language and Indonesia: Registering Belonging.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 14(2), pp. 248-268.
Bucholtz, Mary. (2011). White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth
Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapman, Robert L., ed. (1986). New Dictionary of American Slang. New York:
Harper and Row. Based on the Dictionary of American Slang, compiled and
edited by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner (New York: Crowell, 1960).
Collins, J. T. & Chambert-Loir, H. (1984). Those Who Speak Prokem. Indonesia,
37, pp. 105-117.

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Crisytal, David. (2008). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.
Dalzell, Tom, ed. (2009). The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang
and Unconventional English. New York: Routledge.
Dreyfuss, J. (1983) The backwards language of Jakarta youth (JYBL), a bird of
many language feathers. In James Collins (Ed). Studies in Malay Dialects.
Eble, Connie. (1996). Slang and Sociability: In-Group Language among College
Students. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Espree-Conaway, D. A. (2012). Language Attitudes, Acquisition, and Usage of
Osob Kiwalan Ngalam: An Indo-Javanese Language of Malang. Language.
Lighter, J. E . (2001). Slang. In The Cambridge History of the English
Language, vol. 6, English in North America, edited by John Algeo, 21952.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Moore, R. L. (2012). On Swearwords and Slang. American Speech, 87(2), 170189. ISO 690
Moore, R. L. (2004). We're cool, mom and dad are swell: Basic slang and
generational shifts in values. American Speech, 79(1), 59-86.
Nababan, P. W. J. (1985). Bilingualism in Indonesia: ethnic language maintenance
and the spread of the national language. Asian Journal of Social Science, 13(1), 118.
Oetomo, D. (2003). Memberi suara pada yang bisu [Voicing the muted].
Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta: Pustaka Marwa.
Smith-Hefner, N. J. (2007). Youth Language, Gaul Sociability, and the New
Indonesian Middle Class. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 17(2), pp. 184-203.
Swiftkey.com/en/blog/celebrating-international-mother-language-day/ (retrieved
on 14th of May, 2015)

Appendices
Semi-structured Interview Guideline
No
1
2

Question
Do you know the history of Osob Kiwalan?
Do you use Osob Kiwalan?

11

3
4

Why do you use Osob Kiwalan

What do you think about Osob Kiwalan?

Questionnaire Guideline

Boso Walikan Questionnaire

Name
:
Age
:
Sex
:
1. Are you familiar with Boso Walikan?
a. Yes
b. No
If yes,
2. When do you use Boso Walikan?
a. On a daily basis
b. Once in a while
c. Rarely use it
d. Never use it
3. Do you know the history of Boso Walikan?
a. Yes I do
b. No I do not know
4. Since when have you use Boso Walikan?
a. Since I was 10 years old or prior
b. Since I was 15 years old
c. Since I was 20 years old
d. Since I was 30 years old
e. Since I was 40 years old
5. Why do you use Boso Walikan? (you may answer more than one)
a. Because my surrounding society uses it
b. Because I am a supporter of Arema FC
c. Because I am Malangese
d. Because my parents use it
e. To be different from people from other regions
f. Other ..
6. With whom do you speak Boso Walikan?
a. With family
b. With same-aged friends
c. With my community
d. Other
7. What crosses your mind when you hear someone speaks Boso
Walikan?
a. Football supporter
b. Cool teenager
c. Thug
d. Students
12

e. Other .
8. Who used to talk in Boso Walikan in your neighbourhood?
a. Children
b. Teenager
c. Adult
d. Elderly
e. Other..
9. On a scale of 1-10 (not proud very proud), how proud are you
when using Boso walikan? (circle the appropriate number)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10.On a scale of 1-10 (negative-positive), how do you think the
impression of Boso Walikan in a daily communication? (circle the
appropriate number)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11.Do you think Boso Walikan should be preserved?
a. Yes
b. No
12.Will you teach Boso Walikan to your children, later in the future?
a. Yes
b. No
Reason

13.What is your general opinion about Boso Walikan?

.....

Example of Questionnaire

13

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