Indonesia has many
vernaculars or local languages. As one of the ancestor heritages it needs to be
preserved. One of the vernaculars is Bimanese. It is one of the languages that
should be preserved so that the part of Indonesian culture exists. The position
of Bimanese is the same as other local languages, such as Sasak, Javanese,
Balinese and other local languages in Indonesia. Bimanese is primarily spoken
by the people in Bima and Dompu Regency. Both of them are called Mbojo ethnic,
an ethnic group which inhabits the eastern part of Sumbawa Island. Bimanese is
generally classified as a member of Mongol Kaukasus (Austranesian) Language
family.
Bimanese consists of four
dialects, namely, Surasuba dialect, Kolo dialect, Wawo dialect, and Kore
dialect. Most of the population use Serasuba dialect which consists of ten
sub-lands, namely, Sape, Bolo, Madapangga, Tambora, Belo, Woha, Monta,
Langgudu, Lambu, and Parado. Although, Bimanese has many dialects, the speakers
still understand each other when they speak. For instance, people speaking
Serasuba dialect understands people speaking Kore dialect or vice versa. A
local language and culture is an important asset of the area. This is
particularly essential to be continually developed so that the identity of the region
can be preserved well. This language and culture is then, believed to inherit
glorious values of ancestors to the youngsters.
Thus, it is of necessity
to codify and invents it before disappearing. Going hand and hand with this
disopinion, Bimanesse is a local language in Indonesia that need preserving. It
is mandated by 1945 constitution (UUD 1945) of Republic of Indonesia. The
explanation of the 36 articles states as follow: “Di daerah-daerah yang mempunyai bahasa sendiri yang dipelihara oleh
rakyatnya dengan baik-baik, (misalnya bahasa Jawa, Sunda, Madura, dll).
Bahasa-bahasa itu akan dihormati dan dipelihara juga oleh negara. Bahasa-bahasa
itupun merupakan bagian dari kebudayaan Indonesia yang hidup (UUD 1945, P4, GBHN, 1993). (In areas
where local language is well preserved such as Javanesse, Sundane, Madura, and
the like, the locals are well respected and taken care of by the state as they
are part of the existing culture of Indonesia).
Besides, the study of
Bimanese another vernacular means to dig up the wealth of our nation to be
actively participate in the development of our country, such as consciousness
to strengthen of Indonesia in the future. On the basis of the above mentioned
circumstance the writer thinks we need to make language description and prepare
an appropriate instruction of it. This requires us, the linguistics in
particular, to get invited in the inventory of the local language in Indonesia.
But when we plan the native langue to be exist we should be faced the factor
problem such as linguistic factor, the community of the own language, and
culture.
Linguistic factors can be
regarded as those that are needed to be considered on the part of a language in
relation to other languages. It relates to the status and characters of a language
as well as similarities between languages.
Another
factor that has to be considered in language planning is the people. People who
own languages of a particular territory should also be considered in language
planning. If the argument that language is the people who use it is anything to
operate by, then it will never fall out of scope to take an examination on the
people who use the language to be planned for.
Cultural
factor is another factor that can influence language planning. When a language
exists, it does not exist alone, there is a culture attached to it. Culture
refers to the beliefs, the ways of life, the custom, the art, and the social
organization of a group of people. Learning the culture with which a particular
language is attached is crucial to planning such a language especially in
corpus planning.
Based
on the classification above it clearly stated that vernacular language (Bima language)
to be exist based on the four stages given by Haugen (1987) are depends on the
people of Bimanese or Bima community to use or spoken of their language in their
interaction in daily life. As a symbol of ethnic identity the vernacular
language should be exist wherever the community itself continuously used of
their language.
