bahasa indonesia
Lately I've been itching to rant about how some of the people I know refer to themselves with "i" or call others of the same age "u" in an Indonesian speech/text. Nothing's wrong with using said pronouns but to hear/read it in an Indonesian speech/text, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Has "aku" and "kamu" fallen out of favor due to trend or something? As I write more of the rant, the more I think, yeah, it is probably natural for it to happen. The reason goes beyond the mere "because English makes you seem cooler".
- "Aku" and "Kamu" comes off being too intimate.
- The alternative, "saya" dan "anda", comes off being too formal. Who would want to call themselves or their friends "Thy" and "Thou"?
- More alternatives other than the above just comes off weird.
The options are of two extremes: polite and impolite. Pick your poison. Indonesians with any knowledge of English eventually adopted "i" and "u", finding it the best, neutral option in the aforementioned social context.
Then again, I can be wrong here. Who's stopping them from sounding "cool" among their peers? People who use personal pronouns "i" and "u" may be a small sample of Indonesian society but I think it highlights a weakness in our language's personal pronouns. I know I'm not alone with this thought since an author in 1968 published an article about it here1. Whether you agree or not with the author's suggestions is up to contention albeit it captures legitimate weaknesses in our personal pronouns.
For now, there's nothing much I really can do with this whole personal pronoun debacle except watch and listen the people I know continue speaking their style of speech. Innovating a language is one long, complicated process requiring the general consensus of society itself. But one can imagine.
I must not end here without including the author's final bullet point n his conclusion. 1968 may be 57 years ago but I think it still rings true today:
"Developing the Indonesian language as a dynamic national language is no less important than other efforts in building the Indonesian nation."
and of course I wrote this post in English. Oops.