Language choice in a Peranakan Chinese community : a sociolinguistic study

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to describe the situation of language contact in an Indonesian-Chinese community known as the "Golongan Peranakan Cina" of Surabaya. Assumptions underlying the study are outlined in the introduction, as are mat ters relat ing to the data and previous st udies . Chapter 1 contains the theoretical background and various studies of branches of linguistics related to sociolinguistics and ethnography of speaking and terminologies used in the thesis. The principal part of the study is contained in Chapters 2 to 6 and the concluding remark is in the last section of Chapter 6. In Chapter 2 a description of the historical development of Peranakan speech, MalayJavanese- Chinese-Dutch-Indonesian code-switching and linguistic situations from the past to the present is provided. Chapter 3 establishes the lexical variants found in the repertoire of the Peranakan which ranges along a variety of Javanese-Chinese-Dutch-BI. Chapter 4 describes the multilingual strategies used by the Peranakan in their communication within their own group or with native Javanese and other outer islanders living in Surabaya and also with other groups of the Chinese community, the Totok Chinese. Chapter 5 establishes the linguistic features of code-switching between the languages available to the Peranakan and also the code-changing which occurs in their own dialect, the Peranakan speech . The feature of shifting language loyalty as happening at present and the conclusions and implications of this study for sociolinguistics are discussed in Chapter 6. Show more