A. Rational
Language is part of culture, even one of properties of human language is cultural transmission that state that language is acquired in culture not by parental genes. It means when we learn a language we can learn it separately with its culture. Knowledge of the culture will be helpful to master the language well.
Language has a very strong relationship with the culture and the speakers mind-set. Some languages, including Indonesian and Banjarese, have speech level as politeness. Therefore, sometimes we will hear that Indonesian or Banjarese people use different words to express same thing. It depends on who someone they are talking to and what the situation is. Indonesian and Banjarese have speech level just for pronoun. It is not as complicated as Javanese. Nevertheless, knowledge of the speech level is very important in both Indonesian and Banjarese. We cannot use any pronouns moreover when we speak to the older or in formal situations. Here is the problem, unknowing of the speech level will make misunderstanding between the speakers. Indonesian will assume you are impolite when you use “aku” (Indonesian) in a formal situation and Banjarese will too when you use Unda to speak with the older people. This problem makes us interest to compare and contras about pronouns in English, Indonesian and Banjarese.
B. Theoretical Background
Banjar language is the native language used by the Banjarese people of South Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is the official national language of Indonesia.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or noun phrase (A S Hornby, 1995: 928).
To know pronouns used in English, Indonesian, and Banjarese you can look at the tables below.
Some Common English Pronouns
| Type | Personal pronoun | Possessive pronoun |
| First person | I (singular), we (Plural) | My, our |
| Second person | You | your |
| Third person | He, she, it (singular), they (subject) /them(object) (plural). | His, her, its, their |
Some common Indonesian Pronouns
| Type | Indonesian | English |
| First person | Singular: Saya (standard, polite), Aku (informal, familiar), Gua/Gue (informal, slang), daku (in poem or poetic nuances). | I, me |
| | Plural: Kami, Kita | We |
| Second person | Singular: Anda (polite, formal), Saudara (male, polite, formal), Saudari (female, polite, formal), kamu (familiar, informal), (Eng)kau (familiar, informal), Lu (informal, slang), dikau (in poem or poetic nuances). | You |
| | Plural: Kalian (plural, informal), Anda sekalian (plural, formal), Saudara(i)-saudara(i) (polite) | You (plural) |
| Third person | Ia, Dia | He, she, it |
| | Beliau (addressing to high respected person ) | He, she |
| | Mereka | They |
Indonesian Possessive pronouns
| type | Personal pronouns | Possessive pronoun | Example | English |
| First person | Singular: Saya, aku | -ku | kursiku | My chair |
| | Plural: Kami, kita | …(milik) Kami, kita | Kursi kami Kursi kita | Our chair |
| Second person | Singular: Kamu | -mu | kursimu | Your chair |
| | Anda, saudara (i) | …(Milik)Anda, saudara (i) | Kursi Anda Kursi saudara (i) | Your chair |
| | Plural; kalian | …(milik) kalian | Kursi kalian | Your chair |
| Third | Singular: Dia, ia | -nya | kursinya | His, her, its chair |
| | Beliau | …(milik) beliau | Kursi beliau | His, her chair |
| | Plural: mereka | …(milik) mereka | Kursi mereka | Their chair |
Explanation:
- Degree of politeness in using pronoun in Indonesian is determined by who the respondent is and what the situation is.
Some common Banjarese Pronouns
| Type | Banjarese | English |
| First person | Singular:ku (netral), ulun (polite) | I |
| | Plural: kita, kami | We |
| Second person | Singular: Nyawa(slang), ikam (netral), pian/andika (polite) | You |
| | Buhanmu, bagianmu, buhan/bagian pian (polite) | You (plural) |
| Third person | Inya (netral), sidin (polite) | He, she |
| | Buhannya, bagiannya, buhan/bagian sidin (polite) | they |
Expalanation:
- slang pronouns is often used among close friends.
- netral pronouns is used by the same age speakers or with family.
- polite pronoun is used to someone you wish to respect or older.
- for possessive pronoun there is stable, we just put the pronoun after the nouns. For instance, kursi unda (my chair), kursi nyawa (your chair), kursi pian (your chair), kursi sidin (his/her chair), etc. the exceptional just for aku, it usually reduce become –ku, for example: kursiku (my chair).
C. Compare and Contras
Personal Pronouns
| Type | English | Indonesian | Banjarese |
| First person | I | Saya (standard, polite), Aku (informal, familiar), Gua/Gue (informal, slang), daku (in poem or poetic nuances) | Unda (slang), aku (netral), ulun (polite) |
| | We | Kami, kita | Kami, kita |
| Second person | You | Anda (polite, formal), Saudara (male, polite, formal), Saudari (female, polite, formal), kamu (familiar, informal), (Eng)kau (familiar, informal), Lu (informal, slang), dikau (in poem or poetic nuances). | Nyawa (slang), ikam (netral), pian/andika (polite). |
| | You (plural) | Kalian (plural, informal), Anda sekalian (plural, formal), Saudara(i)-saudara(i) (polite) | Buhanmu, bagianmu, buhan/bagian pian (polite). |
| Third person | He, she, it | Ia, dia, Beliau (addressing to high respected person ). | Inya (netral), sidin (polite) |
| | They | mereka | Buhannya, bagiannya, buhan/buhan sidin (polite) |
Possessive Pronoun
| Type | English | Indonesian | Banjarese |
| First person | my | -ku | unda , -ku, ulun |
| | our | ...(milik) kami, kita | ...(milik) kita, kami |
| Second person | Your | -mu | …(pun) nyawa, ikam, pian |
| | Yours | …(milik) kalian | …(pun) buhanmu, bagianmu, buhan/bagian pian |
| Third person | His, her, its | -nya | -nya |
| | they | mereka | …(pun) buhan/bagiannya, buhan/bagian sidin |
D. Conclusion
From the explanation above, we can conclude:
Ø English don’t has speech level for pronoun. All is same. We can use “You” to speak with younger or older people. But, in Indonesian we should use Anda in formal situation and In Banjarese we Should use “pian” to speak with the older.
Ø English has grammatical gender for pronoun she (female) and he (male) and Indonesian has to for pronoun saudara (male) and saudari (female) whereas Banjarese hasn’t.
Ø The pattern for possessive pronouns:
English: Possessive pronoun+word root = my chair.
Indonesian: word root+possessive pronoun = kursiku.
Banjarese: word root+possessive pronoun = kursi ulun.
No comments:
Post a Comment