MALAY LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AMONG THE SPEAKERS IN DESA BARU BATANG KUIS

This study explained Malay language maintenance among the speakers in Desa Baru Batang Kuis. The objectives of the study are (1) to find out the factors affecting language maintenance (2) to find out the strategies in maintaining the Malay language in Desa Baru Batang Kuis and (3) to find out the reasons why the speakers have to maintain Malay language in Desa Baru Batang Kuis. The method of this study was descriptive qualitative research. The participants were 30 Malay people who live in Desa Baru Batang Kuis taken by purposive random sampling. The data were taken from questionnaire and interview as instrument. The questionnaire used to answer the factors affecting the Malay language maintenance and the strategies in maintaining Malay language. While the interview was used to answer the reasons in maintaining Malay language. The data were analyzed by using Miles and Huberman matrix (1994). This research found the following results (1) There are six factors affecting Malay language maintenance in Desa Baru Batang Kuis such as: living together and see each other, ethno linguistic vitality, use of the language in family domain (intramarriage and intermarriage), use of the language in neighborhood domain and use of the language in religion domain, following traditional ceremony. (2) To maintain Malay language, the Malay people in Desa Baru Batang Kuis conducted some strategies like: using Malay language in social meeting, establish traditional organizations, listening the radio in vernacular language, watching vernacular language Channel, family language policy, reading article and journal in vernacular language. (3) The reasons why the Malay people maintain the language are: they were proud being Malay people and speak Malay language, Malay language shows their identity as Malay people, and Malay language is the element of national culture and also a source of vocabulary for Indonesia language.