Toba Batak Language Shift in Rantau Selatan

Shift in Rantau Selatan. The main objectives of the study
were to answer the research problems under study that are (1) to
describe the level of maintenance of the Toba Batak language in
Rantau Selatan district. (2) to elaborate how the shift realized in
their linguistic repertoire across language domain in Rantau
Selatan district. (3) to explain the reasons why the language shift
occur in the ways they do in Rantau Selatan district. The method
of this study was qualitative research. The subjects were twenty
eight Toba Batak people who live in Kampung Batak, Urung
Kompas, Rantau Selatan district. The subjects were divided into
two groups; first group as the second generation (parents) and
the second group as third generation (children). The data were
taken from the interview, questionnaire and observation. The
findings show that (1) the level of mastery or maintenance of the
Toba Batak language for the second generation is Severely
Endangered at grade two. And the level of mastery or
maintenance of the Toba Batak language for third generation or
children is Critically Endangered at grade one. (2) the dominant
domains are education domain and work place domain. (3) the
reasons of Toba Batak language shift into Bahasa Indonesia;
bilingualism factor, migration factor, economic factor, social
factor, demographic factor, institutional factor, attitude factor,
environment factor, status, and social success. Attitude is
Toba Batak language, it can be maintain the Toba Batak
language but if the speaker has negative attitude about Toba
Batak language, the Toba Batak language can be extinct