Balinese Language Maintenance in Desa Damuli Kebun Labuhanbatu Utara

This study deals with Balinese language maintenance in Desa Damuli Kebun Labuhanbatu Utara. It uses qualitative research design. It is conducted descriptively. This study aims to examine the factors affecting the Balinese language maintenance in Labuhanbatu Utara, find out the ways in maintaining the Balinese language in Labuhanbatu Utara and find out the reasons why the speakers of Balinese people maintain their language in Labuhanbatu Utara. The subjects were 9 persons (males and females) of Balinese. The use of instruments in this study were observation,interview and documentation. The observation were used to examine the factors affecting Balinese language maintenance and the language use in six domains in order to describe the ways of Balinese language maintenance. The interview was used to gain the reasons of Balinese language maintainance in Labuhanbatu Utara. The theories of Fasold, Fishman and Holmes are used in this study. The data were analyzed by Miles, Huberman, and Saldana (2014). There are seven factors affectingBalinese language maintenance in the of Balinese in Labuhanbatu Utara namely; Vitality (77.8%), Family Domains (55.5%), Neighbourhood Domains (33.3%), Practice Traditional Ceremony (33.3%), Workplace Domains (34%), Religion Domains (100%), and an additional factor that found by researcher as a new insight in this research is Maintenance by older people (66.7%). There are four ways to maintain Balinese language in Labuhanbatu Utara namely; Acquisition of the language by adults (77.8%), Number of people habitually using the language (55.5%), All age groups encourage in the language (66.7%), Teach the language to next generation (44.4%). There are three reasons why they maintain their language namely; Show identity (100%), Achieve self pride or prestige (100%), Keep the language (66.7%). Analysis of data clearly indicates that Balinese language maintenance were done in Labuhanbatu Utara.