The Situation and Consciousness for Choosing the

First Personal Pronoun saya, aku, gua/gue:

A Preliminary Study of the Case in Lampung

Sri Budi Lestari (tari0828@apu.ac.jp)

(Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University)

0. Introduction

• Background of the Research This is a preliminary research before conducting a research on personal pronoun usage in Lampung. • Data This study is based on some recordings of conversations and interviews made in Lampung during August 2017 and 2019, also in Japan (Beppu) The aim is to provide more data and discussions about personal pronoun use (1st person pronoun) in colloquial Indonesian.

Table 1 Data in this study

Type of data Lenght Participants Ethnical Background Group Conversation 1

1 hour 8 minutes 28 seconds

4 people (age 35-40) 1 Chinese, 3 Javanese

Group Conversation 2

30 minutes 19 seconds

4 people (age 35-40)

1 Chinese, 3 Javanese

Interview 1 25 minutes 20 seconds

Face to face interview between me and the respondent

Lampungnese man (60’s)

Interview 2 Face to face interview between me and the respondent

Lampungnese woman (60’s)

Conversation 1 10 minutes 2 college students 2 Javanese students (1 was born and grew up in Semarang, 1 was in Lampung and grew up in Bogor and Jakarta)

Conversation 2 10 minutes 2 college students Jakarta and Bugis background Conversation 3 10 minutes 2 college students Born and grew up in Jakarta

1. First Personal Pronoun in Standard Indonesian

Person Singular Plural First saya, aku kami (exc), kita (inc) Second kamu, kau, Anda kalian, ~ sekalian Third dia, beliau mereka

2. Recent Research

•  Sneddon (2006) ü The choice between gua and gue appears to be entirely random,

although most people favour one or the other. ü Gua/gue and also aku are rarely used to elders or social superiors.

Aku is used either to juniors or to familiar peers.Young people used aku in the data occasionally, though preferring gua/gue.

ü There are alternation between saya and gua/gue, and the use of saya are seen in the beginning of the interview and can be explained by a certain amount of formality (pp. 59-62).

• Djenar, Ewing, and Howard (2018) ü Many young people use aku as their default first person,

particularly used by people from areas outside of the capital Jakarta.

ü Aku is used among friends and is also used more broadly in informal contexts among people who have first met.

ü The switch from aku to saya is also discussed (e.g. to perform maturity by using the proper standard Indonesian)

2.1. The Use of First Person Pronoun in Lampung. As Lampung is a multicultural society, the use of first person pronoun can be said to be similar to Coloquial Jakartan Indonesian. •  Saya formal occasion. Also in casual occasion between

people of middle age with different ethnic background. For example, a 70 years old Javanese will use saya when talking to his/her Lampungnese neighbor with the same age.

•  Aku intimate context or among Javanese in daily Indonesian conversation.

• Gua (gue) teens up to 40’s use gua/gue when speaking to someone in close relationship.

3. The analysis of Group Conversation (GV) 2 • Participants 1.  D : Tionghoan female, 30’s. Born and grew up in Tarutung

(North Sumatra). Tarutung, Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Lampung 2.  R : Javanese female, 40’s. Born and grew up in Lampung.

Lampung and Jogjakarta. 3.  E : Javanese female, 40’s. Born and grew up in Lampung.

Lampung. 4.  T : Javanese female, 40’s. Born and grew up in Lampung.

Lampung, Jakarta (Depok), Japan.

• Place : Café, Bandar Lampung city • Topic : About Living History • Time : August 16, 2017 • Relation : R, E, and T are friends since junior high school .

D is a friend of R and E. T first time met D in this conversation.

• There are also another 2 participants who joined the conversation from halfway.

3.1. The First Person Pronoun in GC 2

•  In Group Conversation 2 of young people, saya only appeared when the speaker

quoting a talk in the past. Saya appearred 5 times. 1)

Makanya dulu pernah sih, ditanyain. Ibukunya temen-ku "Lho kamu ngga bisa

bahasa, " kan ditanyain dia pake bahasa Jawa, lupa sih apa, tapi aku jawabnya

bahasa Indonesia. Aku bilang, "Kalo sama yang lebih tua saya mending jawab pake

bahasa Indonesia Bu, karena saya nggak bisa bahasa alus, daripada nanti saya

kasar, jadi mending saya jawab pake bahasa Indonesia” (R)

2) Nggak. ”Mau kemana Bu?" Terus nanti dia cerita, “Anak saya, gini gini gini gini”, langsung cerita panjang lebar gitu, gua tinggal heee kayak dengerin radio aja deh jadinya. Jadi nggak bosen selama pas nunggu di kapal. 3) Orang gua pertama kali pulang dari Jogja aja gitu kan, ngetuk pintu rumah gitu kan minta dibukain, Koko gua sambutannya, tau nggak ngomong apa? "Kamu siapa? Adik saya ke mana?" kayak gitu saking gua itemnya (laugh) gitu.

• The occurance of first person pronoun Table 2 1st person pronoun Occurance Note saya 5 times aku 41 times Including -ku gua/gue 66 times tak 1 time

3.2. The Alternation of aku and gua/gue in the data

•  Used aku in some parts, but then shift to gua in other parts.

① In the beginning of conversation, the participants tend to use aku. 4) is the beginning of the

conversation. D starts the conversation. She used gue but then suddenly shift to aku. 4)

Sebenernya kan kalo gue, sebetulnya kalo aku kan posisinya dulu dari Tarutung, di Tarutung, Tarutung itu Tapanuli Utara. Kita tinggal di situ, stay, eeem, komunitasnya Cinanya juga nggak terlalu banyak gitu kan, soalnya kan itu kabupaten lah bisa dibilang gitu. Nah terus, kebetulan nyokap gua itu dari Sibolga, kalo bokap gua, bapaknya itu masih orang asli sana, dateng langsung ke Tarutung… (D)

② The obvious face to face question between D and T (just met) aku occurred more often. 5)

T : Itu di sekolah karena banyak Chinesenya?

D : Iya karena banyak Chinesenya kan. Sekolahnya aku

juga sekolah China gitu, terus Budha gitu. Jadi kalo di

sekolah ya ngomong, gitu, ngobrol. Bahasa Hokkien kita

ngobrol di sekolah, Cuma kalo di luar itu, kalo ketemu

orang lain kita ya nggak ngomong pake bahasa itu, gitu.

6)

T : Tapi sekarang orang tua di mana? Jakarta?

D : Jakarta. Mereka juga, nah lucunya di rumah aku itu, bahasa rumah itu bukan bahasa Cina, karena kan ibu-ku nggak bisa.

Bahasa Batak.

But in 7) which occurred before 6), D used gua to T question. 7)

T : Tapi sekarang Dessy dah lupa?

D : Iya kalo diajak ngobrol masih bisa gitu, masih

nyambung gua. The shift from aku to gua/gue appeared in all participants. Noone consistenly used the same pronoun in the whole conversation.

8)

T : Kalo kakeknya, bahasa Indonesia bisa? Bisa lah ya.

D : Heeh. Nenek-ku bahkan bahasa Indonesianya bisa,

cuma nggak bisa baca. Lebih yang, ya jaman dulu gitu

sih. Cuma kalo ngitung duit bisa, faseh.

R : (laugh) Masak?

D : Iya , makanya gua bilang, pokoknya ya, gua bilang gitu,

nggak bisa baca, tapi kalo duit bisa, beda, kata dia gitu

(laugh).

③ Mixed aku and gua/gue in the same utterance (suddenly shift from gua to aku). Sentence

1) is also the example. 9) gua/gue= 6 times (1 is for quoting), aku= 5 times

Nah itu bahasa yang di China itu Mandarin, bukan yang bahasa daerah, beda. Kalo gua kan

bahasa daerahnya gitu. Cuma kalo apa namanya, dulu juga sempet sih di Jogja. Di Jogja itu,

yah kalo di Jogja kan banyak tuh pendatang-pendatang dari segala macem gitu kan. Waktu gua

di ?place name? jadi waktu di ?place name? itu, memang sih salah satu temen kos aku gitu

kan, eh dia orang Pekan Baru apa ya kalo nggak salah, jadi ngobrol, jadi di sebelah gue itu

bukan orang Cina gitu kan. Terus dia mau ajak gue ngobrol pake bahasa Hokkien gitu kan, terus

aku nggak, aku jawabnya terus pake bahasa Indonesia. Trus dia ngomong, ”Kamu bisa kan

ngomong bahasa itu?", gitu kan ”Bisa", gua bilang gitu. Tapi ada temen aku, aku nggak mau

ngomong gitu karena menurut aku ya ”Kalo elu mau ngomong ama gue pake bahasa daerah

jangan di lingkungan itu", gitu lho. (D)

10)

Sama ada satu tempat biasa tempat kayak base camp nya kita gitu kan ada

orang tuanya di situ, mbak, udah udah ini sih itu, waktu merapi itu udah

meninggal sih gitu kan. Eee ya gitu ngomongnya, dia, kalo aku dateng tuh,

padahal dia tau lho gua nggak ngerti gitu kan, tetep aja ngomongnya itu

yang cerita soal apa apa itu pake bahasa Jawa halus gitu kan ke aku, jadi

paling kalo misalnya aku yang, oh ya, yang dikit-dikit ngerti, “Nggeh, nggeh”,

gitu gitu kan, temen gue begitu dia selesai misalnya ibu itu pergi gitu kan,

“Berapa persen Des”, ehhhm 75 adalah, maksudnya 75 persen nggak

pahamnya, (laugh). (D)

11)

Terus ke Els Cafe, kan ada pasta gitu kan, spaghetty apa gitu, meat sauce gitu. Mas, ini,

buat anak gitu maksudnya, semua pesen, pesen tiga, makannya bareng-bareng buat

anak-anak gitu kan ya. Mas ini pedes nggak Mas? Dia nggak yakin gitu nanya, eh ini

pedes nggak? Nanya ke belakang gitu, nggak nggak pedes, ya udah akhirnya pesen itu

kan. Pas dateng, anakku coba, langsung kepedesan gitu. Trus aku tanya, “Tadi saya

tanya, pedes apa nggak, terus Mas bilang nggak pedes”, trus dia bilang. Itu udah

nunggunya lama, itu paling lama. Trus akhirnya, ya udah deh Pak ini diganti aja, diganti

dengan yang nggak pedes. Nggak usah deh, lama kan. Terus gua bilang gitu, terus ya

udah akhirnya nggak jadi diganti, terus akhirnya, menejernya apa chefnya itu dateng.

Mbak ini sebenernya , maksudnya mungkin nggak terlalu pedes, gitu kali ya. (T) a.  happened if the utterance take a long duration

b.  only seen in D and T (just met)

4. The conversation between 2 college students Only in conversation 3, the participants consistenly used the same pronoun (aku). They have multicultural background but were born and grew up in Jakarta. Their relation is junior and senior. In conversation 2, between Jakarta and Makassar student, only in the beginning of the conversation gue appeared but then they used aku consistenly. The mixed use of aku and gua/gue happened in conversation 1. One is a male student, was born and lived in Lampung until 16 years old. He moved to Bogor, Jakarta, and Japan. The other participant is female student from Semarang, she kept using aku in the whole conversation.

12) W : Iya kan. Itu sih kadang-kadang kasian aja. Cuman kayak, other, kayak menurut aku, untuk orang luar bisa ngerti aja, tanpa harus bisa ngomong lagi ya, bisa ngerti aja itu udah bagus banget, kayak, ngapain lo belajar bahasa Indonesia. Tapi banyak sih, kayak, aku waktu itu pernah pas pulang, pertama kali pulang ke Indo ya, naik ini naik bis dari Sukarno Hatta ke Gambir kan, soalnya aku mau ke , mau ke mana ya, oh aku dijemputnya di Gambir, dari Gambir baru bareng sama kakak ke Bogor, naik mobil. Terus, eeem dari situ pas satu bis, satu bis sama orang Korea yang dulu pas intern, dia internnya di Indo… (J : Heeh) W : Bagus banget bahasa Indonesianya, gua pikir Pecinan mana, gua nggak ngerti J : (laugh) W : Iya gua pikir, karena kan udah kayak gitu, jadi, jadi ada, dia orang Korea itu, di sininya itu ada Bule gitu bawa backpack, apa jadi kayak backpacker gitu, di sebelahnya itu gue, jadi di sebelah sininya itu gue, jadi tiga gini, nah terus, si bule ini kayak bingung gitu, nyari tiketnya ketinggalan, kan ditanya sama kondekturnya gitu, di mana tiketnya gitu.

13)

W :Ya kalo aku sih jujur berbahasa yang baik, karena dulu di sekolah,

nggak tau sih, di sekolah dulu itu lagi pelajaran bahasa Indonesia itu nggak

boleh keluar bahasa Inggrisnya.

(J : Oooo)

W : Gurunya itu strict banget sampe kayak to the point, bener-bener kayak

bahasa Indonesia gua itu bagus banget di kelas itu, kayak ooh gitu, tapi ya

kalo nggak kayak gitu soalnya susah sih kalo di sekolah intern ya.

5. The First person pronoun in the interview with older people • The interview is between me and the respondents (2

recordings). They are 60‘s year old Lampungnese male and female.

• These 2 respondents only used saya in the data.

• Which one is the default form of first person pronoun? aku or gua/gue.

•  In some part of data, the context of utterance can trigger the shift from aku to gue (in 8) and 12))

• Most of the data was informal context, saya did not occur in the conversation except when quoting.

• Not only in the group of participants with different relationship the mixed used of aku and gue occurred, but also in the dialog between two closed relation of young people.

References

• Djenar, Dwi, Ewing, Michael C., Manns, Howard (2018) Style and Intersubjectivity in Youth Interaction. De Gruyter.

• Lestari, Sri Budi (2018). “Some Features of Colloquial Indonesian Spoken in Lampung”. The 2nd International Workshop on Malay Varieties.

• Sneddon, James (2006). Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pasific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.