JARGON?
Jargon
Phenomenon in Indonesian Teenagers
Written By Fitrah Ramadhan
English Language and Letters
Department
Faculty of Humanities
Maulana Malik Ibrahim State Islamic
University, Malang
2015
The
appearance of many variations of language use, as the result of the speakers’
needs in communication, gives the effects toward linguistics situation which is
being more complicated by the time being. As the matter of fact, there will be
more complexity linguistics situation if there is more than one language
growing up within the society. The speakers
do not only need to determine a language that they should use to communicate
each other, but also they need to consider the language variety which is
appropriate with the situation in order for the purpose of the communication
could be achieved as expected.
Ironically,
nowadays, there are a lot of people who believe and assume that language is
something which has been owned by any human being. Whereas, if we do further
exploration, language is actually acquired and learned in a long time process
since we were child. In line with this, Luriawati D.N (n.d) also argued that,
we can find a concept that actually language owned by human beings is from
learning process. It means that, humans comprehend the language through
imitating process, speaking or talking, and an isolated learning.
Language
is the main thing which should be owned by everyone regarding its function as a
communication tool. Language is also as a common event that occurs in human
beings as human’s languages which are identified in a large number and vary
(Luriawati: n.d). It is just like a cultural system, language might change by
the time being and might adapt to particular needs with the surrounding. In other
words, language is like human beings, because it could grow and might die due
to certain reasons. In fact, there is no language which does not change. The
growth of a language is in line with the growth of social, scientific and
technological development. Therefore, a language makes the speaker to be always
in contact with their environment to describe and identify cultural and natural
things as well as to arrange their activity in daily life. The point is someone
will loss his or her ability to live as a socialist if he or she could not
master or have a language.
The
language variation used in society is usually marked by the speakers themselves.
A variety of language in certain group of people is used in different ways, and
sometimes secret. It means that there are certain codes which could only be
understood by the same group. This kind of group has their own special terms
which are used in the same group context. The use of those special terms are
basically to avoid the possibility of such understanding from other people
beyond their group. In other words, the language code that they create and they
deal with is quite vary and only acceptable for themselves. This linguistics
situation is happening within Indonesian teenagers. The language code they
create is somewhat difficult to be understood by other people beyond their
group. This language variation is called as Jargon.
Jargon,
as a part of language variety, is one of some sociolinguistics phenomenon which
is happening around Indonesian people nowadays, teenagers in particular. The
definition of Jargon itself, as according to Wikipedia, is a type of language that is used in a particular context
and may not be well understood outside of it. The context is usually a
particular occupation (that is, a certain trade, profession, or academic field),
but any ungroup
can have jargon. Just like what is happening in Indonesia, as a linguistics
phenomenon, in a social life, either based on the profession, social status, or
age, they has their own tendency to create a new language that will be the Jargon
in their own group. Another definition comes from A. Chaer and L. Agustina
(through Hidayat: 2013). They stated that Jargon is a social variation which is
used limitedly by certain social groups. The expressions or words used often
cannot be understood by the society in general or people outside of their
group. Yet, the expression is not secretly used. It means that people outside
of their groups can also have and use it to communicate in easier way with other
people. It is fairly different with another language variation, Argot, which is purposely used to obscure meaning
to outsider, or in other words cannot be owned by the outsider.
Language
variation occurs is not only because of the speakers which are heterogenic, but
also because of the social interaction that they do which is quite vary. Even
though language has its own structure or pattern, yet because the language is
used by the heterogenic speakers which have different social background, makes
the language become vary, either in its phonological, morphological,
syntactical or lexicon. Language variation can be seen from 4 sides, they are
based on the speakers, based on the users, based on the formality or
informality, and based on the tools used. The vocabularies used by the
engineers for special action are different with the vocabularies used by the
stone masons or the carpenters. The vocabularies or the terms are only
understood by the group of people in engineering. For example in Indonesia, the
engineers use the vocabularies such as, roda
gila, didongkrak, dices, dibalans, and dipoles.
Those jargons makes people outside of their group confuse about the meaning of
it. However, they use it due to certain reasons, including to make the
communication easier as I stated before.
Dell
Hymes (through Hidayat: 2013) argued that there are some reasons why people use
jargon. They are: to adapt to the social norms, to explain the experience,
beauty, kindness, etc., to set out the social contact (For example greeting), to express our feeling (for
examples, to scold, to praise, to hail, etc.), to ask something to other
people, to arrange languages, etc. Those functions of jargon are normally seen
as the needs of people who use jargon itself.
The
language variation like jargon is very unique and interesting linguistics
phenomenon. Jargon is growing up in teenagers and adolescents, or even children
and old people. The growth of Jargon is quite significant together with the
growth of the use of technology, especially in Social media, such like Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger which are mostly
used by the teenagers. They use various kinds of jargon through written
language using social media. Through this way, the jargons which are new
languages, will spread out very fast and used by many other teenagers in
Indonesia. By time going, new lexicons have been appear used by young people
due to the needs of the speakers which always make the vocabularies becoming
simpler and easier use. The examples of jargon which mostly used by them are: Keles instead of Kali (Bahasa Indonesia), Capcay
(Chinese food) instead of feeling tired or exhausting, Bonyok which stands for Bokap
dan Nyokap instead of parents, Galau instead
of feeling gloomy, unyu-unyu instead
of cute, OTW which stands for ‘on the
way’, GPL which stands for gak pake lama is
used to express that he or she does not want to wait for long time, titi dj instead of be careful or take
care on the way, lekong instead of
Acdc, kamseupay is to represent bad taste, rempong instead of complicated, capcus instead of ‘let’s go’, sotoy and kepo which means willing to know one’s business, cemungud instead of giving spirit for
other people. Those are the new vocabularies created by certain group of people
which eventually spread out and then used by teenagers in majority to make the
communication easier among themselves based on their needs. Those jargons are
used productively by certain group of people.
As
its nature, jargon in social class or social status is usually used to conceal
the topic discussion. Therefore, jargon which mostly used is by turning over
the syllables and giving such a new term or name for something which stands for
it or represents it, or even does not represent at all. It is ju st like creating new words freely based on
the willing of themselves. However, it cannot be blamed or interrupted by other
people as long as they use their jargon in a proper situations. In short,
language is an arbitrary system. However, because of the language is an
arbitrary system, it does not mean the creation or the use of language is
always arbitrary. The use of jargon itself should be in appropriate situation.
As the matter of fact, if the language used in inappropriate ways, it will
break the nature of language itself which is used to communicate. Besides, when
we communicate, we want to make other people understand about what we are
saying and we want other people to understand our words.
In
conclusions, jargon is a part of language variations within the society in
Indonesia, especially teenagers. Living in social condition, either based on
the profession, social status or class, or age, people have a tendency to
create a language which then becomes a jargon in certain group of people to
make the communication easier based on their needs.
References
Hidayat, R. (2013, Mei 13). Apa Yang diMaksud
Dengan Slang, Jargon dan Register? Retrieved from celoteh seorang rahmat
APA YANG DIMAKSUD SLANG, JARGON, DAN REGISTER.htm
Luriawati D.N.
(2013). Bentuk dan Faktor Penyebab
Penggunaan Jargon Masyarakat Nelayan di Rembang.
Vivi Kurnia,
Ermanto, Emidar. (n.d.). Penggunaan
Jargon Oleh Komunitas Chatting Facebook di Kalangan Mahasiswa Universitas
Negeri Padang.
Widyantore, A.
(2013, June 13). Variasi Bahasa: Bentuk-Bentuk Variasi Keformalan.
Retrieved from Kajian Sosiolinguistik: Kajian Teoretis dan Praktis: Fenomena
Bahasa _ Kajian Sosiolinguistik Kajian Teoretis dan Praktis.htm
Wikipedia. (2013,
June). Jargon. Retrieved from Jargon - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia.htm
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