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Communicating via Facebook status has become extremely popular in Indonesia as it has elsewhere in the world. In recent years it has become fashionable to deform the text of status updates with substitutions and abbreviations, the result being a written argot which has been termed Bahasa Alay (Kuswandini 2009, Nugroho 2012). This is associated with the broader pop-culture phenomenon also named Alay, denoting a style which is (intentionally or not) tacky or kitsch. Bahasa Alay has broad similarities to l33t in English (Sherblom-Woodward 2002), gyaru-moji in Japanese (Miller 2011), and most closely resembles jejemon in the Philippines (Lim 2010).
In general Bahasa Alay appears to be based on Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian (Sneddon 2006), however this paper will concentrate on the variety used in the city of Manado and its hinterland in North Sulawesi. Facebook updates from young Manadonese show consistent use of the vernacular Manado Malay in apparent rejection of more widespread Jakartan norms, though still with many recognisably ‘alay’ features. Some examples appear below:
567 $89%:;<<%:=>?;%@=%ABCADD%4E<%8F%:G%HG><<DD%)I=;%JF%K=L%ME;?%:K9M%JF%NGCCCOOODD%
5P7 QR>%SA%ET%II%8R%;IUSV%AS%;HCS%WTIU%;A;IOO<R?%=SLOOOCGCGCGCGCGDDD%<NU%H8S%@W;IU%
5T7 %!"#$%$&'(()$!"#!!!!"#"$%&'()*"+,&!"#$%&'!!"#$%&'#()*+++%
Numerous difficulties arise when reading and analysing this type of text. Manado Malay is not itself standardised and allows significant latitude in spelling and word boundaries.
Further, there is input from Colloquial Indonesian, as well as the use of English or other foreign words, often spelled in creative ways such as in (1) carzz ‘charge’, or in (2) qdin9
‘kidding’. There is occasional mixture with indigenous Minahasan languages, which are themselves not standardised. And most obviously, the texts often exhibit creative misspellings or letters substituted with numbers or unusual symbols, such as (2) in94" for inga-inga ‘remember’ or (3) N!ª!"# $% for ngana ‘you’) in ways which intentionally make it harder both to produce and interpret these texts (Topkara et al).
This paper will examine the conventions (and creativity) of Bahasa Alay in Manado Malay, situate it within a range of similar phenomena while contrasting it with more mainstream Indonesian conventions, and finally examine its function as a marker of identity and a creative outlet within the comparatively ‘unregulated space’ of Facebook (Sebba 2009).
Kuswandini, Dian. 2009. Messing with letters. The Jakarta Post October 28, 2009.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/28/messing-with-letters.html
Lim, Ronald S. 2010. How do you solve a problem like the Jejemons? Manila Bulletin April 27, 2010.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/254784/how-do-you-solve-a-problem- jejemons#.UQimWx2sh8E
Miller, Laura. 2011. Subversive script and novel graphs in Japanese girls’ culture. Language
& Communication 31:1. 16-26.
Nugroho, Bangun Awan. 2012. Bahasa Alay as a Current Identity of some Indonesian Teenagers. Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang.
Sebba, Mark. 2009. Unregulated Spaces. Plenary lecture at Language Policy and Language Learning conference in Limerick, Republic of Ireland.
http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/mark/unreg.pdf
Sherblom-Woodward, Blake. Hackers, Gamers and Lamers The Use of l33t in the Computer Sub-Culture. (2002).
http://www.modestolan.com/xwred1/sherblom-woodward.pdf
Sneddon, James N. 2006. Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
Topkara, Mercan, Umut Topkara, and Mikhail J. Atallah. 2007. Information hiding through errors: a confusing approach. Proceedings of the SPIE International Conference on Security, Steganography, and Watermarking of Multimedia Contents.
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