Diglossia Research Paper

Diglossia in Religious Activity in Sidemen Karangasem (Sosiolinguistics)

Compiled by:

Ni Kadek Yuniantari 1201305062

English Department

Faculty of Letters and Culture

Udayana University

2014/2015

I. Introduction

Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness. Multilingualism is the use of two or more languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers, this situation is the cause of diglossia. Diglossia refers to a situation in which two dialects or usually closely related languages are used by a single language community. Balinese language is one of the example of diglossia.

Balinese language is the mother tongue of Balinese people which most of them is Hinduism. The Hinduism is known of their system of caste, where there are: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras. Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and the last is Shudras the lowest class of the caste. Those systems of caste in Hinduism give an effect on the language they used. In Balinese language there are two prestige of language; high and low prestige. The low prestige “L” is the community's everyday or vernacular language and the language which is used in certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific

From the research above can be concluded that the type of diglossia used in religious activity like the example of the conversation above is formal or traditional diglossia, which mean the language used is based on the status of the users. The Shudras as the lower class speakers, they uses the higher variety of language when they are having conversation with the Brahmin which is consider as the higher class speaker. On the other hand, the higher class speakers; the Brahmins use the low variety when they speak with the lower class