View article

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago which extends over 4,500 kilometres along the equator with a population of over 180 million people. As a nation, Indonesia is made up of a plurality of ethnic groups, cultures and languages. These languages are not all the same in size, or in sociocultural importance, but they are equal under the Indonesian constitution. The most important and uniquely placed language is Indonesian, which was declared the state language by the 1945 Constitution, Section XV, Article 36. It is the national and only official language throughout the Republic of Indonesia. As the national language, Indonesian functions as an invaluable and effective tool in integrating the heterogeneous peoples of Indonesia within the framework of establishing and developing a strong Indonesian nationalism. Indonesian has enabled the people to carry out intercultural communication. The status of Indonesian as the national language commenced when Malay was adopted and promulgated as Indonesian by the Youth Congress held in Jakarta on October 28, 1928. As the official language Indonesian functions as a means of communication in which legislative, executive, and judicial affairs are administered. Instruction in schools both state and private, from elementary to university levels, is carried out in Indonesian. In addition to Indonesian, there are more than three hundred'regional'languages in Indonesia. Five out of these regional languages are regarded as' major'regional languages because they have a large number of speakers, a writing system, and a literary tradition. One of these five languages is Balinese, which is spoken …