In 2008, Goenawan Moehamad celebrated the “very valuable paradox” (paradoks yang sangat berharga) of the language that has come over three generations to be known by almost all of Indonesia’s 250 million people. In this talk, and drawing on decades of sociolinguistic research, J. Joseph Errington will explore different versions of this paradox as it has developed in two towns, Kupang and Pontianak. To compare these two urban scenes, it helps first to consider more generally Indonesian’s uniqueness among the world’s national languages. This provides a way to understand how its diversity of forms and values can be traced to its enabling absence of native speakers. In discussing his research and writing about Indonesia’s archipelagic world, Errington will also share insights about the publishing process.
This event is capped at 25 participants, Contact us for the zoom link!
J Joseph Errington
Dr. J. Joseph Errington is Professor of Anthropology and International and Area Studies at Yale University. An advocate for Southeast Asian Studies and former President of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Professor Errington is interested in the linguistic dimensions of social life, ranging from the social implications of patterns of verbal communication, to forms and uses of sociolinguistic hierarchies, to the linguistic effects of large-scale dynamics. His research and writing have focused on linguistic dimensions of modernization and identity in Java and Indonesia, reflecting his broader interests in semiotics and the politics of language. Professor Errington’s books include Language and Social Change in Java: Linguistic Reflexes of Modernization in a Traditional Royal Polity (Ohio, 1985), Structure and Style in Javanese: A Semiotic View of Linguistic Etiquette (Pennsylvania, 1988), Shifting Languages: Interaction and Identity in Javanese Indonesia (Cambridge, 1999), and Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Language, Meaning, and Power (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). His fifth and most recent book, Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.