Living in a country with more than 700 active languages, most Indonesians are exposed to multiple languages throughout their lives. Bahasa Indonesia in formal settings such as school or work, and a localized version of Bahasa Indonesia or a native language at home. This native language can be Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Balinese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and many more. This is before considering globalization and the internet which expose people to other languages such as English. With a large pool of languages to choose from, it is only natural for seldomly used languages to slowly die out. However, this presents a sizable problem for these endangered languages. With the death of a language comes the death of its culture and history too. Bahasa Osing from Banyuwangi, East Java is one such language.
Bahasa Osing is not a dialect of the Javanese language, but a language of its own that has been thriving since before the inception of the Majapahit Empire. The language separated itself from Bahasa Kawi or Olden Javanese from around the year 1114. According to the community, Bahasa Osing is believed to have a direct correlation to the Proto-Austronesian language, the pioneering language of Nusantara.
These factors play significant parts in how Bahasa Osing is spoken to this day. One of the distinct differences of Bahasa Osing compared to Javanese and Bahasa Indonesia is their vocalization of the vowels “i” and “u”, which are pronounced as “ai” and “au” respectively, making words like “sapi” in Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese into “Sapai” in Bahasa Osing. Another unique palatalization practice in the language is the infix “y” added to words containing these sounds: ba, ga, da, wa (Banyuwangi — Byanyuwangai, Dawuk — Dyawuk). The language also utilizes the glottal stop more liberally compared to standard Javanese.
Another surefire way to identify Bahasa Osing is its differing pronouns used compared to Javanese. Instead of using “sampean”, “kowe”, “jenengan” to conversation partners, Bahasa Osing uses “Siro”, “Riko”, “Ndiko”. Having said this, there are regional dialects in Bahasa Osing, differing from one sub-district to another. It is a standard practice for local languages in Indonesia although there is typically one standard way to converse and write in said language. Bahasa Osing itself is presently taught in schools and there has been a significant upsurge to expose more people to it through cultural ceremonies, dances, and songs.
The Blambangan People, or the people of Banyuwangi felt the decline of the language in recent generations. Before the recent efforts to preserve the language in the early 2000s, there was an active pushback towards using the language in daily life due to the rising popularity of Javanese in the villages of Banyuwangi. This coupled with a changing ethnic profile of the area, educational reforms, and the view that Bahasa Osing is too old-school and uncool caused a serious concern of the language dying. This author can sympathize with this concern since their family are those who after growing up and moving away from Banyuwangi realized how unfortunate it is to not be remotely fluent in one’s own language. Merely 5 years ago, it was estimated that only 1 out of 10 children are fluent in Bahasa Osing.
Thankfully, Bahasa Osing is steadily gaining traction due to the cultural committee's efforts and increasing support from local communities. In 2024, Banyuwangi received a distinction from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Mendikbud Ristek) for the successful preservation of Bahasa Osing. Aside from teaching the language in schools and reciting rituals and songs in Bahasa Osing, the local government had successfully made a cultural and linguistic festival in hopes of further exposing the people of Blambangan to their heritage. The hope is that with the addition to this award, Bahasa Osing will slowly grow its significance in the region’s everyday life.