Digitalization of The Local Language Dictionary of Pegunungan Bintang

Abstract

The increasingly rapid development of globalization and modernization in Indonesia has changed the order of life of its people. The positive change is that people’s lives are increasingly modern, but on the other hand it is disastrous for them, namely the degradation of cultural heritage which should be used as the main foundation of the nation’s civilization. As happened in Papua, some local languages have become extinct and some are threatened of extinction. Some local languages that are under threat of extinction are found in the Pegunungan Bintang regency, namely the languages of the Ngalum, Ketengban, Murop, Lepki and Arimtap tribes. Speakers of the local languages of these tribes are increasingly diminishing due to social, political and economic globalization. While on the other hand globalization brings opportunities for us to develop and preserve local languages by utilizing the sophistication and availability of information technology. As in this study, the digital dictionary application for Pegunungan Bintang local language is made using those development opportunities. This study uses qualitative method to investigate, find and manage language data of Ngalum, Ketengban, Murop, Lepki and Arimtap tribes. The collected vocabulary data turn into an android application with a prototyping approach, which is an approach that develops a device that will be developed or repaired according to user’ needs. This application has been tested and it can be run on an android smartphone by being able to translate vocabulary from Indonesian to all local languages of Pegunungan Bintang and vice versa. Blackbox testing was also done to observe the functionality of the application when users use the application.