Loyalty as Language Attitude to Sustain Nusa Penida Balinese Language

Abstract

The island of Nusa Penida is one of the islands in the province of Bali, Indonesia that has been known as a tourist destination. The research that was conducted in this island has the purposes of (1) finding out the language attitude of the people of Nusa Penida towards the three languages spoken on the island namely the Indonesian language, Nusa Penida dialect of the Balinese language (NPB) as well as foreign languages and (2) the factors that make the condition as it is at present. This research is very important to find out the recent condition of NPB to be used as the authority as the bases of making language policy. The respondents of this research were taken from three different generations to see the system of language transfer and to find out how much of the language is spoken these days. The findings show that NPB is still spoken in all generations in vital domains like household, social, traditional and religious activities as well as at school (outside classroom); the reasons for the strength of NPB are the type of tourism they mostly have, their loyalty to the language considering that it is used as a symbol of ethnicity, and their pride of being the people of Nusa Penida, the island that is famous for its religious as well as ecotourism.