Losing a language means losing the culture of the people who speak it. Various efforts to preserve these indigenous languages are conducted ceaseless. Documenting in the books lines that containing the richness of culture and tribal traditions in the region is one of that efforts. Books on culture and traditions of East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan are mostly in Bahasa Indonesia. On the contrary, very few works are wrote in indigenous languages in East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan. Office of Library and Regional Archives of East Kalimantan data revealed that there were very few collections of reading books are wrote in indigenous languages. Thus, it was barely any literary works that wrote down the cultural richness and local wisdom traditions of East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan in the local/indigenous languages.
For that purpose, Regional Office for Language in East Kalimantan Province held the Word and Story Works Writing in Indigenous Languages in East Kutai Regency on November 23, 2021 at Royal Victoria Hotel. The speakers were M. Erwin Darma, Evi Melila Sari, and Suindah Sari. It aims to capture bilingual stories and vocabulary inventory about the culture and traditions of local wisdom in East Kutai. Also, it is hoped that the stories can be used as an indigenous languages and literature form documentation. In addition, through the bilingual folklore, children, as the next generation, are expected to be able to learn the language, learn the local culture contents, and love the indigenous culture more. At the end, it is expected that the stories works can be enjoyed by the readers of other indigenous language speakers and enrich the cultural insight and local wisdom of East Kutai.
Furthermore, the vocabulary inventory iss a vocabulary data collection activity to gather potential indigenous vocabularies to enrich Indonesian vocabulary. This activity was carried out to improve the express ability of Indonesian language by proposing indigenous vocabularies into the Indonesian Big Dictionary (KBBI). It undertook since 2015. It has been proposed more than 4,000 vocabularies from the Malay languages of Kutai, Benuaq, Paser, Kenyah, Tunjung, Bahau, Wehea/Modang, and Bajau Pondong.
Vocabulary inventory activities need to organize for the following reasons. 1) The characteristic of living language as the used and developed language. 2) The enrichment of Indonesian vocabulary, especially in the last two decades, in various fields is dominated by foreign language sources. 3) Indonesian vocabularies are still smaller in number than other languages, for example English. 4) Indigenous vocabularies have unique expressions that contain local wisdom values so that specifically only be found in certain languages.
Indigenous languages vocabulary can be proposed into the KBBI with regard to the standard rules. The rules are described as follows. The indigenous vocabulary has a unique concept that does not owned yet by Indonesian language. It has a high frequency in use. It has in accordance with Indonesian grammar. It has a common sound like Indonesian spelling guidelines or euphony. And, it has not a negative connotation. According to those rules, a vocabulary is obtained either via data collecting from trusted sources at the field, written sources (dictionaries, research results, literary works, etc.), compilation of indigenous language dictionaries/cultural terms dictionaries, or through indigenous language data collecting from websites, blogs, etc.
In addition, public participation in carrying out inventory activities and proposing indigenous vocabulary into the KBBI are allowed. They need to register account by using an active e-mail on this page https://kbbi.kemdikbud.go.id/Account/Register. Finally, Regional Office for Language in East Kalimantan Province would like to invite the public, especially the people of East Kutai, to actively participate in improving the express ability of Bahasa by proposing indigenous vocabularies, that meet the requirements, into the KBBI. (em/ss)
Translated by Muhammad Erwin Darma