Speaking Dutch in Indonesia: Language and Identity

Abstract

In 2016 the authors started a project studying Dutch acquired by Indonesian state citizens at a very early age, when it was an official language in Indonesia, before 1945. The group is quite diverse; some could be called early bilinguals. A substantial group of Indonesians used Dutch in the family circle. Often the parents, who spoke Dutch as a first or second language, decided to use Dutch at home to increase the social opportunities of their children. Before World War II the language of the ‘better’ schools was Dutch, enhancing (Indonesian) students’ opportunities for further education in the Netherlands, or employment with the Dutch government. Outside the family Bahasa Indonesia was the standard language. In the years immediately after the second World War the use of Dutch strongly decreased, especially in education, and when the Netherlands recognized Indonesian independence, in 1949, the use of Dutch virtually ended. Our principal aim, for the moment, is documenting the language use of this 70+-group; the gathered material will later be used for studying language contact and language loss. These first 20–30 interviews, conducted over the past few years, also offer us a better understanding of the conditions under which Dutch was used during the colonial period, how this changed during the Japanese occupation and the struggle for independence after the second World War, why people are still using it nowadays, and how Dutch as a family language disappeared. The present paper reports our initial findings, outlining how using Dutch formed part of these speakers’ identity in a (post-)colonial society.