LINGUISTICS

INVERSION WORDS I­­­­N MALANG AND YOGYAKARTA

A.       History

The name of Malang is taken from a temple namely Malang Kucecwara. The name of the temple is now applied to the motto of Malang which literally means is God has destroyed the false and enforced the right. Javanese with East Java accent and Maduranese are the daily language of people in Malang, but the young generations of Malang usually use Malang accent called “Boso Walikan” as their daily language. This language says the words in inversion pronunciation, for instance, Malang is said Ngalam. Speaking style in Malang is known without any custom. Straight to the point and sometimes sounds impolite like East Javanese style in generally. “Boso Walikan” was invented by Suyudi  Raharno from Gerilayawan Rakyat Kota ( GKR ). At first, this language is used to communicate between the hero / the warriors of Malang in the era of Netherland colonial. In that era, there are a lot of infiltrator from The Netherlands who are able to speak both, Javanese and Indonesia.  Thus, this special language is very important to keep the war information and also to identify the identity of friends or enemies, easily.     

Besides Malang, Yogyakarta also has used “Boso Walikan” in their daily life. Just like “Boso Walikan” in Malang, this language which was made by the warrior was used as the code to communicate. The order of “Aksara Jawa” is inversed to make “Boso Walikan”. They started to use this language since 1960. Nowadays, this kind of languages is used to communicate among friends and become the unique character of Yogyakarta.

B.       Systematic

The term of “walikan” comes from Javanese whose root is “walik” or to inverse. Generally, when we use “walikan”, we inverse the phoneme used. Frequently, it is found in Yogyakarta and Malang, and is used among friends to communicate intimately. However, “Boso Walikan” is not always pure inverted, to read the word using reversal system. According to Dr. Imam Agus Basuki, “Boso Walikan” is unstructured and unique. This kind of language is a bit puzzling for people who do not accustom to use it.

B.1      Malangese Language

“Boso Walikan” which is used in Malang has two patterns which are pure-inverted and not pure-inverted. To make it understandable, table 1.1 is the examples of “Boso Walikan” which are pure inverted.

WORDS	PURE INVERSIONS
mobil motor sepatu kaos surabaya bakso nakam ayas oyi pecel arek	libom rotom utapes soak ayabarus oskab makan saya iyo lecep kera

Table 1.1

However, some words are hard to pronounce using the pattern of pure inversion. Therefore, to make it easier to pronounce, the speakers change the way to inverse the words like the examples in table 1.2.

WORDS	PURE INVERSIONS	USED INVERSIONS
walikan sandal singo sempak malang ngombe pulisi	nakilaw ladnas ognis kapmes gnalam ebmong isilup	kiwalan, lawikan landas ongis kampes ngalam embong silup

Table 1.2

In addition, there are some words in Malangese language which cannot be found in both, Javanese and “Walikan”

WORD	MEANING
ebes memes ojir idrek	bapak ibu uang kerja

Table1.3

B.2      Yogyakartanese Language

“Boso Walikan” is also found in Yogyakarta. This kind of language is very popular, so that one of T-Shirt producer uses it as its trademark. It is “Dagadu”, which means “matamu” or your eyes. For that reason, the symbol of Dagadu is an eye.

Unlike “Boso Walikan” in Malang, Yogyakarta’s has particular pattern, which is based on the “Aksara Jawa”. This kind of  “walikan” inverses the order of “Aksara Jawa”.

Figure 2.1

­­Figure 2.1 illustrates the partten of “Boso Walikan”” used in Yogyakarta. Furthermore, there are some regulation to create “Boso Walikan”” in Yogyakarta, such as:

1.      The order of  inversion

·        The first row is the invers of the third row, vice versa:

Figure 2.2

·        The second row is the invers of the fourth row, vice versa:

Figure 2.3

2.      Vowel Rule

·        There is no changes in vowel using (a, i, u, e, o).

For example:

celana è jengadha, sepatu  è behagu.

·         The word which begin with vowel, it should be added by “h” .

For example:

aku   =     haku      è panyu

ora     =    hora       è poya

iso     =     hiso       è pibo

3.      The consonant “Paten” rule

3.a    The Consonant ending

The word which is end by a consonant, the consonant must also be inversed based on the pattern.

For example:

gajah   è  ga  = ta    ja = ca       h = p             è  tacap

             sikil     è  si   = bi    ki = nyi     l = ng             è  binying

             mas     è  ma = da    s = b                             è  dab

             becak  è  be  = se    ca=ja        k=ny             è  sejany = sejan*

 

 

3.b   The consonant in the middle **

The word that has a consonant in the middle must be changed into its inverse.

For example:

 mantu è ma = da  n = dh   tu = gu   è mantu=dadhgu=dagudh

             tirto    è ti = gi      r =y      to = go   è tirto = giygo = gigoy         

__________________________________________________________________* ny change into n to make the easier pronunciation.

** we change the inversion’s order to make easier pronunciation.

C.       Conclusion

In conclusion, both “Boso Walikan” in Malang and Yogyakarta have the same purposes. Both of them made as codes to communicate between warriors in colonialism. Then, their functions change and are used as the slang languages by surrounded people. However, they use different pattern to inverse the words. While, “Boso Walikan” in Malang just uses reversal system in inversing and uses alphabetical letter, “Boso Walikan” in Yogyakarta uses the order of “Aksara Jawa” to inverse the words. Yet, regarding how to pronounce the words easily and audible, the speakers often break the rule of “Boso Walikan”.

REFERENCES

KOMPAS.com  Rabu, 16 Desember 2009

KOMPAS.com Kamis, 22 Oktober 2009.

Antara News Jawa Timur Sabtu, 24 Okt 2009

Wikipedia bahasa Indonesia, ensiklopedia bebas