A.
Definition of Mother Tongue
1.
Etymology
A first language (also native language, mother
tongue, arterial language, or L1) is the language(s) a person has learned from birth
or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best
and so is often the basis for sociolinguisticidentity.
In some countries, the terms native language or mother
tongue refer to the language of one's ethnic group rather than one's first
language. Sometimes, there can be more than one mother tongue, when the child's
parents speak different languages. Those children are usually called bilingual.By contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks
other than one's first language.
Here are several definitions of mother tongue based on
categories as follow:
- Based on origin: the language(s)
one learned first (the language(s) in which one has established the first
long-lasting verbal contacts).
- Based on internal
identification: the language(s) one identifies with/as a speaker of;
- Based on external
identification: the language(s) one is identified with/as a speaker of, by
others.
- Based on competence: the
language(s) one knows best.
- Based on function: the
language(s) one uses most.
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2. Terminology
Sometimes the term native language is used to
indicate a language that a person is as proficient in as a native individual of
that language's "base country", or as proficient as the average
person who speaks no other language but that language.
Sometimes the term mother tongue or mother
language is used for the language that a person learnt as a child at home
(usually from their parents). Children growing up in bilingual homes can,
according to this definition, have more than one mother tongue or native
language.
In the context of population censuses conducted on the
Canadian population, Statistics Canada defines mother tongue as
"the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by
the individual at the time of the census." It is quite possible that the first
language learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language. This includes
young immigrant children, whose families have moved to a new linguistic
environment, as well as people who learned their mother tongue as a young child
at home (rather than the language of the majority of the community), who may
have lost, in part or in totality, the language they first acquired (see language attrition).
The origin of the term "mother tongue" harks back
to the notion that linguistic skills of a child are honed by the mother and
therefore the language spoken by the mother would be the primary language that
the child would learn.
In some countries such as Kenya, India, and various East Asian countries,
"mother language" or "native language" is used to indicate
the language of one's ethnic group, in both common and journalistic
parlance (e.g. 'I have no apologies for not learning my mother tongue'), rather
than one's first language.
Also in Singapore, "mother tongue" refers
to the language of one's ethnic group regardless of actual proficiency,
while the "first language" refers to the English language that was
established on the island through British colonization, which is the lingua franca for most post-independence
Singaporeans due to its use as the language of instruction in government
schools and as a working language.
International Mother Language Day Monument in Sydney,
Australia, unveiling ceremony,
19 February 2006
J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1955 lecture "English and Welsh" distinguishes the
"native tongue" from the "cradle tongue," the latter being
the language one happens to learn during early childhood, while one's true
"native tongue" may be different, possibly determined by an inherited linguistic
taste,
and may later in life be discovered by a strong emotional affinity to a
specific dialect (Tolkien personally confessed to such an affinity to the Middle English of the West Midlands in particular).
B. Significance of First Language and
Mother Tongue
The first language of a child is part of their personal,
social and cultural identity. Another impact of the first language is that it
brings about the reflection and learning of successful social patterns of
acting and speaking. It is basically responsible for differentiating the
linguistic competence of acting.
To a person his mother tongue is a “blessing in disguise”.
It is not merely a time-table subject in his education but is forced upon him
from all sides. It is learnt by both the direct or conscious and the indirect
or unconscious method. The direct method supplements and regulates the
knowledge gained by hearing.
The mother tongue is an indispensable instrument for the
development of the intellectual, moral and physical aspects of education. It is
a subject thought and by which other subjects can be tackled, understood and
communicated. Clarity of thought and expression is only possible when one has a
certain command over the mother tongue. Weakness in any other subject means
weakness in that particular subject only, but weakness in the mother tongue
means the paralysis of all thought and the power of expression. Deep insight,
fresh discoveries, appreciation and expansion of ideas are only possible when
one understands the subject through being able to assimilate and be stimulated
by the ideas of the subject.
C.
Multilingualism
One can have two or more native languages, thus being a
native bilingual or indeed multilingual. The order in which these languages
are learned is not necessarily the order of proficiency. For instance, a French-speaking couple might have a
daughter who learned French first, then English; but if she were to grow up in an
English-speaking country, she would likely be proficient in English. Other
examples are India, Malaysia and South Africa, where most people speak more than
one language.
D.
Sundanese
It is because the Arranger of this
paper i.e. me myself, comes from Sunda, therefore this next discussion is about
Sundanese language as the arranger’s mother tongue.
Sundanese (BasaSunda) is the language of about 27 million people from the
western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population.It appears to be most
closely related to Madurese and Malay, and more distantly related to Javanese. It has several dialects,
conventionally described according to the locations of the people:
Priangan, which covers the largest area of
Sunda (Tatar Pasundan in Sundanese), is the most widely spoken type of
Sundanese language, taught in elementary till junior-high schools (equivalent
to ninth-year school grade) in West Java and Banten Province.
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1. Writing
Sundanese
can be written in different writing systems, the Sundanese script (AksaraSunda) and Pegon in historical times and in modern
times the Latin script.
2. Phonology
According
to YayatSudaryat (1985:26): "Fonologinyaetabageantinaelmubasaanumaluruhjeungmedarsora-sorabasa,
prosesna, selangsurupna, jeungparobahanana".
Sundanese
orthography is highly phonetic:
a. Vowel
There are five pure vowel sounds:
a /ɑ/, é /ɛ/, i /i/, o /ɔ/, u /ʊ/, and two neutral vowels; e
/ə/, and eu /ɤ/.
b. Consonant
There are 16 consonants in Sundanese phonology, according to
YayatSudaryat (1991,35): "fonemkonsonan (contoid) nya eta soraomongan
(fonem) anukawangunkuhawaanukaluartinabayahsartawaktuliwattikoroaya
nu ngahalangan. konsonan nu ayadinabasasunda, nyaeta:
/b/, /ts/, /d/, /g/, /h/, /dʒ/, /k/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /p/,
/r/, /s/, /n/, /t/, /n'/,
Kuayanapangaruhbasakostasokkapanggihkonsonan /f/, /v/, /z/
mangrupafomem nu asalnapangaruhbasakosta, sapertidinakecap: fonem, qur'an,
xerox, zakat".
Based on the statement above, it is
clear that the Sundanese language has only 16 consonants, there are three
consonants /f, v, z/ which exist in Sundanese as a result of borrowing words,
but naturally they are not Sundanese consonants.
The
consonantal phonemes are transcribed with the letters p, b, t, d, k, g, c
(pronounced /tʃ/), j, h, ng (/ŋ/, occurs initially), ny /ɳ/, m, n, s /s/, w, l,
r (trilled or flapped), and y /j/. Other consonants that originally appear in
Indonesian loanwords are mostly transferred into native consonants: f → p, v →
p, sy → s, sh → s, z -> j, and kh /x/ → h.
Furthermore,
Sudaryat does not mention the phonemes /w, j/ as semi vowels, although as
vowels, /w, j/ function as a glide sound between two different vowels, as in
the words:
·
Kueh - /kuweh/
·
Muih - /muwih/
·
Bear - /beAar/
·
Miang - /mijan/
Phonemes
/w/ and /j/ function as glide sounds between two different vowels as in the
words:
·
wa - rung
·
wa - yang
·
ba - wang
·
ha - yang
·
ku - ya
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3. Language Level (Politeness)
Because of Javanese culture in
Mataram-Islam kingdom, Sundanese, especially in Parahyanagn recognize undakusukor language level, starts
from polite (halus), loma/lancaran
and rude (kasar). However, the language used dominantly in villages or
mountains and Banten area, is loma.
This kind of level heard rude by people of Bandung.
The instances as follow:
Place
Time
4. Sentence Form
a. Active form
Most of active form in sundanese
verb are in their root verb like 'diuk' or 'dahar'. Some other depend on
first phoneme in root verb:
·
first phoneme in 'd' is eliminated and changed to prefix
'nga' like in 'ngadahar'
·
first phoneme in 'i' is eliminated and changed to prefix
'ng' like in 'nginum'
·
first phoneme in 'b' is eliminated and changed to prefix
'm' like in 'maca'
b. Negation
(to
be written). "Abdihenteuacanneda". (I have not eaten yet.)
Explanation: From the above example, "henteu" is used for negative
term. "Bukuabdimahsanes nu ieu". (My book is not this one.)
Explanation: From the above example, "sanes" is used for negative term.
c.
Question
(to be written).
Dupi -(question)
example:saya
Polite-
·
DupiBapaaya di bumi? (is your father at home?)
·
Dupibumi di palihmana? (where do you live?)
d.
Passive form
(to be written.) "Bukudibantunkuabdi". (The book
is brought by me.) Explanation: "dibantun" (to be brought/passive)
and "ngabantun" (active) The other examples:
"Pulpenditambutkuabdi". (The pen is borrowed by me.)
"Soalieudikerjakeunkuabdi". (This problem is done by me.)
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