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Abstract:
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While there is a significant amount of research on language choice in intraethnic interactions in Indonesia, there have been few studies done on interethnic conversations. This lack of resreach led me to carry out an enthnographically oriented linguistic study of code choice in interethnic encounters in two neighborhoods (RT) of Semarang, in Central Java. Although it is often assumed that Indonesian is the language for interethnic communication in Indonesia, what was in fact found was that ngoko Javanese was being used to signal relative familiarity in interethnic interactions, as among the Javanese alone. A local variety of Indonesian was generally used in interethnic interactions to signal more distant relationships, where kromo Javanese was used to signal this among the Javanese themselves.
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