DIGLOSIA, KONTAK BAHASA, DAN BAHASA MINORITAS: SEBUAH STUDI AWAL KATA SERAPAN DALAM BAHASA RONGGA

Rongga is an Austronesian language spoken by a minority group of 5,000 speakers in the Regency of East Manggarai at the border with Ngadha, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara Province. In the sociolinguistic context of diglossia in Indonesia, Rongga is highly disadvantaged. This paper reports the finding on loan words in Rongga showing a one-way influence and pressure from Indonesian to Rongga. Two prominent linguistic features of Rongga relevant for the Rongganisation of Indonesian words are discussed: the extreme analyticity of Rongga as an isolating language and the feature of open syllable with certain unique phonemes characterising Rongga phonology. The discussion on the theoretical and practical implications of this preliminary study in terms of processes of language contact, multilingualism and endangerment is also given.