The impact of tourism on the banyuwangi dialect in East Java

Osing is the name of a Javanese dialect found in Kemiren Village in Banyuwangi, East Java. The distinctiveness of this dialect led the Banyuwangi Government to declare Osing a Tourist Village in 1995. The distinctive features of the dialect include not only its pronunciation, but also the absence of language levels found in all other Javanese dialects. Curiosity about the place and the dialect draw many local and foreign tourists to visit Osing Tourist Village. It is possible that the influx of a significant number of visitors to Osing Village has an impact on the use of the Osing dialect. This research therefore attempts to identify how the Tourist Village status impacts the maintenance of Osing as a dialect of Banyuwangi Javanese. Data on 200 basic words in the Swadesh list were gathered using one participant from each village in Glagah District. This data was analyzed using the methods of dialectology which, compare the phonological, lexicological and sociolinguistic aspects. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is applied in this research, where sociolinguistic analysis from observations obtained in the field is the qualitative, while the calculation of dialectometry is the quantitative. The analysis shows that the use of Osing as a Banyuwangi Javanese variety in Kemiren Village has been on a downward trend after the village was given the Tourist Village status. The dialectometry calculation shows clearly that there is no significant difference between the language use in Kemiren Village and that of other villages in Glagah District. This means that the features which define Osing as a distinctive Banyuwangi Javanese dialect have been lost. The Banyuwangi Government should revitalize the use of Osing local varieties to ensure the survival of the region's linguistic distinctiveness. The use of a sociodialectology approach where phonology, lexicology and sociolinguistics are combined was able to provide empirical evidence on the impact of increased tourist visitor numbers on the attractiveness of Osing in the first place, which is the existence of a distinctive Javanese dialect. The findings are therefore of use to decision makers in local government who can take action to keep the village attractive for tourists, instead of accelerating a shift from the use of local language to Indonesian or English.