Looking into the Language Status of Osing with a Contrastive Analysis of the Basic Vocabulary of Osing and Malang Javanese

Osing is a language spoken by the majority of people in Banyuwangi, East Java. However, there is obscurity on its status whether it is considered as one of the Javanese dialects or as an independent language originated in Java. Some noted that the Osing is another version of Javanese, while the people living in the Banyuwangi Region regard the Osing as a distinct identity that differentiates it from the rest of the Javanese speaking regions in Central and East Java. Hence, this research aims to provide linguistic evidence on the lexical differences between the Osing and Malang Javanese. The research is significant because there is no previous research that provides linguistic evidence on the differences between the Osing and other Javanese dialects. Data of this study was obtained through eliciting the production of the basic vocabulary of the Osing and Malang Javanese speakers. The findings of the research provide evidence to the observation of previous linguists in that the Osing is not a linguistically separate language of Javanese.


Introduction
Osing is a language spoken by 300.000 people in Banyuwangi (Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, 2019). Sariono (2007) claims that Osing is spoken by 823.600 people in Banyuwangi or 58% of the total residents of the region. However, Anderbeck, (2015) poses a question of whether Osing should be considered as a distinct language or merely a dialect of Javanese. The language is highly regarded by the people living in the Banyuwangi region as a distinct identity that differentiates them from the rest of the Javanese speaking regions in Central and East Java. Arps (2009) noted that the Osing language was taught in primary schools since 1996 and in 2003 was established as a local content. However, Tyasari et al (2017) reported that many junior high schools in Banyuwangi stopped teaching Osing since the implementation of the 2013 curriculum. The curriculum required all teachers to be certified according to the expertise indicated by their university degrees. No Osing teachers were eligible for the certification because there is no university offering degrees in Osing language up to now. Nevertheless, Wittke (2019) indicated that Osing was still taught in 25 districts in Banyuwangi alongside Javanese and Indonesian in 2017.
Despite the arguments on the identity of Osing, not much has been done to define whether Osing is an independent language or a dialect of Javanese. Dutch linguist Van der Tuuk (in Arps, 2009) claimed in 1870 that Osing is a Javanese dialect which he called 'Balambangansch` Javaansch'. Natadiningrat, a Banyuwangi regent from Malang in 1912, remarked that Osing was a form of Javanese with old-fashioned vocabularies (Arps, 2009). On the other hand, Oakes (in Comrie, 2017) claimed that Osing is a separate language like Madurese and Balinese. This ongoing debate on Osing has hindered efforts to build a complete map of the languages of Java and confused linguists, students, and language policy makers from both local and central governments. Therefore, the research aims to perform a contrastive study between Osing and Malang Javanese. Malang Javanese (MJ) was chosen to represent East Java dialect since Malang is the second largest city in East Java. Moreover, the East Java dialect speaking region is closer to Banyuwangi than the Central Java dialect speaking region. The contrastive study was used to determine whether Osing is a separate language or a dialect of Javanese. Ayatrohaedi (1983) explains about how to determine the status of a language with the following formula: 100 = s: the sum of differences n: the number of the basic vocabulary d: the percentage of the differences Lauder (1993) further explains the result of d obtained which indicates a percentage range of the differences as follows: (1) if the percentage of differences shown is 70-100%, then it indicates two different languages, (2) if the percentage of differences shown is 51-69%, it reflects different dialects of a language, (3) if the percentage of differences shown is 41-50%, it indicates a sub-dialects of a dialect, and (4) if the percentage of differences shown is 31-40%, it indicates differences only in speech. This formula was used in this study to see Osing's linguistic status by comparing it to MJ.
The objective of the research is to fill the gap left by previous research namely by Arps (2009Arps ( , 2010 which claimed that Osing is a separate language based on sociocultural evidence only. The current research provides linguistic evidence on whether Osing is a dialect or a language which completes the sociocultural evidence presented by Arps (2009Arps ( , 2010. Moreover, the research is significant because there is no previous research which provides a linguistic evidence on the differences between Osing and Malang Javanese. Wittke (2019) looks into the emergence of Osing identity in Banyuwangi. On the other hand, Asrumi et al (2014) studies semantic relation of DE nominal, DE verbal, and DE adjectival verbs with other arguments in the Osing language.

Research Methods
The Osing data were collected in two sub-districts, namely Banyuwangi sub-district and Glagah subdistrict in Banyuwangi Regency on August 26 th -28 th , 2019 while the MJ data were collected in Malang City (Merjosari and Sukun) and Malang Regency (Sumberpucung) on August 29 th -31 st , 2019. The native speakers were chosen based on purposive sampling according to the goals of the research (Creswell, 2015). Therefore, three respondents were chosen from each of the languages using the following criteria: (1) a native speaker of Osing or MJ, (2) aged between 20 to 60 years old, (3) born and stayed in Osing and MJ speaking regions most of their life, (4) able to speak Bahasa Indonesia (having good and functioning speech organs), and (5) able to read and write. The selection of the informants was based on the definition of native speakers which states that native speakers are people who acquired a first language and use it in their daily interaction (Field, 2011;Kirkpatrick, 2007). The data of the respondents are displayed in Table 1. On the other hand, the basic vocabulary was collected by using a Swadesh list adapted to the East Java regions. The Swadesh list consists of 208 words. The vocabulary was then analyzed to answer the research questions: (1) What kind of differences can be found in the basic vocabulary of Osing and Malang Javanese (MJ)? (2) Are the differences significant to indicate that Osing is a separate language from Javanese?
The authors were aware of the shortcomings of the Swadesh list as pointed out by Shryock & Smail (2012: 109) that the Swadesh list was not resistant to borrowings resulted from language contacts. This was against the basic idea of Morris Swadesh who created Swadesh list as an inner core of a language unaffected by changes normally happened to natural languages. Nevertheless, the authors decided to use the Swadesh list based on the argument proposed by Prevot et al (2006:326) which indicated that the list is still preferable to look into differences between forms of language because it constitutes of applicative core lexicon of a language and represented human experience in a spoken language context. Moreover, data of the basic vocabulary is presented in IPA (International Phonetics Alphabet) to better show the phonetic differences between Osing and MJ. The phonetic differences are important to draw a conclusion on the differences between Osing and MJ's basic vocabularies.

Results and Discussion
This sub chapter discusses the results of the research and the discussion on the significance of the research in comparison with previous research in the same field. The authors found the following types upon comparing the basic vocabulary of Osing and MJ. The type 1 of the basic words consists of 48 words in Osing that are distinct from MJ. [bɛlɔʔ] [mɛŋgɔɁ]. to turn 28. [ŋuwɛni] [ŋəkɛɁi] to give 29. [ŋusut] [ŋəlap] to wipe/ to dry off 30. [gəndiŋan] [ɲaɲi] to sing 31. [məməŋan] [dulinan], [dulIn] to play 32. [danaw] [wadʊʔ] lake 33. [pasir] [wədi] sand 34.
[ It can be observed from Table 3 that there are 48 words in Osing that are distinct from those of MJ. These include 5 personal pronouns (I, you, he/she, we, they), 11 verbs (to eat, to blow, to have a brawl, to hit, to dig, to lie down, to turn, to give, to wipe/ to dry off, to sing, to play), 8 function words (no, at, with, and, if, what, how, because), 8 adjectives (wide, thin, black, rotten, dirty, dull, wet, close), 6 human and kinship terms (woman, man, child, wife, husband, mother), 4 nature terms (lake, sand, dust, cloud), 2 flora and fauna terms (dog, branch), 2 body parts (fat, back), and 2 other nouns (day, name). It can be concluded that Osing basic words that are distinct from MJ are 23 % (48 out of 208 words) of the whole data.
The type 2 of the basic words consists of 5 phrases with two words. One of the words is different in Osing and MJ and the other is similar. It can be concluded that Type 2 comprises 2,4 % of the whole data (5 out of 208). It can also be observed from table 4 that type 2 consists of 4 place deixes (here, there, where, inside) and 1 personal pronoun (you all). Each of the place deixes consists of a preposition and one adverb of place. The Osing prepositions are distinct from MJs. In contrast, the adverbs of place in Osing are similar to those of MJ. This can be seen in table 5. There are 47 basic words which belong to type 3 or 23% of the data. In type 3, the words in Osing are similar to those of MJ but they show noticeable sound variation. This can be seen in table 6. [ikaj] [iki] this 2. [ikaw] [iku] that 3. [duduʔ] [guduɁ] not (noun) 4.
Applying Ayatrohaedi's theory (Ayatrohaedi, 1983), it can be concluded that there are 48% of differences in Osing and MJ . 100 = 100 x 100 = 48% 208 s: the sum of basic words in Osing that are different from Malang Javanese (100 basic words) n: the number of the total basic words (208 basic words) d: the percentage of the differences between the basic words of Osing and Malang Javanese Using the theory of Lauder (1993), it can be concluded that Osing and Malang Javanese are subdialects of East Javanese. According to Lauder (1993) 41-50% differences in the basic vocabulary indicate sub-dialects of a dialect. This proves that Osing and MJ belong to the same dialect which in this case is the East Javanese dialect.

Conclusion and Suggestion
The findings of the research provide evidence to the observation of previous linguists in that Osing is not a linguistically separate language of Javanese. Among others, the linguists are Anderbeck (2015) and Arps (2009). However, unlike previous research, the current research offers evidences that Osing is a dialect of Javanese by comparing the basic words of Osing and MJ.
The current research also provides a more detailed insight into the phonological variation of Osing as compared to MJ, more importantly on the palatalization of stops, the diphthongization of final vowels, and the glottalization at the end of the word. This has not been discussed by previous research on Osing before. As an example, Van der Tuuk only observed that Osing was a dialect of Java with peculiar vocabulary without giving a more detailed account on the phonological forms of the vocabulary (via Arps, 2009). Natadiningrat also remarked that Banyuwangi people spoke Javanese with different pronunciation and vocabulary but did not provide further details on that (via Arps, 2009). Furthermore, the findings also show that the differences of vocabulary in Osing and Javanese are limited to certain fields such as pronouns, kinship terms, verbs and adjectives of quality. Previous research only mentioned that the vocabulary of Osing were archaic Javanese (Arps, 2009).
Lastly, the authors are aware that this research was still in the preliminary phase since it was done with limited data from limited regions in Banyuwangi and Malang. Further research with more data collected from broader areas in Banyuwangi and Malang should be done in the future to give a better description on the language status of Osing.