Language Interconnectedness for Strategic Relations: The Case of Indonesian and Kiswahili

Abstract

In 1955 Indonesia hosted the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung whose outcome was the Bandung Spirit whence many countries attained their independence and came together to walk hand-in-glove. Indonesia and Tanzania established diplomatic relations in 1964. The friendship between the two countries is built on a very solid foundation laid down by the founding fathers, the late Soekarno and the late Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere respectively.  The fathers are credited for the promotion of the use of national languages as unifying factors for the otherwise linguistic plural nations. While Nyerere advocated for Kiswahili, Soekarno advocated for Bahasa Indonesia.

Purpose: The study aims to investigate whether the Arabic language element in the two languages can be exploited to facilitate the two countries’ zest to reach out to each other and in so doing give a credit due to what the respective founding fathers fought for.

Methodology: To achieve this goal, the researcher controlled for language as a cultural element in diplomatic relations. Kiswahili and Indonesian standard speakers assisted in formulating the compatibility. Dictionaries (English-Indonesian, Indonesian-Arabic, and Kiswahili-Arabic) in their hard and online forms were a source for true and false cognates.

Findings: The results show that most of the Arabic loan words in the two languages have retained the same meanings as their Arabic origin. There is a strong Arabic language element in the two languages. To that effect, it may not be difficult for an Indonesian to learn Kiswahili as it may also not be difficult for a Tanzanian to learn Indonesian. There are words which are spelt similarly with similar meanings (true cognates), there are words which are spelt similarly with differing meanings (false cognates)-action can be taken to avoid the situation similar to the case of the Tower of Babel depicted in the Bible and there are very true cognates which can be easily recognized through the intonations.

Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The results of the study are expected to be beneficial for semantic studies in terms of adaptation of loan words, to encourage researchers on Bahasa Indonesia and Kiswahili in lieu of the fact that the latter has gained very much international acclaim and that the two countries have of late expressed strong zest to reach out to each other. Reciprocity in the knowledge of each other’s language shall add impetus to the zeal to reach out.