Language Extinction: Solutions to Save The Bonggi Language

 In Malaysia, the dominant language in all media is always English. The dominant position, on the one hand, the cultural gap has been greatly reduced, on the other hand, many local languages have disappeared. As mentioned before, Bonggi language is rated as 6b (Threatened) which means that this language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users. Nowadays, the community does not have more chances to expose to developments of Bonggi. It is imperative to protect Bonggi and try the best to solve the problem of language extinction.

One of the solution to avoid Bonggi community leaving off the land is to be introducing them about some modern agricultural and fishing methods and technologies. Developing infrastructure such as good land and sea transport which may provide them the opportunities to sell agricultural products in nearby places. They also have to be introduced some knowledge in this field to help Bonggi people. There is also a requirement for the education as their illiteracy rates are still quite high. So, teachers can help in educating and providing good teaching materials to Bonggi's children and youth.

One of the solution to save Bonggi language by education. Let the Bonggi language be used in schools and various education, and gradually form a teaching system from elementary education to higher education. There are some distributions of schools such as primary and secondary schools in Banggi Island. Most of the Bonggi children only have a primary education, while only some of them have chance to get a secondary education. There are no tertiary education possibilities on the island. Given the overall education levels on the island, only a few persons from Banggi will giving chance to receive any tertiary education. Normally, a few Bonggi will attend the seminary to receive theological training after finishing secondary school. Therefore, by teaching and having Bonggi language classes are good ways to keep the language alive. For instance, the elderly voluntarily participate or by receiving a small allowance to lead community leadership classes. Speaking a language even in a classroom or occasional dialogue environment is good enough to give more value to its language and subtle meanings, some of which may not be directly translated into any other language.

Besides that, one of the solution to save Bonggi language is by inisisting on speaking mother tongue. It is very important that groups, families and individuals insist on speaking their own mother tongue. Among Bonggi community, some children and parents tend to speak Sabah Malay rather than Bonggi. To keep the language alive, parents should be the role model to their children. For example, even though a woman from Bonggi community is married to a man from other tribes who speak other languages but she still can teach her children to talk Bonggi. Speaking mother tongue in daily life as the main communication may help the language to stay alive.

In addiction, to keep one of the native language like Bonggi in the Malaysia is by creating words. Writing is the carrier of language, and a nation without writing will sooner or later be abandoned by modern society. Therefore, for those weak and small ethnic groups without writing, if they want to preserve their mother tongue so that the ethnic group will not die out, they can learn from the writing systems of other ethnic groups and recreate characters, group words, and connect sentences. For example, Bonggi language can be involved in written documents such as meetings and it can also use in the news media field. By using various media to create an environment for application and record inheritance.

Lastly, start learning from childhood is one of the solution to save Bonggi language. The complexity of the language itself is also a major reason why its inheritance is not easy. As time goes by, the complexity of language gradually grows. This complexity will make the language broad and profound, but it also makes it difficult to resurrect once lost. When a child grows up and lives a busy life, it is easy to be embarrassed to learn a language, and it becomes very difficult to pick up a lost language. If you want to prevent endangered languages from extinction, you need to start with your children. The current efforts of people are still not enough to guide these minority groups to pass on their endangered languages to the next generation. Only by doing this in the future can it be possible to preserve the next language intact.