The Communicative Accommodation of Chinese in Singkawang
Mitra Wulandari
Postgraduate of French Language Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung,
Indonesia
Keywords: Communication Accommodation, Chinese, Language Contact.
Abstract: In multilingual societies, each speaker should be able to choose the appropriate language when
communicating with others. This research aims to describe the language contact between Chinese society
and local residents in Singkawang as a town where three big and strong ethnics lived. One of the ways to
understand cultural and language integration is by using communication accommodation approach of
Howard Giles who divided it into convergence and divergence. The data were collected by using
observation method by applying uninvolved conversation observation technique. This research results in a
conclusion that the Chinese people in Singkawang tend to decrease and increase their communicative
distance. They are able to accommodate their Khek language with Malay or Indonesian language to gain
social acceptance and avoid an ethnic conflict. They keep their mother tongue as well as identity and adapt
well.
1 INTRODUCTION
Recognizing the complexity of Indonesia with its
cultural richness and its local languages, we are
particularly interested in the integration of multi-
ethnic and multicultural societies. The cultural
contact has always led us to the language.
Furthermore, in social diversity, the majority group
is often influenced by the minority to integrate.
In a migration, people have left their country,
their village and their families by investing so much
hope and doing so much sacrifice (Cohen-Emerique,
1989). They are eager not only to develop and
improve their economic status but also to be ready
for diving into a new society. The multilingual
society might appear because of migration too
(Sumarsono and Partana, 2004). There are two types
of migration. The first is the population that extends
to other areas that have been occupied by other
groups and has controlled the small socio-cultural
groups that were already there. Second, a small
number of ethnic minorities enter the territory that is
already under the control of another cultural group.
Immigrants who enter the territory of a particular
country usually come by bringing their language to
increase the number of multilingual in the area like
the Chinese in Singkawang.
The Chinese people have spread in Indonesia
since a very long time ago. Most of them become
merchants. As a matter of fact, historical Chinese
communities can be found elsewhere in Indonesia.
The evidence exists in Palembang in southern
Sumatra, the Chinese presence that dates back at
least to the fourteenth century (Wiradikarta, 2015).
In the province of West Kalimantan (west of
Borneo), the Chinese formed a kongsi in the 1770s, a
clan-based association in the Chinese mining
diaspora who powerful enough to qualify them self
as "The Republic of Lanfang". In 1750, Chinese
immigrants arrived massively in West Kalimantan
when the King of Sambas (the Malay) allowed them
to mine in Montrado.
We note, however, differences names founded
during the Soeharto era, government, media, and
society called "Chinese" minorities with negative
connotations (Tan, 2008). Then, during the era of
Habibie, people called these immigrants with the
name "Tionghoa". Owing to Abdurahman Wahid,
now we are freer to call the Chinese or Tionghoa to
reduce discrimination.
The Malay, Dayaknese and other local
inhabitants of Borneo are spread in the big cities and
other villages in Kalimantan. However, the largest
concentration of Chinese populations is in
Singkawang that reaches up to 50%. These new
618
Wulandari, M.
The Communicative Accommodation of Chinese in Singkawang.
DOI: 10.5220/0007172006180621
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 618-621
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

populations are Hakka or Khek. We classify two
types of Chinese in Singkawang, Cina Peranakan
and Cina Totok. Cina Peranakan in Kalimantan are
those who born from mixed marriages between
Chinese immigrants and local residents. On the other
hand, Cina Totok were born from purely Chinese
parents.
The previous study focuses on how language
accommodation in the commercial sphere of
Javanese-Chinese-Arabic ethnics community in
Pekalongan (Adyana and Fathur, 2016). The result
above shows that the form of language selection in
the commercial sphere of Javanese-Chinese-Arabic
ethnics community in Pekalongan are single
language, code switching and code-mixing and the
pattern of language accommodation are divergence
and convergence. Even though this present study did
not come from similar situation as in Pekalongan, in
this case, Singkawang as one of two big cities in
West Kalimantan becomes a good example to
describe the transformation of culture and language
because it has three large and strong ethnicities;
Dayaknese, Malay, and Chinese living together in
harmony. This second town is also known as the
capital city of Sambas Regency, so Malay language
used there has Sambas dialect.
The question is now arise, how are the Chinese
people accommodate their language in Singkawang?
In terms of language diversity, approaches vary
according to the place that reflects its history and
tradition. It can be understood by conducting
research on the theory of communication
accommodation.
The communication accommodation as a set of
choices, complex and contextual alternatives in the
ubiquitous conversation also vis-à-vis that could
avoid the dissociation of conversation, on the other
hand, all code models or language selections in
accommodation strategies related to belief, attitude
and socio-cultural conditions (Coupland et al.,
1991). Giles also found that theories of
accommodation pragmatically concern, in particular,
the understanding of relational alternatives,
development, difficulties and outcomes in medical,
clinical and care environments; strategic options in
legal discourse; the alignment of broadcasters with
their audiences; secondary language learning
processes and acculturation in an inter-ethnic
context; and switching code in a bilingual
community organizational framework.
The switching code occurs particularly in a
bilingual community as regularities of the alternate
use of two or more languages within a conversation
that can vary considerably between speech
communities (Auer, 1998). Verbal communication
between the speakers opens the process of
negotiating the language. This happens in
Singkawang where the Chinese people there can
speak more than one language in daily activities.
2 METHODS
As it has been stated in previous discussion, this
study is devotes to find on how are the Chinese
people accommodate their language in Singkawang.
Through a qualitative study, the researcher used
narrative research design which according to
Craswell, used to explore individual stories to
describe people's lives (Bungin, 2007). If the
researcher wants to tell the story of one or two
individuals, the researcher may use the narrative
design to describe the lives of individuals and others,
collect and stories about individual lives, and write
narratives about their experiences.
In this study, the main resource for data
collection is from the researcher’s observation
(participant observer) at a Chinese shop. The
characteristics of the participants for this study are
purposely the Chinese family who live in
Singkawang of West Kalimantan. This family
consists of wife (48 years old) and husband (46
years old) who speak Malay and Indonesian fluently.
Their three children are not part of this research. As
a participant observer, the researcher find also two
Malays who came to the shop. Technique used in
data collection is simak bebas libat cakap
(uninvolved conversation observation technique).
The researcher does not involve directly, just
observe and listen to the subjects where the dialogue
occurs (Mahsun, 2005).
In analyzing the accommodation of language
used by Chinese, researcher used the theory of
Howard Giles who divide the communication
accommodation in to convergence and divergence.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Not only verbal, any kind of nonverbal form of
communication can also be observed as language
accommodation. Convergence, on the other hand, is
a strategy whereby individuals adapt to each other's
communicative behavior such as accent, rhythm,
speech rate, pause, phonological variants, smile, or
even gaze (Coupland et al., 1991). Convergence
refers to the positive attitude shown by a speaker to
The Communicative Accommodation of Chinese in Singkawang
619

the listener by adjusting the characteristics of his
language (pronunciation, accent, vocabulary,
structure) so that he is understood and accepted
(Jendra, 2010). For example, a mother who talks to
her child by lowering her voice or the teacher who
simplifies her explanation to her learners to make
them understood.
Then, Giles said that divergence is the term used
to describe how speakers accentuate speech and
nonverbal differences between themselves and
others. Like convergence, divergence can take many
forms, verbal and non-verbal. To identify
opportunities where people change their registry by
repeating something that is expressed by their
partners - not as a formulation presented as a
verification of understanding - but rather as a tactic
to maintain integrity, distance, and identity without
being misunderstood.
The concept of convergence and divergence here
is intended for social adaptation so communication
can be established. The purpose of accommodation
is to improve the effectiveness of a conversation,
reduce the social distance, create a good
relationship, eliminate the stigma and also show the
politeness (Ni Wayan, 2015). As the result, it will
produce a variety of language because each one tries
to accommodate other speakers. In this study, the
language variations are known as Sambas Malay
Dialect and Chinese Dialect Khek (Djarot et al.,
2014).
Chinese staple foods are rice and vegetables,
which they earn from Malay people. When they
want to eat pork they will buy it from Dayaknese
people. Their population grew and they began to
cultivate, fish, gather up, craft and finally trade until
now. Different with Chinese in Java that also
absorbs the language and Javanese cultures, Chinese
people here really hold their ancestor culture and
speak Khek in daily life.
3.1 The Communicative Approach
Towards Accommodation of
Language
Context:
A Malay man (29 years old) comes to buy snacks in
the shop. The seller is a Chinese man (46 years old).
Data 1 :
A Malay man: “Dah Ke.. itu jak.. berape smue?”
(Meaning: It’s all Sir, how much does it cost?)
A Chinese man: “Limak sengah aa.”
(Meaning: Five thousands and five hundred
rupiahs)
A Malay man: “Niah...”
(Meaning: Here you go)
A Chinese man: “Kamsia”
(Meaning: Thank you)
Attitude Shown:
A Chinese man as seller speaks in Sambas Malay
Dialect with his buyer. Although he tried to use the
same language with his buyers, he replied by saying
thank you in Khek language. It happens because he
knows this buyer well. In certain circumstances we
can see that the Chinese reflect divergence to show
their identity in a familiar situation without any
pressure. The Malay man call the seller with Ké
which taken from the word Toke that means ‘Sir’.
Context:
A Malay boy (15 years old) comes to buy a sachet of
laundry detergent. The seller is a 48-year-old
Chinese woman.
Data 2:
A Malay boy: “Berape Nyah ?”
(Meaning: How much does it cost Madam?)
A Chinese woman: “Dua ribu limak ratus aa.”
(Meaning: Two thousands and five hundred
rupiahs).
A Malay boy: “Nda’an ade Nyah limak
ratusnye.”
(Meaning: Madam, i don’t have five hundred
rupiahs)
A Chinese woman: “Nda ape.”
(Meaning: It is ok)
Attitude Shown:
Nyah is taken from the word Mak Nyah that
means Madam and the sound aa here shows the
Chinese accent. In this communication, the Chinese
woman shows us the convergence in order to make
the dialogue and the transactions between them
easier to understand.
Because the Chinese are immigrants, it is rational
that they adapt well to the level of language in
relation to convergence. But it is important to point
out that they also do code-switching when they go
out in from their Chinese community. For example,
there are many Chinese people living in a house with
a shop in the front of their house. One can find the
Chinese children play in the store with their mother
or other members of the family, they communicate
in Chinese Dialect Khek. Concerning the Chinese is
50% of the population, the use of the Khek language
is very dominant. Even Indonesian language is
almost never been heard in their daily lives. Chinese
people here also use the Sambas Malay Dialect that
is similar with Indonesian. They often think that they
are speaking Indonesian language but in reality, they
use Malay because, in Singkawang, the Malay
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
620

Sambas language is the daily language except in the
context of education where formal Indonesian
language is preferred.
Furthermore, the language preservation is a
situation where a linguistic community can maintain
or continue to use its language from generation to
generation, although there is a condition that could
assign to switch to another language (Jendra, 2010).
In maintaining a language, this linguistic community
refuses to use another language. There are several
factors that affect the situation in language
perseverance such as a large number of language
users; the concentration of the inhabitants; identity
and cultural pride; the best economic condition
(Jendra, 2010). We can conclude that Chinese
people in Singkawang take all these factors to
maintain their integrity. So it is almost impossible to
eliminate the Khek language in Singkawang due to
the loyalty of users of this language. The way they
can socialize without losing their integrity is by
accommodating their communication, whether in
convergence or divergence form.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The communication accommodation is a theory in
sociolinguistics that aims to explain why people
change their words, or why they become more or
less similar with the partners in conversations. Based
on the discussion provided previously, the Chinese
in Singkawang accommodate the Khek language
with Malay or Indonesian language through
convergence and divergence to gain social
acceptance and avoid multi-ethnic conflict. One can
see that the Chinese people keep their mother tongue
well as an identity but they also try to adapt to the
other languages.
As part of the accommodation, Singkawang
Chinese people use the language of Malay and
Indonesia language with a Chinese accent in their
social interaction with other ethnic groups. For
example when the Malay goes to the Chinese store.
The Chinese tries to speak using the local language
but also with the Chinese accent.
Social contact involves two or more different
ethnic groups. Thus, it is essential that all social
actors should make sufficient cultural solidarity to
support harmony between them. If social adaptation
is strong (through linguistic adaptation), this will
form conditions of harmony. But on the contrary, if
social adaptation is weak, the condition will not be
harmonious. To describe this phenomenon, we may
observe the accommodation of culture and language
in Chinese people in Singkawang in general.
Conclusion from all data provided in this study, the
Chinese people are still Chinese even if they were
born and lived in Singkawang. They maintain their
culture and language and adapt well with another
ethnic. We also hope that the next research will talk
about accommodation in particular and more
specific in dealing with the linguistic point of view
(dialects).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer would like to thank everyone who has
contributed to the realization of this research.
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