The Experiment on the Application of Sundanese Language in Earth and Related Sciences

Abstrak

The colonialization era separated the local language from the scientific communication. In the first and second decades after the independence, the Dutch language continued to dominate. Further, the American English was used in the scientific communication, side by side with the Indonesian language. The opportunity to apply Sundanese language in scientific communication was therefore very limited. The local government issued various regulations to maintain the Sundanese language be spoken. The question rose on the ability of Sundanese language for the scientific communication. The present experiment attempted to apply the Sundanese language in the communication of earth and related sciences. The experiment directly used the Sundanese language in popular articles. The object on volcano was chosen connsidering the Sundanese are familiar with the volcano. At the same time the communication in Sundanese was effective to communicate with the people where Sundanese language was daily spoken. The communication was aimed to introduce the people with the impending danger of the volcano and the way to avoid. The popular article was then widened to the more scientific communication. The articles were regularly published in Sunda Midang magazine, whereas the in-depth scientific papers appeared in book format. The experiment began in 2010 and continued until present days. The Sudanese language proves to be able to use in the scientific communication of earth and related sciences. The scientific terminology in Sundanese language is supplementary to Indonesia language. In cases, the Sundanese language provides wider variation of the terminology. The availability of Sundanese media is highly recommended.