Have you ever heard the terms meneketehe, lebay, or boil? These terms are some examples of teen slang in Indonesia today. Terms that are made by teenagers are their language as a symbol of close relationship in informal verbal interaction.
Professor of Indonesian Language of Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM, Prof. Dr. I Dewa Putu Wijana, S.U., M.A., said that most teen slang were formed from informal Indonesian language. Meanwhile, terms that enrich teenage slang were drawn from various languages. "This problem is complicated because there are many languages interacting with the Indonesian language, which enrich the teenage slang," said Putu Wijana in the celebration of the 64th Anniversary of the Faculty, Wednesday (3/3).
In his speech entitled “Indonesian Teen Slang Language and Its Problemsâ€, Putu Wijana said that slang vocabularies were derived from Indonesian as well as local languages, and foreign languages such as English, Dutch, Latin, Arabic, Chinese, and Sanskrit.†However, Putu Wijana said that the dialect of Jakarta has been adopted and contributed the most to the development of teenage slang.
Putu Wijana also commented that the slang really reflected all the behaviors and mindset of the speakers. In his opinion, the study of teenager's slang will be able to express many things behind their life and used as reference for understanding their behaviors and resolving their problems.