Legal Protection for Mother Tongue in Regional-Autonomy Era in Indonesia; Ideas and Implementation

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-362-7_26How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Legal Protection; Mother Tongue; Regional Autonomy

Abstract

The legal issue to be studied in this research is related to state protection of mother tongues, the use of which may also be used as a regional language in Indonesia. The Indonesian Constitution accommodates mother tongues with the phrase that the state respects and maintains regional languages within the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. In this framework, this article appears as a form of examining how the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia protects the existence of mother tongues, which are also used as regional languages in the national legal system. Then this article will also offer the concept of maintaining the mother tongue, which is also used as a regional language. This research is legal research with a legal perspective as the norm. The research uses statutory and conceptual approaches. The research results show that the Indonesian Constitution provides space for the existence of mother tongues, which are also used as regional languages. This space is demonstrated by the confirmation of the state phrase “respect and maintain” in the Indonesian Constitution. The concept of “respect” is characterized by the state appreciating and upholding the existence of various mother languages, while the concept of “maintaining” is interpreted as the state providing guarantees for the continuity of the mother language as long as it is still alive in society. However, maintenance by the state must be interpreted as meaning that the state is not responsible if a mother tongue is lost. As a result, the state is not in a position to violate the constitution if a mother tongue becomes extinct. The state’s obligation is only to develop, foster, and protect Indonesian language and literature. Therefore, the recommendation that can be given is that the protection of the continuity of the mother tongue be placed on the community and regional government to protect the mother tongue while it is still alive as a manifestation of regional autonomy.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Irfan Iryadi
AU  - Rofi Wahanisa
AU  - Airi Safrijal
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/02/28
TI  - Legal Protection for Mother Tongue in Regional-Autonomy Era in Indonesia; Ideas and Implementation
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Law Reform (5th Inclar 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 173
EP  - 186
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-362-7_26
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-362-7_26
ID  - Iryadi2025
ER  -