THE USE OF INDONESIAN IN THE SOCIAL DYNAMICS AMONG THE SOCIETY IN DILI, TIMOR-LESTE

Abstrak

This article is based on an ongoing research examining the use of Indonesian within the social dynamics
among the society in Dili, Timor-Leste. The current findings reveal that Indonesian has undergone a
significant language shift, marked by a reduction in functional domains, weakened intergenerational
transmission, and declining social meaning. Indonesian used to be dominant in education, administration,
and public communication prior to 2002, but afterwards it is used in limited and in situational contexts
such as economic interaction and communication with Indonesians. Generational differences are evident:
older speakers retain relatively stable competence, adults exhibit mixed-code usage, and younger speakers
rarely use the language productively. Linguistically, Indonesian in Dili shows simplification, lexical
limitation, and interference from Tetun and Portuguese. Socially, it has shifted from a marker of identity
to a residual symbol of historical experience. These changes are influenced by language policy, socialhistorical transformation, multilingual competition, and limited media exposure, positioning Indonesian as
a residual language rather than an actively maintained one.