Journal of Language and Literature Studies
Vol. 6 No. 2 (2026): June

The Decline in the Popularity of the Sundanese Language and Culture among Sundanese Ethnic Youth

Serin, Pavel (Unknown)
Kartika, Nyai (Unknown)
Machdalena , Susi (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
23 Jun 2026

Abstract

As Indonesia's second-largest indigenous language, Sundanese plays a pivotal role in communication between Sundanese people. However, today’s young generations of Sundanese do not use the Sundanese language entirely and do not use it either with their friends on campus or with their parents at home. This study tries to examine the decline in the popularity of the Sundanese language among the young Sundanese generations in the capital city of West Java, a centre for the Sundanese ethnic group. Employing a descriptive survey, this study involved a total of 317 participants from a Sundanese ethnic group. The findings confirmed the initial suspicions that the use of the Sundanese language has begun to decline among the young Sundanese generations in Bandung. Among the several factors of this decline are the very intensive interactions via social media by young Sundanese generations with people of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, causing the limited use of the Sundanese language among them. It is also due to the shift of Bandung to become a multilingual city, a melting pot of people from different backgrounds. This study can hopefully inspire the language education stakeholders in West Java to raise concerns on this issue by strengthening and modifying Sundanese language education and teaching primarily at the school level.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

jolls

Publisher

Subject

Education Languange, Linguistic, Communication & Media Other

Description

Journal of Language and Literature Studies is an open access journal which provides perspectives of languages, language teaching, and literature studies. This journal has the Focus and Scope at presenting and discussing outstanding contemporary issues in line with Applied Linguistics, English ...