THE ROLES OF YOUTUBERS IN PRESERVING LOCAL LANGUAGES

Abstract

This paper aims at describing the role of Indonesian local YouTubers in preserving local languages through YouTube video contents. As widely recognized, many local languages around the globe are endangered. This is also the case for local languages in Indonesia; many of its local languages are reportedly facing extinction. Nevertheless, the recent development on the internet reveals new facts on the existence of local languages. There are a growing number of Indonesian YouTube content creators, another name of YouTubers, who use various Indonesian local languages as sources of their attractiveness. This paper is based on qualitative research that used secondary data collected from YouTube videos, with other various online sources (e.g. online news) as a complement. The study focuses on some YouTube channels representing some main local language speakers in Indonesia. They are chosen for representativeness of Indonesian main local languages and for their popularity, which is proven by the coverage of other media. Based on the findings, this paper describes the roles of local content creators, another name of YouTubers, in preserving local languages as follows: first, keeping the existence of local languages; second, introducing local languages to non-speakers; third, introducing varieties in local languages; and fourth, documenting local languages and their variations.