Culture as a Javanese Language Retention Strategy for Women’s Society in Klaten, Central Java

Women are the key to language retention. On the other hand, language is closely related to culture. Then, how can women and their culture maintain their language (read: Javanese)? To discuss this, this paper uses observation, interviews, and questionnaires. The result was, (1) Javanese Krama began to be threatened, both in urban and rural societies in Klaten, (2) Indonesian had begun to urge the existence of Javanese, (3) Javanese Ngoko was still maintained even though the percentage was not too high (under 65%), (4) percentage of language retention in urban women in Klaten, is still relatively better than in rural communities, (5) Javanese language retention strategies are carried out through religious lectures, alms earth traditions, and nyadran (a term for pilgrimage and cleaning the grave)