The Dialect of Bojonegoro

Bojonegoro is one of small cities in East Java. It's located next to Lamongan and Tuban. Although it's small city, Bojonegoro also has some cultures, tourism objects, and some dialects. In this post, I want to tell you about the dialect of Bojonegoro. These are the example of dialect in Bojonegoro:


1. Adding -nem and -em for expressing possession.
 As we know, in Javanese language we usually add -mu after nouns for expressing possession but Bojonegoro's people have different way in expressing it. If Javanese people commonly say "bukumu" for saying your book, Bojonegoro's people will say "bukunem". Here are some example of adding -nem and -em.
a. Your pen - polpenmu - polpenem.
b. Your bag - tasmu - tasem.
c. Your hair - rambutmu - rambutem.
d. Your chair - kursimu - krosinem.

From the examples, I can say that -nem is added to the nouns that are ended by vowel (a, i, u, e, o) and -em is added to the nouns that are ended by consonant.

2. Vowel e and o.
Bojonegoro's people usually subtitute vowel e into ɛ and vowel o into ɔ.
for example:
vowel e - ɛ
a. Go home - muleh - mulɛh/mɔlɛh.
b. White - puteh - putɛh.
vowel o - ɔ
a. Ten - sepuloh - sepulɔh.
b. Twenty - rɔngpuloh - rɔngpulɔh.

3. Some daily life words of Dialect of Bojonegoro.
a. Menyok - Pohong, sabrang, sawi - singkong - Cassava.
b. Njungok - lungguh - duduk - sit.
c. Sicok - sitok - satu - one, a, an.
d. Bayang - kasur - tempat tidur - bed.
e. Mlete - megaya - angkuh - arrogant.
f. Hawat-hawat - macak - pura-pura - pretend.
g. Nayoh - gampang - mudah - easy.
h. Gawok - heran - heran - astonished.
i. Genyo - opo'o - kenapa - why.
j. Matoh - apik - bagus - good, nice.

I hope if you were born in a city that has different mother tongue, just keep it for your future generation. Nowdays, there are many people do not keep their mother tongue and they are influence by another dialect. Just be proud of being different.


Elenella Rizqi.