Errington explores linguistic evidence of social change among the traditional priyayi elite of Surakarta in south-central Java. Employing data from texts, interviews, observed speech, and questionnaires, he shows a progressive leveling in the language used to denote traditional status differences, and he demonstrates how perceptions of speech styles reflect etiquette and the views of the users.
Errington suggests that a reciprocal assimilation process changes the way members of Java s traditional elite deal with each other in a modern urban milieu. The argument and the material on which...