Mangle : The Conservation of Sundanese Language and Literature

By Nana Sofiani

Mangle is a Sundanese language magazine and a forum for Sundanese people who long for local languages. As the official language, Indonesian and the flow of foreign languages entering Indonesia has been increasingly eroding the regional language. However, The provincial government and Sundanese strive to maintain the Sundanese language and literature, so it is not surprising that it still survives. Through Mangle, it is a way for the Sundanese people to retain the Sundanese language and literature, called local wisdom. Without local wisdom, we have no ethnic identity. Ethnic identity is not meant to divide Indonesian citizens but to show that Indonesia is rich in regional languages ​​and literature. The author will discuss how Mangle can survive until now.

The demand for creativity changes the appearance or content to meet the reader’s tastes. That also happened to Mangle, though it was still on its mission to preserve the Sundanese language and culture. The editor-in-chief of Mangle, Ensa Wiarna, said that Mangle followed the readers’ tastes and considered it to a shop at an intersection where people could stop by and pick up a menu or food that had been in the storefront, which would be selected and then taken the existing rubrics. As Mangle like the menu available in the shop where readers can grab which article they like reading.

To lure more readers’ interest and maintain Mangle‘s presence in the hearts of the Sundanese, the founders of Mangle made changes, starting the magazine’s front cover, which was initially not paid attention to the initial publication and was still black white. They changed the magazine cover model to feature a beautiful woman as we thought the readers would see it first. Then the logo’s appearance changed, starting from the color, logo, illustrations, typography, and layout.

The following change was in the rubric or content of the material in Mangle, which had a variety of news and writing materials divided into journalistic works which fulfilled more portions than non-journalistic ones. Like religious news because most of Sundanese is Muslims and information about events from the West Java regional government and the central government, culture, and history to education. Non-journalistic works containing entertainment rubrics include short stories carpon/ carita pondok, poems, fairy tales, humour or carita lucu, serialized stories or carita nyambung, to the heading of opinion polls about Sundanese culture.

 Especially for the humour and fiction rubrics, Sundanese people like it because, according to the editor-in-chief, they are the type of Sundanese people who like and appreciate the literary works of Sundanese writers in both cases. Therefore, Mangle is a comfort and consolation for the readers through the existing rubrics but still maintains the Sundanese language, culture, and literature.

Mangle in this era of globalization has anticipated it in various ways, starting from venturing into online media. This decision was taken to compensate for other media which are also switching to digital media. Now, this website is more focused on promotion. Mangle made changes to maintain its existence, starting from Mangle, not just an “entertainment” magazine but also a “news” magazine.

 The globalization impact was also felt by newspapers or magazines that lost out at the end of the day. Still, Mangle believes that the population of West Java is the second largest on the island of Java if 1% of the total population of West Java subscribes to Mangle for them. Another step taken by Mangle is collaborating with various central and regional government agencies such as the Ministry of Communication and Information, the Pangandaran, and the Governments of Banjar Regency. Cooperating with many universities in West Java and the admirers of Mangle readers called Kanyaah urang Sunda and Inohong, namely urang Sundanese figures such as humanists or respected figures.

      The editor of Mangle did maintain its existence by changing from print media to online media. He said their contribution is devoted to preserving our cultural heritage and defending our local wisdom so that our next generation can still see it

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