FROM 746 local languages in Indonesia, around 150 of them are dying and 15 have already disappeared. "These 150 endangered languages are spread all over Indonesia's islands. The most vulnerable are those in small islands such as in Halmahera, North Maluku and Papua," said Sugiyono from the Language Development Agency.

According to Indonesian linguistic Bambang Kaswanti Purwo in his thesis Local Language and Intellectualization (2010), the phenomenon