On October 28, 1928, a group of young men daringly chose ‘bahasa Indonesia’—the new name that transgressed boundaries of ‘bahasa Melayu’—as the unifying language. At that moment, they showed the power of hybridity.

UNESCO in February 2019 declared that some 2,500 languages in the world are under threat of extinction, hundreds of which are ethnic languages in Indonesia. In the last 30 years, 200 languages have become extinct. Some 3,000 local languages are on the brink of disappearing by the end of this century. The Language Development Agency is continuing its efforts to revitalize local languages by composing dictionaries, while organizing script systems and teaching materials. Tempo publishes this report to celebrate October, the Language and Literature Month.