Laughing the Pain Away: Understanding Sambat Practice among Javanese Youth

In recent years, a verbal act of jokingly sharing grievances among Javanese youth labelled as sambat has become increasingly visible and audible both in social media and local radio. Sambat is a practice among Javanese youth where Javanese language is mixed with non-linguistic comedic touches to express a collective identity of being young, struggling with life’s problems, and feeling broken-hearted. This paper seeks to understand the emergence of sambat practice among Javanese youth on the internet and its traditional continuity within Javanese society. It explores the relation between language, emotion, and cultural practice through the lens of linguistic anthropology. The central argument is that the popularity of sambat on the internet has shifted the value of Javanese language from its traditional association with hierarchy to a comedic language that symbolises sadness, pain, and the persona of heartbroken youth.


Introduction
Sambat is a Javanese word glossed by the official Indonesian language dictionary (KBBI 1 ) as 'mengaduh' or 'mengeluh'-terms often translated into English as 'complaining'.While the word is now accepted as a Bahasa Indonesia term, its use is still associated with the Javanese language and its speakers.The Javanese substantive form from the base sambat is sambatan, or 'complaint'.The term sambat among social media users in Indonesia, especially youth, is popularised by an Instagram and Twitter account called Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini 'Let's complain about today' (@nksthi).The account uses Javanese language to complain about daily life and share the struggle of being youth, mostly but not limited to love and the problem of a broken heart.After this account gained popularity in social media, a youth radio show in Solo, Central Java, initiated its first Javanese programme called Waktu Indonesia bagian Sambat-roughly translated as 'Indonesian time for complaining', combining the Indonesian phrase waktu Indonesia bagian 'Indonesian time zone' and the Javanese word sambat 'complain'.
Although located in a Javanese speaking area, Solo Radio is known for its Jakartan style broadcasting, presenting its programmes in Indonesian with a Jakartan accent, a type of language associated with youth in the capital city and commonly used by Indonesian youth to construct modernity (Manns 2011;Smith-Hefner 2007).Although it is unusual for the radio station, this programme received positive uptake from the audience as indicated by the number of advertisements, high audience engagement, and an award from the Jogjastreamer streaming platform for being the most streamed radio programme in May 2020.
The initiation and success of this first Javanese programme on the radio exemplifies the changing value of local language in radio broadcasting.In this article, I use the changing value of Javanese language as a point of departure to discuss sambat practice.I am particularly interested in how a traditional practice such as sambat provides insight into the connection of language, emotion, and cultural practice within media.Of those anthropologists who have conducted research on emotion (Beatty 2005;Hollan & Throop 2011;Rapport 2010;Reddy 1999), many ignore the interactional and linguistic aspects of the phenomena.Similarly, linguistic anthropology approaches provide only minimal exploration of emotion when observing language practice and its relationship with cultural phenomena.

Linguistic Anthropology Approach to Sambat
In this section, I synthesise works that highlight the relationship of language and emotion as part of wider social practice.I argue that the close examination of language practice in sambat through a linguistic anthropology lens provides a theoretical contribution that reveals the connection of language, emotion, and social practice.Through a linguistic anthropology perspective, language use is considered as a social fact-behaviour regulated by the 'collective conscience' of norms that organise social life (Durkheim [1961] 2012).According to J. M. Wilce (2009, 12), while we use language to convey emotion, the linguistic structures within a language system are often governed by cultural sensibility and shared genres of performance that entail reflexivity.Asif Agha (2006, 190) labelled such reflexivity as reflexive social process; in other words, the social dimension of language that blends language practice and collective awareness of the norms applied within the discursive interaction.
Anthropological approaches to language such as Michael Silverstein's (2003) highlight how this reflexivity constructs metapragmatic awareness and pragmatic forms as a set of signs that indexes a speech genre.According to Agha (2006, 17), metapragmatic activity is a constellation of meaningful behaviours that determine the pragmatic character of the utterance-the language being used, the accomplished activities formed in and through the participants' experience and social exposure, and the idea of personhood associated with the language practice.In this sense, every culture possesses a categorisation of personhood that typifies some characteristics of persons (Taylor 1989).This typification of personhood connects the speaker's linguistic production to their emotional attribution and attitude as part of their identity.Thus, the metapragmatic is often reflected through the act of labelling a set of linguistic features based on their association with the emotional sentiment surrounding the language, such as Spanish linguistic features as 'the language of childhood' for New York City Latinos (Santiago-Irizarry 2001) or how 'the language of love' in English expression is characterised by its association with romance-associated rituals (for example, Valentine's Day, weddings) and historical references (for example, folklore, folktale) (Danesi 2019).
In line with the argument, Wilce (2009, 53-54) explained that the reflexivity in the metapragmatic governs the pragmatics that connect language use and emotion.Wilce (2009) provides as example how a traditional practice such as lamentation becomes a productive site that connects language and emotion as part of co-performative interactions among participants as an object of feeling and evaluation-'bodies together rocking, weeping, wailing, singing, wiping tears away, hugging' (Wilce 2009, 54).In this case, an atmosphere of feeling within a situational interaction becomes a co-performative practice that is linked to a model of social convention in a specific socio-historical context.Thus, the reflexivity in relation to the practice encompasses the emotional sentiments of the linguistic structures, such as angry rhetoric or love expression.
While the metapragmatic structures the expectation of production and reception of the interaction (Bauman 1999), and characterises the pragmatic character of the utterance, the latter reveals the emotional sentiment within an interaction-this includes the stretch of the speech (hint, lie, accusation), target of utterance, interactants, performed persona, and social relationship among participants (Agha 2006, 22-23).Such observations within a linguistic field are often approached through the notion of the participatory framework (Goffman 1981).
The participatory framework focuses on the participation roles and production format of the talk which help to uncover the moment-by-moment use of language to see what is valued as appropriate in a specific situation by a set of participants (Goffman 1981).Within an interaction, participants' interactional statuses are differentiated based on their roles as speaker and hearer.As a speaker, a participant may act as animator, author, or principal based on the sentiment of their utterance (Goffman 1981, 226-227).When a speaker inhabits an animator author role, the production format of their utterance represents their personal sentiment.While being an animator author, the production format of the utterance often represents a professional or institutional sentiment.
Further, Erving Goffman (1981, 10) pointed out that a speaker's production format is confirmed by fellow conversationalists as the ratified hearers of the utterance.Their responses also confirm whether or not a speaker's (principal and animator) intent and sentiment are understood from the receiving end.The response from the hearer will thus determine how the production format within the participation framework is understood; for example, whether an utterance is considered irony, satire, sarcasm, playfulness, or a quotation of words from another person.The response may also be in the form of verbal vocalisations, such as swearing, moaning, laughter, or other phonological noises that have no linguistic meaning.These kinds of responses are often referred to as 'response cries vocalization' (Goffman 1981, 136).
Our discussion so far has elaborated how an interaction becomes a co-performative practice and a site where the linguistic features used in an interaction are chosen according to their association with participants' emotional sentiment as part of a reflexive social process.The way set linguistic features are valued and associated with feeling reflect how these features are socialised and learned by individuals in the context of culturally particular events of speaking.In many cases, the traditionality attached to cultural values within such practices is often recontextualised by social actors to gain economic value (Bauman & Briggs 1990;Jaffe 2007)-such as for festivals (Srisupun, Apichatvullop, & Manorom 2013), advertisements (Atkinson & Kelly-Holmes 2006), tourism (Pietikaïnen et al. 2016), and national identity (Chong 2011).
Echoing Anthony Giddens' (1991) concept of 'detraditionalized space' and Richard Bauman and Charles Briggs' (1990) notion of 'recontextualization', Sari Pietikaïnen et al. (2016, 25) define this process as detraditionalisation-a process in which cultural features, including language, and practices are dis-embedded from their traditional association and re-embedded within a new practice in a new social domain.Those elements that reflect cultural continuity in the new practice are rendered symbolic in value while adding economic value to the practice-Alexandra Jaffe (2007) refers to this as 'added value'.Pietikäinen et al. (2016, 29) argue that detraditionalisation is a form of recontextualisation of tradition, which is often categorised by shifting ideologies pertaining to language and other cultural forms.
In the preceding discussion, I have highlighted how the observation of language and emotion must involve social reflexivity within a specific cultural framework.While pragmatic observation provides insight into the social roles performed by participants and linguistic norms applied in this practice, the metapragmatic provides insight into the reflexive social process that includes traditional, historical, or political explanations of the practice.Thus, an observation of the dynamic social value of language and its association with emotional sentiment must be complemented by a close examination of the culturally continuous elements of social practice.

The Social Value of Local Language in Contemporary Indonesian Media
In this section, I explore, in the context of contemporary Indonesian media, approaches to language and the social value of language in relation to sociolinguistic background.I focus on the different values given to the national language, Bahasa Indonesia, and Javanese as a local language.I argue that the Indonesian media has favoured Indonesian language as the language of the media for its association with modernity while marginalising local languages for their association with traditionality.By extension, I elaborate how local languages are situated in the Indonesian media (Jurriens 2009;2007;2011;Manns 2011;Smith-Hefner 2009), illustrating this case through Solo Radio, a local radio station in Solo, Central Java (Dewi & Goebel 2023).
In the case of Indonesia, nation-state ideologies that elevate Indonesian as the language of the media (as stated in Article 39 in the 1945 version of the Indonesian constitution) contrast with the language found in actual broadcasts and attitudes to this usage.For example, Howard Manns (2011;2014), writing in the context of Malang, Central Java, states that the two language varieties commonly used for broadcasting are colloquial Indonesian or Gaul Indonesian, and Indonesian with a Javanese accent.The aforementioned studies show that many young people value both a Javanese identity and a youth identity known as gaul, associated with the language styles of the capital city Jakarta.Bahasa Gaul is a type of language that was popularised by MTV (American-based music television channel) in the early 2000s and commonly used by youth in the capital city, associated with the identity of being 'young and modern' (Smith-Hefner 2007).Nancy Smith-Hefner (2007, 184) notes that this speech variety mobilised through the emergence of a new cosmopolitan youth culture in Jakarta, influenced by Western and East Asian cultures at the end of the Indonesian New Order period in 1998.Manns' studies (2011;2014) show that in the Indonesian media the use of local languages and the national language, Bahasa Indonesia, is in constant flux.This is in line with previous studies of the Indonesian media that propose that use of Indonesian in local media is often portrayed as being modern, national, and high class (Jurriens 2007;2009;2011).Meanwhile, the use of local languages in local media has been reported variously as constructing intimate social relations (Jurriens 2007;2009;2011), forming community-based connectivity, and revitalising and rearticulating the idea of ethnicity (Suryadi 2005).The latter occurs despite the association of local languages with the idea of being 'traditional' and, thus, undesirable, rural people (Manns 2014).
Despite its negative association with peripheral identity and low socio-economic class, use of Javanese language in radio programmes has been found to engender relatability and a closer relationship with the audience.This was illustrated in a study by the author and Zane Goebel (2023) on Solo Radio's first Javanese programme, Waktu Indonesia bagian Sambat 'Indonesian time for complaining'.The title of the programme combines the Indonesian phrase Waktu Indonesia bagian, referring to the concept of an Indonesian time zone, and the Javanese word sambat, meaning 'complaining' or 'sharing grievances'.From the title it is apparent that the Javanese character of the programme lies in the sambat, a Javanese word that is not translated into The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 31 Indonesian.While the radio station claims the programme as its first extensive Javanese programme, the Jakartan style Indonesian language is still partially used.
Within Solo Radio, Jakartan-Indonesian and English are used to construct professionalism and represent institutional sentiment when talking to the audience while Javanese, and Indonesian with a Javanese accent, are used by announcers for more spontaneous interactions, and expressions of personal sentiment and closer relationship such as the interactions between announcers (Dewi & Goebel 2023, 127), as illustrated in the following excerpt.Here, plain font is used to indicate Javanese, italic font is used for Indonesian with a Javanese accent, underlined font is used for Jakartan-Indonesian, and small caps are used for English.
Extract 1. Habitual language in the programme.The extract above exemplifies the use of different sets of linguistic features based on different participation frameworks in the programme.We can see in the reopening segment, lines 1-2, Indra uses Jakartan-Indonesian while positioning the audience as the ratified hearer of the talk.Following the utterance, Topik switches to Indonesian with a Javanese accent in lines 3-6 to mark the change of segment from the re-opening segment to the talk segment, where the audience is still the ratified hearer of the utterance.Further, in line 7, Indra joins the talk segment by asking Topik a question, which he answers with Javanese (lines 8-11).We can see that the ratified hearer of Topik's utterance in lines 8-11 is Indra, who previously asked him a question.The audience members, in this case, are positioned as ratified observers.
From the extract, we can see that Jakartan Indonesian is valued as the language of youth media, which indicates professional speakership based on institutional norms habitually used for an opening segment.Javanese language, on the other hand, is preferred in talk among announcers for the purpose of inhabiting Javanese-speaking youth personas and thereby projecting a closer relationship between announcer and audience (Dewi & Goebel 2023, 130).
The study illustrates that the way an announcer styles their talk and chooses a language reflects the way the latter 'imagines' their audience.John Hartley (1992) describes the audience as an 'invisible fiction' that is produced institutionally to serve 'the need of the imagining institution' (Hartley 1992, 105).In this case, the radio station constructs its audience through the way programmes are managed and the design of language use within programmes.The way languages are 'organised' and 'designed' within media text is viewed as a representation that is institutionally created to support the narrative of media branding for economic motives (Hartley 1992).Thus, Solo Radio's initiative to create the first Javanese programme marked a shift in their imagined audiencefrom Indonesian-speaking youth to Javanese-speaking youth.
This shift in imagined audience, at the same time, marked a change in the way Javanese was valued at Solo Radio.The use of Javanese in Waktu Indonesia bagian Sambat has allowed us to explore how Javanese language gained value when used within sambat practice to embody Javanese youth personhood.While the study from Dewi and Goebel (2023) pinpoints important findings that mark the normalisation of Javanese in youth radio, discussion on the use of Javanese in sambat as a programme concept is missing.

The Genesis of Sambat among Javanese Youth
In this section, I trace the emergence of sambat practice through its traditional explanation to its popular usage on the internet among youth.I argue that an Instagram account called Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini 'Let's complain about today' became a model for sambat practice among Javanese-speaking youth on the internet.The popularity of this account created awareness of sambat practice among Javanese youth in a wider social context-something that is referred to as a reflexive social process (Agha 2006, 190).
To trace the traditional account of sambat practice let us begin by considering briefly the notion of sambat, or complaining.The word sambat in Javanese traditional society means asking for help from other people (Koentjaraningrat 2009).In Central Java and East Java, the idea of sambat is often associated with the practice of sambatan or 'asking for voluntary help' from the community as part of a Javanese socio-cultural practice (Koentjaraningrat 2009;Maryani 2013;Setiawan 2021).Sambatan highlights collectivism and social obligations where everyone in the community is responsible to help each other (Setiawan 2021).
The practice creates a reciprocal relationship where the person who (expressed) sambat received the help needed and the people who helped felt better about themselves for being able to help (Setiawan 2021).The sambatan activity is also seen to build intimacy through processes of interaction and communication within the neighbourhood (Rochwulaningsih 2015).One usually directed sambat to their closest friend, closest neighbour (Masduki 2017), or spiritual being, who are assumed to possess the power to assist them with their problem (Wessing 2006).These traditional explanations reveal sambat as a verbal practice of complaining among the Javanese, which reflects values of community-based intimacy, social obligation, and emotional expression considered to be traditionally Javanese.

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 33
The 'Javanese-ness' of the practice became the departure point for this study in observing complaining practice among Javanese-speaking youth on the internet.The word sambat started to become popular through Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini in early 2019.They gained more than 1 million followers on Twitter in 12 months and soon started their Instagram account and merchandising business.Their Instagram account (@nantikitasambattentanghariini) has more than two hundred thousand followers.While the name is in Indonesian, the Javanese language term 'sambat' is used to emphasise the practice of complaining.
The account uses Javanese language to humorously complain about the daily life struggles associated with being youth, mostly but not limited to love and the problem of a broken heart.The following is an example of sambatan from their Instagram account on 23 September 2021.
An approximate English translation for the post in Figure 1 is: 'Why haven't you complained[?]You really think you are that strong [to endure the pain], huh?'.The post is followed by a caption, 'You act like you can do shit'.This post describes how hard it is to live a life without complaining, while the caption implies mockery towards those who do not complain-they are just being pretentious and acting as if they are strong.This post received responses from the account's followers with laughter emoji and various kind of jokes in sharing their related personal problems.Followers commented on the posts by sharing their related struggles, mainly concerning problems in their love lives.
From a pragmatic observation standpoint, we can observe that sambat often comes in the form of mockery to invite relatable sambatan from the receiving end of the interaction.In this case, we can see the role of the account producer as an author who sets the sentiment of the utterance and the account's followers and people who interact with the post as the participants of the interaction.The sentiment expressed in most of the posts is generally related to the pain and sadness of being young and broken-hearted.The use of kita 'us'-the Indonesian inclusive firstperson plural pronoun-in the account title implies the participation of followers in the sambat activity.
At the same time it builds the relatability of the problem, suggesting a community of complaint.In this case, the word sambat becomes the metapragmatic label that brings metapragmatic awareness to people about the linguistic characteristic of the practice and the emotion formed in and through the practice.The label sets the social reflexivity that governs the language use (Javanese linguistic features) and emotion (sharing emotional struggle) within a practice based on its traditional association (Wilce 2009).While the practice is conducted on the internet, the Javanese label of the practice, Javanese linguistic features, and the idea of collectivism within the practice indicate cultural continuity of the practice in line with traditional sambat practice within Javanese society.
This practice of sharing struggle, pioneered by Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini, is based on linguistic forms (Javanese use), emotion (pain of broken heart and economic struggles), and relatability to collective social persona (group of young people who speak Javanese).In this sense, the account circulates the emergent practice known as sambat on the internet-the practice of sharing sadness through jokes using Javanese language to complain about a broken heart and life's struggles among a community of complainers.Through these posts, we can also see how the practice inhabits a new social domain-the internet meme.In the case of sambat, the internet meme formed shared ideas, practices, and specific linguistic forms used by certain online communities.This is in line with the findings of previous studies of meme.The internet meme has become a site for sharing expression and community and reconstructing history, context, and social norms (Ask & Abidin 2018;Burton 2019).Further, the popularity of this account among social media users brought the Javanese word sambat to the attention of a wider domain of internet users-even those who do not speak Javanese.Despite being listed in the official KBBI dictionary as an Indonesian word derived from Javanese, after the account became popular, the word sambat was often associated with social media users and youth.The result of a Google search using the phrase arti kata sambat 'the meaning of sambat' shows that many Indonesian online media articles claim sambat as Bahasa Gaul, derived from a Javanese word popular among social media users.An example is provided on bahasagaul.id: English translation of the sambat definition (Figure 2): 1 'The meaning of Bahasa Gaul sambat, What is the meaning of sambat?' 2 Sambat originated from the Javanese language 3 The meaning of sambat, 4 Sambat = complaining 5 Twitter user who likes jokes, usually complaining about their life 6 The complaint is expressed in a sambat tweet.These online articles have shaped the association of sambat practice with Twitter users, youth, jokes about sharing struggles, and Javanese-ness.This type of media article is a reflexive act that circulates the association of sambat and youth identity through the popular social media claim that sambat is Bahasa Gaul.
The new association of the Javanese word sambat as Bahasa Gaul gives, what Jaffe (2007) refers to as, 'added value' to the language.The added value is marked by the shifting association of Javanese language from its geographical and traditional referents (language used by people in Java) to personhood as a referent (language used by cool kids to complain on the internet), further setting an emotion and/or mood to the new practice.Within this new practice of sambat, the Javanese language has been cut from its traditional moorings to become detraditionalised.
The Javanese character of sambat constitutes cultural continuity in the new practice.Here, the Javanese linguistic features are ascribed symbolic value that provides economic value to the social actors who 'commodify' this symbolic value (Bourdieu 1977;Duchêne & Heller 2012;Jaffe 2007).This economic value is further proven through merchandising.The account founder established a type of sambat franchise by creating Ruang Sambat (a talk show), Warung Mbah Sambat (a restaurant), Toko Sumber Sambat (a merchandise store), and Kelas Sambat (a webinar series)-all targeting Javanese youth and selling the idea of humorous complaint about life's struggle.In summary, we can see that sambat is detraditionalised in a new practice within a new social domain-sharing jokes about love and economic struggles among youth through the internet meme.

The Metapragmatic of Sambat in Youth Radio
Building on a process of detraditionalisation that has taken place via internet-based sambat, as elaborated in the previous section, in this section I focus on the way a youth radio programme has reflexively adopted Javanese language in line with the sort of sambat practice taking place among youth on the internet.First, I focus on data derived from interviews with radio staff to examine the metapragmatic of sambat.I do this by assessing continuity of tradition in the radio programme (Pietikaïnen et al. 2016) both in terms of the practice and emotional aspect of language design (Wilce 2009).
Solo Radio is the most popular youth radio station in Solo, Central Java, as indexed by the radio streaming website, jogjastreamers.com.Since its establishment in 1998, Solo has broadcast in Jakartan-style Indonesian in an effort to represent youth culture and modernity (Dewi & Goebel 2023, 133).While the radio audience had requested a Javanese programme since the early days of broadcasting, the Javanese show was created in early 2020.I argue that the normalisation of Javanese on Solo Radio was influenced by the popularity of sambat practice among youth on the internet.The basis of this argument is that the timing of the radio station launching their Javanese programme coincided with the increasing popularity of sambat practice among youth on the internet.In the following sub- The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 37 section I will discuss the added value of Javanese emergent in sambat practice on youth radio.
To understand the shifting value of Javanese in the context of radio programming, I focus on the radio crew's programme design both in terms of their choice of language and the choice of sambat as a central programme concept.When talking about the language design of the programme and the use of sambat as the concept of the programme, the station manager explained that Javanese was not the preferred language for the show: Yes, it was the very first show, actually.So, we don't have, what [do you call it], [we] don't have a show delivered in Javanese.Because we use the type of language favoured by the youth.Such a language is very Indonesian or even Jakartan, Jakartan accent.
Here, the station manager distinguishes between Indonesian, and Indonesian spoken with a Jakartan accent, while labelling the language as a 'language favoured by the youth'.
He went on to label the type of Indonesian spoken with a Jakartan accent as 'Indonesia banget', meaning 'very Indonesian'.In this case, the Indonesian character of an utterance is measured by phonological characteristics.The station manager's statement positions Jakartan Indonesian as the 'favourable language' and Indonesian with a Javanese accent as a nonpreferable language, reflecting the way the radio imagines their audience.Instead of imagining their audience as Javanese-speaking youth, the type of Indonesian used on the radio shows that they imagine their audience as Jakartan youth attached to Gaul identity (Smith-Hefner 2009), elaborated further below.
It is also discernible from the statement that the decision to create a Javanese show marks a shift in the audience as market-what Hartley (1992) referred to as institutional narrative.In this case, the popularity of sambat echoes what Pietikäinen et al. (2016,68) referred to as 'enabling condition'-a condition driven by the reflexivity of the social actors to 'break free from older normative constraints' that previously marginalised the traditional cultural form, in this case, the use of Javanese language on the radio.The detraditionalisation process for Javanese led to the formation of a new market for Javanese use-youth on the internet.Thus, the use of Jakartan Indonesian on youth radio rendered it 'acceptable' for its association with youth personhood.
The station manager further describes sambat as the central concept of the programme and sambat's traditional continuity within a Javanese socio-historical context.
We decided to call the show 'Waktu Indonesia bagian Sambat'.The show is designed [to cater to the fact that] Javanese love to listen to other people's complaints [disambati, Javanese], that's how you say it in Javanese.So there are actually two perceptions of sambat: sambat as in complaining and sambat as in asking for help.As in complaining, people love to have a sharing session.Yes, sharing complaints, sharing with people you don't even know but the sharing ends up with complaining-that's the first one.[The second one] Sambat as in asking for help [is about the fact] that Javanese love being asked for help.So those were the two characteristics of sambat.So, 'Can you help?', for example, 'If I have this kind of problem, what do you suggest?'.Those are the patterns we use [for the programme].(Solo Radio Station Manager, February 23, 2021) In the explanation above, the speaker seeks to construct the practice as culturally continuous by relating it to Javanese-ness.In this case, the radio station, as a social actor, authenticates the practice by referencing the practice to specific traditions, practices, languages, or other cultural forms.This also highlights the emotional attribution of the practice, that is, collectivism and social obligation to provide mutual comfort within the community.In this case, sambat is more than just an act of complaining.It is a cultural practice of sharing grievances in a joking manner.
From this cultural concept, sharing problems and providing solutions became the initial concept of the programme.Organised around the idea of sharing grievances, the programme provided a forum for performatively airing the woes of its listeners.The announcers would invite audience members to express their problems publicly via WhatsApp messages, and the announcers were expected to comment and provide solutions for the problems.This co-performativity, once again, echoes the idea of collectivism in the traditional concept of sambat.
The programme's announcers further describe how the concept of sambat is rooted in the comedic effect of the practice-the humour based on love problems faced by youth as their target audience.The two announcers of the programme labelled this as gojekan cinta 'love jokes'.
We, [tell]  We always broadcast in Javanese, [and it] revolves around love.If it's not about love then it's better to just skip it.(Announcer 2, February 19, 2021) […] Broken-hearted, Javanese, in pain.Especially kids these days so easily get their hearts broken.(Announcer 1, February 19, 2021) From the above statements by the programme announcers, we can see that the practice of sambat modelled by social media content from Sobat Ambyar and Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini created a new domain for Javanese use attached to a certain The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 39 comedic value within the sambat.The concept of 'love jokes' mentioned by one of the announcers emphasises how Javanese language is normalised as part of humorous segments and echoes the broken-hearted discourse popular among youth on the internet.While 'jokes' echo the comedic value of sambat, cinta 'love' forms a sense of relatability with youth and their problems, as reflected in both announcers' comments-'people our age' and 'kids these days'-highlighting the social category of youth.
The idea of love jokes also sets the emotional tone of the utterance produced within the practice of laughing the pain away.While Javanese linguistic features are used to express sadness, the complaint about struggle must be comedic.This connection of language, emotion, and practice is also expressed in the announcer's characterisation of sambat as 'broken-hearted, Javanese, in pain'.In this sense, use of Javanese in the radio programme becomes normalised when used to discuss the pain of a broken heart among Javanese youth, especially in a joking manner.The comedic effect of sharing pain is an integral part of the design of the programme, as elaborated by the station manager.
Actually, from the show we did not provide any solutions-instead [the audience] were being 'roasted', being pranked.And people liked this instead, to hear those kinds of things.I don't know, people nowadays may call it bullying actually, but actually, that's what the joke is about in this show.(Solo Radio Station Manager, February 23, 2021) Instead of providing solutions, the audience members who sent in their sambatan were 'roasted' or 'diece'-derived from the Javanese verb 'ngece'-by the announcers.This act of ngece attracted the audience because of its comedic effect.Here the act of ngece in responding to the sambatan created laughter.In this case, the comedic effect of sambat is a way for the radio station to normalise use of Javanese, as described by the station manager.One of the announcers added that the act of ngece is their way of inviting people's sambatan or 'complaint': We usually started with ngece.People normally will get angry [when they are] roasted, but [in this programme] they are happy.There were even, [we] call it spam, 'Mas, please read my WhatsApp!' Like, they, when we mention their name, and we read their WhatsApp [messages], we read their request, plus we roast them.People are supposed to be angry when they are roasted, right Mbak?These people are happy, instead.
(Announcer 1, February 19, 2021) The act of ngece also echoes the mockery contained in the Instagram caption modelled by Nanti Kita Sambat tentang Hari Ini (Figure 1) to invite followers' commentaries.While in traditional practice, people are expected to provide help in responding to a complaint, in the new practice the problem is met with jokes in the form of ngece.From this practice, we can see that ngece or 'mockery' within Javanese society is seen as a way to provide comfort or help.This interpretation is rooted in the idea that the solution of a problem is to laugh it away, or to make a joke of it.From this metapragmatic reflexivity, we can see in the context of the radio programme the emergence of a new participation framework of sambat that enables the use of Javanese for its comedic purpose among youth as the audience of the programme.

The Pragmatic Character of Sambat in the Programme
The metapragmatic character of sambat, elaborated by the station manager and programme announcers, further shaped the pragmatic character of sambat in the programme.Here, sambatan practice consists of ngece 'roast' by the radio announcer, and sambatan 'complaint' from the audience, which attracts a counter ngece 'roast' response by the announcers.All acts are mediated through the use of Javanese and comedic expression about life's struggles.The following extract illustrates how the announcers ngece the audience to invite their sambatan.In the following extract, plain font is used to indicate Javanese, underlined font is used for Jakartan-Indonesian, and small caps are used for English.
Extract 2. Inviting Sambatan through Ngece.As we can see, In Extract 2, Indra started the re-opening segment by using Jakartan-Indonesian in lines 1-4.Once the segment moves to inviting the The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 41 sambatan, Topik alternates to Javanese in line 5 when engaging in the practice of ngece 'roasting'.While Indra's role in lines 1-4 is animator principal performing a professional persona to conduct the programme, Topik switches to the role of animator author, performing the persona of Javanese youth by engaging in ngece while expressing his personal sentiments.This is shown in the way he addresses the audience in the Javanese second person reference kowe 'you' (line 9), and the plural form cah 'you guys' (line 5)-the short form of bocah 'kid'.
This contrasts with the way Indra addresses the audience when he adopts a professional persona in line 2, addressing the audience as sololovers.At Solo Radio, the English phrase sololovers and the Indonesian second-person reference kamu 'you' are the two common ways to address the audience.The use of the Javanese second-person reference kowe 'you' in Extract 2, thus, reflects an effort to inhabit a Javanese youth persona while creating a distinction from their professional announcer personas.This stance also reflects an effort to seek a more personal and, therefore, closer connection with the audience.
The practice of ngece in Extract 2 is also marked by the third-person reference de'e 'he/she' (line 7).In sambat practice, the third-person reference de'e is often used by the announcers and the audience to refer to the antagonist of the story -the person who causes the pain of the broken heart.In the excerpt above, de'e is the person who read the messages but never replied to them, signalling a love rejection.This pronoun is used for the antagonist without specifically mentioning who the person is; this way, the sambatan resonates with those who can relate, or who are currently in the position of being on the receiving end of a similar act.This once again points to a sense of being able to relate, and to the collective identity within sambat practice.
Along with the use of the Javanese second-person reference kowe 'you' and thirdperson reference de'e 'he/she', another Javanese linguistic feature commonly used to construct ngece is the exclamation response noise from other participants, such as wedyan!'crazy!' (line 6) and hiyaaaa!'yeah!' (line 17).Both responses in line 6 and line 17 have a similar function to laughter in responding to a joke.These types of noise are always made by an announcer to respond to a ngece utterance made by another announcer.Most of the noises have no lexical meaning.In Goffman's (1981, 136) terms, this kind of response (including laughter) is a 'response cry vocalization'.
These responses function to change the participant roles from 'I' to 'we'.For example, in line 5, Indra produced the response cry vocalisation wedyan!'crazy!' to respond to Topik's utterance of ngece in line 5.In line 5, Topik 'roasted' the audience for not receiving messages from anyone.The conversation in that line is between Topik and the audience.Indra's response in line 6 is a signal that he is joining the conversation, where he switches his position from an overhearer to the second speaker.Through this response, Indra joined Topik to 'roast' the audience as the recipients of the talk.The same pattern is used in lines 15-16.In line 15, Indra roasts the audience by stating that if their messages are marked R (as in read), this is a sign to reverse (referencing a car gearstick) and move on.In response to this love joke, Topik responded by making the response cry vocalisation 'hiyaaaa!' (line 17) to switch his position from listener to second speaker.
The response cry vocalisations show that the audience members are on the receiving end of the ngece.The announcers make these sounds to signal that they are talking to the audience instead of talking to each other-to point out that ngece is done collaboratively to make fun of the audience and not each other.Collaboratively, the ngece and response cry vocalisations stress the comedic tone of the utterance.The way the announcers make fun of the audience's love struggles through ngece is another effort towards forming closeness and intimacy with the audience-to laugh the pain off.The joke is shared based on the assumption that the audience and announcer share the same expectations around sambat acts that are attached to the broken-hearted youth persona.The joke about the love struggle indicates that they share the same experience with the audience.By positioning the audience as the recipient of the talk, the announcers imagine the audience to inhabit the same social category, that of brokenhearted Javanese youth.
An examination of the emotional attributes in the interaction reveal that relatability and comedy set the tone of the complaint.The pragmatic cues of sambat practice in the radio are characterised by: 1) Mockery in responding to the audience's love struggles through conduct they label as ngece.
2) The switch to Javanese, which includes use of the Javanese second-person reference kowe 'you' or plural form cah 'you guys' to address the audience.
3) The existence of an antagonist in the story who causes the pain, often referred to as de'e 'she/he'-Javanese third-person reference.4) Response cry vocalisations in response to the mockery or the complaint as confirmation of the comedic effect of the utterance.5) The comedic tone in the complaint and in responding to the complaint.These pragmatic cues of interaction are recognised by announcers and the audience as part of the sambat practice, which is organised around the metapragmatic cues of broken-hearted youth persona and mediated through a type of humour they label gojekan cinta 'love jokes'.
These cues are recognised by the audience as fellow conversationalist and ratified hearers of the programme.This is shown through the way the audience alternates to using Javanese language each time they engage in sambat acts, as illustrated in the following example.Hiyaaa.Yes, all of her needs must be fulfilled, but when we need anything, she doesn't care.
Hiyaaa.This Bendot guy, my suggestion is to be a cockfighting coach.14 In the extract, we can see that the audience member changes to Javanese linguistic features when engaging in a sambat practice.He starts the message by using Indonesian to greet the announcers in line 1.In line 2, switching to Javanese, he explicitly introduces the utterance as sambat by saying 'Meh sambat', meaning 'I would like to complain'.Then, in line 6, he switches back to Indonesian when he changes the interaction from sambatan to requesting a song.In lines 6-7, he changes the interaction from requesting a song to giving a 'shout out' by explicitly mentioning the intention of his utterance to 'say hi to Delarbi Shop'.Here, he uses Indonesian while adding the English word 'honey' as the second-person reference to mark the change of the ratified hearer from the announcers to a specific person who listens to the programme.The English sentence in line 8 is Solo Radio jargon, which is often spoken by announcers and the audience.
This extract shows that the use of Javanese by the audience is also strongly associated with sambat: the audience member only uses Javanese to engage in sambat and he uses Indonesian for greeting, requesting songs, and giving a 'shout out' to another audience member.Instead of sharing love problems, the sambatan sent by the audience in Extract 3 is about the pain of losing a job, which involves the idea of life struggles and being young.Although the sambatan is not about love, Indra still responded to the sambatan with ngece about a love struggle.We can see that his response in line 9 has nothing to do with the sambatan shared by the audience member.The ngece 'roasting' in this line takes the form of, what the announcers refer to as, gojekan cinta 'love jokes', which function to make fun of the audience member's love situation.
The 'love jokes' response confirms the emotional attribution within the sambat interaction, setting the comedic tone of the utterance; for example, by mentioning mantanmu 'your ex [former girlfriend or boyfriend]' (in line 9) as the antagonist of the story, referring to the audience member's ex, not Topik's.This is confirmed by Topik's response vocalisation cry of 'Hiyaaaa!' in the following line to indicate that he is participating in the ngece along with Indra in talking to the audience member, while confirming the comedic intention of Indra's utterance in lines 9-10.Mantanmu 'your ex', in this case, is used similarly to the use of de'e 'he/she' in Extract 2. In describing the pain caused by the antagonist, in lines 11-12, Topik elaborates on the feeling of relatability and collectivism using the word kene 'we'.The use of the Javanese first-person plural reference kene 'we' (sometimes also translated as 'here') creates the 'us vs them' division.'Us' refers to the announcers and the audiences who are the victims and 'them' refers to the third-person reference antagonist, in this case, the exes.
That the announcers and the people they tease evidently experience the same problem creates a collective identity.Further, it shows that the announcer imagines the audience to belong to the same social category-Javanese youth who are experiencing love struggles.The data also show that the announcer suggests a suitable career for Bendot (lines 13-14) only for comedic effect and not for the purpose of finding a solution.This response once again confirms the comedic attribute of sambat practice: using laughter to cope with pain.While the complaint acts to share the struggle, a joke is made to create laughter instead of addressing the issue.

Conclusion
This article provides an empirical analysis of the relationship of language use and emotional attribution to cultural practice.It provides insight into how a speech genre embedded in a traditional practice shifted the value of language features used within the practice.Specifically, the article has highlighted how sambat as a traditional practice within the Javanese community has become detraditionalised among youth on social media through a new practice (sharing life struggle through humour), new domain (internet meme), and a new market (brokenhearted youth) for the practice.
In the new practice, sambat is characterised as an act of airing grievance delivered in Javanese through the sharing of jokes about being young, struggling with life's problems, and feeling broken-hearted.The analysis of sambat as culturally continuous, and the new practice of sambat among youth on the internet, show both practices rooted in the emotional attribution of relatability, collectivism, and providing help.However, in the new practice, the comedic effect towards coping and responding to pain acts to add value, which, in effect, detraditionalises the practice.While the new domain of the practice-the internet meme-is popular among youth, the topic of love and life struggles also forms the association of the practice with youth personhood-creating a new market for the practice.
The added value (Duchêne & Heller 2012, 9;Jaffe 2007) created in the new practice of sambat is the comedic effect of being young, in pain, and broken-hearted-highly relatable for young people.This added value also applies to the language being used in the practice-the Javanese language.The popularity of Javanese language used in sambat practice has increased the exchange value of Javanese linguistic features when used in association with a broken heart and mediated through humour.
This metapragmatic and pragmatic analysis of the first Javanese radio programme for youth on Solo Radio shows how Javanese has become 'normalised' when used for humorous effect.This comedic value further formed a participation framework that enabled the use of Javanese through sambat interactions.The interaction within sambat shows the connection of language use, emotion, and the practice.Javanese linguistic sets are used to comedically express and respond to the struggle of a broken heart and, in doing so, construct the personhood of being young.

Note
[1] Abbreviated as KBBI, the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia is the official dictionary of Indonesian language produced by the Language Center at the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture.The inclusion of the Javanese word sambat in the KBBI indicates that this word is now commonly used in Indonesian.E.g., the formation of verb menyambat through the additional Indonesian prefix men-to the word sambat 'to complain'.See https://kbbi.web.id/sambat-2 (accessed May 20, 2021).

Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
like, what do you call it, love jokes, because it is close to young people.And it's very relatable for us, people of our age feel sad not because of life, [the sadness] revolves around love problems.Sad when you were left [by a loved one], when you love them the most, and being lied to when you are in an LDR [long distance relationship].
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 43 Extract 3. Sambatan.