Language choice in a multilingual society is an interesting phenomenon to be studied
by sociolinguistic approach. This paper is the result of sociolinguistic study of a multilingual
society in the Kampung Durian, West Kalimantan. Kampung Durian is a village inhabited by a
community of ex Madurese refugees Sambas conflict. Kampung Durian is located adjacent to
the township Dayak. Since the society is multiethnic, the choice of language becomes a complex
problem. In this situation there are several languages used in social interaction, so that every
community would have to choose what language to use when interacting with other community
members. In terms of language choice, there are several factors into consideration, such as with
whom to speak, who is speaking, what topics were discussed, as well as a place where
interaction takes place. In the utterances, inappropriate language choice by speakers of the
opponents could lead such social and cultural issues. For that reason, a speaker must be careful
in selecting the language at an utterance. Things that must be considered in the utterances is
regarding the status and social distance opponent (Rokhman, 2005). Social status is associated
with power, level of education, wealth, descent, and age. While social distance related to the
level of intimacy between speaker and opponent. This study used qualitative methods with an
ethnographic approach. This ethnographic approach involves a writer with Kampung Durian
community. The writer was involved in the daily activities of residents, observing, interviewing
informants, as well as ask questions about culture and language (Spradley, 2007:3). There are
two kinds of data in this study, the primary data in the form of speech or the verbal utterances
of some domain of speech, and secondary data that contains information on the results of
interviews with informants
