Paper
The Use of Taboo Words
In Gorontalo Society
By:
RamlanPakaya
321
410 016
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
LETTER AND CULTURE FACULTY
GORONTALO STATE UNIVERSITY
UNIT I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Human
needs to be communicated with other people in order to make a good relationship
in the society; this is as the implementation of human creature. To be
communicated, of course a tool of communication is needed. A very perfect tool
that can be used is language. By using language, all of the expression from the
idea can be represented well.
In
communication, of course there will be a law of the way to express the idea. In
order for expressing the idea, a speaker should aware the result of the
language that will be uttered whether it is going to have a good interpretation
of the interlocutory or not. Sometimes a word shall have a very implied meaning
from the literal meaning. By this case, the speaker must know all of the
interpretation meaning in every region of society before uttering the specific
word.
1.2 Research Problem
- What is taboo?
- What are kinds of taboo?
1.3 Research Objective
- To describe what taboo is.
- To identify the kinds of taboo.
UNIT
II
THEORETICAL
BASED
2.1
The Definition of Taboo
Frieda (2011) stated that the concept of
taboo that is used until now was the adoption from the branch of anthropologic
study. This concept was derived from western experts in Tonga (Polynesian
culture) and the cultures of archipelago were included into this group.
Furthermore, she explored the concepts
of Mead (cited in Apte, 1998:986) one of the concepts of taboo in Polynesian
cultures is a prohibition about everything that will not cause punishments more
then desire and the embarrassing condition that occur as the impact of breaking
the rigorous limitation of custom.
In another hand, Matthews (1997:371) in
Frieda (2011) stated that taboo is the words which is known by the speaker, but
is avoided in a part or all of the form or context in a discourse because the
reasons of religion, propriety, and politeness.
Fromkin and Rodman (1983:266) in
Ohoiwutun (2002), states that taboo is the word that forbidden to be used, at
least not to be used in a courteous society.
Based on psychological motivation
(Nanoazza, 2008), taboo words occurred at least 3 ways, they are: because of
something that is frightening (taboo of fear), something that makes feeling to
be worried (taboo of delicacy), and something that is impolite and
inappropriate (taboo of propriety). This paper focuses on the two kinds of
taboo. They are taboo of fear and taboo of propriety in the society of
Gorontalo.
By those definitions above, it can be
concluded that taboo one or more than one word that is known by the society but
is avoided to be spoke because of some reason. Some of the reason may be
various according to the society.
UNIT
III
RESEARCH
METHODOLGY
3.1 Research Method
Research Method This research used
qualitative method In order to uncover and find the accurate explanation about
the cases. Bogdan dan
Taylor (Moleong, 2007:3) suggest that
qualitative methodology is a research procedure which result the descriptive
data such as written words and also the utterance of people and their attitude
that is observed.
3.2
Data and Source of Data
In
this paper, the data was collected from some sources. The major data come from
some the student that always swearing. The second source is the people that is
respected in the village and understand the history of some word.
UNIT IV
DATA ANALYSIS
1.
Taboo of fear
This taboo is all about belief in a power
which can affect human life or human’s livelihood. Some of the people in
Gorontalo society avoid uttering the name of devil because they afraid that the
devil will come and disturb the society. There are some examples of name that
is avoided to be uttered in Gorontalo society.
- Tahede
In Gorontalo society, this name is known
as the name of a big devil. In Limboto, the people never utter this name
because they believe that after uttered this name, at the night the devil will
come and disturb every child there. It has been proved that after this name was
uttered, many children cried at the midnight. For everyone who does not know
the meaning of this name, they will use this name as the swearing.
- Ponggo lo huta
This is a name of devil in Gorontalo
which can fly fastest and eat the human’s liver. In Imana village, the people
there believed that, if they utter this name at the night, the devil will
suddenly appear and kill that human. Until now, everyone is not allowed to
utter his name.
- “Yinulohuta” at night
In Gorontalo society, the people who are
seller (kios) will not sell the kerosene at night. This is related to the
mythos that selling kerosene at night will affect the fortune of their goods.
They took the illustration that when selling kerosene at night, their business
will fall down like burned unintentionally. They prefer to sale at night by
using the name “water” as the implied meaning of kerosene.
- “Razor blade” at night
Like kerosene case, razor blade will not
be sold at night. This also related to the mythos that selling the razor blade
at night will affect the fortune or the goods which is selling. They believed
that selling the razor blade will cut their subsistence.
2.
Taboo of propriety
This taboo is related to sex, parts and
functions of the certain body, and also some of swearing words that are
impolite and inappropriate to be uttered. Sometimes this taboo is used as the
distinguishing the human activity from animal activity.
a.
Huangango
Huangango is a Gorontalo word that means
a hole of the mouth. This is a part of the body. If seemed to the literal
meaning of the word, there is no impolite meaning from that word. In Gorontalo
society, this word is taboo to be uttered and sometimes it is used as the
swearing words.
According to Ipa (2012) Huangango is a
swearing word that means the hole of vagina. The specific vagina goes to whose
mother does the speaker swear to. In Indonesian, the meaning of Huangango is
“Lubang Mulut” and the word “Mulut” refers to “Mulut Rahim”. By adding the word
mu which means that the
swearing goes to the interlocutory, so, that is the way, why this kinds of
swear will affect adults emotion instead of adolescent, because adults
understand the exact meaning of that word. Most of the adolescent who always
utter this word only know the literal meaning of the word, and this word goes
to the liar.
b.
Huange?emu
In literal meaning, huange?e means the
hole of the armpit. This word is actually a kind of swearing. According to Ipa
(2012) Huange?e means the hole of vagina. The swearing specifically goes to
whose vagina the speaker swear to. There are some facts why huange?e become the
implied meaning of vagina. Firstly, armpit has hair/fur. This is similar with
vagina which has hair/fur. Secondly, armpit has a shape like hole. This is
similar with vagina which has a hole. Thirdly, sometimes armpit will be wet.
This is similar with vagina which will be wet in some condition. And the last
fact is armpit sometimes has a bad smell.
Some people use this word without
knowing the exact meaning of the word. For the people who know the exact
meaning of the word huange?emu, they will avoid to use this word because this
is a very impolite word.
c.
Tapu wale
The literal meaning of the words “tapu
wale” is a meet of mouth. This word is actually a kind of swearing. Tapu walu
(daging mulut/bibir) refers to the lips of the vagina. As usual, people who
uttered these words do not know the exact meaning of the words. They just know
the literal meaning of the words only. Sometimes the word “tapu” is used to
call a friend. This term is mostly used by boys.
d.
Mongili
Mongili is a gorontalo word that means
to defecate. This word is taboo to be used in a conversation with adults or the
people who are respected. The polite form of this word is molapi taluhu which
means “buang air” in Indonesian language.
e.
Monga
Monga is a gorontalo word that means to
eat. This word is taboo in gorontalo society because monga is also used for
animal. In order to ask politely the people to have a meal to be eaten, the
sentence “toduwolo mo rijiki” is more polite instead of using the sentence
“toduwolo monga” especially for the person that is respected.
UNIT V
CLOSING
5.1 Conclusion
By the result of
research in this paper, it can be concluded that in order to express the idea,
the speaker needs to be aware about the taboo which is not allowed or impolite
according to the society’s belief or knowledge. Standing from the main purpose
of communication itself, communication aims to have a good relationship within
the people in the society. So that, misunderstanding in the use of taboo should
be reduced or even being avoid by aware the exact meaning of each word in
society.
In this paper, it can
be found some of the words that mostly avoid to be uttered in the society
because of the impoliteness and the inappropriate meaning in society. So, by
learning through this paper, hopefully the use of the word which is the implied
meaning of the swearing will not be uttered in order to avoid hurting one’s
feeling in society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ohoiwutun,
P (2002) Sociolinguistics: memahami
bahasa dalam kontels masyarakat dan kebudayaan. Jakarta: Kesaint Blanc
Frieda,
(2011) Kata-kata tabu n idiom [www]
WordPress. Available from: http://tangisanmalam-frieda.blogspot.com/2011/05/kata-kata-tabu-n-idiom.html
[Accessed: (21:40) 14/06/12]
