Eco-Linguistics Of Marine Ritual Lexicons In Acehnese Speech Community

Abstract

This study is aimed to discover the various eco-lexicons used in marine ritual known as khanduri la’ot through eco-linguistic perspectives. This ritual was carried out by Acehnese community in Aceh Province, located on Sumatera Archipelago, Indonesia. The primary goals of this study are to identify the form and category of the eco-lexicons and their entities connected to the three dimensions of social praxis of the locale. This study employs a qualitative research method. The main data were gathered from the observation when the ritual was going on, and supporting data were from the in depth interview with the chief commander of the sea, named Panglima La’ot. The data were taken from the preparation and performing stages. The data then were analysed by adopting all the eco-lexicons available to grammatical structure of morphological and syntactical micro level to reveal their form and category. The dimensions of the eco-lexicons were covered by referring them to the cultural and contextual meaning of each lexicon. The results demonstrate that marine ritual khanduri la’ot contains bases and word formed eco-lexicons including affixation, reduplication and composition. The categories existed are nouns, verbs and adjectives. Entities from eco-lexicon used in the ritual refer to biological, sociological as well as ideological spiritual dimensions. The findings indicate that the ancestral ritual is rich in cultural significance, indigenous knowledge, and local wisdom, and is also connected to the local marine environment.