Didimus Estanto T.
Student of English Letters department of Sanata Dharma University
Student from Manggarai, NTT
Family Language
Introduction
Language is the
important part of society. Language explain everything which everyone going to
tell. Language is the most media that people use to express everything in their
mind. Considering this crucial capability, language is very important to be
learned in appropriate way, because it will represent someone’s personality and
background.
A language family is a
group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the
proto-language of that family. The term 'family' reflects the tree model of
language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor
comparing languages to people in a biological family tree, or in a subsequent
modification, to species in a phylogenetic tree of evolutionary taxonomy. No
actual biological relationship between speakers is implied by the metaphor.
Estimates of the number
of living languages vary from 5,000 to 8,000, depending on the precision of
one's definition of "language", and in particular on how one classifies
dialects. The 2013 edition of Ethnologies catalogs just over 7,000 living human
languages. A "living language" is simply one that is used as the
primary form of communication of a group of people. There are also many dead
and extinct languages, as well as some that are still insufficiently studied to
be classified, or even unknown outside their respective speech communities.
To sum up, family
language in short is about how the group of people use the language according
to their own style of speaking and understanding. Family language is something
unique which happen personally in each group and create their own way of
language. Even that they use the same language, there must be a different between
one family language and the other family language.
In this article I want
to describe about my own family language. I came from Manggarai, East Nusa
Tenggara. I will explain the way my culture using the language in our own style
and our perception about how we suppose to use the language properly. I will also
explain my native language, Manggarai.
Data
The Manggarainese
language (Manggarainese: tombo Manggarai, Indonesian: bahasa Manggarai) is the
language of the Manggarainese people from the western parts of the island of
Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. In addition, there are also
some pockets of Manggarainese speakers in the village of Manggarai in Jakarta,
the capital city of Indonesia. It is the native language of more than 730,000
people, based on statistical data reported by Central Agency on Statistics
(BPS) in 2009 for the province of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The data
include statistics for the population of the Regency of “Greater Manggarai” on
Flores Island, which consists of three districts: Manggarai district, West Manggarai
district, and East Manggarai district. The Manggarainese language is part of
the Austronesian family, and is therefore related to Indonesian and other Malay
varieties. Most speakers of Manggarainese also speak Indonesian for official
and commercial purposes and to communicate with non-Manggarainese Indonesians.
The Manggarai are
located in the western portion of Flores Island in the province of Nusa
Tenggara. They are close neighbors to the Bima and the Timorese. Their
language, which is also called Manggarai, is a member of the Austronesian
language family and has 47 sub-dialects. Little is known concerning the
specific lifestyle and culture of the Manggarai; however, it is reasonably
assumed that they are fairly typical of the other ethnic groups living in Nusa
Tenggara.
The island of Flores is
extremely mountainous, with peaks that rise more than 7,000 feet and a number
of active volcanoes. The interior of the island is heavily forested, and the
few rivers that traverse the island are not navigable. The climate is tropical,
with little daily variation in temperature. There is, however, a marked
division between wet and dry seasons.
Manggarai descent is
traced through both the males and females, and the circle of kinship is divided
into various sub-groups. The center, however, is the nuclear family, composed
of a man, woman, and their children. If a Manggarai man wishes to marry, he
sends an eloquent woman to the house of the prospective bride. Acting as his
representative, she makes the marriage proposal for him in very descriptive
language. A bride-price is then paid, dependent on the social status of the
woman. After marriage, the young couple immediately establishes their own
household.
Manggarai is so
religious. Most of the people there are catholic. The Manggarai have no
Christian resources available in their own language. A great need exists for
Christian literature to be translated into their native language. Above all,
sustained intercession is necessary if the Manggarai are to come to a saving knowledge
of Christ.
Language in My Family
Table List of language in My Family
Subject
|
Languange which know
|
Language which usually use
|
Father
|
Manggarai, Indonesia.
|
Indonesia
|
Mother
|
Javanese, Manggarai, Indonesia
|
Indonesia
|
Me
|
Latin, deutch, manggarai, english, japanese, Indonesia.
|
Indonesia, English, Manggarai
|
Brother
|
Latin, deutch, manggarai, english, , Indonesia.
|
Indonesia, English, Manggarai
|
Sister
|
Indonesia, English, Manggarai
|
Indonesia, English, Manggarai
|
My family is a mixing family. My father and my mother came from different
culture. My father is Manggarainese and my mother is javanese. Live in this two cultureis
doesn’t really matter for me, because actualy i live in Ruteng, Manggarai which
My fathere home town. I live in Manggarainese’s culture and it makes me familiar with all kind of them
including the language. In my nuclear family, we usually just use Indonesian
language an sometimes there is manggarai or little english there. My brother
and I learned more language than others because we were in seminary. Having
some languages is one of the requirement there. My little sister is in
elementary school but she is in english course, so she can speak english well
too.
Examples of Language
Like I say before in
our family we usually use two kind of language, there are Manggarainese and Indonesia.
First I will explain the example of Manggarai’s language.
Name of family
Father: ema
Mother: ende
Brother: nara
Sister: weta
Aunt: inang
uncle: amang
cousin : kesa
Greet of family
Good morning: tabe gula
Good afternoon: tabe leso/
mane
Good evening: tabe wie
I: aku
You (for the older): ithe
You (for the younger): hau
He (for the older): kraeng
He (for the younger): hia
Love: momang
Example of the
sentences:
I love you: aku momang ithe
Let’s eat: mai ga hang
Good morning father: tabe gula ema.
Proverb which ususaly
my parent say to me:
White cock when you go color
cock when you return: Lalong bakong du
lako lalong rombeng du kole. This proverb means that we may born with
nothing, but we have to fight the world. We have to fill this world with
something useful and can make us happy. Especially for student, this proverb
ask us to study more, get a better knowledge and get something from school.
Just the fructiferous
trees which will be thrown: haju ata
manga wuan kad ata peke lata. This proverb want to warn us that there must
be anybody who mock us, even that we always do the best. Their mocking indicate
that we have something that they don’t have and they jealous of it.
Interpretation
According to all the
description above, Manggarainese is a group of people that really use their language well. I my
culture use it in our religion in order to make the meaning of the word come
closer to people’s heart. The next one we separate our dialect and diction to
the older generation and to the younger. Culture designed this role in order to
respect each other, respect the generation that come before us. The third is
about the proverb. Manggarai is always related to some proverb. There must a
proverb for every part of life.
Conclusions
According to all the
data that written above, i can take some main point which can represent all the
article, there are:
·
Family language is the tool which use to
express the language in our own style, based on culture, knowledge and
experience of each family.
·
Manggarai is one of Indonesia family language,
which is located in west Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.
·
Manggarainese uses their language to increase
their faith, to keep a good relation with others, to advice inter generation
and to show respectfulness between people.
·
Manggarainese is a group of people which
unite in one culture has a good family language.
Reflection
In the end of this
article I
realized that I am proud for being a part of this culture. This is a great gift
that I was born as the one of Manggarainese. I learn so many things in this
culture, in their language. Language that I use every day is not just a few of
word that I use it as much as I
like, but I got a responsibility to keep it right. I do realized that I must guaranty the next generation will
be still proud of this language. The language of my family, the language of my
next generation, my family language.