Family Language

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.