Appellation in Gorontalese: An Antropolinguistics Approach towards Language and Culture in Gorontalo, Indonesia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to elaborate the appellation system in Gorontalo, Indonesia. It is focused more on language and culture in this region in terms of calling certain person with other name different from his real name seeing from Antropolinguistics approach. The results of the study show that appellation in Gorontalese is vary based on who, to whom and when it is used. It is found that appellation is used both structurally and unstructurally to greet someone which can be classified based on family relationship, profession, customs and governmential purpose, ‘pulanga’ and ‘gara’i. Appellation in Gorontalese means acknowledge or respect someone who is older, married, and important person in the government with other name instead of using his original name. Besides, the use of appellation depicts the characteristics of language and culture of Gorontalo, individual identity, profession, and the pattern of relationship and familiarity systems in its community.

Keywords: Appellation, Gorontalo, Language, Culture