SWEARING EXPRESSIONS IN MBOJO LANGUAGE

ABSRACT

This paper aims at describing the forms, meaning and references of swearing expressions used in Mbojo language and to find out the dominant type of swearing are used in Mbojo language. The data were collected from the Mbojo native speaker. The system of swearing expression in Mbojo languages can be grouped into: conditions, animals, wicked creatures, nouns, parts of human body, kinship, activities and professions. Those are regards to their references, mainly refer to mental state, things which are prohibited by religion, unlucky situation, things which are nauseous, abnormality.

Keyword: swearing expressions, forms, meaning, references

INTRODUCTION

In communication, people often have different opinions or experience misunderstanding. In addition to rude words or sentences or smooth sarcasm, different kinds of swearing words may be used to express their unhappiness or annoying feeling toward the situation being faced. Those who were addressed with the swearing expressions are normally felt hurt themselves. However, the ones who use them,  such expressions are the tools to free themselves from any forms and situations that make themselves unhappy though they do not reject the fact that the use of swearing expressions are to admire and  create friendly  talk (Budasi 2013).

In Indonesian contact, the studies about swearing expressions are rarely done. So far,   three studies were found focusing on this topic. Two studies on swearing words in Javanese were done by Sudaryanto et al. (1982) and Saptono (2000).  In these two studies several forms of swearing words in the forms of nouns or noun phrases, adjectives or adjective phrases, and interjection in Javanese were identified.  Similar study in Indonesian language was done by Wijana (2004). According to Wijana (in Budasi: 2013), syntactically, the swearing expressions in Indonesian mostly place dependent clauses and their distributions are prior or after independent clauses. Wijana states that swearing expressions in Indonesian can take the forms of words: basic and inflectional, phrases, and clauses. He adds that with regard to their references, the swearing expressions in Indonesian mainly refer to mental state or unlucky situation, animal, devil, bad things, parts of human body, kinship terms, sexual activities, and profession.

The diglosic situation in Indonesia may ease the research on the comparison of swearing expressions to be done between  local and Indonesian Language. The Dompunese speakers who use these expressions normally in the situation whenever they are quarrelling to each other. So far no study has been done in this field. Since no study is done on the comparison, therefore, it is great challenges for the writer as a native speaker of Dompunese and as the Indonesian speaker  to explore them further. The discussion in this article will be limited into two aspects: the forms of swearing expressions and their references. This study is important to be done to enrich the different forms of  linguistic studies on Mbojo language and it is also expected to encourage the existence of deeper  researches on this field in other local languages in Indonesia.

Reference of Swearing Expression in Dompunese

Generally, words in language can be grouped into referential and non referential words. The first type is the one which has reference. Generally, the words in the first type can have some potential to fill syntactical functions in sentences, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. So they are called content word, whereas the second type  is the one which has no reference.  The words in the second types help other words in sentences to run their functions, so they are called functional words.  Prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections belong to this type. The system of swearing expressions in Mbojo language can be grouped into: condition, animal, noun, parts of human body, kinship relationship, devil, activities, and profession. The references in Balinese are found the same as in Indonesian (see Wijana in Budasi, 2013).  The use of the references can be seen in the remaining sections.

Condition

To swear in Dompunese, words that show conditions are lingual units which are mostly used.  There are three things that can possibly be  related to unhappy conditions: (1) the mental conditions,  such as: sampula ‘stupid’, ringu ‘mad’, soa‘crazy’; (2) the conditions which are hope something bad will happen to the receiver, such as: madepra (you will die); (3) the conditions which are use the antonym to expressing : caru ium ‘awesom but its mean contrast’, heba ‘great’, and ti wa’u kaim “what amazing it is”

(1a)  Sampula au ku ngomi ke, kone ede ti loam

                 ’What stupit are you, only that thing that you can’t’

            (2a) Madepra nggomi re ti wara au loam

                  ‘you will die, nothing you can do’

            (3a) Heba ja ngomi, tiwara dou ma loa ngoa ra tei

                  ‘what a great are you, no one can give you sugestion’

Animal

The uses of lingual units whose references are animal are metaphoric in character. It means that only the characteristics of certain animals which posses similarity to someone are directed as the points of the swearing. In that case, not all names of animal can be used for the facilities of swearing in using a language. Based on the data obtained in this study, animals selected as swearing expressions in Dompunese are the ones which posses certain characters such as abominating (in Indonesian menjijikan): Lako ‘dog’, bote ‘Monkey’ or caci ‘worm’. If the animal caharacters are used as swearing expressions, they are addressed to humanbeings.

(1b) di ma ncao bune lako mpa ngomi doho ke.

                 ‘you are always fighting like a dogs’.

            (2b) to loa midi bune caci nggomike

                  ‘You cannot be quite, you like a worm’

Wicked creatures ‘mahluk jahat’

In Dompunese there are same wicked creatures words which are used to state the swearing expression. The words are:  henca ‘gosh’, nggea ‘witch’ They are all devils which are believed to disturb the life of Dompunese. See the following examples:

(1c) isi pahum henca

                 ‘your face like a gosh (look so bad when angry)’

(2c) sara si ngomi ma ngea ni

                 ‘you are a witch’

Nouns

In Dompunese, the names of goods which are normally used to state swearing expressions are related to the badness of their references, such as  the bad smell  ta’i lako ‘dog’waste’, lohi lako ‘dog puke’ as the examples:

(1d) ne’e kaheba weki ta’i lako

                 ‘he feels like a super, what a dog waste he is’.

(2d) bune lohi lako iu ku

      ‘the taste like dog’s puke’

Parts of Human Body

The parts of human body which are normally used to express swearing words are the ones related to sexual activities. The reason is that the activity show personal characters and in Mbojo language it is prohibited to be used openly in a conversation, except in a certain forum. The basic nouns  re’e ‘dick’ or  ‘penis’, omba ‘vagina’,or isi noi “the part of vagina in the midle’ belong to this type of reference.

(1e) ipi ja kadi isi noim ti kone loa midi di uma

       ‘Your part of vagina was itchy, that why you cannot stay at home’

(2e) kadi ombam hako kaim rahi dou

      ‘your vagina was itchy, that why you tease other husband’

(3e) kaceim re’e amam ke sa bre pa neem karawi

      ‘do you think this is your father dick and you do what you want’

The other parts of the body which are often used  to swear in Dompunese are: isi mada ‘eyes’, iti tutam ‘ your brain’,  fikom ‘ your ears’, iti tutam ‘your brain’, wale asa ‘big mounth’ belong to this type the words are  used to blame somebody who cannot make use of his or her parts of his or her body properly,  so he or she makes mistake or does something again normality. See the following examples:

(4e) ta’ be isi madam, da eda kaim sarowan ta tando re

       ‘Where is your eyes, you cannot see your pants in front of you’

(5e) ti wara fikom da ringa kaim ou ba nahu akanden wa’u re

       ‘You do not have ears, you did not hear that I call you’

(6e) ta be wi’i kaim iti tutam da loa loa ngge’em

       ‘Where you take your brain so you cannot understand this’

Kinship

In Dompunese, a number of kinship words such as: ompu ‘grand father’, wa’i ‘grand mother’ dae/ ama ‘father’, and ina ‘mother’ are related to persons who are respected and usually teach or share something good to their generation. The words are considered ‘taboo’ whenever they are used in inappropriate contexts or situations. However to express unhappiness or distresses or to swear to the interlocutor(s) in a communication, Dompunese speakers often use the kinship words with clitics-em ‘your’. The examples follows:

(1f) kaceim ompum

      ‘Do you think this is your grandfather has?’

(2f) teib ba inam

      ‘it is teach by your mother?’

(3f) ngoa amam ka ni

      ‘tell your father’

Activities

Some activities in the forms of hard and rude manners, like: ngahara ‘eat it!’, topa ‘slap’, tonda ‘stampede’,  tota ‘mince’  are often expressed by Dompunese speakers whenever they get angry to someone. Semantically, the expressions are more on frightening statements expressed by the speakers when they get up set to someone rather than doing the real actions. The examples of use of the expressions  can be seen as follows:

(1g)Ngahara, Mboto nuntu ngomi re

       ‘Eat it. Don’t speak too much’

(2g) topa pa ba nahu wati ka de’e di ngahi

       ‘i will slap you, you did not respond my interruption’

(3g) tota ba dou ke

       ‘mince by other’

Professions

Someone’s profession, especially the ones categorized as not good professions which are prohibited in environments, are often used by Dompunese speakers in swearing or expressing their distresses. The professions include: dou mpanga ‘thief’, sunda (prostitude). see examples; (78-80)

(1h) mpanga ra ngomi re!

      ‘just steal other has!’

(2h) lao sunda ra

       ‘just go for prostitude’

CONCLUSIONS

To express their feeling of unhappiness and react to various linguistic phenomena the Dompunese speakers usually use swearing word. there are eight things which are often made as the points of swearing expressions. The eight points include: (1) Activities, (2) Kinship, (3) Parts of Human Body, (4)  Nouns, (5) Wicked creatures ‘mahluk jahat’ (6) Animal (7) Condition and (8) Professions.  After collect the data about swearing in Mbojo language, the writer can conclude that the swearing words in Mojo language dominantly use action words as their express in swearing than other (see the appendix).

Reference

Budasi, I Gede. 2013. Comparison Of Swearing Expressions In Indonesian And Balinese Language. Bali: Ganesha University of Education Singaraja

Appendix

1.      Activities

·         Ngaha ra (eat it)

·          tota ba douuu (mince by other)

·         Tongge ba dou/ tongge ba dou rona wo'o na (wood hanging in the neck by other)

·         Pepa jara belanda (kick by the Netherland horse)

·         tongge runca ba dou (wood hanging in the neck and stabbed by other)

·         Tota tongge rase ba dou (chopped, wood hanging in the neck and eaten by other)

·         Rase ba dou (eaten by other)

·         Runca ba dou (stabbed by other)

·         Lohi raam (vomiting of blood)

·         Haba ba dou (stabbed by other)

·         La tota kelo ba dou (chopped, strangle other)

·         Nga’i loki inam (fuck your mother backside)

·         Nga’i da'omba inam (fuck your mother vagina)

·         Tota kambuja ba dou (chopped until crash by other)

·         Ngai balako (fuck by the dog)

·         Ngai ba henca (fuck by the gosh)

·         Ngai ba dou serasa ombamu re (fuck by all the people your vagina)

·         La nggai canca ba dou (fuck until crash by other)

·         Nga'irunca dou inam (your mother fuck by other)

·         Nga'i ba jara (fuck by the horse)

·         Tonda (stampede)

·         Runca (stabbed)

·         Ngoa amam (tell your father)

·         Ngoa inam (tell your mother)

·         Ngoa ompum (tel your grand father)

2.      Kinship

·         Ompum (your grandfather)

·         Waim  (your grandmother)

·         Amam (your father)

·         Imam (your mother)

·         Ndo’im (your)

·         Ba bendem (your female ancestor )

·         Ba boam (your male ancestor)

·         Anak lako (dog’s children)

·         Anak henca (gosh children)

3.      Parts of Human Body

·         Re’e (penis)

·         Omba (vagina)

·         Isi naram (your face)

·         Isi madam (your eyes)

·         Ilu (nose)

·         Loki (backside)

·         Pono (vagina)

·         Re’e (dick)

·         Isi noim (your middle of vagina)

·         Iti tuta (brain)

·         Mpinga fiko (deaf)

·         Wale asa (wide mouth)

·         Mpena (sharp nose)

4.      Nouns

·         Ta’i lako (dog’s shit)

·         Lohi lako (dog’s puke)

·         Paku roka (Rusty nails)

·         Cedo ngoru ( bad smell spoon,

·         Wisi Suju sate (calf skewers)

5.      Wicked creatures ‘mahluk jahat’

·         Henca (gosh)

·         Ngea (gosh who always possess human body)

·         Setan (devil)

6.      Animal

·         Lako (Dog)

·         Janga Balanda ( Netherland chicken)

·         Wawi (Pig)

·         Bote (Monkey)

·         Caci (Worm)

·         Jara (Horse)

·         Mba’i (Crocodile)

·         Kandoci (Mice)

·         Karawo (Mouse)

7.      Condition

·         Ringu (crazy)

·         Kodi (itchy)

·         Sampula (stupid)

·         Kurangaja (brash)

·         Made pra (die)

·         Naram bote (face like monkey)

·         Soa (crazy)

·          Iso (possessed)

·         Da tupa (brash)

·         Da husu (always do a bad things)

·         Da maja (embarrassed)

·         Da mbalu (embarrassed)

·         Da bae (naugty)

·         Da ndea (always do a bad things)

8.      Professions 

·         Sunda (prostitute)

·         Mpangga (thief)

·         Nggea (witch)

·         Banci (sissy)