Linguistic Etiquette of Serving Food in Local Wisdom of Indonesia’s Manjau Maju Lampung Tribe Society

Abstract

This study aimed to identify linguistic etiquette for serving food at manjau maju events by reviewing speech rules, such as what matters are discussed, how to talk about serving food, when it is someone’s turn to speak, when to be silent, what variety of languages are used, who the speaker is, and to whom the conversation was addressed. The study used a sociopragmatic approach. The results of the study show that to serve food (kekuk), the speaker must comply with the stages of speech, namely knowing the customary title (adok) their speech partner bears, asking permission to serve food, and inviting the speech partner to enjoy the food. In addition to the stages, the contents of the speech are also conveyed through linguistic elements that have signs of politeness and a variety of local people’s refined language. The speaker who asks permission to serve food is an unmarried man. Meanwhile, those who accept the conversation are women who can speak according to the rules of the local community and generally hold the old customary title (adok tuha). These findings complement the existing body of linguistic etiquette literature.

Keywords

• linguistic etiquette
• local wisdom
• manjau maju
• politeness
• sociopragmatics