Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 7 No.1, Mei 2019 64 HOMONYM IN MERIAQ MERIKU DIALECT IN KAWO CENTRAL LOMBOK Bidarita Widiati A junior lecturer, STTL Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara Email: bidaritawidiati111@gmail.com Abstract This research is aimed at finding and describing the Homonym words in Meriaq Meriku Dialect in Kawo Central Lombok. Ambiguity may occur in interpreting the meaning in the form of homonymy because Homonym word has more than one meaning. The method which is applied here is a descriptive qualitative approach, by finding some homonym word and describing them. There are ten words in Meriaq Meriku Dialect which categorized as homonym. They are mangan [mangΛn], gigi [gIgI] , genit [gƐnit] , siku [sikƲ], paku [pΛkƲ], poto [p0t0] , sangkok [saȠgk0k], daun [dawƲn] , semen [semEn], and bau [bΛƲ]. Key Words : Homonym and Dialect Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan dan mendeskripsikan beberapa kata yang tergolong ke dalam homonim pada dialek Meriaq Meriku di Desa kawo Lombok Tengah. Ambigu sering sekali muncul dalam menafsirkan makna kata yang tergolong dalam homonim karena homonim memiliki lebih dari satu makna. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode deskriptif kualitatif dengan cara mencari kata-kata yang tergolong ke dalam homonim kemudian mendeskripsikan maknanya. Dari hasil penelitian ini, terdapat sepuluh kata dalam dialek Meriaq Meriku yang tergolong ke dalam homonim yaitu: mangan [mangΛn], gigi [gIgI] , genit [gƐnit] , siku [sikƲ], paku [pΛkƲ], poto [p0t0] , sangkok [saȠgk0k], daun [dawƲn] , semen [semEn], dan bau [bΛƲ]. Kata Kunci : Homonim dan Dialek INTRODUCTION In English even in the Indonesian language, we can find one word that has the same meaning with another word; one word that has the same spelling and pronunciation but has a different meaning; a word that has the opposite meaning to another; one word that related in meanings with others; etc. These words sometimes make the readers confuse and difficult in understanding about English text. They have to think hard to find the meaning when they read something. That is why they hardly find the idea of the texts. The same problem also appears in spoken. The difficulty in understanding the meaning comes to the listeners. Some listeners hardly find the main of the conversation because there are some words that have the same pronunciation (the same sound), but different in meaning. The ambiguity may appear and it should gain the misunderstanding from the listeners. The phenomenon above can be shown in Meriaq Meriku dialect in Kawo, Central Lombok. Meriaq Meriku dialect is a language which is spoken by a group of Lombok People who live in sub-district Pujut, Central Lombok and Kawo is a small village which is located about 4 kilometers from the sub-district. There are many words in Meriaq Meriku Dialect in Kawo which make the listeners should think hard to get the main or the meaning of a conversation when the speakers say something. The relation between words that have the same pronunciation, the same voice (sound) in this case is called a homonym. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE When discussing homonymy, we also deal with the word that has the same mailto:bidaritawidiati111@gmail.com Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 7 No.1, Mei 2019 65 spelling and pronunciation but difference in meaning. In Geddes (2005), homonym means a word with the same spelling or pronunciation as another but a difference in meaning. It means that there is one word that has the same spelling and pronunciation with another word, but they both have a different meaning. In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, whether spelled the same or not. In Wikimedia, there are many examples of homonyms in English. One of them is pair stalk (part of a plant) and stalk (follow/harass a person) and the pair left (past tense of leave) and left (opposite of right). A distinction is sometimes made between "true" homonyms, which are unrelated in origin, such as skate (glide on ice) and skate (the fish), and polysemous homonyms, or polysemes, which have a shared origin, such as mouth (of a river) and mouth (of an animal). A homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, whether spelled the same or not. A more restrictive definition sees homonyms as words that are simultaneously homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of their pronunciation) and homophones (words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of their spelling) that is to say they have the same pronunciation and spelling, but different meanings. The relationship between a set of homonyms is called homonymy (wikimedia.org). Enchantedlearning.Com also stated that homonyms (also called homophones) are words that sound like one another but have different meanings. Some homonyms are spelled the same, like bark (the sound a dog makes) and bark (the outer layer of a tree trunk). Some homonyms are spelled differently, like one (the number) and won (having been victorious). In this case, homonyms also can be called as homophones because they both have the same spelling and pronunciation but different in meaning. Sheeba and Vivekanandan (2012) the main challenges in their research are Synonym, Homonym, Hyponymy and Polysemy problems. By underlying the homonym, they state that homonym keywords are identified by comparing with hidden topic keywords. The corresponding topics name gives the context of keywords and then calculated the frequency used for extraction. The outputs of this problem are keywords and different meaning words. Ambiguity may occur in interpreting the meaning in the form of homonymy. As research conducted by Syaqifa (2012) which concern on the homonym in Sundanese language, she found some troubles in identifying homonym is also experienced by the Sundanese speaker in using Bahasa Indonesia. There are some words in Sundanese language which have two or more distinct equivalents in Bahasa Indonesia. In her research, it is found that natives Sundanese fail to use the relevant meaning of Sundanese homonym words within the Indonesian context. RESEARCH METHOD In this research, the researcher used descriptive qualitative methods. Cresswell (1998:5) states that a qualitative can be undertaken when it needs to present a detailed view of a topic. Moleong, (2010: 6) states that qualitative research is research that produces a procedure of analysis; it doesn't use a statistical procedure of analysis or the other quantitative method. Based on the theories above, the researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method, in order to find and describe the meaning of some words which are categorized as homonym in Sasak Language, especially in Meriaq Meriku Dialect which is spoken by Kawo people in Central Lombok. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_tense https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysemy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homonym Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 7 No.1, Mei 2019 66 FINDING AND DISCUSSION The homonym which the researcher took as the examples here can be categorized as homograph because they have the same spelling. Homograph means a word spelled the same as another word but with a different meaning and derived from a different root. The researcher will show the examples of homonym which are found in Meriaq Meriku dialect in Kawo Central Lombok. 1. Mangan [mangΛn] : eat (v); a tool or something that is used to chop a wood (n). In this case, when we focus on the class of word, the word mangan has the function as a verb (v) and as a noun (n). It also has two meanings; as eat and as a tool which is used by a carpenter when chopping the wood or trees. There is no relationship between eat and a tool for chopping the wood. That is why it is categorized as homonym. 2. Gigi [gigI] : tooth (n); Gear of a vehicle (n) In this homonym, gigi functions as a noun (n) which means as tooth for human and animals and also as the gear of a vehicle, e.g. motorbike, bus, car, etc. Even, gigi has two meanings here, but they both the same class as a noun (n). 3. Genit [gƐnit] : itch (adj); naughty, usually used for women (adj) Homonym is also found in the word genit which means as an itch that usually appears on the skin of human or animal caused by bacterial or irritation. In this case, it also means as naughty women who always try to give a fake love for men. In the form of the class of word, it is categorized as an adjective. 4. Siku [sikƲ] : elbow (n); architect tool to measure the corner/cone like a ruler (n); that thing (pointing something) Homonym may have two or more meanings. In the word siku, it has three meanings. The first one is meaning as elbow (n) of human. It is a part of the body. The second is as an architect tool that is usually used to measure the corner or cone like a ruler (n). The most interesting thing here is it can be meant as "that thing" when pointing something. In this case, its function as a pointer. 5. Paku [pΛkƲ] : nail (n); a kind of forest tree vegetable (n) Meaning as a nail (n) and also as a kind of forest tree vegetable (n), paku is also categorized as homonym. Even they have the same class word as a noun (n), but there is no relationship between the two meanings. 6. Poto [p0t0] : picture (n); the top of something (adj) The word poto in this case functions as a noun (n) and as an adjective (adj). As a noun, poto means a picture. While, as an adjective means the top of something, e.g.: the top of the mountain, the top of the hair, the top of a house, etc. 7. Sangkok [saȠgk0k] : chin, a part of the body (n); the front part (floor) of the house (n) The most interesting thing here is about the meaning of sangkok. They both have the same class of word as a noun (n), but they have no relationship in meaning. As chin, a part of the body and also as the front part of a house, it has nothing in relation. 8. Daun [dawƲn]: leave of a tree (n); side dish for having lunch or dinner (n) Kawo people usually call a leave of a tree as daun, the same name for the side dish when they have their lunch or dinner. When they say daun, the ambiguity appears. They will think hard about the meaning of Journal of Languages and Language Teaching, Vol. 7 No.1, Mei 2019 67 the word in order to avoid the misunderstanding in interpreting the word. 9. Semen [semEn]: kettle (n); the material mixed with sand for building a house (n) The same problem is also faced by the word semen. It means as a kettle and also as the material for building a house which is mixed with sand. They both have the same class of word as a noun (n). 10. Bau [bΛƲ] : pick something (v); can/able to (modal) The last example of homonym here is the word bau. In this case, it has two meanings; pick something and also as an ability in doing something. They both have a different class of word; as a verb and as modal. The examples above show that homonym is not only found in English. There’s also homonym in Sasak language which has the same spelling and pronunciation but different in meaning. In this case, the example of homonym in Sasak language can be also called as homophone and homograph because they have the same sound (homophone) and the same spelling (homograph). CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Conclusion Homonym means a word with the same spelling or pronunciation as another but a difference in meaning. There are many homonyms which are found in English. A homonym is not only found in English or Indonesian language. There is also homonym in Sasak language, especially in Meriaq Meriku dialect which is spoken by people in Kawo, Central Lombok. Ambiguity may occur when someone speaks the words which are categorized as homonym. The listeners should thing hard to get the meaning of the words spoken by speakers. The examples of Sasak homonym are: mangan [mangΛn], gigi [gIgI] , genit [gƐnit] , siku [sikƲ], paku [pΛkƲ], poto [p0t0] , sangkok [saȠgk0k], daun [dawƲn] , semen [semEn], and bau [bΛƲ]. Suggestion In order to maintain the language, the researcher suggests for further researchers to try to find out the homonym in other traditional languages. It will be very more funny and interesting to learn about the homonym from other languages. REFERENCES Creswell, J.W. (1998). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Designs. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Geddes, et al. 2005. Webster’s Universal Dictionary & Thesaurus. Scotland: Polskabook Websters Dictionary Moleong, Lexy J. (2010). "Metodologi Penelitian Kualitatif”. Bandung: Remaja Rosdakarya Tersedia Sheeba & Vivekanandan. 2012. Improved Unsupervised Framework For Solving Synonym, Homonym, Hyponymy & Polysemy Problems From Extracted Keywords And Identify Topics In Meeting Transcripts. India: International Journal of Computer Science, Engineering and Applications (IJCSEA) Vol.2, No.5, October 2012 Syaqifa, Riz. (2012). Ambiguity When Sundanese Homonym Is Used in Indonesian Context. 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