The Eye of Endangered Languages in North Celebes: A Case Study of Mongondow Tribe’s Multilingualism
Department of Linguistics, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
North Celebes is a small province in north peninsula Celebes Island, Indonesia. It is located in a unique topography that has numerous ethnic, culture, and indigenous language. In this case, Blust (1951) showed that every tribe in North Celebes has its own indigenous language, which is namely Sangir, Tonsea, Tombulu, Tondano, Totemboan, Tonsawang, Mongondow, Lolak, Ponosakan, Bantik, Bintauna, and Kaidipang. Due this diversity, North Celebes can be one of a potential conflict area. However, by the presence Indonesian language as a national language, North Celebes is also blessed by the presence of Malay-Manado language as a unifying language among tribes in northern Sulawesi. In order that, this study is intended to investigate the multilingualism in Mongondow tribe, especially in Bolaang Mongondow regency. Then, this study is also attempted the implications of this condition through social and cultural areas. As a descriptive and qualitative study, this study involves questionnaire and interview techniques through Bolaang Mongondow tribe as the object of research. In fact, research on languages in northern Celebes has been done by previous researchers (Wilken & Schwarz, 1869; Adriani, 1925; Dunnebier, 1951; Usup, 1981), but no one has examined the multilingual condition of Bolaang Mongondow tribe as an object of research. In order that, this study found that the use of ethnic language is limited and competitive with other lingua franca in North Celebes. Hence, this study provided a description about language used in Bolaang Mongondow, and their impacts through the development of the indigenous language of Mongondow tribe.