Variation of the Meaning of Front Syllable Reduplication in Bajo Language: A Linguistic Anthropological Approach

Bajo tribe is known to possess adequate knowledge and experience of the sea, passed from one generation to another. The knowledge, which differed from other tribes, was stored in the lexicons, such as reduplication. Therefore, this research aimed to evaluate the variations associated with the reduplication of the initial syllable of Bajo. The method used was linguistic anthropology with data collected from three Bajo fishing villages in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Province, Indonesia, through observation and in-depth interviews with four key informants and 10 accompanying informants in 2022 and 2023. The data were analyzed with a linguistic anthropological method, namely domain analysis, taxonomy, and interpretation of meaning. The result showed 24 reduplications, which used imperfect repetition with two initial syllables originating from 24 primary lexemes. The reduplication led to the degradation of meaning from specific and general to abstract and specific, respectively. Physical degradation of meaning occurred in nouns related to fishing gear and target biota. The degradation led to the abstraction of meaning related to the sea and coastal plants in secondary lexemes. Reduplication in primary lexemes of verb, adjective, and adverbial categories experience degradation of meaning in a narrowing pattern from abstract/general to more specific connotations.