The existence of Fauna Lexicons in the Elefu’s Song Lyrics: Ecolinguistics Study

Abstract

This research is motivated by extinction of local languages, especially the South Nias language as one of the local languages ​​in Indonesia which is still used at present. The purpose of this study was to describe the existence of the fauna lexicon and to analyze the implied meanings of the Nias language song lyrics entitled Elefu. The source of data used is the document precisely lyrics of the Nias language song entitled ‘Elefu’. This study is designed in qualitative approach through content analysis technique. The results show that the existence of fauna lexicon in the 'Elefu' song lyrics is an eco-text that records local language, especially South Nias language which describes the activity or dependency relationship between nature and Nias communities. Hence, based on the results of the analysis, there are 3 animal classifications, namely those that live in freshwater/sea, and land such as 'Sökha' (wild boar), Katömbi/Hambae (water crab), elefu (freshwater fish), belida fish, ‘toda’ swordfish and some are even used as pets such as 'mao' (cat). Through this analysis, it can be concluded preservation of local language can be done through text such as song lyrics, poetry, and proverb. This preservation is not only just documentation, it should be used as teaching material for language development for the whole community. In addition, researcher also invites people to be more sensitive to the preservation of local languages because this is the main source of knowledge and this is very beneficial for future generations.