Illuminating distinctive cultural-linguistic practices in Palembangnese humour and directives in Indonesia

This paper explores distinctive cultural-linguistic practices in Palembangnese humour and directives. It reports on one aspect of a larger study that explores Palembangnese humour, culture, community, and institution in Indonesia. Palembangnese is a language spoken in Palembang city, South Sumatera, Indonesia that often includes ‘berkelakar’ (make a joke) in daily life. Kelakar is a noun in Palembangnese, interpreted as a joke and defined as words that are funny to make people laugh or happy. This paper argues that Palembangnese directives and humour are commonly misunderstood because non-Palembangnese people do not understand the cultural background and the context of the utterances. Palembangnese humour and the role of directives are founded in the combination of indigenous and Islamic cultures. This mixed-method study uses discourse analysis of electronic and print media in the city of Palembang, specifically Kelakar Bethook Palembangnese humour (KB data sets), Ceramah Islamic speeches (IS data sets) and Cerito Mang Juhai Uncle Juhai stories (JS data sets) to explore Palembangnese humour and directives. In doing so, it promotes wider awareness of how Palembangnese humour builds community and extends the limited research on the Palembang speech community

Teasing, jokes and directives in Cerito Mang Juhai Uncle Juhai stories : a discourse analysis of humorous texts in Palembang Malay

This paper discusses teasing, jokes and directives in ten written Uncle Juhai stories (Cerito Mang Juhai) in Palembang Malay in Indonesia. Palembang Malay is one of the local languages in Indonesia, hereafter referred to as Palembangnese. Uncle Juhai stories are popular texts in Palembang City and are widely read because they are published in one of the city’s major newspapers. The figure of Mang Juhai in particular is a popular mascot in Palembang [1]. This paper identifies distinct cultural-linguistic practices in the texts [2]. In highlighting these practices this research contributes to the limited literature in this area and raises interest and awareness across generations about Palembangnese humour and its role in Palembang society. This mixed-method study uses a discourse analysis approach [3] The transcripts were transcribed based on discourse transcription to show the location of laughter [4-7]. The texts were translated into English and examined by data notations and cultural explanations. The theory of affective face and affiliation alignment [8] informed the analysis. The results show practices that are distinctive to Palembangnese humour. The practices of kelakar (jokes), teasing and directives occur frequently in Uncle Juhai stories. This paper asserts these humorous practices help to make Palembangnese society more cohesive because the humour and directives in the Uncle Juhai stories also represent expressions of solidarity [8]. In addition, the results depict the association of humour and directives as a sequence pattern and show the relationship of solidarity, face, and politeness in Palembangnese. In Palembangnese, native speakers promote affective face (informality) rather than competence face (formality) in building relationships in daily conversations. This paper contributes insights into Palembangnese culture and society, promotes awareness of face in Palembangnese culture and shows how humour helps to maintain Palembangnese solidarity and traditions

Linguistic politeness in Palembangnese directives in Indonesia and its implications for university teaching and learning

This paper presents a study of linguistic politeness in Palembang Malay language in Indonesia. It is a language spoken in South Sumatera, Indonesia, henceforth referred to as Palembangnese. The overall goal of this paper is to contribute to the wider literature on the use of directives. However, in particular, this paper aims to enrich the current understanding of data from linguistic politeness in Palembangnese, especially the usage of Palembangnese when the students are making directives, both in their verbal interactions with each other and with their professors or lecturers. A large number of studies have been conducted on directives in relation to politeness in different languages. However, up to now, limited research concerning the politeness and the use of directives in Palembangnese has been conducted. Twenty Indonesian students in Indonesia were recruited as participants. The participants of this study were native Palembangnese speakers in Indonesia (PSinI). This research based its argument on a corpus data elicited by means of a Palembangnese version of Written Discourse Completion Tasks (WDCTs), demographic information questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed and focused on five major politeness strategies proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978). The results of the study contribute to the increased understanding of politeness and the use of directives in Palembangnese. This present research contributes to teaching and learning in university settings by providing better understandings of the association between cultures, including beliefs and values, and politeness strategies of students from Palembangnese language backgrounds

Berkelakar and directives in Palembang Malay : the Islamic humor discourse in Indonesia

This paper identifies cultural-linguistic practices in Palembang Malay humor and directives in Islamic speech in Indonesia. Berkelakar (make a joke), as part of everyday interactions among the people of Palembang, has not previously been examined. This mixed method research, using Partington’s theory of affective face and affiliation alignment, applies discourse analysis to 10 Islamic speeches to explore Palembangnese humor and directives. Humor in the form of kelakar (jokes), puns and abbreviations and directives in the form of advice appear most frequently in the lectures and teachings on Islam. As a result, this paper raises cultural awareness and highlights the tradition of humor for the people of Palembang and for Muslim and other communities across Indonesia