Istikhorini Atika, Sudirman Wilian
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Moreover, for seasonal (in)formal greeting, an English native speaker would express greetings
such as Happy New Year, Happy Anniversary, Happy Easter, Happy birthday (to you), Marry happy
returns (of the day), and so forth. Conversely, these greeting forms above are not found in Sasak because
the Sasak society does not celebrate them. However, they hold celebrations dealing with the Muslim
traditions such as
Mulut
(Prophet Muhammad’s birthday),
Isra Miraj
(memorial prophet Muhammad’s
pilgrimage to find
sholat
commander), and two big days (
Eid al-fitr
and
Adha
). When celebrating
Mulut
and
Isra Miraj
, an addresser tends to greet by using an expression that is linked with food served at the
ceremony, for example
‘taker ruen periapan’
[how nice the meal is].
In Indonesia, the common
greetings initiated by an addresser at
Eid al-fitr
and
Adha
celebrations are
Selamat hari raya idul fitri
and
Selamat hari raya idul adha
. These forms are translated into English becomes
happy eid al-fitr
and
happy eid al-adha
. Unfortunately, there is no equivalence in Sasak. Instead, an addresser will use a
greeting form such as
telahir batin maeh
[asking for an apology].
Goffman (in Ditton, 1980) introduces greetings and leave-takings
as an access ritual which
consists of two minimum exchanges (e.g. greeting, greeting) or more. These exchanges are classified
into passing and engaging exchange or open and close relation. According to Williams (2001, p. 56),
passing exchange is an expression in which one of the two interlocutors was involved without any other
dialogues at that moment. Meanwhile, an engaging greeting concerns with some form of conversation
after the initial greeting. Thus, in Sasak, greeting is categorized into open relation or passing exchange
and leave-taking is used to close relation or engaging greeting.
Each table, after conveying passing greeting, is closed by leave-taking. According to Akindele
(in Rababa`h & Malkawi, p. 16), this leave-taking refers to valedictory greetings. The word
silaq
(polite)
or
nteh
[let’s go] is indicated as general leave-taking used by native Sasak. It always appears every time
and everywhere to close conversation in Sasak. So, it can be said that Sasak leave-taking is not
dependent on time and place.
According to Schegloff and Sacks (cited from Betholia, 2008), leave taking forms consisted of
two distinct subsections; topic-termination which functions to serve as a pre-closing statement and its
response, and a leave-taking which functions to provide a statement after a pre-closing and its response.
The leave-taking form is not tied by time; however, topic-termination or pre-closing may depend on the
time. In the evening, a native Sasak commonly uses a pre-closing such as
wah peteng ni
[it has been
late] or
wah ngebang nu isin masjid
[the time for praying has arrived] as demonstrated in Table 2.
Pragmatically, these expressions indirectly give a signal to the hearer
that it is time to end the
conversation and stop talking.
Pre-closing usually appears in certain cases in Sasak. Its function is to make leave-taking more
polite. As argued by Leech (in Wijana, 1996), the intention of using a pre-closing is to be polite. Yet,
Williams (in Wolfson, 1989: 106) says that pre-closing may be absent in leave-taking. Therefore, doing
a pre-closing is matter of choice. Moreover, leave-takings are not limited only in the word
nteh
or
silaq
,
but also there are other forms which can be utilized such as
ku-leq julu aoq
[I’m going home]. This
expression is frequently uttered when leaving someone’s house. In another occasion, the leave-taking
aku bejulu aoq, kamu bareh mudian
[I am leaving a little earlier
,
you are then] is often applied among
friends, neighbors, or acquaintances when leaving them in the market or street. And also, when two or
more persons come to someone’s house, and one of them should leave a little earlier, the expression
above can be used. Although the other forms of leave-taking above are expressed in the interaction, the
word
nteh
or
silaq
often appears to emphasize that someone will be leaving right now. So it can be
assumed that these other forms of leave takings above are flexible, they can be used as a pre-closing or
only leave-taking.