Maintaining Karonese Ecolexicon through Traditional Game Cengkah-cengkah

A language and its environment are so dependent one another that maintaining a language also means maintaining its environment. One of the purposes of studying a language and its environment is to maintain the lexicon associated with the ecological environment, known as ecolexicon. This paper aims at maintaining Karonese ecolexicon through cengkah-cengkah, one of the Karonese traditional games in Lau Kambing and Turangi, the villages located in Salapian Sub-District, Langkat Regency, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The study was conducted based on ecolinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives. The data were the ecolexicon used in the Karonese traditional game cengkah-cengkah (both its old and new version). The data were collected using interview and document techniques. Based on the data analysis, it was found that the new version of Karonese traditional game cengkah-cengkah inserted more ecolexical items related to flora, cardinal points and land matters. Besides, most of the ecolexical items inserted in this game were the endangered ecolexicon that needed to be maintained. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that traditional games can serve as a good alternative way of language maintenance. Therefore, it is suggested to other researchers to do more studies on language maintenance involving traditional games from other regions.