Identity Representation and Linguistics Construction on Odonym in Palembang City: An Onomastic Study

Abstract

Palembang is closely associated with its historical past, dating back to the Srivijaya Kingdom. Historically, the Srivijaya Kingdom rise to prominence was driven by the vital role of rivers in transportation, economic development, and the spread of religion. However, over time, many rivers have been covered, converted, or completely disappeared from the city’s physical landscape. However, street names, or odonyms come from tributaries name, can represent the identity of the Palembang community. This situation prompted this study to document street, lane, and alley names derived from tributaries in Palembang using an onomastic study approach. This is because river names are important from both linguistic and historical perspectives. This study aims to explore the dominant meaning and form of odonyms in street, lane and alley names derived from tributaries in Palembang. Furthermore, this study also aims to reveal the representation of the identity of the Palembang community through their odonyms. The research method used a qualitative method with data collection techniques in the form of interviews with 10 informants representing various community stakeholders to explore their lexical meaning and linguistic construction. This study analyzes 44 odonyms in Palembang City, South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The data source for the odonyms is taken from the names of rivers recorded on the Palembang City map in 1922. The data is analyzed using a semantic approach for identity representation and a morphological approach for linguistic construction. In semantic analysis, odonyms are interpreted etymologically, while morphological analysis includes zero derivation and affixation. The results show that the dominant etymological meaning of odonyms in Palembang is the category of plants, history, rivers, and geographical conditions. In addition, there are nine odonyms formed through the zero-derivation process, namely Gang Rengas, Lorong Gayam, Lorong Manggis, Lorong Sawah, Lorong Palembang, Lorong Sintren, Jalan Blabak Jalan Mahameru and Jalan Sekanak. For affixation construction, odonyms in Palembang City have affixes in the suffix -an, confix ke-an/pe-an and there is no prefix attested. This shows that the representation of identity from the community is more inclined towards maritime with the socio-economic practices of coastal communities.