The Meaning of Hornbills and Sparrows in Ngaju Dayak Proverbs and their Relationship with the Culture of the Ngaju Dayak Tribe: An Ethnolinguistics Study

Abstract

The proverbs of Dayak Ngaju tribe are a form of oral culture that is a legacy of this tribe's ancestors to this day. Although, the use of them today is not as frequent as in the past. One of the unique things found in Dayak Ngaju proverbs is that there are quite a lot of proverbs that compare hornbills and sparrows. Furthermore, 8 proverbs were found which compared hornbills and sparrows. The hornbill is a bird that is a symbol of the Dayak tribe as a whole, while the sparrow itself is a bird that is commonly found in Indonesia. Using ethnolinguistic studies with qualitative descriptive approach, the writer found there are 5 meanings behind proverbs that compare these two birds, including: (1) Describe things that are not equal; (2) Describes doing something in vain; (3) Describes things that are unusual or unreasonable to do; (4) Depicts people who are not as they appear visually; (5) Describes people who talk a lot but don't match the results of their work.