DISCOVERING THE BUGINESE CULTURAL VALUES IN BUGINESE LANGUAGE AS AN EFFORT TO THE LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

Based on the analyses above the result of the study reveals that there are seven main cultural values in Buginese language. They are: alempureng ???honesty???, amaccang ??? intellectuality???, assitinajang ???worthiness???, agettengeng ???firmness???, reso ???effort, exertion???, siri???dignity???, and warani ???bravery???. The actual meaning of each value is based on the philosophy of Buginese culture.\ud Buginese language has been less used in daily communication as an interaction tool in family domain, especially in urban areas by the educated families and those native speakers who have a very low language attitude rate. In this case, there are three factors determined the Buginese language shift i.e. education level, occupation type, and language attitude. The first plays the most significant role and the rate of Buginese language shift at urban areas is 46% while at rural areas is 25.19%. This led Buginese language into a potentially endangered one. Such a condition implies that both the researcher and the government should make a revitalization of Buginese language as an effort to the language maintenance, and a revitalization of Buginese cultural values as an effort to the cultural values preservation.ABSTRACT\ud Indonesia is said to be the second-ranked state based on the total number of its local languages. Despite its rank, we never realize that a great number of languages in Indonesia are at risk of endangerment. Buginese language, for example, has become a means of communication and interaction tool by most people in South Sulawesi. However, it has been less used by its urban certain speakers that led it into a language shift. It means that the Buginese cultural values is also at risk. Therefore, this study aimed at (1) discovering the most prominent cultural values in Buginese language, and (2) disclosing how the Buginese language is used nowadays.\ud In order to make these aims achievable, this study applied sociolinguistic approach. The method used was qualitative-quantitative descriptive method. Whereas, the population was all Buginese sentences either written or spoken forms especially for the first aim of this study, and all native speakers of Buginese language for the second aim. The sample for the first aim was taken purposively while the second one was selected using block area technique. \ud The result of the study reveals that (1) there are seven main cultural values in Buginese language. They are: alempureng ???honesty???, amaccang ??? intellectuality???, assitinajang ???worthiness???, agettengeng ???firmness???, reso ???effort, exertion???, siri???dignity???, and warani ???bravery???. The actual meaning of each value is based on the philosophy of Buginese culture, (2) Buginese language has been less used in daily communication as an interaction tool in family domain. In this case, there are three factors determined the Buginese language shift i.e. education level, occupation type, and language attitude. The first plays the most significant role, and the rate of Buginese language shift at urban areas is 46% while at rural areas is 25.19%. This led Buginese language into a potentially endangered one. Such a condition implies that both the researcher and the government should make a revitalization of Buginese language as an effort to the language maintenance, and a revitalization of Buginese cultural values as an effort to the cultural values preservation.\ud Key words: Buginese cultural values, language use, language maintenance