The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People - Smithsonian Institution ...

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(even at Wasile)—even though no "hearth" villages use Kao as
a first language, while others relegate it to subordination.
(Tobelo, at least, has "heardi" villages all of whose inhabitants
speak Tobelo.)
Thus Wasile (and also, perhaps, the smaU city of Tobelo,
itself) may be considered extremes, in which the use of Tobelo
is limited to a subordinate role even in the Tobelo communities.
At the opposite extreme, upriver Dodaga or otiier Tugutil
hamlets consist only of monolingual Tobelo speakers. Other
vUlages can not simply be ranked between the extremes like
numbers on a number line. At Pasir Putih (Jatiolo District), the
center of die "Dodinga dialect," almost everyone in die village
of about 450 resident population (1979) spoke (minimaUy)
both Tobelo and Indonesian. The one person who (in July
1979) neitiier spoke nor understood Tobelo is die wife of a local
resident who very recendy brought her back to live in tiiis
village, and die 25 otiiers who understand but speak rather
halting Tobelo are in all cases recent migrants, or apparendy
less linguistically gifted people who migrated to the village as
adults but whose chUdren all speak fluent Tobelo though their
parents' speech remains halting. Sangir, Tabaru, and otiier
immigrants have learned to speak Tobelo, and fuU siblings who
have grown up togetiier in this vdlage, though chUdren of
Sangir parents (for example), speak Tobelo among tiiemselves.
Such adjustments of immigrants to what we may call die
"host" language is common in the North Moluccas: small
groups of immigrants arriving in the territory of another ethnic
group consider tiiemselves "guests" in the area (bound to some
extent, for example, by local customary law), and accommodate
tiiemselves to die host language upon intermarriage.
A greater variety of individual adjustments to bUingualism
and multtiingualism could undoubtedly be documented by
considering otiier viUages, yet the state of linguistic usage and
competence illustrated here shows how complicated the
necessary task of documenting the distribution of North
Moluccan ethnic groups and local languages will be.
2.1.4 The In-law Name Taboo and Its Practical Effects
Anotiier sociolinguistic phenomenon that may affect folk
classification is the Tobelo customary prohibition against
saying the names, or words containing the names (or certain
parts of the names), of "in-laws" (moyoka). Certainly this
in-law name taboo affects the ability of individual Tobelo to
pronounce the names of local fauna and flora in some contexts.
It is also credited by the Tobelo themselves as the cause for
some synonymy in their language. This phenomenon is
partially related to the historically strong presence of many
languages in this area (discussed above), because those other
languages provide options to the use of Tobelo words that must
be avoided. "In-laws" (moyoka) include the spouses of one's
close blood relatives in one's own or descending generations
and the close blood relatives of one's spouse.
The Tobelo usually shorten personal names to either one or
two syllables, or may shorten or lengtiien diem to a three
syUable (C)Vj(C)V2CV2 pattern. For example, Yohanis (official
name used on documents, formal occasions, etc.) —> Hdnihi
or Anis or Anihi; Pinina, given a simtiar nickname Pondso ->
Pondco -> Oco; Sdul -> Aulu. All forms of these transformations
are prohibited in die speech of Yohanis's or Penina's or
Saul's in-laws. Also, unlike die examples given here, many
nicknames have no phonological relation to "official" names.
They may instead be given to commemorate events surrounding
die individual's birth, or in memory of a relative who died
not long before his namesake was born (see Fortgens, 1911).
These nicknames, too, may be shortened or lengthened like
personal names.
It is as if, in English, my spouse's sister were named "Ann,"
and consequendy I would, under most circumstances, avoid
saying "Ann" and also such words as "man," "chance,"
"antidote," and "land." I would obey similar prohibitions for all
names of all in-laws whenever I spoke. If my own name were,
say, "Andy," die prohibition would even extend to die utterance
of my own name.
As explained to me within a few days of my arrival, die
in-law name taboo impressed me for die sweeping effects it
must have on language, and die implications it might have for
the speed of language change. In practice, however, several
factors make die taboo quite tolerable. The most important of
tiiese are (1) while aU in-laws are theoretically included, not all
tiieir names are prohibited witii equal force, and (2) die
prohibition is generally less strictly observed when no affected
in-laws are present As later became clear, tiiese early "rules of
tiiumb" about die in-law name taboo inadequately describe die
complexity of this phenomenon. When everyday exceptions to
such generalizations are pointed out to diem, Tobelo tiiemselves
readily agree tiiat these "exceptions" (to their own
abbreviated generalizations) normally occur. Individuals may
vary also in tiieir day-to-day concern for such signs of etiquette,
for not all in-laws can legally enforce tiiis prohibition, altiiough
minimaUy "true" (Tobelo ma dutu) parents-in-law, chUdren-inlaw,or
siblings-in-law may legaUy fine offenders. (That is, one
may fine one's spouse's full siblings or one's spouse's true
parents, and reciprocally one's full sibling's spouse, or one's
true child's spouse.)
The prohibition, tiien, primarily applies to die relation
between a man or woman on die one hand, and his or her
spouse's parents on the other; it is most strictly forbidden for
one of tiiese parties to say the name of the otiier. Names of more
"distant" (ikwutikdka 'already far') in-laws (including full and
especially even more distant siblings-in-law) are more negotiable.
The names of such in-laws are often said when parties who
might potentially be offended (including otiier in-laws) are not
present. The name itself will not be used in reference to die
individual involved (unless, after some circumlocution, die
listener still does not know who is intended by die speaker),but
words in which die sequence of phonemes making up one of
die "distant" in-law's name occurs may be given normal