Page 188 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Linkage among languages in North Maluku is determined based on proximity similarity
of basic vocabulary. It is assumed that the greater the similarity within the basic vocabulary
of the languages being compared, the more closely related. Grimes and Grimes (1984)
propose there are seven categories of language kinship based on vocabulary similarities
as follows:

Table 2: Language Classification
Based on Vocabulary Similarity Percentage

% Vocabulary Similarities Classification
0-15% Language Family
15-25% Super stock from the same family
25-45% Stock of the same Super stock
45-60% Group of languages from the same stock
60-75% Sub-group of the same language group
75-80% Languages of the same sub-group
Above 80% Dialect

Source: Grimes and Grimes (1984: 39)

This language kinship chart is quite important for example to answer two previous
cases that questioned why sub-district head arrival from Sahu could speak Gamkonora and
Waioli easily. In Chart 1 compiled by Grimes and Grimes (1984), to the left of the chart listed
SAH (an abbreviation of Sahu) draw a straight line down to the word GAM (an abbreviation
of Gamkonora) and there listed number 72. This means that there is 72% basic vocabulary
similarity between Sahu language and Gamkonora language. One or both of them are
in one sub-group of Sahu language group. Furthermore, to determine the kinship ties
between Sahu language and Waioli language, the same procedure can be performed.
Draw a straight line from HAI to SAH, you will find 80 similarities of basic vocabulary. Thus,
there is 80% similarity of basic vocabulary between Sahu language and Waioli language.
Both of them are in one group of sub-group of languages.
This is why the sub-district head who comes from Sahu, theoretically speaks Waioli
more easily than Gamkonora language because Waioli language is a dialect of the Sahu
language sub-group though Gamkonora language itself is still one language group as well.
As for the sub-district head who comes from Tobaru, from the point of lexicostatistics,
he seems to have more difficulty in understanding the Gamkonora language (48%

188 Chapter 4

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