Toponymy of Water Elements as Linguistic and Cultural Identity of Kupang City Community

Abstract

Indonesia as an archipelagic country with an extraordinary diversity of languages, provides a very fertile toponymy research field. The purpose of this study is to examine the toponymy of urban villages containing water elements in Kupang City, East Nusa Tenggara, with a socio-onomastic approach. This research method uses a literature research approach and field research. Data was obtained through Google Maps digital map search and field interviews with informants who mastered local linguistic and historical knowledge (speakers of Helong, Dawan, Rote, and Kupang Malay). The results of the research based on map tracing and interviews found fourteen villages whose names are composed of water elements, most of them are lexical elements oe- and namo- 'water or port'. The name of the village has four types of toponymy based on the meaning of its constituent parts, namely (i) water toponymy with topographic elements, (ii) water toponymy with artifact or container elements, (iii) water toponymy with water properties or quality elements, and (iv) water toponymy with human elements. Some villages have more than one version of the origin of the name that lives in the community. From a socio-onomastic perspective, the diversity of these versions is a natural phenomenon because place names have diverse characteristics and are influenced by the preferences of the people who speak them.