Local Wisdom in the Use of Greeting Word of Minangkabau Society

Greeting word is one of the very important language units in greeting. The incorrect choice of greeting word can sprinkle conflicts between people involved in the speech event. Minangkabau language has a greeting word. The shape is varied. The purposes of this study are to describe the forms of greeting words and explain the use of these forms. The author applied interviewing and observational methods that are described in a set of techniques. In analyzing the data, a pragmatic identity method is used which also described in a set of techniques. Data are obtained from a broad family of Minangkabau people in Nagari Sunua, Nan Sabarih District, Padang Pariaman Regency. The finding shows that there are various forms of greeting words. The emergence of diversity is related to the differences in generation and differences in the socio-cultural position between the greeter and the interlocutors.