GREETING WORDS IN BAJAU TUARAN SOCIETY

This paper is mainly discussing on the greeting system in the Bajau Tuaran society. With two objectives; to explore the greeting names used amongst the community according to the groups of basic family, marital relationship also titles in the community and two, to explain factors affecting choices of caller names in the greeting system based on age differences, gender and status or rank. Data obtained by semi-structural interview towards 30 informants aged between 16 till 80 years old in Kampung Mengkabong, Tuaran, Sabah. Results shows that the greeting system used amongst the Bajau Tuaran community is similar to the Malay community with the difference from the aspect of term used which originated by the Bajau society. It is hope that this research will bring benefits especially to the Bajau society in practicing the greeting words in their daily life in hopes that this system will not dissapear and dissolve in this modernization era.