LEXICAL CHANGE IN MEDAN HOKKIEN DIALECT

This study deals with the lexical change in Medan Hokkien Dialect. It employs descriptive research. The focus of this study is the lexical creations particularly nouns which aim to describe: (1) the processes of lexical creation in Medan Hokkien Dialect, (2) to explain the reasons of lexical creation in Medan Hokkien Dialect. The Source of the data were Medan Hokkien Dialect speakers words. The technique of collecting data used of this study was interview and purposive sampling. The data were analyzed with Miles and Huberman’s data analysis. The theory of lexical creation in this research refers to the opinion of Varshney. The Process of lexical creation is divided into two; internal borrowing included derivations, compounds, shortenings and coinages, and external borrowing encompass modified lexical creation, total lexical creation and loan translation. The reasons of lexical creation were analyzed based on Ngom who explained the need, the prestige and practicality reasons. According to the data analysis, it was found that lexical creations in Medan Hokkien Dialect speakers utterances comprises of derivations, compound, shortening, coinages. The second process is the external lexical borrowing comprises of modified lexical borrowing, total lexical borrowing; and loan translation. The reasons of lexical creation are the need, the prestige and the practicality included in some fields such as technology, place, time, culture, building, food and drink, sport, family, medical term, academy, transportation, fashion, material and animal. Thus, it implies that lexical creations are aimed to the Medan Hokkien Dialect speakers able to understand to find a term for naming a new object, concept, and idea.