e-mail: teknosastik@teknokrat.ac.id TEKNOSASTIK Laila Ulsi Qodriani Volume 10 (1), 2012 The Use of Phatic Particle 34 The Use of Phatic Particle ‘Geh’ in Lampungnese’s Indonesian Language Laila Ulsi Qodriani ani.teknokrat@yahoo.com STBA Teknokrat Lampung Abstract Indonesia is one of the countries in the world that have very much cultural diversity. However, Indonesian language is still used as a daily communication medium by its people locally or nationally as a lingua franca. Related to that situation, Lampung is one of the provinces located in Sumatra Island in which its society nowadays uses Indonesian as their daily language beside their local language. In accordance, this paper raises a phenomenon that Lampungnese’s Indonesian language currently is still influenced by the characteristics of their local language that can be identified as the identity of Lampungnese society in using Indonesian language. The characteristic appears in the use of phatic particle ‘geh’ in Lampungnese’s Indonesian language from many varieties of the context and situation. This research is intended to investigate the use of phatic particle ‘geh’ in Indonesian daily conversation of Lampungnese as a marker of their cultural identity and its function to their language. The data of research are collected by recording and engaging some objects of research in everyday conversation through direct observation, then all data are analyzed using descriptive methods yet transcribed for the corpus to be studied. The analysis shows there are nine (9) functions of the phatic particle 'geh' in its distribution in the conversation, such as, stating persuasion, emphasizing distempered, emphasizing denial/disapproval, smoothing the command, emphasizing curiosity/surprise, emphasizing evidence, emphasizing questions, giving guarantees and expressing disappointment. At the end, this research will contribute to further knowledge about Lampungnese’s language identity in using Indonesian language. Key Words: Lampungnese’s Indonesian language, phatic Particle. Introduction The relationship between language and culture is that language is a system of communication, and language has a meaning only in the culture as the container. Similarly, the close relationship with the language of culture, the language is often used as a goal to be able to understand more deeply the patterns and values of a society; language is considered the most powerful features of a particular social personality (Nababan in Mumu, 2005: 81). So we can conclude that the language can also be used as the identity of the speaker. Indonesia is one of country that is rich in cultural diversity. It also does not deny the existence of diversity in the languages spoken by the population of Indonesia. In Indonesia, language development occurs fairly quickly. Considering Indonesia has more than 700 local languages and the language of unity which all had different dynamics and strategies of each in the face brunt of foreign languages and other forms of language development. In building the strategy for unifying the diversity, the Indonesian government has set all Indonesian people to use the national language and the official language of Indonesia. It is considered to be the most effective step in the deal with the diversity of languages that are owned by each region live in Indonesia, so that each of Indonesia's population can communicate with each other despite cultural backgrounds and different regional languages. Although it is understood and spoken by more than 90% of people in Indonesia, bahasa Indonesia is not the native language for most speakers. The majority of Indonesia citizens using one of more than 700 languages in Indonesia as their mother tongue. Indonesian speakers often use everyday version ( kolokial) and / or mixing with other Malay dialect or mother tongue. Nonetheless, bahasa Indonesia is used very widely in schools, in the media, literature, software, official correspondence, and other various public forums, so it can be said that the bahasa Indonesia is used by all citizens of Indonesia. The Indonesian situation fosters many variants: variants according to the user is referred to as dialects and variants by use of the so-called language diversity ( Kridalakasana: 1991). Dialect distinguished as follows: (1) regional dialects, namely miscellaneous language used in a particular area so that it distinguishes the language used in an area with the language used in other areas even though they are from one language. (2) social dialect, the dialect used by a particular group of people or a specific society marks the level. (3) temporal dialect, which dialect used at a certain time. (4) Idiolek, the overall characteristics of one's language. Even though we all speak Indonesian, each of us has a distinctive personal trait in pronunciation, grammar, or word choice and variety. So