Form, Content of Umpama and Umpasa in Batak Toba Language: Study of Local Wisdom

Abstract

Verbal literature is literature that lives amid during in society, told by parents to their children or by storytellers to villagers who do not know how to read and write. Verbal literature has been passed on from one generation to the next generation. Umpama is a proverb. An adage is a group of words that have a fixed structure and contain basic rules for behavior. The parable is words that express a person's state or behavior by making comparisons from the surrounding environment. Umpasa is similar to a verse in the Indonesian language, which consists of four lines rhyming in a stanza. The verse is an old type of poetry in which each stanza consists of four lines and has sampiran and contents (isi). The purpose of this study is to describe the form, function, meaning, and wisdom of umpama and umpasa in the Batak  Toba society. Its benefits are as documentation of form, function, meaning, and wisdom of umpama and umpasa in the Batak Toba language. The method used is qualitative because the research is carried out in natural conditions (natural setting), also called the ethnographic method, because initially this method was used more for research in the field of anthropology, moreover called the qualitative method, because the data collected and the analysis are more qualitative. The form of umpama: adage, parables, imagery, etc. Umpama in terms of content consisting: umpama containing advice, umpama containing wisdom, umpama containing laws/customs, umpama containing association, umpama for birth, umpama for young people, umpama to parents, and umpama to death. Umpasa in terms of content: umpasa containing requests for blessings, umpasa containing requests for descendants, umpasa for children, umpasa for receiving tintin marangkup, and umpasa for death.