Identity Maintenance Strategy on the North Konawe Coast

Abstract

This study explores the resilience of the Landawe language along the North Konawe coast amid rapid modernisation and socioeconomic transition. Beyond quantitative linguistic metrics, this study aims to uncover coastal communities' identity-maintenance strategies for preserving their linguistic heritage. Using qualitative methods and a phenomenological approach, the study systematically analysed data in MAXQDA 24 to map thematic triangulation and spatial intersections between categories. The results of the study reveal four main findings: (1) Language attitudes imbued with cultural identity and loyalty function as the psychological epicentre of speakers; (2) The dynamics of intergenerational transmission rely on informal teaching methods as an adaptive response to structural inheritance barriers; (3) The domestic space of the family and customary ritual activities act as the last, most sacred defence line; and (4) Landawe language resilience operates as a multidimensional ecosystem that requires organic synchronisation between mentality, availability of space, and inheritance agents. This study concludes that Landawe language maintenance is not a static entity, but rather a form of cultural resistance and the community's ethical responsibility to safeguard their existence and collective memory from social homogenization.