"This paper discusses about speech levels in Sasak, the language of the indigenious
people of the island of Lombok, examining the style, meaning and some historical background
of the speech levels. Based on the data, it shows that Sasak, like Javanese and Balinese, also
contains low, mid, high and few honorific vocabularies which are assumed to have been
borrowed from Javanese (Steven, 1975; Nothofer, 1975). However, the use of the high and
honorific variations are scarecly heard in the everyday common Sasaks conversation. In most
occurrences, the high speech level is pronounced only among the so called menak Sasaks and
its surrounding. Therefore, it rejects the idea that Sasak speech levels is as elaborate and
complex as Javanese due to the fact that Sasak has only a few high and honorific vocabularies
known by the Sasak aristocracy."
