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Abstract

Ritual speech acts strengthen language and culture by articulating meaning, function, and the role of utterances as a cohesive channel connecting humans, culture, nature, and spirituality. Previous studies have paid limited attention to the types and values of speech acts rooted in indigenous wisdom as mechanisms for promoting ecological sustainability and forest conservation. This study aims to examine the types and values of speech acts in the Congko Lokap ritual from the perspective of the Manggarai community to alleviate sustainable environmental damage in Indonesia. A phenomenological approach with a descriptive qualitative design was employed. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and audiovisual recordings involving 30 purposively selected key informants and analyzed using the Miles and Huberman interactive model. The findings identified three types of speech acts: assertive, directive, and expressive; and five underlying values: religious, aesthetic, symbolic, social, and character education. Linguistic and cultural stakeholders are expected to redefine language as the main tool for preserving ecological sustainability, cultural, and spiritual values. Each speech act plays a different but complementary social role and engages in a distinct ritual. This study contributes to the preservation of indigenous knowledge by demonstrating how ritual speech acts reinforce collective ethics, strengthen social cohesion, and promote ecological sustainability, particularly in protecting forests and water sources. The findings demonstrate that ritual speech acts function not only as cultural expressions but also as practical mechanisms for transmitting indigenous ecological knowledge and supporting sustainable environmental governance.

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