Sunday, October 11, 2009

.: Bahasa Melayu :.


Posting in my mother tongue.

Considering I hardly write in Malay, and even though I speak the language everyday, the conversations are mostly conducted colloquially. Didn't take long for me to notice that I am actually losing my grasp in the language, therefore this is quite a brave attempt on my part to sort of get in touch with it again. Having gone down the path thereby I had been dubbed a non-Malay due to my incompetence in the language many years ago, I prefer not to endure it again.

. ~ .

Standard Malay *as far as I can remember ... to my Malay language teachers, please send me a detention slip if you notice more than 10 errors.*

"Terus-terang, Aja tidak boleh ingat kali terakhir Aja menulis di dalam Bahasa Melayu. Terasa kekok dan payah sangat. Kalau diikutkan, Bahasa Melayu sering digunakan sebagai bahasa perantaraan baik ketika bersama-sama ahli keluarga mahupun sesama sahabat-handai. Namun, bahasa tersebut telah dicampur-adukkan dengan bahasa asing. Tambahan pula, tidak dinafikan wujudnya penggunaan bahasa pasar dikalangan generasi muda. Sesungguhnya, keadaan ini amat membimbangkan lebih-lebih lagi apabila segelintir daripada kita tidak mampu untuk menilai keindahan menulis di dalam bahasa ibunda."

Written in slangs and abbreviated forms as how I would speak with my peers.

"Terus-terang, Aja tak bleh igt bile Aja last tulis dlm BM. Rase pelik; susah sgt. Ikutkanlahkan, BM ni kite slalu gak pakai bile sembang dgn famili & kawan. Mungkin sal dah campur dgn base laen kut. Pun sal, kitorang slalu gune base pasar. Tp, mmg sedeylah bile kite dh taktau nilai laie."

English translation.

"In actual truth, I can’t remember the last time I wrote in Malay. It feels exceedingly peculiar and strenuous. If I were to contemplate on it, the Malay language is regularly used as the communication language with family and friends. However, its' usage has been influenced by foreign languages. I do not deny, there is also the usage of slangs amongst the younger generations. Hence, the situation becomes tremendously worrisome particularly when some of us aren’t able to value the beauty of writing in our mother tongue."

Losing the proficiency.
8.20pm Malaysian Time

7 comments:

Aisyah Mazelan said...

Haha. Bahasa sms. Kadang-kadang bila baca mesej dari kawan baik sendiri pun tak faham.

Hajar Alwi said...

LoL~ Memang gerun kalau bace bahasa sms. Esp the ones from my mum. I can't understand her simplified texts! Haha~

Mina said...

Insteresting post Hajar, Jazakallahu khairun for sharing...i knew nothing about Malay but i felt like i learnt a lil bit from your post.

Hajar Alwi said...

Hey Mina~! ^^ It is nice to write in my language for once. :)

Ms.Unique said...

LOL I can't even get the head or tail of it :D

Anyways guess what? I've got some news .... I got your maillllllll :)... At last I think my post can be relied ....

Thanks for the card ... Sorry but you should've at least translated the lines :s

Another thing I don't know if it's only with me or it's common, I think most Malay and Indo people have the same kind of small writing (Masha Allah nice though)... I had a friend she had that too and I'd met an Indonesian sis in haram and her writing too was like that lol ....

Hunky said...

salam hajar, interesting post. Yeah it's worrisome, but let's try
looking at it from a positive note:

Maybe the Malay laguage with the help of these modern slangs is evolving or transforming into something better.
Something that is quick, natural and easily spoken and understood.

thus making the transfer of data quick and easy. New originally shot form words and slangs are getting into English dictionaries anyway.

=) just a thought

Hajar Alwi said...

Ms.Unique :: LoL~ I had expected this from you sis! This was exactly how I felt YEARS ago! :P

Yeay~! Alhamdulillah! Gotta love the Saudi Post for their little bit of suspense! Haha~

Lines ... ?

I never really took any notice of our writings. Going by genealogy, we stem from similar roots, so maybe you are right. :)

Hunky :: Wa'alaikum'as'salam.

Each change has its pros and cons. There is no harm in adopting abbrev. and slangs, however, must it be done with the expense of the language itself?

I'm not talking about those relic writings of Tun Sri Lanang using 'cryptic' languages per say, but I do know people [including myself sometimes] that aren't able to comprehend basic text. What's more, with the inclusion of direct translations @ transliterations ... cakera keras = hard disk? fumugasi?

Anyway, this is a self-admittance to my incompetence. I wasn't trying to backlash anyone or deeming it as a negative aspect in any way. :)