Extra: Haiwan maun, maging and maserba

During our class (which we have completed and sat for the exam last week, yay!!), a facilitator had brought up the issue of Malay spelling when a word is borrowed from English, adapted as a whole because there was no equivalent Malay word for them. Or rather, she told us the rule of converting those spellings.

So she gave us examples of herbivore, carnivore and of course omnivore when it comes to words that end with –ore. Simple, she said. Lose the ‘e’ at the end, and change the consonants to Malay equivalent like ‘c’ to ‘k’. OK, that is simple enough. So the Malay words would be herbivor, karnivor and omnivor.

Then I asked her, whatever happened to our haiwan maun, maging and maserba. She said, “Oh! No, no, no. Those are considered archaic. We don’t use that anymore.”

Archaic? It was only about 40 years ago that we were happily using and joking around with those adjectives, making pun and targeting some poor friends with them. Remember the primary school science textbook with pictures of a cow munching grass (representing haiwan maun) and a family of bear having a dinner of extremely fresh sushi, unprepared and unsalted and fresh vegetables (representing haiwan maserba)? It was now archaic? Like the pyramids? It prompted me to check with PRPM (DBP’s reference website), and thank God, they still have them, well preserved.

That may be the problem: ‘well-preserved’ instead of ‘frequently used’.

So, I have suspicions why the former is preferred. And I’d like to stress that this is strictly my opinion. No political parties or individuals paid me to express this, although blogs these days seem to be playing the role of the receiving party so often. I am not saying. Hey! Sue me if you have to.

But, I digress.

Yes, but sorry that we very rarely use those terms except in scientific journals and textbooks. But that should not be the reason we simplify it that way. More and more times I noticed, blatant absorption of English into Malay. Why bajet when we have belanjawan? Why glu when we have gam? The list is endless. Do we just watch and wait until rumah becomes haus or meja becomes tebel? If that ever happened, Hang Tuah (his wiki here) will be the saddest person if he ever lived to that day.

This is how Hang Tuah purportedly looks like. Of course, this is  an imagination
of a white woman commissioned by the museum then, similar to the Tugu Negara,
which is another imagination of another white person. I have no comment.

But I guess, as long as it is in the DBP’s reference portal, we ought to put a priority in using it first. When we have exhausted all resources, or when we want to differentiate the meaning (as in polisi and dasar, or opsyen and pilihan), then can we borrow and adapt from any language in this world.

Which reminds me of a joke from friends* from MRSM Muar long ago, when the story of whatevervore came up. It goes like this:

Student: Cikgu, how about haiwan maik or haiwan mahi?

Teacher: Yes, the answer is ‘penampar’? You want or not? Or you can become haiwan mahi yourself.


Aiyo...! So garang la this teacher. Cannot joke one.

At least it was funny to me then.

*Bataque, Cokeng, Man Batang, Argh, Malan Kechik and Madeng, thank you for making life fun then and don't sue me for using your jokes please.

Translate This: wardrobe malfunction

I was browsing the Internet last night, to search news about Donna Summer, who very recently passed away. I searched all homepages that feature the wonderful Disco Queen. But then, I couldn’t help but notice, other links in those pages have something to say about another artist of equal caliber, Janet Jackson. Curiosity got the better of me, so clicked one of those links, and later more of those links.

I bet you know where those links took me to. Yes! What is Janet Jackson good for these days if not for the news of that ‘fateful night’ with another dubiously talented dancing male singer who goes by the name of Timberwood? Sorry, Timberland. No? Sorry again, Timber something.

You don’t remember? Here, to refresh your memory…

Later, she had an about-turn and adorned a hijab.

Errrrr… ok, almost a hijab but definitely more modest (her bf at that time was an Arab).

They immediately and interestingly coined in a term for that incident (like they knew it already and couldn't wait to let the world know), and other similar incidents that strangely follow later were conveniently called, a ‘wardrobe malfunction’.

(The world is strange because after one bizarre incident, for example a soccer player suddenly suffers a heart attack while playing at one corner of the world, triggers a tsunami of soccer players suffering from heart attacks while playing, it happened all over the world. Strange… yeah.)

But, I digress.

I want to know what that term is in Malay. A little more browsing, clicking, page-flipping and eye-squinting should do the trick I guessed, but no… there was nothing on the internet that say the same term in Malay. Time for ‘cari kutu’! (My term for ‘shake that jar and see what comes out’).

I could find no specific description of the term in PRPM, neither can I from any respectable Malay newspapers (is there any, anyway). So I guess, I have to coin in a Malay term myself here. But they do have description for ‘wardrobe’ and ‘malfunction’. Here they are (cut ‘n’ paste as usual):

Wardrobe: n 1. tall cupboard for hanging clothes, almari pakaian: her ~ is full of expensive dresses, almari pakaiannya penuh dgn pakaian yg mahal-mahal; 2. a collection of clothes, koleksi pakaian: she has a large ~ of evening dresses, dia mempunyai koleksi pakaian malam yg banyak; she bought a whole new ~ for her wedding, dia telah membeli koleksi pakaian yg baru utk hari perkahwinannya; 3. stage costumes, koleksi kostum: she is in charge of ~ for the school play, dia bertanggungjawab mengendalikan koleksi kostum utk persembahan drama sekolah itu.

Malfunction: n &vi pincang tugas: we have had several blackouts owing to a ~ in the generator, beberapa kali bekalan elektrik terputus krn pincang tugas pd penjana; his careless use of the computer had caused it to ~, kecuaiannya menggunakan

Now according to my rule of thumb, with reference to the definition from PRPM, wardrobe in this case can be translated into simply ‘pakaian’. It can’t be an ‘almari’ neither can it be a ‘collection of clothes’. She just had one set of costume on her, so it’s her ‘pakaian’, meaning what she is wearing at the time.

Now for ‘malfunction’ I have several options here. It is a noun in this context. The task is to pick the most appropriate one from these: kepincangan, kerosakan, kecacatan, ralat (all shortlisted from the best possible definitions in PRPM). After much deliberation with me and myself, I chose the word ‘ralat’. Here is why I didn’t choose the other three:

Kepincangan: it’s closest meaning normally describe a malfunction of an engine or system, such as an air conditioner or a family. It normally requires another word ‘tugas’ (task) to go together.

Kerosakan: normally means a system or object that is not functioning to the point of not being able to be used altogether, meaning it is more severe than 'kepincangan'.

Kecacatan: refers to malformation to an object rather than, say, a tear to your blouse.

The main reason I prefer ‘ralat’ to the other three is, following a rule of translation, a translation into the target language must be precise, shortest possible and apt. In this case 'ralat' is an error (which seems to be applicable to a wider range of fields in Malay). An error had happened to Janet Jackson’s dress that night (whether she and that Timber guy had premeditated it or not is not the issue here). So, the term can be translated as ‘ralat pakaian’. Let’s see, if it can be used in a sentence:

Janet Jackson telah menyalahkan ralat pakaian atas peristiwa yang berlaku dalam persembahan beliau dengan Justin Timberleg malam tadi. 
(Janet Jackson blamed a wardrobe malfunction on the incident during her performance with Justin Timberleg last night).

It reminds me of another 'ralat pakaian' occured to our Fauziah Ahmad Daud some years ago, when camera-phone existed only in Japanese animation Captain Future. Damn you, technology! Where were you when we needed you!


What?

Wrong?
What wrong? That guy’s name? Haiyaaaa… never mind la.

Translate This: extra virgin olive oil

A translator had posed a question, requesting the meaning of a term in Terminology section in Proz.com (a website flooded by freelance translators the world over, hoping to syphon some dollars or euros from some rich client’s bank account but always end up having to service peanut-paying, stingier than ‘tangkai jering’ kind of clients. They normally camouflage it with ‘community service’ card). The translator had asked for the meaning of ‘extra virgin olive oil’.

I know… you like that word too (I don’t have to say it again here).

So, without hesitation, you’d say, “Hey, that’s easy, it's minyak zaitun lebih dara”. Sure, sure, that’s because you brain is so pre-occupied with that word. For men, they’d wish they could marry one, once again. For women, they’d wish they became one, once again. But tell me please, from your ‘bluey’ mind, how can a virgin be more virgin? Sorry, I digress.

Here is what it is in Malay: minyak zaitun paling murni

Now, doesn’t that sound more like it, beautiful and coherent like the Malay language itself? I can’t help but feeling naughty when the other word is used. Don’t tell me you didn’t, you perv!

Let us thank a very experienced (and expensive) English-Malay translator who goes by the name Mek Yam. Don’t be misled by her name. She currently resides in New York (waaahh…!) and charges your arm for a page of translation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any worthwhile link to her official website (if she has it which I think she should’ve). But she has an FB page. Go check from your respective FB. Mek Yam is raving crazy in translation forum all over and she has a chilli-flavoured mouth too, at least in those fora, I noticed. Read her explanation below. I cut 'n' paste from her answer to the question. 

1) extra virgin olive oil = oil that is produced naturally, meaning not made from any sort of chemical treatments. Virgin oil is an indication that the oil is not refined, that they are of a higher quality and retain their natural flavor.

2) Please see below the definitions of virgin in Malay from Dewan Eja Pro:

~ virgin [adj]: 1. pure and chaste, dara, perawan; 2. befitting a virgin, spt seorang /dara, perawan/: ~ modesty, kesopanan spt seorang dara; 3. pure and untouched, murni: the ~ snow, salji murni; 4. (of soil) unused, asal; 5. (of forest) in the natural state, dara; 6. (of clay) not fired, asal; 7. (of metal) made from ore by smelting, murni; 8. (of wool) not chemically processed, murni

That brings me to these questions: Doesn’t it apply to our own ‘minyak kelapa dara’ too? Shouldn’t we say ‘minyak kelapa murni’ instead of the former? What about ‘ayam dara’?

If it is so, and if I possess all the powers that behold, I will change all those buntings and signboards made by producers of those ‘virgin coconut oil’ and save for ‘ayam dara’ sellers (because I'm still researching it). But I don’t have it. And those who have it (ahem!) seem powerless and out-of-focus.

Can we somehow limit the use of that word to human being only? (As from the above explanation by Dewan Eja Pro).

As an extra, here is a related term which they have done a little improvisation to it. Andartu used to be an acronym to ‘anak dara tua’, or spinster in English. They thought it was crude. So they, taking beautiful and coherent Malay into consideration, coined in ‘anak dara lanjut usia’ and came up with an acronym of ‘andalusia’. Hmmm… I’d say I get more confused. Isn't that a region somewhere? Yes, it's in Spain. M. Nasir will be very angry.

And, I do not know who ‘they’ are.