Extras: Olympics Translation Special: Track & Fields

It’s the Olympic season again! YAY! Now, what could be more appropriate than translating anything Olympic? There are 26 sports in this year’s Olympic. They are all regulars. Thankfully, some sports that dubiously looking all but sporty are not included. Unlike that particular Nusantara Games, where sports like ‘balancing with a ping pong ball in a spoon held in mouth, on a wire made of rafia” are held, where participants were most likely assembled ad-hoc-like, AND since the rest of the citizens of participating countries were involved in other similar sports, only 60 and 70 year olds were left to compete. Good God! Here’s your chance folks! Get those viagra out for whatever reasons you might it need for and go! Go! Go! Just don’t end up dead.

One of the more popular sports in Olympics has been Track & Field. It used to be simply called “Olahraga” in Malay. But then there was a confusion with its meaning when our Nusantara neighbor (whom we already know how enthusiastic they can be about anything that maybe misinterpreted or misrepresented). There, olahraga simply means sports in general (we call it sukan) or to compete in whatever as long as the purpose is to defeat the others. Here in Malaysia, it’s slightly different. It’s restricted to competing when there’s a competition that involves one’s physical strength or mainly Track & Field. For all I know Olahraga has been used only in Silat Olahraga other than the usual Olahraga. But “over there”, a competition of, for example, “who can create the most bizarre hairstyle” is also called olahraga. It’s absolutely no wonder why that Games has become such. But, I digress yet again.

Track & Field, was later called Balapan & Padang to concur with its English use. As far as I can remember, it first appeared during the early 80s. Then, our Olahraga team was very popular with athletes who became household names like Marina Chin, Zaiton Othman, Rabuan Pit, V Angamah, Saik Oik Cum, Elron Alfred Angian and many more. Here, to refresh you memory.

They were such stars in those days.

The word Balapan was in regular discussions among friends at that time. Some took the effort of finding its history, and proudly announced it to us that it was an acronym that came from “Baris Lapan” or “Lanes of Eight” as in the eight lanes that made the running track of athletic events. And then we went, “Ahhhhhh….,” with our mouth agaped.

Balapan is the Track. Padang is the Field.

And then, I did not know who were unhappy with Balapan that it was later changed to Trek & Padang. This made me sad really, as I have mentioned this many times before, why is the need to adapt a foreign word when the word that we have perfectly describes the matter? Some blamed it on the TV people for being insensitive towards upholding the Language. I do not want to blame it on anyone, but if we could use some words more regularly, we may make that word popular again. But then, the sad state of Malaysian athletics now doesn’t augur well for the word Olahraga. And when the general masses don’t talk much about a certain subject, its related lexicons simply go into obscurity. 

Balapan remains in the dictionary as what I have explained above. And more… it also means any kind of track that is used for competition not restricted to humans running against each other, for example the horse racing track is called Balapan Lumba Kuda, although there are no visible lanes of eight.

AHAH..!!! Let’s tell this to that neighbor of ours to get their chickens, ducks, rhinoceroses, garudas and what not to challenge each other on a Balapan. This seems valid enough. We have seen them do it with buffalos (sorry but not fun enough), but with other living beings?

Oh, this can be really fun especially if it’s included in that Nusantara Games!

Extras: Buzzes About Buses

1. Here is....

..... a school bus. That's right.




2. Here is....

... a chartered bus. That's right.




3. Here is....

... I don't know. But I can guess what it is. Can you?


It is the same as the number 2 above. But why do they use 'catar'? It's not in the dictionary anyway. So I scoured in it, any way possible and then came this page that says 'catar' is actually 'charter' but the right Malay spelling is 'cater'. 'Catar' is not an acceptable Malay word but frequently used as meaning 'cater' (the Malay word) or 'charter' (the English word).


Yes, we frequently use words that are not words anyway. So, no surprise there. No surprise also from Lembaga Pelesenan Kenderaan Perdagangan (LPKP) or Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board for not taking it serious enough to address the matter. As a person who has seven years experience in driving a taxi in the city, I perfectly understand that. In that seven years, they have created and discarded many rules and regulation at their whims and fancies, for example, colour your taxi according to the company that owns it and later, no you don't have to, you can pick up passengers at the airport and later no you can't, and some taxis can have sports rims some can't. No surprise, no surprise.


I don't know why I like to digress...


Back to the buses. I guess if we used 'Bas Cater' instead, people will think that bus is carrying food maybe. If we used 'Bas Carter' instead, people will think that that bus belongs to the former US President. If we used 'Bas Aziz Sattar' instead, people will think that Aziz Sattar owns all of the 'bas persiaran' here in Malaysia. 


There you go, what is so wrong and ugly with 'Bas Persiaran' that you so abhor using it?


I don't know....

Translate This: Commensurate

There shouldn't be much of a problem to translate this word. The translation of it can be found in many reliable English-Malay dictionary, most of the time they put the meaning as: setara, sepadan.


But I would like to highlight one habit of many Malaysians that I suspect that their confusion may be due to how the word is spelled. Many English words that end with -ate normally indicate that they are a verb, but not in this case. It is an adjective not a verb, therefore it doesn't take a tense.


Here are some examples of how Malaysians would use 'commensurate' in a sentence:

Here is an example of a correct sentence using the word commensurate:

I just thought that this is a very good subject matter to be highlighted somewhere, and why not here.

Admittedly I had thought it was a verb too.

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.

Extras: Going Back to My Home Kampong

I am. 
For two weeks beginning 23rd April 2012 (It's my birthday FYI).


But why did I write kampong instead of kampung (italicised)?


It is because kampong is accepted in English as a valid word, borrowed completely. Validate here. But they adapted the spelling kampong instead of kampung. I suspect it has to do with how they pronounce it. Kampung will sound [kaym-pang] from their tongue, while kampong will sound very similar to our kampung [kaym-pong]. But I guess, mat salleh who has been here long would pronounce like us, kampung [kahm-poong].


But there are no worries as to how to translate it. Copy directly. That's acceptable too. But be careful, because the more acceptable spelling of kampong in Malay is kampung.


Now, don't fret over it and get more confused. Go have some tea.


I'll have my favorite coffee for now, Kopi Che Nah, the pride of Teluk Intan.