02.08.06
Of Hek-Eleh & Poyo Giler, or, Bukan Cintan Ori
Finally i’ve decided to publish one of the many articles… sent by a member of my Yahoo LirikLagu egroup… written by a very active internet editor/writer i guess… every time i read his articles, it remind me of so many gap that exist in our life - generation gap, cyber gap, etc… i always hope the whole thing happen in a process of evolution… when each of us can (do we have a choice?) slowly adopt to these changes… I m sure nobody like to be called an anti development, anti-this, anti-that…
So, what are u waiting for, get out, and mix around… this is Malaysia!
Here it is…
Title: Of Hek-Eleh & Poyo Gile, or, Bukan Cintan Ori
If you had trouble appreciating the title, then just blame the generation gap. or then again, perhaps it’s actually a sign of serious aging in process (though I’d rather conveniently subscribe to the former). I was listening to my four kids having conversation during our family dinner the other day, and trust me it was a revelation of sorts. I was equally amused and horrified at the same time; bearing witness to blatant abuses to the Malay Language.
Sometimes I too struggled to grasp the meaning of some supposedly `new’ words and phrases that I once thought I’ve duly mastered. For example: “Hek-eleh… poyo giler…”
For the uninitiated, the word `poyo’ here could mean anything between uncool, not phat, square, boring, nerdy, ugly to being a downright jerk. Gross, I hear you say? Well, come to think of it, perhaps it could mean that too, and more. Hence its brazen youth by the Rakan Muda Generation. What is immediately evident is the reaction it brings; it seems that one would prefer to be called `lembab’ or even `bodoh’ rather than `poyo’. Maybe to them being a `poyo’ makes one The Ultimate Social Pariah.
I still recall how my father used to strictly monitor the types of magazines that I read, for fear of getting infected by the dreaded symptom (then) referred to as `Pencemaran Bahasa’ (language pollution). So, understandably it is particularly frustrating now for me, as a father, to actually have to listen to my own kids proudly brandishing their `Bahasa Melayu XP Version 5.2 (Updated 2006)’. Of course, who are you to complain. To them, you are just an `Otai’, which is actually an adulterated version of `Old Tie’.
If you think having to hear the kids resort to using such language is awful enough, then maybe you haven’t heard enough after all. As if to add salt to injury, the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka has actually decided to announce that the words `Ori’ (from the English word `original’) and `Cintan’ (used to be a colloquial word to mean `amorous’) are now officially accepted as full-fledged authentic Bahasa Melayu words.
Makes you wonder what is the prevailing criterion for a word to be accepted as such.
Granted, Bahasa Melayu as a language does face the dilemma most minor languages have; it suffers from inadequate vocabulary. Thus began the almost feverish borrowing from other languages since more than two decades ago. Hence words like `imunisasi’ (immunisation) and `polarisasi’ (polarisation). Globalisasi and Melayu Global (later glokal, for `global and local’). The possibilities were endless, and people were gleefully adding to their new found vocabulary. But when words like `ori’ gets in, any self-respecting linguist couldn’t help but frown.
I don’t have anything against borrowing, or more precisely, adopting words from other languages, except for the obvious fact that we already have words such as `asli’ to sufficiently mean `original’. And come to think of it, I’ve never once used the word `ori’ to denote that meaning. So why the haste to announce it as a new `Malay’ word?
I’m sure my 80-year-old Grandma, for one, would fume like a locomotive if she knows this. After all, she’s been using words such as `senalar’ (frequent), kebelai (hungry), peghosah (disturb) etc. for as long as she could remember…so why on earth aren’t those words accepted yet?
I was still watching my kids and listening to what sounded like Double Dutch to me. One of them caught my gaze. “Hek-eleh .”, he said, without really meaning anything at all. I smiled at him and, absent mindedly blurted, “poyo?” Almost simultaneously, they all laughed approvingly. “Tau takpe”, another one said and lovingly put her hands around me.
There you are, I told myself. Tau takpe. (meaning: If You Know, Then It’s Okay).
Cheers & best regards,
Zaim Al-Amin
You can read his other articles from the following egroup:
Zacknina zacknina@yahoogroups.com,
World Politics world-and-politics@yahoogroups.com,
UMNO Malaysia UMNO@yahoogroups.com,
Transcendentalists transcendencia@yahoogroups.com,
The Malaysian the-malaysian@yahoogroups.com,
RJ Utara rjutara@yahoogroups.com,
RJ Selatan rjselatan@yahoogroups.com,
Relexjap relexjap@yahoogroups.com,
Promuda Prodigy promuda_circle@yahoogroups.com,
Persada Seni persada-seni@yahoogroups.com,
Pemuda UMNO pemuda_umno@yahoogroups.com,
PAS Network pas-network@yahoogroups.com,
MERCY Malaysia mercy_malaysia@yahoogroups.com,
Melayu Cyber melayucyber@yahoogroups.com,
Melayu Cafe melayucafe@yahoogroups.com,
Melayu Australia melayu-australia@yahoogroups.com,
Malaysian Underground malaysianunderground@yahoogroups.com,
Malaysian Models malaysianmodels@yahoogroups.com,
Malaysiakini kini-malaysia@yahoogroups.com,
Malay Cafe malaycafe@yahoogroups.com,
Lirik Lagu LirikLagu@yahoogroups.com,
Lawyers’ Club legalchambers@egroups.com,
Lagu Malaysia lagu_malaysia@yahoogroups.com,
Keadilan News keadilan_eberita@yahoogroups.com,
Keadilan parti-keadilan@egroups.com,
Generique Corporate Club generique@yahoogroups.com,
Cyber Digest cyberdigest@yahoogroups.com,
Business Networks business-networks@yahoogroups.com,
BMW Car Club bmwcar@yahoogroups.com,
Bandar Utopia BandarUtopia@yahoogroups.com,
Australian Malay australianmalay@yahoogroups.com,
Ampang Point ampangpoint@yahoogroups.com,
Ampang Club ampangclub@yahoogroups.com.
Alamak! My blog is on the way to become a “just another blog”… when i started attaching articles from someone else instead of my own writing… sorry about that… just this one…
