The dictionary, which is seen as a complete reference for those learning the language, has had 30,000 new Bahasa Malaysia words when the first edition was published in 1970.
I haven’t perused the entire Kamus Dewan although it was in the list of books I had to buy when I was in school. I believed one Kamus Dewan lasted me the entire school system, although it was recommended to buy new ones as new words were added on as the years go by.
In school, I never had to refer to the Malay-English or English-Malay dictionary. I guess it was pretty easy back then. Words weren’t as bombastic as they are now. But with online references, it is much easier to look up the meaning of a word, be it in English or Bahasa Malaysia.
At the 2010 Umno General Assembly, party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak used what was termed as “Bahasa Bangsawan” in his speech. He had used words such as "bitara" (unique) and "berpilin" (integrated/bind together).
I find it refreshing to learn these old Malay words.
As such, I find it baffling that while there are still some Malay words that we have not used (or no longer use for whatever reasons) either orally or in writing, we have gone to introduce new words. Well, they are not exactly new words but borrowed words from English.
You don’t have to crack your head to find that the English word “accountability” is “kebertanggungjawaban” in Bahasa Malaysia while “cocoon” is “karung kepompong/membendung” and “access” means “laluan”?
A friend of mine, writing a piece for a news portal, had used the word “diasosiasikan”. I’m not surprised if used frequent enough, it can find its way into the Kamus Dewan (by the way, the word means “associated with”).
Oh, is that how the words find their way into the Kamus Dewan?
The slang “makwe” also finds itself listed in the dictionary. It stands for “girlfriend.” I was informed that it also stands for “grandmother”, a term used widely in Malacca.
I wonder if the slang “balak”, which stands for “boyfriend” be included anytime soon? In English, it means logs.
I want to start writing in Bahasa Malaysia. I know it is one of the ways to improve in the command of the language, in fact in any language. I’ve started reading French to grasp the language again and hope to soon begin speaking it with some friends.
However, I still hold to my comment I wrote on the 2007 post on this same matter (read here).
“I want to write well in Bahasa Malaysia but if writing well in the language means using foreign words, which have been Malaysianised, I am better off sticking to English.”
9 comments:
Rasanya dlm dunia ni tak ada bahasa yg betul-betul 'pure'. To me bahasa is just a tool yg dikurniakan Allah supaya kita dapat berkomunikasi sesama kita. Syukur ya Allah. Rather than berkeras nak 'pure'kan bahasa, why not terima ajalah seadanya, perkataan yg sedia ada dan yang 'baru'. Tak mati dan tak dosa pun (jgn guna buat org marah, maki org atau cakap benda-benda tak elok dah). Kadang-kadang ada perkataan yang memang tak boleh nak traslate. Semakin canggih dan mudah cara kita berhubung, semakin 'rojak' lah bahasa. Alangkah bagusnya kalau satu hari nanti semua org menggunakan bahasa yg sama? Meanwhile, saya gunalah apa ada ikut cara yg diajar cikgu untuk pass periksa :-). Nanti, saya akan gunalah apa saja asalkan dapat meyampaikan apa yg saya nak sampaikan dgn jayanya. Kurang satu stress. He, he, he...
Julia
14 thn
Sangat setuju!
Interesting article Puan Fauziah. I'm curious to know who is responsible for adding new words into the dictionary? A committee/group of people? What is the process? Is there a criteria in deciding when a word is acceptable to be included in the dictionary? I completely agree with you...why adulterate an English word into BM when there already exist a word in BM?
Salam Julia 14 thn,
Terimakasih di atas pendapat saudari.
Alhamdulillah kita ada bahasa untuk digunakan untuk berhubung antara satu sama lain. Jika tiada bahasa pun, kita pasti masih boleh berhubung melalui isyarat.
Bagi saya, masih ada perkataan-perkataan di dalam Bahasa Melayu atau Bahasa Malaysia yang belum kita gunakan. Dan tiada cacat atau celanya perkataan itu.
Seharusnya kita melihat kepada penggunaan perkataan-perkataan itu sebelum kita mencari jalan keluar yang paling senang dengan menggunakan perkataan Inggeris yang ditukar ejaannya.
Salam Dr Bubbles
Terimakasih.
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri Maaf Zahir dan Batin.
Salam Kemerdekaan.
Salam THJ,
Thank you for your comments.
From my own newspaper, I read that Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka has a committee comprising eight to 10 linguists who screen newspapers and other material daily in search of new words for inclusion in the Kamus Dewan.
Experts from various fields would also be called in if the word concerns specific fields such as science and technology, religious terms, dialects and slang.
Apparent, the words are selected based on how often they appear in reading materials and also in everyday conversations.
The rule of thumb in selecting new words is that it must be spotted at least three times to qualify as a trigger -- this is when it is considered for inclusion in Kamus Dewan.
It baffles the mind, doesn't it?
I was just having an argument with my husband about ths the other day!! I mean, we are often reminded to be proud of our native language n the next thing you know, beautiful Bahasa words like, "buah fikiran" is replaced with "ide". I truly envy the Chinese people for being very proud of their language. I really hope the Malays realise that we have a beautiful language that we can use everyday and also in business and be proud of it! - nahiella
Salam Nahiella
Salam Nahiella
I seriously wonder what the pejuang-pejuang bahasa have got to say about this.
They were up in arms when the government changed its language of teaching for Science and Math but are irritatingly quiet when it comes to this.
I am sorry to come so far back to leave comments. But this is my first time here - and this is by pure accident.
This bahasa Melayu is a very sore point to me over the years. I had an A grade in Malay in my 1955 Cambridge School Certificate. Today I wouldn't get through PMR with that. A few years ago, out of frustration, I wrote to Utusan saying, 'DBP merojakkan bahasa Melayu'. To my surprise that was published. I had the satisfaction of seeing that and others' consenting comments on what I wrote. Today I live to see the deterioration of bahasa ku, jiwa ku.
Whenever I choose to leaf through my two volumes of Wilkinson's Malay-English dictionary published in 1932, I draw a sigh of sadness to see the wealth of old Malay words which can easily be modified to be used for extended meanings. We have lost the kh, dz the e-tanda and the hosts of Arabic alphabets which should make Malay children better at proper recital of Quran.
Now it is fashionable to use 'so', 'member' (for kawan!), produk (because Malay lacks pengeluaran, hasil etc!)
Can you not, in your position, keep pushing what you and I, and many others, believe how DBP whould be shaken up?
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