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enangite I am!, an islander that is!. To me, there are a host of things that facinates the world about Penang. The beach, culture, food! and its people, but the most unique character would be the dialect of the locals. No doubt vey much similar to the dialect spoken in Kedah, Perlis and north of Perak, the dialect in Penang is richer thanks to its exposure to imported words from land of Tamilnadu in India as well as the Chinese - a good example of culture assimilation. The base vocabulary and structure is actually Kedahan ("Cakap Utara", ie. the northern dialect) as supported by historical fact that Penang (and Perlis), was once, under the rule of Kedah sultanate until Francis Light leased it from Kedah with a tenure that says "as long as there is sun, moon and stars" - what a weird real-estate-legal con job. Anyways, back to dialect, my facination of the Penang dialect had led me to numerous discussions with friends and families, mostly of Penang origin, about the 'Penang Talk'.There are words that are unique to Penangites (with significant portion across Kedah and Perlis) like "Ketegaq" (Stubborn) and there are also imports such as "Karapulay" (Curry Leaves) and "Taukua" (Fried Bean Curds) that originated from Indian and Chinese inhabitants of Penang. The base Malay originated words, whilst similar phonetically to the national language "Bahasa Malaysia", have a twist that makes it Penang rather than Malay. The obvious examples would be the conversion of the "r" sound to "q" and the "s" to "aih" as demonstrated in the Penang words "Ulaq" and "Empat Belaih" as converted from "Ular" (Snake) and "Empat Belas" (Forteen), respectively. My discussions with friends and families gave me the idea to collate all these words into almost a dictionary format. To have a proper dictionary would take considerable amount of time and effort - hence, a compilation of Twitter and Facebook statuses on the subject 'Penang Talk' sounded more achieavable; so I only came out with 55 words as below, for the time being:
1. Anak Menakan is either niece or nephew
2. Ayaq is Water
3. Bebai means grumpy
4. Belemoih means messy (of food or sweat)
5. Berlahak is burp
6. BooBoq is poridge
7. Celakoi is Celaka that means "Damn"
8. Che' refers to Mr, Me, Myself and I
9. Deghrian is Durian
10. Gerngau means scratch, not the gentle way, the painful way
11. Goruih Api are fire matches
12. Hari Minggu is Sunday
13. Ice Kachang is a local dessert made of ice, syrup, milk, nuts and jelly
14. Ikan Alu Alu is Barracuda
15. Ikan Rendang is fried fish simply marinated with salt and tumeric
16. Ikan Temenung is Mackerel
17. Jawi Pekan are Jawi Peranakans who live in the British straits settlement
18. Jawi Peranakan are descendants of Indian-Malay or Arab-Malay blood
19. Kanchingprak means snap buttons normally on a Pagoda singlets or t-shirts
20. Karapulay are curry leaves used for cooking curry dishes
21. Katup is to close or to switch off
22. Kerabat means climbing
23. Ketegaq means stubborn
24. Kore means fussy
25. Kupang is the currency Sen in the multiple of 10s. Example, 2 Kupang = 20 Sen
26. Lagu Mana? means ‘How?’
27. Lancha is Beca, ie trishaw
28. Lengkong is Cincau, the black grass jelly
29. Loklak means bad attitude
30. Mamu means uncle
31. Mamun means dizzy of sleep
32. Mapele is the groom
33. Marka means love companion
34. Muka Empat Belaih means u r showing a disgruntled expression on your face
35. Nala means "very" or "extensively"
36. Nana means older brother
37. Nyoq is coconut
38. Pak Tongko is Cakoi, a fried pastry eaten with chilli sauce
39. Panchoq means water tap or toilet in general
40. Peon is an Office Boy, a clerk, a multipurpose clerk
41. Ponu is the bride
42. Punkoq means Buttocks
43. Ralit is captivated
44. Renda are ribbons
45. Roti Perata is a special bread with loads of ghee, a.k.a Roti Canai
46. Sarbath is a red syrup drink with all sorts or herbs in it
47. Senayan is Monday
48. Seymia is a cereal made of wheat eaten with milk and sugar
49. Soq is Sahur, the early morning meal by the Muslims during fasting month
50. Tanjung is the city of Georgetown
51. Taukua is fried Tauhu or fried bean curds
52. Teh (Tea) is pronounced as Tear as how you would with Bear
53. Tokyu is soya sauce
54. Ubi Benggala are potatoes
55. Ulaq means snake
....continue at The Penang Talk Part 2
Ice Kachang!
* kopihangtuah
| mcmlxxv:viii:xxix |
8 comments:
Try translating these;
Jenuh, awat,mokthan, laktha, ayaq chaq, hat, darai, seriat,..
Only those which I could think of, ha ha
Do you speak other dialects?
I only speak Selangor and Penang. Never heard of Laktha, Chaq, Darai, Seriat. The rest quite common. What do they mean? Thanks
* kopihangtuah
Laktha - Laksa
Ayaq chaq - air longkang, but this refers to those air longkang in kampung with undeveloped drainage system
Seriat - refers to rain that stops
Darai - i also dunno whatever it means
Tampan which means to block, not to be confused with handsome!
Would you know what is lecoq? Think I heard it in the context of 'muka lecoq'...doesn't sound very flattering though.
A personal note to add- I speak the Penang dialect by virtue of my parents being Penangites.. As such, saying the word 'ayaq' and 'panchoq' is pronounced correctly (ahem ahem!). I am not amused when people who attempt to speak the dialect speak the incorrect way, i.e 'ayak'.
That's almost insulting the beauty of the language!
Bertuh- to hit against something
Is 'Chombi' a Penang word? To do with girl?
Thank you all. Yes it is 'q' not 'k'. Some of the words you guys gave, I myself have never heard except for Chombie. That is a short form for Kalsum Bee, a common Penang name.
* kopihangtuah
Hope u dont mind. I share this unique article on my fb. Tq
Sure why not
* kopihangtuah
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