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Manglish




Manglish (or sometimes '''Malglish''' or '''Mangled English''') is the colloquial version of the English Language as spoken in Malaysia and it is a portmanteau of the word Malay and English. However Manglish is sometimes known as Rojak or Rojak language.


HISTORY


Manglish shares substantial linguistic similarities with Singaporean English (Singlish) in Singapore , although distinctions can be made, particularly in vocabulary. One noticeable difference is that "don't know" in Singlish is "donno", whereas in Manglish, "don't know" is used, although neither is confined entirely to one country or the other.

Initially, "Singlish" and "Manglish" were essentially the same language, when Singapore and Malaysia were a single geographic entity: Malaya . In old Malaya, English was the language of the British administration whilst Malay was spoken as the lingua franca of the street. Thus, even the Chinese would revert to Malay when speaking to Chinese people who did not speak the same Chinese dialect.

Theoretically, English as spoken in Malaysia is based on British English and called Malaysian English . British spelling is generally followed. However, the influence of American English modes of expression and slang is strong, particularly among Malaysian youth.

Since 1968 , Malay , or '' Bahasa Melayu '', has been the country's sole official language. While English is widely used, many Malay words have become part of common usage in informal English or Manglish. An example is suffixing sentences with ''lah'', as in, "Don't be so worried-lah", which is usually used to present a sentence as rather light-going and not so serious, the suffix has no specific meaning. Although Chinese dialects also make abundant use of the suffix ''lah'' and there is some disagreement as to which language it was originally borrowed from. There is also a strong influence from Mandarin , Cantonese , Hokkien , and Tamil , which are other major dialects and languages spoken in Malaysia. Manglish also uses some anachronistic British terms from the era of British colonisation (see "gostan" and "outstation" below).


MANGLISH PARTICLES



EVOLUTION


Speakers of Manglish from the country's different ethnic groups tend to intersperse varying amounts of expressions or interjections from their mother tongue - be it Malay , Chinese or Indian - which, in some cases, qualifies as a form of Code-switching .

Verbs or adjectives from other languages often have English Affix es, and conversely sentences may be constructed using English words in another language's syntax. People tend to translate phrases directly from their first languages into English, for instance, "on the light" instead of "''turn'' on the light".

Due to exposure to other languages and dialects, particularly within the national school system, members of a particular ethnic group may be familiar with phrases or expressions originating from languages other than their mother tongue and may, in fact, apply them in their daily speech, regardless of the ethnicity of their audience. This is especially true in the case of interjections and vulgar slang.

Of late Malaysians have been more creative, and more Malay and Chinese words have been converging with English words. It's very simple, just find a Malay verb, and add the word "-ing", "-fied", "-able" etc.


WORDS AND GRAMMAR



Nouns

  • "barsket" - derived from 'bastard', general derogatory term. May also be derived from 'basket case'

  • "bladibarsket" - derived from 'bloody bastard', profane derogatory term

  • "kapster" - a talkative person

  • "maluation" - embarrassment, from "malu" + "-ation"

  • "outstation" - out of town (i.e, going outstation)

  • "terrer" - (pronounced as the English "terror") Refers to someone or something being awesomely amazing or good. (i.e. "Bloody hell, that guy is terrer!")



Adjectives

  • "aiksy/lan si" - arrogant, overconfident. 'Aiksy' possibly derived from 'acting up'; 'lan si' is of Cantonese origin.

  • "blur" - confused, out-of-it. Roughly equivalent to "spacey" in American Slang .

  • "slumber" - relaxed, laid-back; possibly a conflation of the Malay "selamba", meaning nonchalant, and the English "slumber".



Verbs

  • "business" - a euphemism for bodily functions conducted in the toilet. One can do big business or small business.

  • "cabut/cantas" - to run off, flee or to escape ('Cabut' is a Malay word meaning to pull or pulling out as a Transitive Verb , or to become detached as an Intransitive Verb .)

  • "gostan" - reverse a vehicle, apparently from the Nautical Term "go astern" (mostly used in Kelantan, Kedah and Penang).

  • "jadi" - happened, succeeded (derived from the Malay word 'jadi', and may sometimes mean 'so' as in, "Jadi?" = "So what?")

  • "jalan" - to walk

  • "kantoi" - to get caught ("I kena kantoi..." means, "I got shafted/reprimanded/caught")

  • "kena" - to get caught/punished; often used like a noun ("I sure kena if I cheat")

  • "kill" - to punish/scold/cause trouble to someone ("If you're not careful ah, this guy will kill you")

  • "makan" - to eat

  • "minum" - to drink

  • "on/off" - to ''turn'' something on or off, respectively (e.g. "Don't forget to off the fan.")

  • "pengsan" - to faint

  • "pon" - to skip school/play truant (from "ponteng", meaning the same)

  • "saman" - to issue a traffic ticket, from Summons

  • "sit" - since this is the word used for riding in a vehicle in Malay and in Chinese dialects, it is used in the same way in English, e.g. "sit bus"

  • "tahan" - to stand, to bear ("Cannot tahan her perfume! So strong!")

  • "tumpang-ing" - riding in someone else's vehicle or lodging at someone else's house, from the Malay verb "tumpang" + "-ing"

  • "any Malay word + ing" - doing a certain action ('Tengah makan' or 'I'm eating right now' is shortened to 'Makan-ing')



Exclamations

  • "best/syok" - indicates the object as superlatively good. "Syok/shiok" is from the Hokkien word for sexual arousal or pleasure. (Shiok is also a chain of Novelty shops.)

  • "die/finish/gone/habis/mampus/si(死)" - generic exclamations to indicate trouble, used like the English 'damn it' or 'to face the music' (Today he die because of that Loan Shark .)



Grammar

  • "(Subject + predicate), is it?" - this is often used as a question. "It" doesn't refer to the subject, but rather to the entire preceding clause ("Is it so?")



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