I was supposed to go for a family dinner last night for my paternal grandma's birthday but a lot of my relatives could not make it so it was postponed. Thus I met up with my friend to continue on my Bahasa lessons since he happened to be near my work place.
It was a rather fruitful lesson. I learnt about basic words used in greetings and addressing and the prefix "me-". Let me see if I can get them right.
Namanya Siapa - What is your name?
Apparently this is used in informal speech rather than the more "impolite" form of Siapa Namamu (Who are you?). Sounds Japanese to me though, plus both sound similar and a little confusing.
Father - Ayah
Mother - Ibu (This is one of the races / languages / dialects found in Nigeria)
Grandfather - Kakek
Grandmother - Nenek (same as the way the Peranakans greet their matriach)
Uncle - Paman (interesting, a little twist and it will be "Padawan")
Aunt - Bibi (Rather Peranakan sounding too.)
One thing I am unsure about is Abang (older man) and Kakak (older woman) as I thought they mean "brother" and "sister" respectively. I discovered that certain words are only used in Java like Mas (older man) and Mbak (older woman).
The pronouns are more difficult though. Collective and possessive pronouns like "I", "Me", "My", "Mine" is Saya or Aku. "You", "Yours" is Kamu or Kau or Engkau. "They", "Them", "Their", "Theirs" is Mereka (I almost associated it with "Merdeka"). "We", "Ours" is Kami or Kita and "You people" is Kalian (sounds like some Chinese word).
But why is there more than one word for these pronouns? What is the difference anyway? Is it you have to use different ones in different contexts?
I also learnt that the prefix "me-" can be broken into "men-", "mem-", "meng-" and "meny-", and some letters of certain words have to be changed once the particular prefix is placed with the word. Reminds me of English Grammar all over again, except now it is in another language.
Not only that, he also said there is the common street language (colloqualism) and the formal language, just like Singlish and English. Well.... real interesting and enriching indeed. We managed to get quite a bit covered within a short span of time. Hopefully I will be able to at least converse a little next year with my Indonesian friends and relatives.
It was a rather fruitful lesson. I learnt about basic words used in greetings and addressing and the prefix "me-". Let me see if I can get them right.
Namanya Siapa - What is your name?
Apparently this is used in informal speech rather than the more "impolite" form of Siapa Namamu (Who are you?). Sounds Japanese to me though, plus both sound similar and a little confusing.
Father - Ayah
Mother - Ibu (This is one of the races / languages / dialects found in Nigeria)
Grandfather - Kakek
Grandmother - Nenek (same as the way the Peranakans greet their matriach)
Uncle - Paman (interesting, a little twist and it will be "Padawan")
Aunt - Bibi (Rather Peranakan sounding too.)
One thing I am unsure about is Abang (older man) and Kakak (older woman) as I thought they mean "brother" and "sister" respectively. I discovered that certain words are only used in Java like Mas (older man) and Mbak (older woman).
The pronouns are more difficult though. Collective and possessive pronouns like "I", "Me", "My", "Mine" is Saya or Aku. "You", "Yours" is Kamu or Kau or Engkau. "They", "Them", "Their", "Theirs" is Mereka (I almost associated it with "Merdeka"). "We", "Ours" is Kami or Kita and "You people" is Kalian (sounds like some Chinese word).
But why is there more than one word for these pronouns? What is the difference anyway? Is it you have to use different ones in different contexts?
I also learnt that the prefix "me-" can be broken into "men-", "mem-", "meng-" and "meny-", and some letters of certain words have to be changed once the particular prefix is placed with the word. Reminds me of English Grammar all over again, except now it is in another language.
Not only that, he also said there is the common street language (colloqualism) and the formal language, just like Singlish and English. Well.... real interesting and enriching indeed. We managed to get quite a bit covered within a short span of time. Hopefully I will be able to at least converse a little next year with my Indonesian friends and relatives.
10 comments:
Bahasa Indonesia does have some 'formal' and 'informal' forms, not that I am very well versed at it, but I'll add some more pronoun for "you" - "Anda", and "me" - "Gua". In descending order of formality:
"Anda", "Kamu", "Kau".
"Saya", "Aku", "Gua".
I somehow have the impression that "Gua" is even more informal than "Kau", and is used more often by guys.
Note that B.I. does not have a single possesive pronoun, and uses a phrase instead.
Me = Saya
Mine = Saya punya (punya is the modifier)
"Abang" can mean elder brother, and "Kakak" can mean elder sister. These are also convenient terns you can use to call on people of the approximate age. Used with names, they are shortened - "Bang" for "Abang" and "Kak" for "Kakak".
I used to call my maid 'Kak Ningsih'. It is more polite than just calling the name.
But usually I use "Kakak laki-laki" for elder brother and "Kakak perempuan" for elder sister. Replace "Kakak" with "Adik" and you get younger brother/sister.
Note that the chinese population usually use "Koko" instead of "Abang". (Not sure of the female equivalent)
Trivia:
The Japanese has over 20 pronouns for "I".
Gah.. I think I should elaborate on "punya".
"Punya" literally means "have/has" or "own" and it can be placed either before or after the pronoun. That means "Saya punya" could either be "I have" or "Mine/My".
It is sometimes omitted in the sentence if it comes *before* the pronoun because it has one only meaning then. "Punya saya" always means "Mine/My".
E.g. The question "Ini buku siapa?" is actually:
"Ini buku [punya] siapa?" - (This book [own] who) = "Whose book is this?"
Can be answered by:
"Saya punya" - (me own) = "Mine", or
"Itu buku [punya] saya" - (That book [own] me) = "That is my book"
Siapa Namanu (Who are you?).
Likely to be a typo error. It should be read as "Siapa namamu?"
And I don't agree it's "impolite" way of asking what the person's name is--well, as long as the person who asks smiles when the question is thrown.
There is really no clear cut whether a certain form of questions is polite or impolite.
Ole Wolvie : Thanks so much for the comprehensive explanation. Really appreciate it :-)
Anon_X : Erh, yes, just looked through my notes and it was a typo error. Rectified already. Thanks for the info also.
A_x: "Nama anda?" is definitely more polite than "Siapa namamu?" or even worse "Siapa kau?"
Is "Nama Anda" similar to "Who are you"? Since "anda" also means "you".
Just a note, though "Kami" and "Kita" are both translated as "we" in English, it has different meanings. Kami is an exclusive first-person plural pronoun (i.e. excludes the person spoken to), while Kita is an inclusive first-person plural pronoun (includes the person spoken to). English does not have such distinction and only have one word for first-person plural pronoun.
For all the rest, the different synonyms have similar meaning and at most only have difference in nuance or level of politeness.
um, bad grammar, they have different meanings. And several other grammar error (mostly SVA) I see now that I can't be bothered to correct
Bah.. how could I have missed the nuance on "Kita" and "Kami"... (Which incidentally means "North" and "Paper" [among other things] in Japanese :P)
This should have enough nuance:
"Nama anda?" - "Your name?"
"Siapa kamu?" - "Who are you?"
"Siapa kau?" - "Who the heck are you?"
Sonic & Old Wolvie : Thanks! You've both been a great help. Now I understand so much better.
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