<$BlogRSDUrl$>
Di Bawoh Rang Ikang Kering
Random Ramblings of A Retired Retainer

A ROUGH GUIDE TO TERENGGANU-SPEAK

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

A few weeks ago, Lion3ss kindly sent me an Excel file of the Terengganu-English dictionary. Before that, I compiled a list of words myself at the request of my classmates. A power failure resulted in my pc refusing to boot and in the ensuing confusion; I lost my hard disk together with the dictionary and other files. Cest La Vie, said the French. Should have backed them up, said my hindsight or was it my behind, I am not sure.

Now, the Terengganu lingo is not just adding ng to every word. It is not just saying jalang for jalan or ikang for ikan. There is the economy (or laziness) of syllable-cuttings. Save the mouth for more important things like chewing kerepok lekor or belebat ubi. So we have words such as gi for pergi and wat for buat. Sometimes words merged into one. Consider stabuk. This word is an amalgamation of sebutir habuk (a speck of dust). Related word is starang from the words sebutir harang (haram). An example of a sentence using this word would be: (Terenganu-speak. Standard Malay)

Aku gi doh pasor takdi cari deriang. Tadok setarang. Setabuk dak napok.
Aku dah pergi ke pasar tadi cari durian. Haram sebiji pun tak ada. Sezarah habuk pun tak nampak.
(I have been to the market looking for durians. Could not find even a single one.)

The economy (or laziness) even gave birth to a whole sentence consisting of words that have one single meaning. Just like One Note Samba. Here's the example:
Acu cuba try test.
It boggles the grammarian's mind. But there it is - complete sentence by itself. Go ahead if you want to try to analyze the parts, subject and predicate etc. Just don't hold me responsible for blurry eyes and splitting headaches.

The economy (or laziness) of words are made up by the sheer descriptiveness of the Terengganu Perbilangan. What imageries do these words conjure up?
gelap guguk
beso jalo
lapo belepeng
manih letting
kerah kerjong
panah ketik ketik
leloh bedoho'r

Hopefully, the words above can be dealt with in the coming post. Right now I am stumped by the description of something smooth: licing le' er. There is a story about a jealous husband behind these words but I wouldn't dare tell you the story here. What is le'er? Anyone knows?

(As an exercise, try understanding betablogger's post written entirely in Terengganu tongue.)

| 12:01 AM :: ::
10 CommentsOldStyle:

  • don't forget "bulat gete"

    hehhehe

    -raina

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:21 AM  

  • my favourite trengganu word will always be 'nonneng' .. i know it sounds crude, but it will always remind me of kak loni and our hilarious discussions..and of my kids hanging on to the pelepoh nyo and jumping off the gere to swing onto the tanoh.

    By Blogger elisataufik, at 7:57 AM  

  • I love this post!

    i think my favourite Terengganu lingo is se'eh perut. Simply because there's no real one-word equivalent in standard malay. Kenyang would be an understatement.

    I also like 'hok saya' i.e. hak i.e. saya punya

    The thing about this lazy-lingo of Terengganu is that the root words are really very poetic, don't you think? Imagine speaking in full standard BM translation - very classy.

    Could you do an analysis of names of places in Terengganu as well? Those are interesting too.

    By Blogger realitylane, at 8:01 AM  

  • Hmmm... the nearest I can get to le'er is err... leher? Hehehe... btw, I have no knowledge at all of Trengganu malay, so this is all based on pure speculation and (un)educated guessing!

    By Blogger DaisyBoo Blacksheep, at 8:39 AM  

  • This weekend I will be in Terengganu to to savour the nasi dagang dari Mok Jjoh near Pasor Bukit Besor and kereput lekor from Chabang 3.

    By Blogger Adib Noh, at 9:37 AM  

  • heh hehh...my 5yrs in a Tgganu boarding school left sweet memories in my heart. Even those fr Johor & Selangor hv been 'converted' to speak Gganung. Our favourite word is 'stabok'.

    Those naughty boys back then however mis-use 'stabok' to express anything at all. For instance if they are mad at a friend, they's say "mu ni stabok sungguh". Simply for the love of that word. heh hehh...

    By Blogger Honeytar, at 3:17 PM  

  • btw Pok Ku, our first Tgganu sentence that we learn is "jong makang ikang parang dalang pinggang di dewang makang".

    A culture shock for me as I'm used to say "jom make ike paghe dale pingge di dewe make" instead. ;-)

    By Blogger Honeytar, at 3:28 PM  

  • On the Terengganu Perbilangan, I have a few more I still use sometimes *sheepish smile*:

    Ija Naung
    Kuning siyor
    Itam Beletung
    Sejuk Kettor
    Peluh Jeruk

    By Blogger lion3ss, at 11:19 AM  

  • Derumo, LOL! Well done!

    By Blogger Bustaman, at 5:14 PM  

  • Dont forget..'berat nanang'. Actually berat in its actual pronounciation should be spelled differently but I dont want to mislead people...heh!

    This entry got me laughing like hell. All this while I have been speaking the dialect I had no idea that 'stabok' and 'starang' is actually 'sebutir habuk' and 'sebutir haram'.

    By Blogger ビビ, at 11:14 AM  
Post a Comment
<< Home

© Bustaman :: permalink


  • The Other Blog
    recently
    contact
    • email
    • yahoo: malaysiannightrider
    previously
    chips of the old blog
    other blogs visited
    Who Links Here
    credits