CARROK

I am glad that Terengganu was not affected by the latest blackout. As I was sitting on the steps on the ground floor of my apartment waiting for the lifts to be powered again, I thought of the carrok ( swear) words Terengganu people used.

My friend and fellow-blogger Awang Goneng in this post gave two Terengganu swear words nattang and harang jaddoh which are common in Terengganuspeak. Nattang is of course the Terengganu version of binatang or beast, known or unknown. In a cursing mood, nattang anying (literally dog animal) is not the "cursor" just calling the "cursee" an ordinary dog but probably a beast of a dog like the Hound of Baskerville. I shall not add on harang jaddoh because Awang Goneng, hairless as he is, already gave a more than adequate explanation.

I learnt a lot of swear words from the Geng Kayu. The Geng Kayu were boys from Paya Tok Ber who sat on the pile of wooden planks across the road from Mesjid Puteh. In between prayers at the mosque, they congregate on the planks to cook up some mischief. I discovered that most of the swear words are family-centric. They insult your family, mostly your mother and your grandparents. You know how kids are. You might not be too fond of your mother. She rubbed chilli in your mouth for experimenting with swear words. But you are prepared to fight for her honour. Remember this scene?

Boy: (Drawing a circle on the ground) This is your mother's head. (Stepping on the circle) I STEP on your mother's head.

Invariably, a fist fight follows. Gedebuk gedebak gedebuk gedebak.

The verbal equivalent in Terengganu would be:

mok berayok mung

mok mung gendong celoh pagor

tok mung tuyuk

I am giving just 3 at the moment because those are the ones I remember. I know I will be reminded of others. Do not ask me what berayok means. We just knew it was an insult and didn't wait to ask. We just let fly gedebuk gedebak gedebuk gedebak until the stronger older boys pried us apart.

Mok mung gendong celoh pagor could be casting aspersions on how unladylike your mom is. Gendong is going piggyback and doing it between a fence sounds like a hazy version of the Kamasutra. Whatever the picture you might get, you know that it is a big insult. Gedebuk gedebak gedebuk gedebak again. This time it will take longer for the fighters to be pried. The insult is more potent than mok berayok mung.

Tok mung tuyuk can be loosely translated as "one of your grandparents have bumps". It was never specified where the bumps were. Wherever it was, gedebuk gedebak gedebuk gedebak. The cursor and the cursee would end up tuyuk themselves.

(Picture taken from here)