Bye bye... Jalan Baik-baik

The common "Bye-bye" most likely has Malay origins.

When I was much younger I remember people in Malaysia and I think parts of original Melayu-speaking Indonesia used to part company by the greeting "Jalan baik-baik" ("Go carefully") or equally shortened to "Baik-baik" ("Be careful"), or else this was the reply given to the one left behind.

That was between people who meet fairly often. For the occasional long-term parting or going away on a long journey, "Selamat Jalan" ("Bon Voyage") would be more appropriate, and the match is "Selamat Tinggal" ("Safe Remaining") for those left behind.

In the olden days when infrastructure was basic and there were many natural dangers in going from one place to another, the safety greetings especially "Baik-baik" made polite sense as a departing salutation.

But as infrastructure and general security improved in the region, and more so the rise in Islamic awareness, the "Baik-baik" greeting became less heard and was widely replaced by the standard Islamic greeting in Arabic, "Assalamualaikum..." with its reply "Alaikumsalam...". This was used for both meeting and parting in the Malay World. In some other Muslim societies such as in Turkey and Iran, the "Salam" was only for meeting, whereas a local greeting such as "Allahaiesmarladuk" in Turkish/Turkey was used.

Anyway, back to "Baik-baik". An old British historian I met once speculated that the English "Bye bye" may have actually descended from "Baik-baik". After all, it was simple to say and also meaningful and so could have influenced the British when the Brits first heard it in the Malay World upon taking over Semenanjung Tanah Melayu or the Malay Archipelago; beginning with Penang in 1786AD, a Malay island long inhabited by Bahasa Melayu-speaking people.

The conventional etymology for "Bye bye" is said to be a contraction of "God be with you". That's not so convincing as the phrase's sounds don't quite contract towards a "Bye bye", do they...

For now, I'd place my linguistic bets on the "Baik-baik" origin!

Commodity terms

When a product or resource is made into a highly traded and especially a speculated 'commodity', it becomes "commoditised" (British, "commoditisation") / commoditized (American, "commoditization"), although if it were "commodified" ("commodification") there would be no different spelling but it's not quite right, isn't it? Like making something into a commode (relating to the toilet)...

In Bahasa, it would be "komoditisasi" not "komoditasi" or "komodisasi", or the purist linguist like me would prefer "pengkomoditian".

Lembap & Lembab

Bukankah ada beza antara duanya?
Isn't there a difference between the two?

lembap = basah, wet, humid - lebih lisan, more literal - "Iklim Asia Tenggara panas lembap."

lembab = perlahan, lambat atau susah untuk tangkap maksud, sembab, slow, and dim in understanding something - "Dia tu lembab, lambat nak faham cakap orang."

Memperkenalkan / Introducing the Bahasawan Linguarati

Blog ini dicipta untuk merakam buah-buah fikiran tentang Bahasa, terutama Bahasa Melayu dan yang berkait dengannya spt Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia dan lain-lain bahasa serumpun Nusantara Melayu. Makanya saya cipta nama "Bahasawan" yakni yang berkepakaran atau berurusan dalam bidang bahasa, spt Angkasawan, Negarawan, Sasterawan, Usahawan dsb. dlm perkara masing-masing. "Linguerati" juga ialah kata ciptaan saya sendiri yang saya beri maksud petinggi atau yang mekar dalam sesuatu perkara spt Literati di bidang sastera, Glitterati bagi para elit kaya dll. - 'lingua' bermakna lidah atau bahasa dalam bahasa Latin and Itali.

This blog was created to record thoughts and ideas on Bahasa or Language, especially the Malay language and those related to it including the Indonesian and Malaysian vernaculars as well as all those that are part of the shared tongues of the Malay Archipelago. Thus I created the name "Bahasawan" by which I mean one who is a high practitioner in the subject of language, just as Angkasawan, Negarawan, Sasterawan, Usahawan are in their own fields. "Linguerati" is also a word I created which I give the meaning also as a high practitioner or insider in a field, the same as Literati for literature, the Glitterati for the rich elite and so on - 'lingua' means tongue or language in Latin and Italian.

Guru Bahasa - Sang Bahasawan