BABA MALAY. 59
yarg are never used by Malays; instead of ini macham purya orarg
fikir, a Malay would say pada fikiran orarg yary dmkian; and
instead of apa yary baryak salah, a Malay would say ksalahan yarg
bsar; a Malay would probably say the whole sentence somewhat
as follows:—Pada fikiran orarg yarg dmkian, ksalahan yarg bsar
tiada patut di-perbuat, dan ksalahan yary sdikit boleh di-perbuat.
The last clause “ Apa punya bodoh satu fikiran ini?” is even more
utterly foreign to Malay idiom. It will be noticed that in the
above sentence as reconstructed in the Malay idiom, the passive form
di-perbuat is used; the Malays of course make a great deal of use of
this construction both in writing and in conversation, but the
Babas hardly ever use it at all. Another peculiar of the Babas is
that they almost always make the adjectival pronouns itw and ini,
that and this, precede the noun which they qualify instead of
following it, as it should be according to Malay idiom. Again the
Babas use the verb “ to be” quite differently from the Malay idiom;
take such sentences as, “ Ini ada btul salah; ” “ini macham pura
orary ada bodoh”’—no Malay would ever use ada in such a connec-
tion at all. They also follow the English idiom of placing the
verb “to be” at the end of a sentence, thus, “ brapa chantek dia-
orary ada,” “how beautiful they are.” Another Chinese idiom is
the use of dataiy for “ here” or “ hither,” as the Chinese use /di,
as,“ knapa t'ada bawa dia datarg?” and “ Kalau lu jalan datayy.”
Pernah is used in the sense “at some time,” as opposed to ta’per-
nah, “never,” in the same way that the Hok-kiens used bat and
m-bat, as, “ kuda yar sudah pernah targgor seksa,” “a horse
which has suffered at some time;” “kuda yary sudah pernah ja-
toh,” “a horse which at some time has fallen;” these quotations
are from the translation of “ Black Beauty” by Mr. Goh Hood
Keng, who speaks very little Chinese. The following may also be
given as examples of phrases which are distinetly Chinese—* Di-
prarakan sampai mnjadi orary,” “taken care of until he grew
up” = Chinese chid"-ldry ; tergok rergan, instead of the Malay pan-
darg mudah = khoa"-khin; “ orang yarg kna dia pukol,” “the man
who was beaten by him” = hd i phah.
The following list of words, though not by any means com- plete, will be useful for reference.
WORDS PECULIAR 'TO THE BABAS.
Being principally corruptions of Malay and Chinese words.
| Baba, Chinese. Malay. English, |
|---|
| Ajat ajak to incite |
| Amek ambil to fetch |
| Baik in good health |
| Balek on the contrary |
| Bio bid temple |
R. A. Soc., No. 65, 1913.
