[TAG] Talkback:126/pfeiffer.html

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 05:31:00PM +0700, Mulyadi Santosa wrote:
> Hello Mr Okopnik :)

Hi, Mulyadi! (I prefer to go by 'Ben', actually. :)
 
> > [Mulyadi Santosa]
> > Melayu
> 
> Actually, bahasa Indonesia is a "subset" of Melayu. Indonesian itself is 
> composed from many different regional language such as Javanese, 
> Betawi, Balinese, maduranese and so on. Besides that, we adopt foreign 
> language such as Arabian, English, Indian , Netherlands (possibly many 
> more).

Wow, an archipelago full of linguists. Well, it was already on the
sailing itinerary anyway...

> So for example, if I met Malaysian and she/he talks using Melayu, there 
> is a chance she/he uses some words that I don't understand, or vice 
> versa. But for common words such as "makan", "tidur", "bekerja" etc, we 
> are all agree about that :)

The only Melayu that comes to my mind is "tidak apa-apa" and
"orang-utan" (I've always thought that "man of the jungle" is a great
description.)

[sigh] I wish that life was long enough to learn all human languages,
and that our brains could accomodate them.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *