Yet again, we have added more NZ pictures. We told you we had a lot of them. We are almost done uploading them. Most of the pictures have captions on them so far, but a few don’t, so just be a little patient. If you have been following along, start here.
Author: tompepinsky
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Onomatopoetry
Indonesian and Malay are fun languages because of they are simple, with no irregular verbs, no nouns to decline, no cases, and no weird tenses. It makes them easy to learn. What’s also fun is their propensity to make funny onomatopoetic words. Onomatopoeia, you may recall, is when a word sounds like the thing that it represents, like "bang" or "buzz". Indonesian and Malay are full of them, although we certainly only can recall a couple of them now that we are trying to think of them. Here are our favorites.
Gong: Yes, the English word "gong" comes from Malay, not Chinese. You can even check the OED.
Huru-hara: This is a noun for "riot" or "conflagration." I (TP) noticed this word today while reading a speech by Mahathir Mohamad about the need to avoid big disruptions while economic recovery is happening. It literally reflects yells that might be heard during a riot.
Ketok: This is the big wooden drum that kids were banging on outside of our windows in Jakarta during Malam Takbiran. Very expressive, this word.
Menggeong: To meow. Of course. It even looks like a proper Malay/Indonesian verb, complete with the "meN-" prefix and everything.
Ninabobo: This means "lullaby." It comes from a description of a woman singing a lullaby– ni na bo bo, or something like that. It may only be Indonesian. To sing a lullaby to a baby, then is meninabobokan.
