Thursday, January 27, 2011

Grammar 1: The Shortest Melanau Word

12:12 AM

Different from Malay which only uses yang as an indicator to relate to both animate and inanimate objects (Rumah yang besar, Pelajar-pelajar yang bijak), melanau uses 4 types of indicator.

Alphabet: A

['a] pronounced long "a" as in charge or long a as in german Armut
is the shortest melanau word. The word ['a] functions as an element used to indicate a relative clause.

An example of a relative clause is:

English:
The boy who was not there.
Here the clause who was not there is a relative clause.

German:
Das ist der Junge, der den roten Mantel trägt.

Malay:
Itulah wanita yang cuba saya hubungi

From the above example the word who, der and yang function as an indicator of a relative clause. The same case applied to the word ['a] .

Different from Malay which only uses yang as an indicator to relate to both animate and inanimate objects (Rumah yang besar, Pelajar-pelajar yang bijak), melanau uses 4 types of indicator. These indicator are being used depends on the quantity and trait of the noun referred to.

These indicator are as follows:

['a] for a singular Person male or female

min-min 'a sakai kou gak skul béi jekap bajou séyk: all of them, who are my friends at the school, own a red shirt.
siyen 'a tedengah: He is the one, who is famous

[apah] for singular animate object animal or human

Salim, Anéyk Ramli, apah tika lalu : Salim, who is Ramli's oldest son
Siau, apah tina jaja kou gak nou: ( The chicken, the female one, I sell it to you)= I sell you the hen.

[wak] for inanimate object singular and plural

Ujik wak nebelei kou: The knife, which I bought. (Pisau yang saya beli)
Min-min wak enda nebak, iwéyk un: (Anything which is useless, better throw it away).= Anything useless better throw it away. (Apa-apa yang tidak berguna buang sahaja)

[lou] for plural animate objects

Makau buduek mapun skul, lou sakai kou: My friends, who walk to school.

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1 comments:

  1. Bak sama sama metoh ji jimik.
    Jebelah bajou, dua belah seluah adiek,
    Jekap kerteh, dua kap asok, telou kap duit peluen rigit.

    ReplyDelete

 

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