{"id":225388,"date":"2010-01-24T23:36:13","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T04:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2010-01-24T23:36:13","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T04:36:13","slug":"indie-pop-manglish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/225388","title":{"rendered":"Indie-pop Manglish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, one of the guests on the NPR show “Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen<\/a>” was the Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi<\/a>, who has managed to convert YouTube buzz into an indie recording contract and a well-received debut album. Most of her lyrics are in English, but one of her songs, which she performed on the show, code-mixes<\/a> Malay and English. As she explains, the song “Kantoi” (meaning “Busted”) is in “a hybrid of Malay and English called Manglish<\/a>.” I talked about Manglish a few years ago in the post, “Malaysia cracks down on ‘salad language<\/a>,'” where I discussed measures taken by the Malaysian government to ban Malay-English mixtures. I wonder how government officials feel now that Manglish is getting international exposure, thanks to a diminutive, ukulele-strumming songstress.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Here is Zee Avi’s “Studio 360″ performance<\/a> of “Kantoi”:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

And here are the lyrics, with an English gloss (courtesy of a tribute video<\/a> on YouTube). I’ve italicized the Malay items in the original. Zee Avi’s code-mixing includes such typical Manglish features as the Malay particle lah<\/a><\/em> attaching to an English phrase (“No wonder lah<\/em>“), and also includes the interesting reduplication “last last,” evidently a calque of Malay akhir-akhir<\/em> (‘in the end, finally’).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Original Manglish:<\/u><\/td>\nEnglish gloss:<\/u><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Semalam<\/em> I call you, you tak<\/em> answer<\/td>\nLast night, I called but you didn’t answer<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
You kata<\/em> you keluar pergi<\/em> dinner<\/td>\nYou said you went out for dinner<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
You kata<\/em> you keluar dengan kawan<\/em> you<\/td>\nYou said you went out with your friends<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
But when I called Tommy he said it wasn’t true.<\/td>\nBut when I called Tommy he said it wasn’t true.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
So I drove my car, pergi<\/em> Damansara<\/td>\nSo I drove my car to Damansara<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tommy kata<\/em> maybe you tengok bola<\/em><\/td>\nTommy said maybe you’re watching football<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tapi bila<\/em> I sampai<\/em>, you, you tak ada<\/em><\/td>\nBut when I arrived, you weren’t there<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lagi la<\/em> I jadi gila<\/em>.<\/td>\nThe crazier I became.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
So I call and call sampai<\/em> you answer<\/td>\nSo I called and called until you answered<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
You kata<\/em>, “Sorry sayang tadi tak dengar<\/em>“<\/td>\nYou said, “Sorry darling, I didn’t hear you”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“My phone was on silent, I was at the gym”<\/td>\n“My phone was on silent, I was at the gym”<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tapi latar belakang suara perempuan lain.<\/em><\/td>\nBut in the background was another woman’s voice.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sudah lah sayang<\/em>, I don’t believe you<\/td>\nEnough darling, I don’t believe you<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I’ve always known that your words were never true<\/td>\nI’ve always known that your words were never true<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Why am I with you, I pun tak tahu<\/em><\/td>\nWhy am I with you, I really don’t know<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No wonder lah<\/em> my friends pun tak suka<\/em> you.<\/td>\nNo wonder my friends don’t even like you.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
So I guess that’s the end of our story<\/td>\nSo I guess that’s the end of our story<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Akhir kata<\/em> she accepted his apology<\/td>\nLast word, she accepted his apology<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tapi<\/em> last last kita dapat tahu<\/em> she was cheating too<\/td>\nBut in the end we found out, she was cheating too<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
With her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, Tommy.<\/td>\nWith her ex-boyfriend’s best friend, Tommy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, one of the guests on the NPR show “Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen” was the Malaysian singer-songwriter Zee Avi, who has managed to convert YouTube buzz into an indie recording contract and a well-received debut album. Most of her lyrics are in English, but one of her songs, which she performed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}