this calling yourself in the third person can be quite ridiculous
Cultural Observations During Local Stuff I Occasionally Watch: Verbal informal Malay's usual method to get around the perceived formality and distance of the textbook 'saya' yet not descend into the implied closeness/rudeness/gaucheness of 'aku' is to use the third person form. This is not a given tbh - due to the rough-and-tumble rules when it comes to casual spoken Malay, which pronoun the speaker uses to refer to themselves change from speaker and/or situation. The interesting thing is that standard textbook Malay has no specific word for the third person, which when combined with perceived levels of formality for pronoun usage in any given interaction (I say perceived because c'mon, the language as it stands certainly doesn't reflect it! Could there be some word that's fallen prey to standardisation, I can't say, but casual Malay as it is has some needs-to-be-addressed identity issues) leads, as I've said, some pretty wacky solutions.
It's not as problematic for the casual 'you'. You could easily figure out which to use in a situation (kamu, kau, awak, cik, encik, tuan, [name]) But what do Malay speakers use for the third person then? Their own names usually. What sounds incredibly pretentious in English sounds perfectly fine in Malay, and I for one have no complains.
But what's really weird? The usage of 'orang' (literally means 'person', semantically, 'this person'). Now I'll admit it may be a regionalism I'm not too used to (like me being nonplussed when people blink at my stray Kelantanese). But I don't care, IT IS WEIRD. Not to mention a little off-putting when it's in this rapid-fire exchange of the 'I like you, I know you like me, why won't you admit it jfc' variety.
"Orang tau la awak tu ada masalah, tapi ngaku je lah awak suka kat orang!!"
Precious minutes in which I could've continued digesting my dinner was summarily distracted by trying to parse the whole awful exchange. It's a thankless job, writing one romance drama after another, but whoa.
(The drama in question is the new one on the Akasia slot. I'm calling bs that Na O Mei is supposedly a Thai name. I distrust the explanation considering the Malaysian Malay penchant for Western names but trying to find some equivalent in Arabic or Malay, or something that sounds like. Thus the Sarahs, Nadias, Danials and Qistinas. iow, poseur nak mampus. I bet they're going for Naomi. /cynic)
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It's not as problematic for the casual 'you'. You could easily figure out which to use in a situation (kamu, kau, awak, cik, encik, tuan, [name]) But what do Malay speakers use for the third person then? Their own names usually. What sounds incredibly pretentious in English sounds perfectly fine in Malay, and I for one have no complains.
But what's really weird? The usage of 'orang' (literally means 'person', semantically, 'this person'). Now I'll admit it may be a regionalism I'm not too used to (like me being nonplussed when people blink at my stray Kelantanese). But I don't care, IT IS WEIRD. Not to mention a little off-putting when it's in this rapid-fire exchange of the 'I like you, I know you like me, why won't you admit it jfc' variety.
"Orang tau la awak tu ada masalah, tapi ngaku je lah awak suka kat orang!!"
Precious minutes in which I could've continued digesting my dinner was summarily distracted by trying to parse the whole awful exchange. It's a thankless job, writing one romance drama after another, but whoa.
(The drama in question is the new one on the Akasia slot. I'm calling bs that Na O Mei is supposedly a Thai name. I distrust the explanation considering the Malaysian Malay penchant for Western names but trying to find some equivalent in Arabic or Malay, or something that sounds like. Thus the Sarahs, Nadias, Danials and Qistinas. iow, poseur nak mampus. I bet they're going for Naomi. /cynic)
This entry was originally posted at http://horusporus.dreamwidth.org/31736.html. (
comments; view comments) Please comment there using OpenID.