Malay loanwords in Teochew language

Spoken Teochew is both ancient and at the same time evolving, just like any other "live" languages.

Besides Thailand (historically Siam), Singapore was another important stop for the Teochew people migrating into Southeast Asia between the 19th and 20th century. The role of this island as a regional entrepôt enabled it to serve also as a springboard for Teochews to enter other trading and commercial-agricultural settlements in the Malay-speaking world including the Riau archipelago, Johor, Penang, Melaka, West Kalimantan (particularly Pontianak) and Sarawak.

Unsurprisingly the Teochews settled in these areas have absorbed not a small number of native expressions into their daily vocabulary. Many terms clearly were picked up out of marketplace interactions, others stem from the need to negotiate with their Malay neighbours and the laws of colonial government.

One fascinating case is the word roti. Evolved from the Sanskrit word रोटिका (roṭikā), it means "bread" in Malay. Its use is adopted by the Teochews in Southeast Asia, who however due to the absence of the "r" sound in our mother language, corrupt its pronunciation into "lo-ti" (羅的). The word was later brought into the Teochew region, but here its association with bread is completely lost. Instead the Teochews in China when talking about "lo-ti", think of the colourful iced gem biscuits (in picture below), which in the past was old returning migrants' favourite give-away to children at home and in the village.

Below is a list of Malay words (some actually having other other foreign roots) now frequently spoken by the Teochews in Singapore, Malaysia and/or Indonesia:

No.	Teochew expression	Chinese character transliteration	Original Malay	Meaning in English
1	ba-sag	巴剎	pasar - from Persian bazar	marketplace/bazaar
2	lai-long	來隆	lelang	to auction
3	zu-lug	朱律	cherut	cigar
4	lo-di	羅的	roti (from Sanskrit rotika)	bread
5	lo-di-bia	羅的餅	as above	biscuits
6	go-bi	㗝啤	kopi	coffee
7	go-bi-ou	㗝啤烏	as above	black coffee
8	go-bi-diam	㗝啤店	as above	coffee shop
9	gang-dang	幹筒	kentang	potato
10	liu-liang	榴蓮	durian	durian
11	ang-mo-dang	紅毛丹	rambutan	rambutan
12	mang-ga	芒膠	nangka	jackfruit
13	sag-bhung	塞文	sabun (from old portuguese sabon)	soap
14	sag-bhung hung	塞文粉	as above	washing powder
15	lo- li	羅厘	lori	lorry
16	mo-do	摩哆	motor	motorcycle
17	gu-li	龜里	kuli	coolie (labourer)
18	ziah-gu-li	食龜里	as above	to be under employment
19	lui	鐳	duit - from "doit", a small 17^th/18^th century dutch coin	cash/money
20	go-song	哥松	kosong	empty/zero
21	su-gu	須久	suku	quarter
22	a-gah	餡甲	agak	estimate; guess
23	sa-la	砂拉	salah	wrong/fault
24	ba-dug	巴突	patut	fair
25	ma-na-u	媽那有	mana ada	Where is that?
26	do-long	逃隆	tolong	help
27	long-bang	隆幫	tumpang	to lodge; to take a lift
28	ba-lu	峇魯	baru	just; new; only
29	su-gah	署甲	suka	to like (something)
30	ba-leh	峇歷	balik	to repeat an action/ to go back
31	da-bi	? ?	tetapi	but
32	bung	?	pun	also; even
33	song-mang	松芒	sombong	arrogant
34	ga-jiao	膠?	kacau	disturb
35	ga-lo	膠羅	gaduh	rowdy
36	seng-nang	??	senang	at east/easily
37	da-hang	打漢	tahan	to tolerate
38	gi-lak-gah	幾六甲	celaka	down on luck
39	ma-da	媽淡	mata	police
40	ma-da-cu	媽淡厝	as above	police station
41	jia-ga	惹 ?	jaga	to watch over / guard (noun)
42	bi-za-la	密渣𦛨	bicara	lawsuit
43	sam-mang	杉慢	saman	summons
44	ou-gong	烏公	hukum	to fine
45	dam-gong	耽公	tanggung	to guarantee
46	ba-gag	巴結	pakat	to conspire
47	lang-ga	攔 ?	langgar	to collide / accident
48	lao-gung	老君	dukun	doctor
49	dong-gah	動角	tongkat	walking stick
50	ba-u	峇羽	bahu	smell
51	a-dag	亞答	attap	attap
52	a-dag-cu	亞答厝	as above	attap-hut
53	ngou-ka-gih	五腳砌	kaki- lima	five-foot way (referring to the sheltered walkways of arcade-style buildings once common in major cities in Southeast Asia and coastal southern China
54	liang-lang	兩籠	jamban	toilet
55	ma-sa ma-sa	媽砂媽砂	masak	toys (masak means to cook; masak-masak takes from children’s play-acting as adults at home)
56	gao-ing	交寅	kawin	to get married
57	sa-iang	砂央	sayang	to show affection / pity (noun)
58	geg-leng	革寧	keling (from kalinga, a historical region in india)	referring to dark-skinned Indians

(Adapted from "新加坡潮州话的外语借词和特殊词语" by 李永明 and other sources)

This list is of course far from exhaustive. It also does not contain Teochew words adopted directly from English, of which a few that comes to mind include gi-lo (基羅) - kilogramme, ba-siang (巴仙) - percent, and mag-tao (目頭 ) - [brand]-mark.

~o0o~

Malay loanwords in Teochew language

Comment on this post (1 comment)

Leave a comment