OK, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that I’m no expert in Bahasa Melayu (Malaysia?). But I think I have sense enough to know that the word “PERMASALAHAN” should not even exist. It does, though – as can be seen by the number of people using the word nowadays. It is increasing at a rate that is almost as fast as the the increase in the population of illegal Indonesian immigrants in Malaysia.
Just think about it (and take the ‘I-must-use-big-words-to-impress-people’ hat off for a minute). What job does ‘PERMASALAHAN’ do that the good old ‘MASALAH’ cannot? I thought so! You can easily replace ‘PERMASALAHAN’ with ‘MASALAH’ and your meaning will not change in manner whatsoever. This goes to show that just because TV3 uses a word repeatedly doesn’t mean that it it should be mindlessly adopted.
Now, let’s try to find an approximate to ‘PERMASALAHAN’ in English. The closest contender I can think of is the very inelegant (if not grotesque) ‘PROBLEMATION’. Yeah, anybody who even utters this word (‘PROBLEMATION’) in the English-speaking world will probably get shot (maybe even twice!). By extension, I believe users of the word ‘PERMASALAHAN’ deserve the same fate.
OK, I concede that it has the dubious quality of sounding better than ‘MASALAH’. But apart from that, how does it add to good old, time-honoured ‘MASALAH’? Maybe we should just hand over the people who use ‘PERMASALAHAN’ to the sharpened bamboo stake wielding members of BENDERA and be done with it.
A writer wannabe who thinks he was once a WWII RAF fighter pilot
20 responses so far ↓
Kak Teh // October 9, 2009 at 12:35 pm |
MB, I salute the newscaster who could say the word PERMASALAHAN – my tongue would have done a somersault many times over before I could get the message across. I just wonder, without hearing the word uttered, whether it is pronounced as PERMASA’ALAHAN or just PERMASALAHAN. This is becoming a permasalahan to me, considering it is 0534 in Londra and I do need to get an answer before I go back to sleep.
LadyMarko // October 9, 2009 at 1:01 pm |
I always thought it’s spelled “masaalah” as that’s how it’s pronounced… guess I was wrong.
higashi-san // October 9, 2009 at 3:44 pm |
Mat-san,
I can`t blame you and your struggles with the new way the Bahasa Melayu(Malaysia)is being used.The same here, what more when we are more conversant, and comfortable, in English, than using our own mother tongue.The other thing that continually amazes me(as used by our TV newscasters).What was wrong with using “dari”, or” daripada” as in..” benda ini di buat daripada besi” (as used in our time) and why the need to change the phrase structure to “benda ini dibuat besi” as it is commonly used now.
Peniiiing!
Anak Umie // October 9, 2009 at 4:24 pm |
Salam Abg B,
Very interesting topic. One question, tho – do we pronounce ‘masalah’ as mas’alah or masa-alah?
Anyway, me pretty new here. Came across your post by chance. Glad I did. Very interesting. But very shy, the written English here is superb. Pardon mine, ya…
kama // October 9, 2009 at 5:25 pm |
Mat B
Welcome to my world. In old Bahasa Melayu, the word was spelt ‘masa’alah’. When Bahasa Melayu becomes Bahasa Malaysia, the spelling changes to masalah although the pronunciation remains masa’alah. I don’t know why they bother to omit one ‘a’ and an apostrophe when they retain the pronunciation.
And now we have permasa’alahan when masa’alah (or masaalah or even masalah) does just as well. Let’s not lose sleep over such silly pedantry. We have enough masa’alah as it were…
Andrea Whatever // October 10, 2009 at 9:18 am |
Gawd! what a word! Per-ma-sa-la-han. Won’t Kemasalahan sound better? .. at least it spares the person sitting in front of you the “mouth shower” at “Per”.
mumsie // October 10, 2009 at 2:51 pm |
Mr B!
Your question did not come up!! Masaalah sungguh!!
Oldstock // October 10, 2009 at 6:14 pm |
MatB,
If I may venture to make it more complicated : `Permasalahan’ is the discussion about the problems (or set of problems) and not the problem itself. But don’t take my word for it, heheheh
As my Chinese friends would say, `Mo man thye!’
Pak Tuo // October 10, 2009 at 9:50 pm |
So? apa masa’alah nya mamak?
Tommy Yew // October 11, 2009 at 1:22 pm |
Matt, I hope there’s no problem when I next order my Chicken Tikka Masala or Beef Bhunna Masala in any Indian Restaurant…muahaha.
FYI; Just as Oldstock mentioned it; “Mo man thye” literally means ‘No Eye See’ in Cantonese; i.e. WTF, We’d just gotta bear it & put up with it.
Cheers,
Tommy
Tommy Yew // October 11, 2009 at 9:37 pm |
oops, soli lost in translation;
Oldstock; ‘Mo mun thye’ is actually ‘No Problem’. No Eyes See’ is ‘Mo Ngan thye’.
Hehe masaalah orang tua lah!
Tommy
kassim ahmad // October 12, 2009 at 12:22 am |
mat b
you make me feel really old. i’m still of the old school and it has been and will always be “masa’alah” for me.
i still cringe when people say ‘ true facts’ or ‘discuss about’; sigh, thanks to my old english teachers at mckk (messrs partridge, whitbread, selvanayagam, ryan and tate )
salam
kassim
kama // October 12, 2009 at 11:47 am |
Hehehe Mat B
The only place where X looks good is certainly not on Maxrof, or even Malcolm X, but on a saucy, frilly piece of underwear, the crotch of which boldly states…Xsctacy….LOL
Jasmani Jalil // October 17, 2009 at 8:04 am |
another word to chuck into the rubbish bin is “keprihatinan”, when “bimbang” would suffice.
Jasmani
Anon // October 19, 2009 at 8:01 pm |
I wonder what grade did you get for your Bahasa Malaysia paper.
It is so obvious that you don’t understand your own language that well.
Ermmm
mekyam // October 17, 2009 at 12:59 pm |
matB,
shall we shove the silly word down their throats ourselves? ;D
can’t count on those BENDERA idiots. most may have fallen on their own stakes [literally taking their culture to death], what with the plate tectonics continually shifting under them.
Sir Cipan // October 21, 2009 at 7:27 pm |
Masaalah = everyone can settle this one
Permasaalahan = Even God cannot settle (short of pressing the giant Universe Reset button, of course)
mekyam // October 23, 2009 at 11:18 pm |
grammatically, i think the actual differences are like this:
- masalah = kesulitan [i.e. something that requires solving]; e.g. ejaan ‘masalah’ yg tidak sama dgn sebutannya adalah satu masalah.
- permasalahan = persoalan/isu [i.e. something or a bunch of things that are problematic]; e.g. masalah tidak mengeja ‘masalah’ mengikut sebutannya tidak menjadi permasalahan lagi dgn penutur2 muda.
- permasalahan = pelbagai masalah [i.e. used as a collective noun]; permasalahan berkaitan ‘masalah’ yang dibualkan di blog matb merangkumi ejaan, sebutan, makna, dll.
p.s. sorry for being a pedant. you can say it’s my language calling. ;D
mekyam // October 24, 2009 at 11:49 am
ideally, they shouldn’t be. imho lah.
rozi // November 5, 2009 at 3:57 pm |
MB,
for several years i have been using the word “terlanjur”, and recently i found out that the word in Kamus Dewan is “TElanjur”. and the word is “telantar” and not “TERlantar”. luckily i didnt complain to majlis peperiksaan for my credit six, else a recheck would grant me a pass seven maybe.
have you heard of this? :
this happened in a school in kelantan.. a boy came late to school. the teacher asked “what is your problem?”. the boy answered “ma-sok-loh”. the teacher asked again “what is your problem” and the boy replied “ma-sok-loh”. and again and again and again.
the boy was trying to say he lost his socks “my socks lost”. is that a “permasalahan” or “masalah”?