10/01/2013

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Creative texting in Manado Malay

Anthony Jukes & Hendrik Paat

Things I discovered from young

Indonesian FB friends

• You should update your status often

• You should like your own status updates

• You should have multiple accounts, so you can like your own updates multiple times

• You should share both overly personal and extremely trivial things

• You should fish for sympathy by saying ‘why you gottahurt me?’ or ‘OMG can I get through this day!!’

• You should be creative with text and language conventions

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?

??

Du kCiaN, nda bKu mGrti b'aRti nie uJanG

kAnG?nMbLe Lia oRg sNanG..?hahaha..

MaLam bAe jO dAnk..

PakaTuaN wO pAkaLawiRen kiTa

nUaya..wkwkwk..

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???

• f0r 4p l3 nn m0 in94" p4 ich4 d3n9 ipin,,z0e

t4u,,,hahahahaha... zy9 cm4 qdin9

????

• klo m tnggu ϑί мăηâ p Q†ª,mar Nġªηά̲̣ ̥ήԃɑ̈

bls2 doe,,,

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Questions

• What are they doing? How does it work?

• Is it a local (Manado Malay) phenomenon? Or

Indonesia-wide, or beyond?

• How does it compare with English internet

phenomena like textspeak or l33t-speak?

• Why are they doing it?

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Sulawesi

• A somewhat peripheral island of Indonesia

• Slightly smaller than Great Britain

• Population c. 16 m

• 114 languages (Ethnologue)

• Central region very mountainous – population concentrated in north, south-east and (esp.) south peninsulas

• Economy – cacao and coffee (south), cloves and coconuts (north). Some mining.

Manado (.45 mil)

Makassar (1.3 mil)

Minahasa

• A region of North Sulawesi

• Population approx. 1.5 m, majority Christian

• Manado city, approx. 400,000 population

• All local languages giving way to Manado Malay

• Minahasan languages:

– Tombulu

– Tondano

– Tonsea

– Tombatu

– Tontemboan

• Sangiric languages

– (Sangir)

– ((Talaud))

– Bantik

– Toratán

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Manado

Manado Malay (Bahasa Manado)

• Spoken in Manado and other urban centres(Bitung, Tomohon, Tondano, Kotomobagu) as first language

• Spoken throughout North Sulawesi and into Gorontalo, originally as a second language but displacing *all* Minahasan and Sangiriclanguages at varying rates

• Perhaps 3.5 mil + speakers as 1st and 2nd language

• A Pidgin-Derived Malay (PDM, Adelaar 2005)

• Not often written – until now!

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Features of MM: pronouns

Standard Indonesian Manado Malay

First singular saya / aku kita, ta

First plural kami / kita torang

Second singular anda / kamu ngana, nga

Second plural kalian ngoni

Third singular dia dia, de

Third plural mereka dorang

Features of MM: preposed possessor

• BI places possessor after possessed

– rumah saya ‘my house’

– buku-nya ‘his/her book’

• Manado Malay places possessor before

possessed, linked with punya or pe

– kita pe tamang ‘my friend’

– ngana pe bapa ‘your father’

– de pe ruma ‘his house’

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Features of MM: periphrastic causatives

• Standard Indonesian uses meN- or memper- in

combination with –i or –kan

– menghabiskan ‘make it gone, finish it’

– memperbaiki ‘make it good, repair’

• Manado Malay uses kase ‘give’ or bekeng

‘make’

– kase abis ‘finish it’

– bekeng bae ‘repair’

Features of MM: discourse particles

dang adding further information (that is)

ke’ One of several alternatives (for example…)

jo imperative/hortative, let’s

komang something happened repeatedly

katu’ dispel any doubts on the part of the addressee

e used in exclamations to emphasize what is being said

kang tag question

do’ something is not as it should be

te’ hesitation when trying to remember word or name

ne polite request

kote’ the speaker finds out that the opposite of what he had expected is true

tare’ something unexpected happens

so the speaker feels surprised and wants to know more

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How does it work?

• P mnado dloe qt..

Pi Manado dulu kita..

Go Manado first I

• Hahay,, jlan2 dloe qt.Hahay, jalan-jalan dulu kita.Hahay, travelling first I

I went to Manado, I went travelling!

• nda b pngge,,,!!!!btw spa''??nyanda ba pangge btw sapa-sapa?NEG VB call btw who-DUP

You didn’t call me!! btw who (with)?

• hehehe..Ad p dnk kk, mama, dnk mama p tmng2...Kka d'mna dnk.?Ade pigi deng kakak, mama, ↓sibling go with ↑sibling mamadeng mama pe tamang-tamangwith mama POSS friend-DUP

Kakak di mana dang?↑sibling PREP where PART

• Hehehe. I (little sister) went with my older sibling, mum and mum’s friends. Where are you (older brother) anyway?

Indon, Manado Malay, particle, other

How does it work?

• d kost in… d pig ap soch d mndode????Di kos ini, ada pigi apa so di Manado ade?PREP lodgings this CONT go what PART PREP Manado ↓sibling

In my boarding house, what were you doing in Manado,

sis?

• Ad p ba bli kka p speda..Ada pi ba bli kakak pe spedaCONT go VB buy ↑sibling POSS bike

We went there to buy a bicycle for our older sibling

• ohw,,,qpa speda,,, bli motor qwa ke!!!Oh, kyapa speda, bli motor kwa’ ke’

oh why bike buy motor d PART

Oh, why a bike, better buy a motorbike!

• Sw ad d'humz motor. Kka, dde tre ska mw p fatek• So ada di home motor. Kaka, dede tare’ suka mo pi Fatek

PRF be PREP home motor ↑sibling ↓sibling d like want go Fatek

• There’s already a motorbike at home. Bro, I (sis) want to

go to the Faculty of Engineering (unexpectedly)

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How does it work?

• dtng noch d fatek,,,, or nti ka pig ambe d fekon...datang no di FaTek, or nanti kaka pigi ambe di Fekoncome PART PREP FaTek or later ↑sibling go take PREP Fekon

(No problem) Come to Fatek, or I will pick you up at Fekon (Faculty of Economics)

• kka dtng ambe jw wa' dde d'fekon.Kaka datang ambe jo kwa’ dede di Fekon↑sibling come take HORT PART ↓sibling PREP Fekon

Bro come pick me up at Fekon.

• ok den de,,,,, ka smo off,slxa rsa bo'' sx… mt bo2 jo 4 dde… mpiindah… GbuOk deh de kaka so mo off soalnya rasa bobo skali, OK PART ↓sibling ↑sibling PRF want off problem-POSS feel sleepveryslamat bobo jo for dede, mimpi indah. Gbu.greeting sleep HORT for ↓sibling dream beaueful God.bless.you

OK, Bro (I) will be off, thing is (I’m) feeling so sleepy, have a nice sleep sis, sweet dream. God bless you.

How does it work?

Smo bizz btrei qt p'hp..

Somo abis batrei kita pe hp.

My mobile is running out of battery.

Mlz mw ba carzz..

Malas mo ba charge

I am lazy to recharge it.

Nnti jw stu klie bsok jw yahhh,,,..

Nanti jo satu kali besok jo ya

I’ll do it once again tomorrow.

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How does it work?

f0r 4p l3 nn m0 in94" p4 ich4 d3n9 ipin,,

for apa ley ngana mo inga-inga pa Icha deng Ipin

Why do you still remember Icha and Ipin?

z0e t4u,,,hahahahaha...

soe tau hahahahaha

bad luck! Hahahahaha

zy9 cm4 qdin9

sayang cuma kidding.

darling, I am just kidding!

How does it work?

klo m tnggu ϑί мăηâ p Q†ª,

kalo mo tunggu di mana pa kita,

if you want to wait somewhere for me

mar Nġªηά̲̣ ̥ ήԃɑ̈ bls2 doe,,,

mar ngana nyanda balas-balas do’e.

but you never reply, do you?

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How does it work?

• Pe lama month plg ..

• pe lama mo pulang

POSS long want go.home

• Too long, (I) want to go home

How does it work?

• Abbreviations:nda = nyanda, nn = ngana

• Substitutions:qt = kita, zizth = sista

• Additions:ough = o, n0ch = no, month = mo, humzzz = home

• Ornamentations:– Mix upper and lower case letters (Du kCiaN)

– Use numerals or non-standard characters (w4l30 = Waleo, Q†ª = kita, Nġªηά̲̣ ̥= ngana, qdin9 = kidding)

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Is it a local (Manado Malay)

phenomenon? • Yes and no

• It’s a distinctively local expression of a national phenomenon, Bahasa Alay

(anak layangan ‘kite kids’) – credited to ‘Ophi A. Bubu’, a high school

student from Banyuwangi of East Java who made postings on FB like the

following in 2007-8

qoH tLuZ”aN uCHA bWaD tTeP qEqEUh cXnK qMo………. Aku terus terusan berusaha buat tetep kekeuh

sayang kamu

I keep on trying to love you)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/28/messing-with-letters.html

“JuD9e mE aLL y0u wAnT, jUSt keEp tHe VeRdiCt t0 y0uRsELf.”

When you see text written in this kind of style, you think: (a) That’s cool. (b) Whoever wrote that

should be shot, or have their fingers broken. (c) So what? If that’s the writer’s style ...If your answer is (b), then you could be part of a growing club whose members use the word “alay” to

refer to — or mock — anyone who types using a mix of upper and lower case letters and

numbers.

Bahasa Alay

Pandu / Wed, 28/10/2009 - 14:10pm

Alright people, listen up! Alay is an abbreviation of Anak Layangan/Kite Kid. how come? well, the kids from kampung/village are not like the kids who live in big cities like Jakarta, who play somethingmodern. the kampung kids, however, can't afford those 'city games and toys', due to financial condition of their families. so, they play with kites instead of PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo. and since they playkites in the afternoon while the sun is blazing, their skin becomes dark. I think it's safe enough to visualize them as kids with dark, dirty, and messy look. (no offense). you see, a kampung kid gets alongand befriends with other kampung kids, so their circle of friends are limited. some of them (many, actually) have wrong perception of what's cool and trendy. they soon become fashion victims.

Bri / Wed, 28/10/2009 - 21:10pm

I don't really mind with alay. I have alay friends and I can say they're quite close to me. But sometimes they can be too annoying. I don't hate alay personally, but I do hate people who write L1k3 7hI5. I think it shows how they only care about themselves and not about other people [esp. who'll read their texts]. Maybe it's all right for them to write and read 7Hiz W4y, but it's quite irritating for other readers who prefer normal letters.

Corby / Wed, 28/10/2009 - 19:10pm

Alay is a phenomenon because it is ruining the youth of our nation. If the alays starts to spread and increase, then it is possible that our youth will be generalized as the tacky Indonesians.

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Differences between mainstream

‘Alay’ and MM variety

• Alay

– features of Colloquial or Jakarta Indonesian (-in, nge-, gue, lho)

– mixture of upper and lower-case as a defining characteristic

• In MM usage

– it is not referred to as ‘Alay’,

– it shows many MM grammatical features

– heavy use of MM discourse particles

– less mixture of upper and lower-case

Comparison with English textspeak/

l33tspeak• The main difference from the above is how pervasive it is

– textspeak (in English) is only used in a minority of texts (20%) – and is not generally used on Twitter or Facebook status updates

– l33t is/was used in a subculture but this phenomenon is widespread

• Textspeak has conventions used to save time/characters (i.e l8r, loletc)– Some similar phenomena are found in Indonesian text messaging

• 4 = empat, thus t4 tempat ‘place’

• x = nya ‘POSS’, thus bukux = bukunya ‘his book’

• Leaving out the vowels

• But most of the ‘Alay’ type conventions are not time-saving, e.greplacing a letter with another letter or a number, or mixing upper and lower case. Slower to write and harder to read.

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Other similar phenomena

• ギャル文字gyaru-moji (Japan)– Basically graph substitutions and colloquial forms

• Jejemon (Philippines)

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/jejemon

Levels of Jejemon

There are 4 notable levels of being a jejemon. Mild, moderate, severe and terminal jejenism. Here are examples of what each would look like.

• Mild: eow~ p0Wh HOw zaRezu – How are you?

• Moderate: EOW p0wh~ hoW~ zAreZu~ iTZ beEN A loNG tym~ SincE weVE SeEn eAcH othEr~ – hello how are you it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other

• Severe: GUDpM~ p0Wh. hoW ZaREZu~ 2nYT, n0H? itz alReADY 3 m nd u zAREzstLl aWKe JEJEJe p0wh.~ U sHoUldSleEp~ alrEADY~ BeCauSe iT iz l8~ jeJejeJEje~ – Good evening. How are you tonight? It’s already 3am and you are still awake. You should sleep already because it is late.

• Terminal: EOW P0WH THeRe~ P0wh. NicE MEEtNg u~ JEjEjeje~ p0Wh. WTZ Ur nME, N0H?~ H0W ZarezU 2dAy JeJeje DO U THnk~ thAt~ we~ ShOuld~ Go sOMEwER, n0H?~ ur GoiNg 2 go aLREaDY,~ n0H? nicE~ mEETnG~ u JejejEjEJEJejE – Hello there. Nice meeting you. What is your name? How are you today? Do you think that we should go somewhere? Your going already? Nice meeting you.

Why?

• Students said it was gaul (social, cool) to do it

• It makes their status updates stand out

• It signals in-group membership and solidarity

– it takes more time to decode so it is seen as semi-confidential

• Because it’s fun

• (I hypothesise) Because the conventions are loose, it encourages informality and use of MM rather than BI

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teh f1n4l w0rD

Nabil / Wed, 28/10/2009 - 15:10pm

I thought that The jakarta is a NEWS reporting

structure. what, in the world, are you doing

analyzing this "alay phenomenon" this is NOT a

phenomenon worthy of any reportage (and it

does not justifies expert opinion of any sort).

there should be other, more valid, phenomenon

happening in Indonesia.