The Origin of Words: Between Malayalam and Bahasa Indonesia
Forget about history; trade ways, Silk Ways, Pithecanthropus erectus, other sapiens, evolutions, missing links, whether it has same root from Arabic or not, etc. Even forget about title of this writing, because I’m just questioning how come these two languages have same words with same meanings. There are many similarities? Yup! Not strongly related to the title, here is just to mention “surprising words” of them which have been found by Salam. Malayalam itself is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala (from Wikipedia) . I read that Hindi is the official language of Indian Union (in other articles, stated there’s no national language in India). English is added for official work. Me Indonesian, see it as Indonesia with National Language and many local languages. Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. The Indonesian name for the language is Bahasa Indonesia (literally “the language of Indonesia”). This term can sometimes still be found in written or spoken English In addition, the language is sometimes referred to as “Bahasa” by English speakers, though this simply means “language” and thus does not technically specify the Indonesian language. (from Wikipedia). Okay, let me show you the similarities!
- Sabun (Malayam and Bahasa) = Soap (English)
- Putri (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Daughter (English)
- Tatah (Malayalam) = Teteh (Sundanese of Indonesia) = to call an elder woman = (close to) sister (English)
- Kaka (Malayalam, for older brother) = Kakak (Bahasa, for older sister and brother) = Older Brother or Older Sister (English)
- Surgam (Malayalam) = Surga (Bahasa) = Heaven (English)
- Nerakam (Malayalam) = Neraka (Bahasa) = Hell (English)
- Bumi (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Earth (English)
- Dunia (Malayalam and Bahasa) = World (English)
- Maya (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Maya/Illusion (English)
- Rahasia (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Secret (English)
- Suryan (Malayalam) = Surya (Bahasa) = Sun (English)
- Pustaka (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Book/References (English)
- Karyam (Malayalam) = Karya (Bahasa) = Work/Creation (English)
- Danam (Malayalam) = Dana (Bahasa) = Fund (English)
- Labam (Malayalam) = Laba (Bahasa) = Profit (English)
- Nadi (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Pulse (English)
- Bhasa (Malayalam) = Bahasa (Bahasa) = Language (English)
- Bakti (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Devotion/Service (English)
- Bugempam (Malayam) = Gempa (Bahasa) = Earth Quake (English)
- Acar (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Pickles (English)
- Mesa (Malayalam) = Meja (Bahasa) = Table (English)
- Rupam (Malayalam) = Rupa (Bahasa) = Form (English)
- Desam (Malayalam) = Desa (Bahasa) = Village (English)
- Mangga/Mampazham (Malayalam) = Mangga (Bahasa) = Mango (English)
- Dosam (Malayalam) = Dosa (Bahasa) = Sin (English)
- Upacaram (Malayalam) = Upacara (Bahasa) = Ceremony (English)
- Sukam (Malayalam) = Suka (Bahasa) = Joy (English)
- Dukam (Malayalam) = Duka (Bahasa) = Sorrow (English)
- Maap (Malayalam and Sundanese of Indonesia) = Maaf (Hindi and Bahasa) = Sorry (English)
- Mukam (Malayalam) = Muka (Bahasa) = Face (English)
- Saksi (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Witness (English)
- Acaram (Malayalam) = Acara (Bahasa) = Event (English)
- Siksa (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Torment (English)
- Madu (Malayam and Bahasa) = Honey (English)
- Kapi (Malayalam) = Kopi (Bahasa) = Coffee (English)
- Kapal (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Ship (English)
- Gua (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Cave (English)
- Guru (Malayalam and Bahasa) = Teacher (English)
P.S: Most of Malayalam Words will be added by ~m So, how is it? Cool? Amazing. JJJ Thanks to Abdul Salam. He found them all, not me. I didn’t realize before. How many languages are there in the world? From Stephen R. Andersen’s book, the number of languages in the world must be much greater than the Ethnologue’s 6,809. I believe there are many cases like these Malayalam and Bahasa Indonesia out there. I made a little research only by comparing taxonomy of both. (Taxonomy of Indonesian and Malayalam – crop and paste from Wikipedia) According to that taxonomy, what point you take out to explain why? If you are still asking how it happens, you go with deep research. For people who wanna add more words, especially Indians and Indonesians (and comment please..) – hai, douzo.. This writing have been published in www.dhienarsalam.wordpress.com