June 21, 2016 edition
Once upon a time, back when I was at primary school, we were taught that verbs were 'doing words'. This was contrasted with nouns, which were called 'naming words'. The interesting thing, though, is how we think about 'doing', and how different languages put those concepts in their words.
In English, as in other Euraopean languages, we make a big deal about time in relationship to 'doing'. When using verbs, the word changes to show time. In Indonesian and Malay, time is not something that verbs have to worry themselves about. That work is done by other words. But verbs have other considerations. The complexity of 'doing' in Indonesian-Malay has more to do with relationships between things and people, and a sense of interaction, proximity and distance. This is conveyed by affixes-bits added on to the basic root word.
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May 24, 2016 edition
We have so many wonderful be-ed words in English and this song features three of them. 'Beguiled' is an old English word formed from adding be- and -ed to the French word guile (deceit), to mean 'lured', 'charmed'. 'Bewitched' adds be- and -ed to the word 'witch', to mean 'put under a spell'. The creation of this wonderful word is often attributed to Shakespeare, although he may have merely popularized it. (Shakespeare did coin at least two other be-ed words, though; 'besmirched' from 'smirch' meaning 'stain', and 'bedazzled'.) 'Bewildered' is made from the word 'wilder', an old verb meaning 'to lose your way', and with which we are familiar from the word 'wilderness'. 'Bewildered' is to be overcome by losing your way, and thus, hopelessly confused.
Indonesian can do a similar thing by putting ke- and -an around words. First, though, before these exciting twists and turns, the basics. The most standard use of ke- and -an is to turn a word into an abstract noun, words that in English often end in -dom, -hood, -ship or -ness. So raja is 'king', and kerajaan is 'kingdom'; merdeka is 'free' or 'independent', and kemerdekaan is 'freedom' or 'independence'; baik is 'good', and kebaikan is 'goodness'; anggota is 'member' and keanggotaan is 'membership'; sulit is 'difficult', and kesulitan is 'difficulty' and so forth. But beware: It is not all smooth sailing. There is the well-known trap for new language learners. While malu means 'ashamed' or 'embarrassed', kemaluan does not mean 'shame', as one would expect, but rather, 'genitals'. I was once told the story of an Australian diplomat's wife in Jakarta, who in her halting Indonesian was telling an Indonesian woman friend that her husband had made some social gaffe, and how embarrassed he was-but she said his kemaluan was great (besar). Without missing a beat, the Indonesian woman friend congratulated her on her choice of husband.
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April 26, 2016 edition