I still remember the early months I was in Singapore. I kept having “whut?” moments when I engaged with my SG Malay colleagues. Some prominent linguistic features pertinent to Singaporean Malays’ speech that I observed:

1) high rising terminal
2) uncommon terms
3) own slangs

1) high rising terminal refers to the increasing intonation towards the end of a sentence. This is a feature of New Zealand English as well. It’s known for HRT.

“Sedap ah” as a statement may sound like a question when they say it.

Still on HRT, it’s not helpful when they also use “apa” as an intensifier. We use “gila” or “kot” to stress a statement.

“Sedap apa!”
“Sedap kot!”

So it’s really confusing. Sometimes idk if they mean “sedap apa bendanya camtu” or “sedap kot” when they say “sedap apa”

So one day I sat down with my best linguistic buddy/colleague in the world, Amirah.

She too, expressed her confusion over my liberal use of “kot”. So as linguists, of course this matter was of our interest. We tried to dissect BM Malaysia and BM Singapura. No more whut moments!

She asked why I use “kot” when I’m confident. What’s the need to sound hesitant?

So I told her, in the last 10 years, the young people in MY have increasingly been using “kot” to mean “sangat”. I first picked it up when I was in a boarding school (met Msians from outside Johor).

It was 2008-2009 when I started hearing it being used and eventually adopted it.

“Cantik kot” suddenly sounded like a compliment instead of an insult.

Interesting. “Cantik kot” could offend someone in 2005 but suddenly in 2009 it could make someone’s day #sociolinguistics

“Cantik kot” in 2005 meant “cantiklah agaknya” but in 2009 with the right intonation, it became “cantiklah!”.

That’s why it’s important to learn the contexts of a speech community in sociolinguistics research. Meanings change over time.

When did the use of “kot” to mean “sangat” start to become common in your surrounding? [Poll below]

Moving on to the second point, uncommon terms. Or more accurately, common terms, but used in uncommon ways.

Sorry back to the first point. This does not mean “kot” to mean “rasanya/agaknya” is no longer in use. It STILL is, but alongside this new meaning “sangat”.

So “kot” afaik now can mean both “rasanya/agaknya” AND “sangat” in today’s context.

It depends on your intonation.

“<noun> kot” may also mean “oh wow, it’s <noun>”.

Like when you say:
Tesla kot! = oh wow, it’s Tesla!

It may also mean “come on, it’s <noun> as in:
Hazim kot! = come on, it’s Hazim!

Okay I hope I can now move on to the next point. I keep having new things to add to point 1

Saya sambung dalam BM pulalah, tapi akan agak formal sebab saya hendak memudahkan pembaca yang tak berbahasa Melayu terjemah tulisan saya menggunakan ciri terjemah tweet di Twitter.

Izinkan saya gunakan sesetengah istilah Inggeris sepanjang penulisan.

Antara penggunaan lazim mereka yang tidak lazim bagi kita ialah ‘beh’ (sebutan basahan/pasar bagi ‘habis’).

‘Beh’ digunakan untuk memaksudkan ‘pastu’ (bahasa pasar bagi ‘selepas itu’).

Rujuk gambar. Kebetulan ada penggunaan ‘pe’ (‘apa’) seperti dalam isi pertama tadi.

Aku makan beh air tumpah
Aku makan pastu air tumpah

Selain itu, ‘beh’ juga bermaksud ‘habis tu’ bagi . (Rujuk gambar)

Salah? Beh dia macam yakin je?
Salah? Habis tu dia macam yakin je?

Satu lagi penggunaan kita yang saling berbeza ialah KITA & KITORANG (kita orang).

Pada mulanya saya tidak perasan akan perbezaan ini kerana tidak ada konteks yang menampakkan perbezaan itu dengan ketara.

Bagi , ‘kita’ dan ‘kitorang’ berbeza. ‘Kitorang’ EXCLUDES the listener.

Kita kena pindah
Kitorang kena pindah

Saya tanya 2 orang linguist Melayu , mereka kata memang pada mereka, kita=kitorang=kita.

Jadi bila mereka sebut:

“Kitorang pergi lambat”

saya ingat maksud mereka:

“Kami pergi lambat”

Saya ingat saya terkecuali, rupanya termasuk.

Kalau saya tak sedar perbezaan ni, mungkin banyak benda boleh jadi punca kecil hati. Mereka asyik guna “kitorang” bila bercakap dengan saya.

“We” bagi :
Kita = kita
Kitorang = kami

“We” bagi :
Kita = kita/kami
Kitorang = kita/kami

Kenapalah taknak bezakan macam di

[Saya tak masukkan contoh yang dah ramai orang tahu misalnya ‘bilang’ untuk ‘kata’]

Di bawah ini pula kitaran makna bagi
Rembat= (curi | pukul)
Curi= bedal
Bedal= (lahap makan | hentam)
Hentam= (semberono | belasah)
Belasah = (bedal | pukul)

Menarik sangat proses tu. BACALAH!

Bila baca perbualan di atas, saya teringat satu lagi penggunaan yang tak lazim untuk kita.

‘pasal’ sebagai kata hubung.

Aku suka pasal dia baik
Aku suka sebab dia baik

Ini antara ciri BM Singapura yang saya susah nak ”undo” kat lidah sendiri sekarang sebab dah terguna.

(I’ll continue this thread later. Good night )