Are you in 'mudical' mood?<\/p>\n
During the recent Lebaran festivities marking the end of the
\nfasting month, I spent, unintentionally, more time than usual
\nwondering why many English words have infiltrated Bahasa
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
I discovered that the answer was simply because there are no
\nsubstitutes for them. Street vendors and linguists have not tried
\nto call \"tissue\" by any other names but tisu as an economic
\nnecessity due to competition and not kertas penyeka (cleaning
\npaper), for instance.<\/p>\n
I was amused to discover that the media here are willing to
\ncall a reporter just a \"reporter\" instead of, peliput from the
\nverb meliput to cover in journalistic terms. \"Reporter\" sounds
\nalike and is spelled in the same way, unlike marka, as in street
\nmarks for preventing road accidents.<\/p>\n
Foreign house wives had to cope with the absence of their
\nmaids or cooks during Lebaran because almost all of them had been
\ngiven permission to go mudik, to go to their villages for a
\nfamily get-together as the Lebaran tradition calls for. At this
\npoint, I came up with an interesting idea just to keep the
\nbalance in the exchange of words between Bahasa Indonesia and
\nEnglish.<\/p>\n
Why do we not take over the word mudik and spell it
\nmudic to be pronounced myudic to make it sound
\nlike Indonesian-English if we are homesick and urgently want to
\nmeet our relatives. Mudic for a new English word is acceptable
\nbecause it sounds like music. Of course, don't associate it with
\n\"nude\" (less with nudist!).<\/p>\n
So Indonesians trying to sound English may ask their foreign
\nguests who want to travel to their homelands to meet their
\nfamilies over Christmas or New Year: \"Are you in mudical mood? In
\nother words, are you very homesick and urgently must see the
\ngreen-green grass of home and long to meet familiar faces? The
\nsuggestion to use the word mudic may only be acceptable to those
\nforeigners having spent some time in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
I like to suggest purists in Bahasa among the media people
\nchange \"reporter\" into repoter (without \"r\" ). While the
\nIndonesian word repot means very busy, doing a particular job or
\nall kinds of jobs, which is true for any reporter.<\/p>\n
GANDHI SUKARDI
\nJakarta<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/are-you-in-mudical-mood-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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