Sign watching a 'delisius' new pastime

JAKARTA (JP): Driving along Jakarta's main streets nowadays can be appealing, especially to a linguist. The new city regulation demanding that billboards and other signs carry only Indonesian words has resulted in a new pastime: sign watching.

King Cross discotheque is now Malioboro discotheque; Aloha discotheque is Halo Mas discotheque; Freedom discotheque is Merdeka discotheque; Lay Lay karaoke is now Lay Layah; Pete's Tavern is Tempat Si Peter.

Still other names have simply been Indonesianized. Delicious bakery is now Delisius, Holland bakery becomes Hollan bakeri and Fairy Garden shabu-shabu restaurant is Fery Gardena.

Malls are now spelled mal, resorts resor, real estate rel estat.

People prefer to use these Indonesianized words, although according to linguist J.S. Badudu, there are Indonesian words for certain English terms, such as sangraloka for resort and lahan yasan for real estate.

"Words like mal and rel estat have been adopted as Indonesian words," Badudu said.

"But if we have the Indonesian terms like sangraloka for resort or lahan yasan for real estate, why don't we use them? Why should we Indonesianize the English terms?" he asked.

The Indonesianization of foreign terms sometimes sounds too pushy.

"Holland Bakery is Indonesianized as Bakeri Hollan. It is okay to translate bakery as bakeri. But Holland should not be changed into or spelled as Hollan because it is the name of a country," Badudu argued.

Besides, according to Indonesian grammar, Holland Bakery should be translated into Bakeri Holan, not Holan Bakery.

"People try to Indonesianize green as grin or grand as gren. Basically, it can be done. But it is not too nice because what we have is the impression of forced translations," he added.

According to the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (The Indonesian Complete Dictionary), written by a team of experts led by noted linguist Anton M. Moelyono in 1988 and published by the Ministry of Education and Culture, foreign words or terms can be adopted into Indonesian if there are no proper Indonesian words for them and if the foreign terms are more suitable because of their connotations.

Anus, feces and urine, for example, are adopted into Indonesian as anus, feses and urine, although the latter is pronounced differently. It is suggested to use these new Indonesianized words instead of the synonymous Indonesian words because of their connotations.

Foreign words can also be adopted into Indonesian if the Indonesianized foreign terms are shorter than the Indonesian translations. Such words as marathon can be translated as maraton instead of lari jarak jauh. Amputation became amputasi and is more frequently used than its Indonesian definition of pemotongan (pembuangan) anggota badan.

Foreign terms are also Indonesianized for better acceptance because their Indonesian translations have too many synonyms. It is better, for example, to use the Indonesianized form of dysentery, which is disentri, rather than its Indonesian translation which can be sakit murus, berak darah or mejan.

However, the dictionary also rules that to adopt a foreign word, people should observe whether there is the same meaning in Indonesian. If such a word is not found, the second step is to look to languages of the same root or to regional dialects. The foreign word or term is adopted only if the Indonesian or languages of the same root cannot provide its translation. In such a case, a foreign word can be Indonesianized based on its pronunciation. System, for example, becomes sistem and energy becomes energi.

Badudu said people prefer the Indonesianized forms because they are accustomed to the English ones that they don't feel at ease in using the Indonesian words which can be used to denote the same ideas.

Saying he supports the government's policy to change all foreign names, Badudu said the government should not implement the policy halfway.

The campaign to use the Indonesian language should be continued since the efforts to make Indonesian language well- accepted by all parties will not be an instant success, he warned.

"The government should also be firm towards those who don't follow the call to use Indonesian. Permits to develop a housing complex, for example, should not be given to those who use foreign names for their real estate," Badudu said.

There are several reasons for the halfway translations. Most name owners mention tax and identity as the main reasons.

"For years my store has been using this name. If I change it, my clients will think that this is different store or has a different owner," said Lina, owner of Star boutique in downtown Jakarta which has become Setar.

She said if customers think that it is a different store or different owner, they may not come again. Sometimes people come because they know the owner and feel sure that they won't be cheated, she added.

Therefore, although the name of her store is now spelled Setar, the old name has not been removed. Her signboard now says Setar d/h (formerly) Star.

Meanwhile, developers said changing a name is not that easy because it can be subject to double taxation.

Once a billboard is changed, it means also that a right to install a billboard is completed. The tax which has been paid in advance for one year cannot be returned. A new billboard bearing a new name will be subject to a new tax.

Moreover, to install a billboard is not cheap. It costs around Rp 200 million (US$111,111) to Rp 600 million ($266,666), for example, to put a billboard on a pedestrian bridge along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin.

Kosmian Pudjiadi, a member of the Indonesian Real Estate Association and head of the name changing program, said that local authorities should respond to this and change the taxation system.

Kosmian said, as quoted by the afternoon daily Suara Pembaruan, that when the idea to change foreign names was launched, the taxation system had not yet been discussed. Only later, developers found out they would be taxed twice because of the new regulation. (pet/als)