from English) because borrowing of words is an ongoing process and the number of such borrowed words is infinite and, in many instances, the borrowed words are not necessarily justified because equivalent Baba words exist, e.g.,| BORROWED WORD | BABA EQUIVALENT |
| fridge | peti ayer batu |
| instalment | bayair renchet-renchet |
| police inspector | brinio |
| police station | rumah pasong |
| soldier | soldadu |
The Baba language is essentially a spoken language. Although written works in the Baba language are few, the variations in their spelling of Baba words are many. Spellings such as plan for pelan (slow; close), tlanju for telanjor (while at it; gone too far), brat for berat (heavy) etc., might not have posed problems in the past when readers were familiar with such spellings but it will prove archaic and perplexing today. Not long ago the spelling of Malay words had undergone a change. Unless Babas are presently regular readers of Malay publications and are no strangers to the new spelling systems, they will have problems using this dictionary if words such as bacha (to read), chat (to paint; paint) or lecheh (troublesome) are spelt in modern Malay spellings, viz. baca, cat, leceh. As this dictionary intends to standardise the spelling of Baba words to render it user-friendly, it is felt that to use the modern Malay spelling will not be in the best of interest.
To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first Baba attempt at a Baba dictionary in Singapore. It contains words, phrases and idiomatic expressions in general use by the Babas from the 1930s to the present day especially by those who speak good Baba. (Yes, there exists the simple or 'low' version of the Baba language.) It aspires to serve the need not only to speak the language fluently, but also of those who have rediscovered their roots and hope to find common bonding through their mother tongue.
There are words in this dictionary which may be deemed to be crude, rude, vulgar, politically incorrect, racist and sexist. However, most of these words are no longer used in Baba conversation now. They have been included merely as a record without any malice intended nor desire to perpetuate the use of such words.
Due to the different geographical boundaries and political developments, Babas outside Singapore may find the contents not fully adequate because of the absence of some words in it, which are in usage in their part of the world. Rest assured this dictionary is not altogether a loss because basic words of the Baba language are all here. At the end of the day, should the satisfied users outnumber the unhappy ones by merely one person, then the compiling of this long-overdue dictionary has been justified and well worth the effort. For once the Babas can proudly claim to have a dictionary. Needless to say, there is always room for improvement and perhaps this pioneering effort will inspire improved follow-ups in the future.
points to note
I. FORMAT
The entries have been arranged in the following formats:
(i)1(2) 3
(ii)1[2a] 3
(iii)1(2) 3 4 5
(iv)1[2a] 3 4 5
(v)1/1a/1b (2) 3 4 5
(vi) 1a/1b/1c SEE 1
| KEY | |
| 1 | A Baba word |
| 1a/1b/etc | The same Baba word but pronounced differently by some Babas and Nyonyas |
| 2 | The Malay origin of the word wherever possible [but it may not necessarily carry the same meaning as the Baba word] |
| 2a | The Hokkien-Chinese origin of the word wherever possible. (For a better understanding the Mandarin version is occasionally added wherever possible) |
| 3 | Meaning(s) of the Baba word. (Where a word is not followed by its meaning, it denotes the word is not used by itself and is there as an indication that it is a root word) |
| 4 | Phrase, saying or idiomatic expression associated with the word (beginning with the word itself) |
| 5 | Meaning(s) of the phrase, saying or idiomatic expression |
II. SPELLING
| Baba word: | the Baba words have all been spelt in accordance with Baba (and especially that of the Nyonya) pronunciation in the up-to-date spelling. |
| Malay word: | under section 2 of the Format wherever possible, Malay-origin equivalent words have been spelt in the new method spelling which Malay readers are familiar with. |
| Chinese word: | as Chinese loan words in the Baba language are of Hokkien-Chinese origin, wherever possible Chinese characters conforming to Hokkien usage are provided in section 2 of the Format. However, Hokkien is a different language from Mandarin, the standard Chinese language. Some Hokkien words cannot be meaningfully written in Chinese characters and in such instances, section 2 of the Format is left blank. |
| Combination of Malay and Chinese words: in cases where a Baba word is a combination of a Malay and Chinese word, only the Chinese characters are written in section 2 of the Format because Baba usage of the Malay word does not differ in meaning or spelling from the original, e.g. anak suak boey, balek Tong San. chakap ong kut, tengok ngo heng, terchuan chuan (the underlined words being of Malay origin). |
III. PRONUNCIATION
Words of Hokkien-Chinese origin are not pronounced by the Babas in their correct tones. When such words were first incorporated into their dialogue, the Malay wives of the Chinese migrant settlers failed to pronounce these words in their correct tones. They passed on these imperfections to their progenies. Words of Malay origin are pronounced by the Babas (especially by the Nyonyas in some instances) in several ways.
i) Words that end in 'a' (lupa, kena, rasa) which are pronounced by the Malays at one time with an ‘er' sound (luper, kener, raser) are pronounced by the Babas with an ‘ah' sound with emphasis on the ‘h' sound (lupah, kenah, rasah).
ii) Words that end in ‘al', ‘ar', ‘as' (tampal, lebar, kapas) are pronounced by the Babas with an ‘air' sound (tampair, lebair, kapair). The Malay word nenas is pronounced nanair by the Babas.
In general the Nyonyas are more prone to this habit than the Babas, the majority of whom tend to pronounce such words as the Malays do. It is to record the existence of this quaint pronunciation, which has rendered the Babas' spoken language unique that the examples in the dictionary have been spelt with an ‘air' ending. They also occupy the first position where there is more than one way of pronouncing a particular word. This is a tribute to the Nyonyas.
iii) Words that end in 'ai' (rambai, teratai, tapai) are pronounced by the Babas with an 'ay' sound (rambay, teratay, tapay).
iv) Words that end with 'au' (kerbau, pisau, silau) are pronounced by the Babas with an 'o' sound (kerbo, piso, silo). Other differences in Baba pronunciation include
