Slang

Informal, basic spoken

To switch from informal to formal spoken Indonesian requires a great effort because informal sentences/phrases/words often slip out my mouth.

For example, instead of using the word ‘tidak’, I sometimes use ‘enggak’ or ‘nggak’ (we even write this word as ‘gak’ in informal writing, like in SMS….this is the limit I think, we cannot keep omitting the letter until letter ‘k’ is the only one left ) in front of the classroom.

SOME RULES FOR “SLANG”

1. me- is dropped, but without changing first letter back to base word, e.g. nonton (menonton from tonton), ngasih (mengasih – to give), nyebelin (to annoy someone – impolite)

— (I): This is from the word ‘menyebalkan’ which means ‘annoying (person/situation)’

2. start verbs with nge-: e.g. ngeliat (melihat) .

3. ’s’ is dropped, e.g. aja (saja), udah (sudah) I: I think this rule is a rare case. Are there any examples besides them?

4. ‘h’ initial can be dropped, e.g. abis (habis) I: ditto.

5. -kan is replaced by -in (e.g. nyiapin – menyiapkan)

6. ‘a’ can be changed to ‘e’: e.g. ude (sudah) , temen (teman) I: Udah is more often used, ‘Ude’ is Betawian dialect.

7. a number of exclamatory phrases: dong, lah, lho, deh, sih I: nih, ya, ah

8. new words sort of derived from other words: koq (kenapa, mengapa), kan (from question tag ‘bukan’ but placed anywhere in sentence… e.g. Itu kan yang dimaksud dengan ’slang’ kan?), and maybe doi from dia (referring to person of romantic interest) I: ‘doi’ for ‘dia’ is now seldom used. It’s one of the ’slippery’ slang.

9. new uses of standard words: ama (sama = dengan… saya ama dia ke bioskop), apa (for atau, e.g. mau makan ini apa itu?), buat (for untuk, e.g. hadiah ini buat kamu)

I: Intriguing things about the word ’sama’. Originally, the word means ’same with’, but now it also has the meanings of ‘with (somebody)’, eg: Dia pergi nonton sama pacarnya (She went out with her boyfriend). and ‘by (someone)’, eg: Kerjaan itu udah diberesin kok sama gue. (That task has been done by me),

10. uncontrolled dropping of letters: e.g. ntar (sebentar??), gimana (bagaimana),

11. unique words: keren (handsome/good looking), sip (fabulous, fantastic), jomblo (single person, no partner, happy), cowok/cewek (guys/gals, boys/girls); ngapain (what are you doing?maybe from sedang apa dilakukan)

12. past slang dialects, e.g. bahasa prokem had words such as nyokap (ibu) sepokat (sepatu); ABG was a slang language of young rich teenagers (but now has been absorbed into everyday slang

** but unfortunately, it’s an ever-changing and rapid changing thing in Indonesian with changes to this rules above already occurring since my initial observation. Everyday, spoken and slangish Indonesian is “slippery” and hard to get hold of.

Tambahan dari e-mail yang baru dikirim, As well as ’slang’, as we’ve been mentioning, there are basic spoken and standard/formal and really formal forms of language. Nah, who wants to say Indonesian is “easy” to learn?

I just sent an e-mail about slang, but then I realised that the issue might

be about formal /informal.

I: Isn’t slang is included as informal?

I would say, short and simple is informal everyday language.. e.g. Namanya siapa? Mau ke mana? (no subject, no question word) Punya anak? Dari mana? (e.g. just now or country of origin, never clear, just guess).

Kenalkan. Dari toko. Yo, Makan. (itadakimasu / bon apetit) Bagi dong! (give me some) Mana kadonya (where’s my present/souvenier)? Also Questions that start with the modal: senang musik? Senang slorok (slow rock!! Ha ha). Bisa berenang? Bisaaa.

Standard has a subject (person doing action), full verbs (me- and -kan in place), complete sentences. Speakers of languages originating from Europe like these because they closely correspond with our languages.

e.g. Nama saya —. Saya mau ke toko. Saya sudah beranak. (I: ‘Saya sudah punya anak’ is more acceptable here. ‘Beranak’ somehow sounds rude at least for me.) Saya berasal dari Rusia. Saya baru pulang dari toko.

Formal is a lot more verbose, more embedded clauses, and tends to passive. Eg. Wanita ini yang bernama — telah dengan senang hati berbelanja ke toko bersama anak manisnya yang cerewet. Or Yang dimaksud dengan bahasa adalah sesuatu alat yang dipakai oleh penutur-penuturnya bagi keperluan berkomunikasi atas tujuan tertentu. There is also the use of other words to replace basic ones, e.g. tinggal becomes: mendiami, menghuni, menempati…

pergi ke becomes: berkunjung ke / mengunjungi, berwisata ke, etc (I: in other

words….we have lots of synonims).