Sunday, October 15, 2006

WHAT LAH IS THIS ALL ABOUT? (STRICTLY MALAYSIAN)

"Don't want lah", "Ok lah","Mai ah neh lah"
our english become like this ki...
opps, it can't say is english, that is our new language named, Manglish in our counrty...

i do speak like this also... don't laugh at me lah... i think u also lah...

Below is tell u, WHAT LAH IS THIS ALL ABOUT?

WHEN you speak to a Malaysian you will notice the suffix "lah" frequently occurs in conversation. What's all this, then?

"Lah" is a suffix in Bahasa Malaysia that is meant to add emphasis to a word or phrase. "Just do it" for example, would roughly translate into "Buat sahaja" but more forcefulness would be obtained by adding the suffix, e.g. "Buatlah sahaja".

If someone knocks at the door and you invite them in, the polite way to say that would be "Sila masuk", or "please come in". If, however, you've said it once and the person is still knocking, you just say "Masuklah" for emphasis and to tell them (see our upcoming lexicon of Malaysian slang) that you heard them in the first place. There are thousands of other examples but we hope you get the drift.

Anyway, the suffix has been absorbed into English in the local vernacular, more commonly in the peninsula than over in Sabah and Sarawak, and is used millions of times a day throughout the country - sometimes purposefully, sometimes for no reason at all.
When you fail to show up for work on time and the boss chews you out, a typical defence might be "Sorry boss, tired-lah."

If someone is getting a little too uptight about something, the appropriate caution to him would be "relax-lah" or "steady-lah", which urges the person to chill out, calm down, stay frosty, cool off. See? Everybody needs slang. It is usually not used in any formal circumstances and should not generally be adopted by foreigners.

If u didin't say lah with your friends, u are out date liao....
so, u must say it lah....
ok lah...
no problems lah hor...

hehehe...just a joke...

8 comments:

Chen said...

Good write up :)
That's the way how we differentiate Malaysians from non Malaysians.. hahahahahha

Pinky_piglet said...

my english not so keng lah...
copy and paste de...
i just know how to speak manglish...
the manglish that i write is my words...
hehehe >_<"

Pink Winnie said...

wuahahaha.. u people r right.. i also used 'lah' very frequently.. but Chinese word also got la ah.. doesn't it?? hehe..

Redsponge said...

la la la

Besides from "lah", I like "bo", "ma" and "lo"

mwhehehee

Pinky_piglet said...

(pink winnie)
chinses is la...not lah..
i think that is the different...hehehe
(redsponge)
bo is hokkien
ma is chinese
lo is what language??

Chen said...

lo is chapalang language :D

Pinky_piglet said...

har??what language is that ar, chen?? chapalang...never hear before...ur language kah??

Chen said...

chapalang = rojak language :P