this has become a language learning thread
Originally posted by Mr
Milo:
this has
become a language learning thread
Selamat Tengamalam kepada Pendekar Milo pulak. Selamat to all
the Para Penduduk also.
Pendekar Milo have anything to share about languages? If
have, do share here so we can learn from you too. Any discussion
will do.
I suddenly want to share something which I thought of today in
this post.
Ok, its on Malay linguistics. 
Topic: The confusion of
the Ba(ha)gi family
As previously mentioned in another post
(discussion between Penghulu Clivebe, Putri Cassi &
Penduduk Ban) in this thread before, the loss of
the h consonant occurs very pervasively
in the initial, medial, and final positions of a word.
Examples: baharu →baru,
dahulu → daulu → dolu → dulu etc.
In the Standard Malay
language, bahagi means "to divide; to allot; to share out; to split
up", and its morphological derivative [the
imbuhan -an] bahagian means
"a part; a section; a portion; a
division". In casual, informal or fast
speech, bahagi is frequently realized
as bagi and bahagian is
frequently realized as bagian. Unfortunately,
in the Standard Malay
language, bagi means "for; as" which is unrelated to the
real bahagi. Also, in the Standard Malay
language, there is a bahagia which means
"happy; lucky; fortunate" and
its morphological derivative [the
imbuhan -an] (ke)bahagiaan which
means "happiness; bliss;
contentment". In casual, informal or fast
speech, bahagia is frequently realized
as bagia and (ke)bahagiaan is
frequently realized as bagian. Now, it means
the original bagi has coalesced with
the bagi (from bahagi)
and
the bagian (from bahagian)
and bagian (from bahagiaan)
has coalesced in fast speech too.
Adding to the confusion, the Baba and Pasar
Malay dialect that is frequently used by all communities as the
lingua franca of the Southeast Asia Malay-speaking region, uses the
form bagik (parallel to Standard
Malay bahagi) to mean "to divide; to allot; to share out; to split
up". Sometimes Pasar Malay also
use bagi-bagi instead
of bagik to mean "to divide; to allot; to share out; to split
up". The Baba and Pasar Malay dialect uses the
form bagi (parallel to Standard
Malay bagai) to mean "like; as if; similar
to". Bagia and bagian (parallel
to Standard
Malay bahagia and (ke)bahagiaan)
are used in Baba and Pasar Malay dialect to mean the same as in
Standard Malay.
Therefore, one has to depend closely to the
context to make out whether a person is trying to
use bagi to mean "to divide; to allot; to share out; to split
up" or to mean "for;
as" or to mean "like; as if;
similar to" according to a person's usual manners of
speech, the speed of the conversation and the depth of the
colloquiality and choice of dialect will all affect the meaning
of bagi and it's related/unrelated
forms bagian.
