One Country, Worlds Apart

“Ngah madah turun debah,” Zeti informed after catching her breath.

“Apa? (What)” I asked back, stumped.

She repeated and again I implored her to explain. In the end, I tried inquiring in English. She then muttered something under her 4-year-old breath. I gave up and decided to just ask my husband who was downstairs at the time.

My husband – the middle and hence ‘Ngah’ of the three siblings – was actually directing Zeti, my sister-in-law’s only daughter to call me down to discuss something.

That was the first time I came back to Kuching for a holiday after getting hitched for almost five months. Being married to a Sarawakian opens many different avenues in my ‘young’ life such as learning (practically) a new language, observing a whole separate set of customs, experiencing all sorts of cultural phenomena and indulging in a gamut of culinary adventures.

For those uninitiated few, Sarawak is a state in Malaysia located in Borneo, with Kalimantan to its south and eastside and Sabah (another Malaysian state) to its north-eastside. I’ve dwelled, for the most part of my lives, in Shah Alam and only after the turn of the new millennium my family moved to the newly established township, Kota Damansara. Both are in the state of Selangor and of easy distance to the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The first time I heard Sarawakian (or to be exact Malay-Sarawakian) being spoken widely, distinctively and permeably, was at my wedding reception in Kuching. In those days, still a new bride, all I needed to do was smile and smile and smile! Oh, with the occasional nods and shaking hands with the elderly and other relatives, of course…

So when we came back for the first of our bi-annual visits to Kuching, I had to converse – at least, one complete sentence – and schmooze with the in-laws. My husband did give me a heads-up on a list of ‘everyday’ words but it was a totally different thing sitting there and absorbing all the foreign words that bombarded your eardrums. They sounded gibberish to my unaccustomed, novice ears.

An aside, how about the both of us then, you ask? Oddly enough when it comes to us, we, more often than not, speak to one another in English. It must be attributed to the fact that we knew each other whilst in the States – his awkwardness of using ‘Malaya’-Malay with me and out of practice, my preference to talk in English, were a match-made in earthly heaven! Some people spouting off nationalistic pride are more likely to brand us ‘Lupa daratan’ (Forgetting Roots) or ‘Mat Salleh Celop’ (White Clones) but I’d call it freedom of ‘speech’ and the ability to express oneself in the most succinct, clear-cut and liberating ways.

Still, I was adamant to understand and learn the Sarawak manner of confabulating, their linguistic skills, and most significantly, their fodder of gossips. Hah! Marriage is after all about communication, compromises, sacrifice, amongst others. By entering the state of matrimony, you not only have to adjust to your partner's habits and quirks, but also adapt to and respect his origin and source of upbringing.

Now, in my two long years of wedlock, I can safely say that I’ve gotten used to their conversations, predominantly with respect to word usage and sentence formations. I have dabbled in speaking a few Malay-Sarawak words, much to the amusement (and ridicule) of my husband.

The most striking feature of their language, in my observation, is the usage of old Malay words (bahasa Melayu lama) like ‘rona’ and ‘rebah’, which are no longer spoken by the so-called ‘Malaya’ people in daily conversations but only in the form of usually official writing (incidentally, Malaya is the term I always hear when a Sarawakian is married to a person from Peninsular Malaysia). In turn, my corollary finding also points to the similarity of some words to that of Indonesian like ‘gadong’ and ‘cangkir’.

Without further ado, here are some applicable daily words for your digestion (and memorization) (please click on list to enlarge!):


One helpful pointer that I’ve been informed is that any word ending with ‘–ing’ (pronounced as ‘Ink’) in Malay will be enunciated without the last ‘g’ in Sarawak. For example, pusing will be pusin, and pening will be penin.

An exception to the rule however reserves for one word – Kuching – the capital of Sarawak, where a museum dedicated solely to cats (or kucing) is one of the main tourist attractions. I find it ironic that a place called Kuching consists of a demographic that refers to their cats as something else altogether – pusak! Nor does the Kuching is shortened to ‘Kuchin’, as you assumed it would, to be consistent with the silent ‘G’ phonetic rule in the previous paragraph!

Sometimes though, I do wonder if Sarawak’s linguistic preserve is a reflection of its current state policy which still requires visitors from Peninsular Malaysia to show their identification upon arrival in the Hornbill state. And I had thought Malaysia – Peninsular Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak – was formed in 1963!


Humor and speculation aside, the usual perception of language barrier should never be a hindrance or an excuse for familiarizing and immersing in the various fascinating aspects of Sarawak-bound life. Culturally unique and steeped in tradition, the indigenes are proud of their rich heritage and more than willing to invite you into their humble domain and relate the colorful accounts of their ancestors. Indeed, my short two-year acquaintance with the state has never been short of surprises, wonderful findings and unforgettable discoveries.