Think Fast iPhone game is now available on the iTunes AppStore!

Finally Apple has approved my submission and the game is now live on the iTunes appStore starting today.

Check it out now!

Sapporo to Furano on Mama Chari bicycle: The plan

Was throwing around the idea to my friends about cycling from Sapporo to Kushiro. They all thought I was crazy. They said its like cycling from Singapore to Kedah or the border between Malaysia and Thailand.

So one of them suggested Sapporo to Furano this July. She said her friends had cycled there before on a mama chari bicycle!!!! Those granny bikes which you can see me riding here.

She just told me a few minutes ago after asking her friend that the trip took them 10 hours! How crazy is that? From midnight till late morning.

But I think most of us are crazy enough to do this!

Here is the path we’ll most likely take:
View Larger Map

July will be a good time to go. Lots of flowers in Furano are blooming!

Jagapokkuru only in Hokkaido

They say if you’re here in Hokkaido, don’t forget to buy some of these!

じゃがポックル

Jagaimo means Potato. But what’s pokkuru??

I found out that pokkuru comes from the word koropukkuru.

Sounds like “keropok” to me! Hahahaha. Keropok is the name of a popular traditional fish crackers from the Malay Archipelago.

But no, there’s no link between keropok and koropokkuru.

Koropokkuru are a race of small people in the Ainu folklore. For more information refer to the wikipedia article.

Again, exercise caution when referring to articles in wikipedia or any other encyclopedia for that matter.

updated my site!

http://www.afzane.com

 

Check it!

Screenshots for Think Fast brain game

Think Fast is almost ready to be submitted to the iTunes app store.

But before that, here’s some screenshots of the game!

  

I think this game need not have its game instructions translated into different languages.

Mathematics is a universal language. The Arabic numerals and the mathematical operators are being used everywhere in the world.

Think Fast mobile game on your iPhone/iPod Touch soon!

Yes! After much thought and seeking out help from great people from another part of the world, I am very happy to announce that Think Fast will soon be available on the iPhone and iPod Touch!

More information will be put up here. The game will also have its own page soon.

Later.

The origin of the word alamak II

In my previous post, I had two theories about this. The first theory was that the word “Alamak” came from the Japanese. The second theory was that the word came from the Malays.

Before I proceed, please be aware that all these that I have written here are based on wikipedia entries as well as from my personal experience with the Malay language, customs and traditions. Please note that wikipedia entries can be a bit dubious. You are very much welcomed to give your comments if you disagree with me.

After searching around for clues, it seems that the second theory is the most likely one. I found out that the word “Alamak” is very much likely to come from or influenced by Sanskrit rather than Arabic. I am not sure why people who speak Kristang claim that “alamak” originated form their language, but I beg very much to differ!

Why?

Let’s look at the chronological history of the lingua franca in this part of the region, the Malay Archipelago. This region includes Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malayarch.jpg

 

SANSKRIT: THE LANGUAGE OF THE OLD MALAY LAND

Malay is currently spoken in Singapore, Malaysia, Sumatra and Brunei. Bahasa Indonesia is spoken in Indonesia. Both Malay and Bahasa Indonesia originate from the old Malay language. The “birthplace” of the Malay language is said to be the Riau Islands.
Today, much of Bahasa Indonesia’s vocabulary are quite distinct from the current Malay language spoken today. However a lot of basic words are similar between the two languages. That’s good because I speak Malay and it is not too much of a problem for me to have a simple conversation with speakers of Bahasa Indonesia.

Refer here for quite a comprehensive list of words from both Malay and Indonesian that are similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differences_between_Malay_and_Indonesian

 

The old Malay language evolved from Sanskrit. Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world and was used by the people living in this part of the region a very long time ago. Sanskrit is the “lingua franca” for Hinduism and Buddhism circa 1500 BCE. We can safely assume from here that the old Malays embraced Hindu/Buddhism as their religion. Their customs and traditions were based on this religion as well.

Hinduism

Buddhism

 

The old Malay language that was based on Sanskrit was found to be around 682 AD. This was evident when a small stone was discovered by a Dutchman named M. Batenburg. That small stone had an old inscription written in Pallava/Vatteluttu (வட்டெழுத்து) script . Pallava is a writing system for Sanskrit.

 

It is also believed that the spread of Islam started in Aceh (Indonesia) much earlier in the 1200’s.

Islamic/Arabic influence in the Malay Archipelago however dated back to around the 1300’s as proven by the stone scriptures found in Terengganu, Malaysia.

Around this time, the writing system of the Malays had already switched from Pallava to Jawi script. Jawi is an adapted Arabic alphabet for writing the Malay language.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/malay.htm

Portuguese influence on the Malay language only became significant and ultimately forming the creole Kristang when they conquered Malacca in 1511.

Picture from the article in the Malaysian newspaper The Star.

 

A Formosa fort, a remnant of the Portuguese occupiers in Malacca circa 1511.

 

So why do I think the word “Alamak” originated from Sanskrit?

Alright, on its own, the word does not really mean anything. It is just a cry or a yelp uttered to express a sense of regret.

So let’s break that word up into its parts “ala” and “mak”.

The word allaa means (goddess) mother in sanskrit. अल्ला
Another word for mother in sanskrit is maatr मातृ
You can find out the translation from English to Sanskrit here.

In arabic, “Allah” means god and mother is called Om أم or Ommy أمي

In portuguese “ala” means wing. Also the portuguese word for mother is mãe or madre. Click here for a translation web service from google.
[On a side note:
Italian also uses the word "madre" to mean mother.
The French calls mother mère.

Notice that nouns in these few European languages that are used to represent mother mostly starts with the consonant "m" and followed by the vowel "a" or "e". similar to Sanskrit.

Not surprising because Sanskrit shares similar characteristics to the Indo-European languages.

An interesting pattern I noticed is that the consonant "m" is used for mother in Sanskrit, Arabic and various European languages.
Also the word for mother in modern Malay is emak. ]

Thus far, to say “alamak” to have come from Kristang and due to its Portuguese origin is a rather inaccurate assumption mainly because of the chronology of the arrival of the Portuguese on Malaccan soil.

 

Presently, that exclamatory word “alamak” is still being used in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and parts of Indonesia. Though in brunei, it is most commonly shortened to “alaa”.

A good question to ask is: when did the word “alamak” start to become popular?
I would say the word is as old as the Malay Language itself.

How come?

Because the current Malay language still has words that has their roots in Sanskrit. A lot of words in from the Old Malay (Sanskrit based) are being used in our contemporary Malay language.

Take a look at this excerpt from the wikipedia entry:

The text in Old Malay is:

svasti śrī śakavaŕşātīta 605 (604 ?) ekādaśī śu

klapakşa vulan vaiśākha dapunta hiya<m> nāyik di

sāmvau mangalap siddhayātra di saptamī śuklapakşa

vulan jyeşţha dapunta hiya<m> maŕlapas dari minānga

tāmvan mamāva yam vala dualakşa dangan ko-

duaratus cāra di sāmvau dangan jālan sarivu

tlurātus sapulu dua vañakña dātam di mata jap

sukhacitta di pañcamī śuklapakşa vula<n>….

laghu mudita dātam marvuat vanua …..

śrīvijaya jaya siddhayātra subhikşa …..

Translation in Malay Language

The translation in Malay Language is:

Selamat dan bahagia! Dalam Shaka 605, pada sebelas

hari bulan terang dari bulan Waisyakha Baginda naik

kapal mencari untungnya pada tujuh

hari bulan terang dari bulan Jyestha Baginda berangkat

dari muara Tamvan membawa bala dua laksa dengan

… dua ratus pawang di kapal dengan yang jalan kaki seribu

tiga ratus dua belas banyaknya datang di Matajap

suka cita. Pada lima hari bulan terang dari bulan Asada

belayar mudik, datang membuat benua …

Srivijaya kota yang berjaya, yang bahagia, dan yang makmur!

 

English Translation for Malay Language version of the inscription

All hail and prosperity! In the year 605 of the Saka calendar, on the eleventh

day on the full moon of Waisaka, His Majesty took

a boat to find a living. On the seventh day

on the full moon of Jyesta, His Majesty

brings 2000 troops and

312 people in boats from firth of Tamvan, With 1312 foot soldiers

and came to Matajap

happily. On the fifth day on the bright moon of Asada,

they docked and open a country …

Great, prosperous and peaceful Srivijaya!

if you read that inscription on wikipedia above, and try to make a comparison between the Old malay (based on Sanskrit) and our contemporary Malay, you can find similar sounding words and meanings.

I’ll list some of them which I recognize here:

Old Malay (Sankrit influenced) >> Malay >> English

vulan = bulan = moon
nayik = naik = get on
samvau = sampan? = boat
duaratus = dua ratus = two hundred
sapulu = sepuluh = ten
sapulu dua = sebelas = eleven (interesting note Japanese way of counting is similar; ju-ni)
sarivu = seribu = a thousand
jalan = jalan = way/walk
dangan = dengan = with
sukhacitta = sukacita = glad
jaya = jaya = successful

 

The question that remains to be answered is why Alamak means “God! Mother!”

A very good question. I will update this post with my answer soon.

 

 

Now that the origin of “Alamak” has been more or less demystified, we are now back to the question:

How did the Japanese come to use the word あらまあ (aramaa)?

I feel the best reason is often the simplest one.
And that reason is simply trade.

Trading between Japan and Southeast Asia.

In my previous post I did mention that I did not come across or learn about any commercial activities between Japan and the Malay Archipelago in the 1600’s. After I trawled the pages in Wikipedia, I discovered that there were indeed some trade activities between them though it was rather brief.

During this period in the 16th till 17th century, a significant Japanese community existed in parts of Southeast Asia. These Japanese community/town were called Nihonmachi (日本街). I found that there were nihonmachi in Batavia (what is now known as jakarta) and as far as Makassar (part of Majapahit rule). Reid, Anthony. Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990, 1993.

I think it best to reference the Nihonmachi in the Philippines. The Japanese had a presence in the Philippines even before the Spanish colonization. Official trade between the two countries was established through the Red Seal Ships system.

The Red Seal Ships system was necessary because this will help to differentiate the legal trading ships from the notorious ”Wakō” pirates; both from Japan.

It is also worth mentioning that many Southeast Asian ports welcomed these Japanese traders during the 16th to 17th century .

However, I did not find any article or pages of a book that has any mentions of a nihonmachi in Melaka(malacca) though.

I found it interesting to find out that these nihonmachi still persisted even after the closed-door policy Sakoku (鎖国)  of the Tokugawa shogunate was enforced. I think it is prudent to say that it is entirely plausible that these Japanese communities that existed in the Malay Archipelago had mingled well with the natives. They might also have travelled across and all over the Archipelago.

That brief period of time would be sufficient to transfer a lot of words that are peculiar to the Malay language to the Japanese Language. These Japanese traders would have brought with them these new vocabularies to their own land before Sakoku was enforced.

[Another side note:
Chawan (ちゃわん）= cawan (malay) = cup (english) ]

So that’s it! If you have any comments please write it in the comments box!

I’ve got it!

I believe I have found the most plausible origin of the word Alamak as well as the reason for the same word to be used by the Japanese.
I will soon post that article once I take a long break from coding my next game “carousel”.

The origin of the word Alamak

Read my second post after much “research”!

About 20 years ago, I vaguely remembered asking my mother as well as my Malay language teacher how this word came about. I couldn’t really get an answer to it. And I left it at that. But now after living here in Japan, I can’t help but asking myself the same question again!

I find this an interesting topic. I’m not a “historical linguist”. If you are and you can back me up with more facts about this, it would be a great help.

The expression “Oh my goodness!” is being said by many people in the world using different words in different languages.

In Japanese, it’s あらまあ！(pronounced: a-ra-ma-a)
It doesn’t really have any literal meaning to it. Its just a word expressing an exclamation.

Interestingly, in Malay its “Alamak!”
This is a word that can be broken up to mean “alah” which is a lazy tongue pronunciation of “Allah” and “Mak” which means mother. Some malay people believe “Alamak” can also mean “oh dear mother…!”

That Japanese word or expression might have been assimilated into the linguistic repertoire of the malay language or it’s the other way around! Many theories abound. And for the purpose of this post, these are just my own.

First theory:

Alamak originally comes from the Japanese.

I say “originally” because I asked one of the Japanese teachers to find out from him whether he knew that word is old or relatively new. He said that word may have been used for ages. Maybe since the Edo period (1603-1867).

Now, there has been no recorded history, of someone from the Malay Archipelago back in 1800’s or prior to that, who have ventured into Japan. Nor has there been any official representative from Japan to the Malayan Archipelago during that period. (Well the archipelago I’m mentioning here will exclude the philippines for the purpose of putting forth my theory.)

Diplomatic missions to China, yes there were. The great Sultans from Melaka (Malacca) have sent emissaries to China and also established cordial relationship with that country in order to seek protection from the bullying forces of the Siamese Kingdom.

**On a side note, what I write here is what I have learned in the history books so far. This was back in the days when Singapore students like myself were studying relevant historical knowledge of their country and the neighboring states. By “historical” I mean prior to the 1700’s. Now, I believe students are studying recent histories from 1819 onwards. Students now don’t even know anybody else in the history books apart from Sang Nila Utama and Sir Stamford Raffles. All other historical events are just being glossed over . Now students are only conscious of their history from like 50 years ago. Why is that? Why are they shortchanged? Is this part of a greater political motive?**

Back in 1942 to 1945 when the Japanese wrested control of Malaya from the British and occupied the territories of Malaya, they set up Japanese language schools. Japanese teachers teaching the Japanese language in Malaya back in those war-time might have cried “あらまあ！” in exasperation with their students. I guess that word could have been one of the (many?) Japanese words that are left as a legacy in this part of the Asian world.

Thus that supposedly Malay word “alamak” may not be that old after all!

But how can that be? I remember a long time ago hearing my grandfather saying “alamak!” when he forgot the keys to his scooter. Could he have heard it from the Japanese back then? Was it made popular by the people back then to ridicule those Japanese occupiers as they trudge back to their ships to sail back to Japan. Or could that word “Alamak” been used ever since Islam was first embraced by the Sultan in Melaka (Malacca)?

That brings me to the second theory:

あらまあ！ comes from the Malays

Now this is also very interesting. Two “sub-theories” from this.

First:
The Japanese occupying force in Malaya back in 1942 to 1945 quite like that word “Alamak” (maybe its catchy) so they brought that word back home to Japan after the war and used it liberally among their fellow Japanese.

Second:
There were indeed sea-farers like the Orang Laut from the Malayan Archipelago who have travelled all the way to Japan during the Edo period. I presume this was possible after diplomatic missions to China were made and cordial relations were established. The Orang Laut or people from the Melaka Sultanate may have ventured towards Japan.

But could this possibly happen? As far as I know, the Japanese Shogunate had a closed door policy. During the Edo period, any foreign powers who landed on Japanese shores will be attacked, killed and completely destroyed. Maybe the Shogun made it an exception, seeing that these seafarers were unlikely to be from Europe. Also, the likelihood of the Japanese to venture out of Japan during the Edo period is close to nil because of the closed door policy. No Japanese who went abroad can come back and none from within can go out.

So that leads me to another question. What do you think?

Foreign language assimilated into Japanese Language

Its common knowledge that Japanese use quite a lot of words derived from the English language into their daily lives. For example:

Frying pan = Furainggu pan
Taiya = Tyre

and others.

But English words are not the only ones that have been “Japanised” if I may say that.

Take for example the word for bread in Japanese is パン pronounced ”Pahn”.

Only today did I realize this word is a foreign word. Well I should have picked up the clue because it’s written in katakana and not hiragana like so: ぱん

Anything that’s written using the Katakana meant the word is foreign based.

Well I thought it was an original Japanese word because it doesn’t even sound like bread to me!

Well guess what, I remembered that the French word for bread is pain, pronounced as “pahn” (something closer to that)!

Well here’s another:

Clown = ピエロ pronounced “pi-e-ro”

Well pi-e-ro sounds like Pierrot, a french clown!

Alamak! (a supposedly malay exclamation word) = あらまあ！
(This is could actually be a Japanese word being assimilated into the Malay language or the other way around. read my theories here.)

I’ll update this post as and when I come across or remember more words.