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 dapunta hiya<m> nāyik di
- sāmvau mangalap siddhayātra di saptamī śuklapakşa
- vulan jyeşţha dapunta 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!
