Extension/shift of meaning of Sanskrit loanwords in Bahasa Malaysia

INTRODUCTION

When a language comes into contact with another language, usually through trades, colonisation and migration, language transfer bounds to happen. Nonetheless, intensity of language contact is not the same in every geographical area and political situation. In some areas, the intensity is low and only involves formal usage of the language, and in some other places it is high and involves both formal and informal contexts. For example, in Malaysia, the intensity of contact between English and Bahasa Malaysia (BM) is so high that transfer from English into BM happens both in formal and informal contexts.

Historically, Sanskrit arrived to Peninsular Malaya through Hinduism as early as the 7th century. Indian merchants drew converts from the ruling and trading class with whom they did business. Hinduism also spread through marriage because small rulers of the Malay trading centres were glad to marry off their sons or daughters to wealthy Indian merchants or their children.

With such cultural convergence, language contact is said to be highly intense. Lexical transfer and borrowing occurred in both formal and informal contexts.

THE STUDY

The study looks at Sanskrit loanwords in contemporary BM and compares their current meaning with the original meaning. Currently, there are approximately 1100 words in BM of Sanskrit origin. Due to length of contact and the passing of time, most of these loanwords have gone through the processes of lexical change – extension, narrowing, shift, amelioration and degradation of meaning.

The study focuses on extension and shift of meaning of Sanskrit loanwords in BM. These loanwords originally have religious denotations/connotations. However, now, they are more secular in nature.

Sanskrit Loanwords: From Religious to Secular Denotation/Connotation

CURRENT		ORIGINAL
BM	Meaning	Sanskrit	Meaning
acara	event, incident, order or conduct	acara	rule of conduct, religious obligation, regulated manners
cakerawala	the horizon and stars in the sky	cakravala	mythical mountain bordering the earth (Puranas)
candi	ancient Hindu or Buddhist monument or temple	candi	name of Durga
cengkerama	chit-chat/romance/sight-seeing	cangkrama	gallery around temple
ceria	pure/clean/merry	carya	due observance
gandewa	bow	gandiva	Arjuna’s bow
lingga	monument	lingga	symbol of Siva
semadi	abode after death/resting place	samadi	meditation
serikandi	ideal wife/female warrior	shrikhandin	epic heroine
sida / sida-sida	castrate/eunuch	siddha	perfect/semi-divine person/an honorific
suami	husband	svami	lord

TOTAL: 11 lexical items

* Note: Because Sanskrit writing system is different from BM and is not available, Sanskrit words listed here are simplified.

ANALYSIS

Original		Analysis
Sanskrit	Meaning
acara	rule of conduct, religious obligation, regulated manners	Lexical process: extension of meaning. I believe acara originally used to refer to religious rule of conduct and obligation. Now, it simply refers to event or agenda. From this word, I believe cara (way/manner/method) is a backformation of this word.
cakravala	mythical mountain bordering the earth (Puranas)	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Perhaps because cakravala has a Hindu referent, when Islam arrived and embraced by the Malays, the meaning shifted to refer to the horizon (where the mountain was believed to be situated) and the stars.
candi	name of Durga	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Perhaps a name of a certain temple, built in honour of Durga. Because earlier ruins found in Malaysia were of that type, later discoveries were also referred to as candi.
cangkrama	gallery around temple	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Perhaps other than for meditation, the gallery around temples was also used to relax, chat and rest. The meaning now has shifted to refer to just that.
carya	due observance	Lexical process: shift of meaning. Early meaning of ceria was pure/clean. Only recently, it is used to also mean “merry”. I believe the word originally refers to due observance of Hindu teachings, which includes keeping oneself pure and clean. I think the recent meaning of “merry” happened because the word ceria has a happy tone to it. Or perhaps, originally anything clean and organised is pleasant-looking. You decorate it some more, you still get ceria.
gandiva	Arjuna’s bow	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Perhaps after the coming of Islam, the story of Arjuna and his bow was rapidly replaced by Islamic stories. And thus, gandewa experienced extension of meaning to refer to all types of bows.
lingga	symbol of Siva	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Just like candi, I believe lingga has experienced extension of meaning; now to also refer to monument, not specific to Siva.
samadi	meditation	Lexical process: shift of meaning. Perhaps the meaning of semadi in the sense of “meditation” or “resting” was adopted first into BM. After that, the meaning shifted to mean “final abode” or “final resting place”.
shrikhandin	epic heroine	Lexical process: extension of meaning. To me, anything “epic” is usually part of a Hindu legend or the sacred text. So, because she’s like a heroine (and thus good, loyal and heroic), a woman referred to as a srikandi also is presumed to have these characteristics.
siddha	perfect, semi-divine person	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Sida is an honorific, allegedly from Sanskrit siddha, which means “perfect”. Beside “perfect”, the corresponding Sanskrit term also meant “semi-divine person” (compare Old Javanese siddha). In my opinion, a castrate/eunuch’s position in the court entitles him to such honour, though not to the degree of referring him as a “semi-divine person”. There are many arguments on this, but this is my conclusion.
svami	lord	Lexical process: extension of meaning. Svami refers to “lord” or “master”. Traditionally, a husband’s status is so revered that he is said to be the “master”, most probably connoting “master of household” and “master of the family/wife”. Now, suami refers to “husband” (still “master of the household”?).

CONCLUSION

Sanskrit loanwords in BM go through extension of meaning (acara, candi, cakerawala, cengkerama, gandewa, lingga, suami, serikandi), and shift of meaning (ceria, semadi). I strongly believe that the coming of Islam has a great influence on the use of these formerly religious words. Because Islam is very strict when it comes to “aqidah” (matters of faith), anything that can deviate your faith/“iman”, even by use of words, should be avoided. Like many Sanskrit words (still in use, obsolete or considered classical words and only used in classic literature texts), most Malay users do not and cannot tell that most of these words are of Sanskrit origin.

REFERENCES

1.   Most words in the list are derived, revised and modified from Casparis, J.G. de, 1997, Sanskrit loan-words in Indonesian and Malaysian, http://crcl.th.net/indic/inbyskt.htm, with additions and comments from Mahdi, Waruno, 2000, Review of J.G. de Casparis, cross-referened with Zainal Abidin Safarwan (2002) Kamus Besar Bahasa Melayu Utusan, Hawkins (2000) Kamus Dwibahasa Oxford Fajar and Wignesan (1994) The Extent of Influence of Tamil on the Malay Language: a comparative study.

2. Asha Doshi (2003). Kajian Pemindahan Leksis Antara Bahasa (Lecture notes). Fakulti Bahasa dan Linguistik: University of Malaya.

3. Casparis, J.G. de. (1997). Sanskrit Loanwords in Indonesia: An annotated check-list of words from Sanskrit in Indonesian and Traditional Malay. Maintained by Cooper, D. (2004). Sanskrit Loan Words in Indonesian/Malaysian. Retrieved on 15th June 2004 from http://crcl.th.net/indic/sktbyin.htm