SPEAKING IN PIDGIN

I was reading the Daily express forum section on Sunday when I come across a comments from one reader from Keningau which depicted Dusun prefer speaking bazaar Malay and seems Kadazan fare better in the use of their mother tongue.

What prompted me to share my observation was about the case mentioned by the writer regarding local leader when interviewed by radio stations. I fully supported the writer for highlighting it as I’ve heard so many times of local leaders whether they are village chief or our assemblymen responding in mixed pidgin. I thought I was listening to a bahasa Malaysia section of the radio station as most of the response by the person interviewed was in pidgin.


‘ Osong mari sini tuntuvad sia lap kau’ which mean to clean the child after passing motion. That was some of the funny phrase we shared with friends regarding the improper use of the language in everyday spoken language by the village folks.

Improper use of our mother tongue may gradually erode our depleting vocabulary in a very short time due to us substituting words with a foreign language. We must collectively guard and used our local dialect for the betterment of our race and for future children.

Let us speak our mother tongue everyday.