Agreeably our spoken language is being molded everyday. We add, subtract, divide and reduce certain Bahasa Malaysia words in our pursue to be "new" or "fashionable" or for no obvious reason at all. My concern is the word "Kot".
ORIGIN OF "KOT"
It was used primarily by Malaysians Malay living in large cities in West Malaysia states like Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Selangor, Johor, Melaka and Negeri Sembilan. When Malaysians of non-Malay origin used "kot" in their daily conversations, they could be considered as a fluent Bahasa Malaysia speaker because "kot" is purely a slang in Bahasa Malaysia. While the use of "kot" in Sabah or Sarawak is an indicator that that speaker is from West Malaysia for sure!
HOW TO USE "KOT"
The word "kot" is used in many settings but its main usage is to indicate uncertainty of a Bahasa Malaysia speaker in a particular subject in a conversation. This is the real meaning of "kot".
Examples should make it easier for us to understand the illusive "kot" word (Bahasa Malaysia- English)
Example 1: Use once at the end of a sentence
"Awak dah bayar bila air?"- Have you paid the water bills?
"Ye kot?"- Yes, probably???
Example 2: Used twice at the front
"Awak rasa siapa yang tumbuk anak saya?"- Who do you think punched my son?
"Kot kot anak Haji Kassim tak...?"- Probably it was Haji Kassim's son..?
HOW TO USE IT WRONGLY
More recently there has been a flagrant misused of the word itself. Why I said it was a misuse is because the "kot" has loss its original meaning to indicate uncertainty. It has been relegated to the point of meaningless. No more question mark, no more uncertainty, thus it became redundant.
Several examples might be sufficed to explain this:
1. "Panas kot!"- It's hot!
The word "kot" has no meaning here. It's just not logical to be uncertain about temperature as in "It's hot, really??". It supposed to be "Panasnye" or "Panas!!!"
2. "Dua ratus kot!!!"-It's two hundred!!!
The word "kot" again doesn't indicate the speaker being uncertain but used for nothing!!! It supposed to be "Dua ratus tu!!!!"
My take
Firstly speakers of this "misused kot" are using it unconsciously because their friends are using it.
Secondly it is suggestive of their non-determined, non-conforming, nothing-to-stand on, no-self-believe without realizing it!
Thirdly, some caught it and some not. It is entirely interesting to know how they caught it in the first place and why they used it unconsciously. It is also interesting to see how long this misused and viral slang could be retained in our Bahasa Malaysia vocabulary pool.
Akhir kata, we should be more aware of what words we are using as it might show our inner self to others without we knowing it and being misconstrued of having no self believe!!! How wrong was that!
P.S: This note was written after observing some of my Malay friends talking as well as observations from my beloved sister on her friends conversations. We found that the misused of the word was mainly by young Malays in universities and urban areas in the Klang valley. FORGIVE ME FOR THE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE, I CAN'T HELP IT :)
14 comments:
that was a very thorough research my brother! =) n so very true...
hombre!
New post! hehe I realized I misused "kot" thanks.. XD
Yup new post!
mengkali kot.. g2 ada ka zam? hahahaha.. punya bidak!!!
hahaha....mengkali la. teda mengkali kowt. hahaha
teda ?? bah?? mengkali??
bidak??
write an article bout it.. it should b fun
Hi there. As I was reading your examples of instances where the word "kot" was being used improperly, the idea came across my mind that perhaps the speaker wasn't saying/didn't mean to say "kot," but rather, "kok"--an Indonesian particle that when used at the beginning of a sentence can mean uncertainty or beg the question "Why?" whereas if it is used at the end of a sentence simply emphasizes that the statement is true while often hinting at the speakers astonishment of that truth.
Granted, "kok" is an Indonesian word; however, words in Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu intermingle constantly. If such is the case, then the use of "kok" would be more or less appropiate it the examples you've given:
1. "Panas kok!" - It's hot, you know! or It's really hot! ("Panasnya!")
2. "Dua ratus kok!!!" - It's two hundred (dollars), can you believe it?"
awesome! i was learning some malay and wanted to know how to use this slang i keep hearing all the time. Your blog is the only thing i found in google. you should do more of these! terima kasih dan semoga berjaya :)
I hope you could get more friends using that "kot" word! All the best to you Sohaib, your family and anything that you do in life. :)
I supposed the word "kok" has a totally different meaning altogether; and context-wise "kok" is not used by Malaysians other than Indonesians.
Hello Ibn Sina! I'm a language student from IIUM. How can I contact you directly so that I can ask some questions about this topic regarding my assignment?
that was really useful! thanks for preparing this :D
i was talking to my malay teacher and couldn't understand much that she said.. but this helped me so much! thanks a lot xx
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