Pair-words in Malay
Zainu’l-Abidin bin Ahmad published “Pair-Words in Malay” in 1927 in the Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (Vol. V, No. 2), offering a systematic lexicographical catalogue of 120 fixed two-word set-phrases in the Malay language. The article’s overarching thesis is that these pair-words—broadly divisible into alliterative and non-alliterative classes—serve three distinct semantic functions: intensification of a primary word, implication of indefinite repetition or continuity, and expression of universal inclusion across kinds and species.
Summary
The article opens with a taxonomic framework. Alliterative pair-words repeat or modify sounds and syllables between the two components (e.g., gerak-geri, bongkar-bangkir, kueh-mueh), while non-alliterative pairs join two cognate words of related but distinct meaning (e.g., budi-bahasa, sangkut paut, kurus kering). The author notes that pairs of opposed words (atas bawah, hidup mati) exist but are too transparent to warrant discussion. Within the alliterative class, he identifies a principal word and a secondary word, the latter being generally meaningless in isolation and formed through euphonic manipulation—syllable substitution, vowel change, or the insertion of m before the root consonant (pp. 324–325).
The bulk of the article (pp. 325–338) is a numbered catalogue of 120 entries, each with a definition and at least one illustrative sentence drawn from colloquial or literary Malay. The entries range from kinship terms (anak-pinak, saudara-mara, saka-baka) through onomatopoeic sound-pairs (dempang-dempung, derong-derang, dentam-dentum) to vividly descriptive action-pairs (hulor-halar, puntang-panting, susup-sasap). The author explicitly flags that many of these forms are conversational, provincial, or absent from existing dictionaries, positioning the article as a recovery of living usage that formal lexicography had overlooked (p. 325).
The functional analysis underpinning the catalogue distinguishes three purposes: (a) strengthening a primary word by adding an idea of indefinite plural confusion; (b) implying indefinite repetition, association, or multiplied quantity; and (c) expressing universal inclusion of all kinds, often appearing alongside words like banyak, habis, or segala (p. 325). This tripartite schema gives the catalogue its organizational logic, even though the entries themselves are arranged roughly alphabetically rather than by function.
Key Findings
- The article catalogues exactly 120 numbered pair-words, spanning pp. 324–338 (15 pages of the journal), making it one of the most extensive single-author treatments of Malay reduplicative and paratactic set-phrases published in the colonial period.
- The m-formation pattern (e.g., kueh-mueh, telinga-minga, chomot-momot, choreng-moreng) is explicitly linked by the author to the Malay verbal prefix meN- expressing combination or reciprocity, suggesting a morphological derivation rather than mere phonetic play (p. 324).
- The author identifies three discrete semantic functions for pair-words: intensification with indefinite plural confusion, implication of repeated or continuous action, and universal inclusion of all species or materials—the last typically co-occurring with quantifiers such as banyak, habis, segala (p. 325).
- Non-alliterative pairs such as budi-bahasa, ipar lamai, sangkut paut, ubat kelut, patah riok, kusut masai, lintang pukang, luloh lentak, simpang perenang, and gemok gedempung are noted to “suggest haphazard alliteration” but are in fact fixed conventional idioms whose pairing is arbitrary (p. 324).
- The entry for baling-baling (a toy windmill) includes a detailed physical description of an elaborate type with bamboo tubes, vanes, and a vertical pole, noting that its hoisting was “sometimes made an occasion for feasting”—a rare ethnographic aside within an otherwise purely linguistic catalogue (p. 327).
- The author explicitly states that “many have never found their way into the dictionaries,” positioning the article as a corrective to the gap between living colloquial Malay and the lexicographical record of the period (p. 325).
Conclusion
Ahmad’s definitive takeaway is that Malay pair-words constitute a productive, rule-governed morphological class whose secondary components are euphonically derived and semantically dependent on the primary word, and whose three functional roles (intensification, repetition, universal inclusion) parallel the work done by reduplication in other parts of the grammar. By documenting 120 forms with contextual examples, the article establishes that this class is far richer and more systematic than contemporary dictionaries acknowledged, and that a significant body of living Malay usage existed outside the purview of formal lexicography.
Context
- The JMBRAS was the official journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a colonial-era learned society; this article represents a Malay-language scholar contributing linguistic fieldwork to a British institutional publication, a common pattern in the period.
- The article draws on the author’s direct observation of colloquial and provincial Malay usage rather than on a single archival collection; its historiographical contribution lies in preserving a snapshot of mid-1920s spoken Malay idiomatic vocabulary that subsequent standard dictionaries only partially absorbed.