The Ps and the Bs

Referring to my last post.

As most of my readers are able to read the arabic font (assuming all are Malaysian. Mostly Malays. Muslims.) you would know that the arabic font does not have certain letters as the roman ones.

Like for instance they do not have the letter "P", "C", "G" "V" and some other letters that I am too lazy to think for you. Arabic letters do have similar letters like roman ones like Ba(ب) for B, Kaf (ك) for "K" Zai (ز) for "Z" and many more letters that I am too lazy to type here.

So sometimes when they want to make a direct copy of a name, they would substitite the missing letters to an arabic letter somewhat closest to it. For instance, refer to this pizza hut banner.



Even though pizza starts with a letter "P". But like I said, Arabic font (the hijaiyah not the jawi) doesn't have a "P", they substitute it with a "B" or the letter BA (ب). And thus pizza hut is spelt BIZZA HUT.

The same goes with things like petrol becomes BETROL and err apa lagilah tak ingat.

Another thing is Arabic font does not have the letter "G". If in jawi we use the letter GA like Kaf with a dot on top. Over here they use JIM (ج). And also in jawi we have the letter nga, which is ain with three dots on top. Thus we can use the word king with better effect. Over here, anything with G is substituted with the letter JIM.

refer to this burger king picture.



Notice the Gs in the Burger King becomes a J (as in JIM)

However, when I went to Oman, I met this guy in Nizwa. We were talking about the mejestic Jabals in Oman. Jabal (جبل)means mountain. But he did not pronounce it as Jabal instead he pronounced it Gabal. I asked him why you said Gabal, is it not spelt with a Jim. Yes with a Jim but the pronunciation is Gabal. Hmm

I was later told by my teacher, certain dialects use Jim as a G. Especially in Egypt.

Anyway saja nak relate a story about a friend of mine who went for his driving test. Before that, a background knowledge for you. When you take a driving test, you do the theory first, then they would test your parking, naik bukit segala tu dulu. After that if you pass, you get on a bus with your fellow comrades where they will take you to drive on the road.

So my friend has completed his parking test and all that. No poles were hit. Reasonable reversing and all. Then the policemen (polis yang test kat sini) started
calling out names for people to get in the bus. There were a few buses. But my friend's name was not called.

"Why me no go on bus?" My friend asked
"You?!! You no bas" The police said.
"No bus?" wondering what he meant by that since there were buses not completely full. "When will there be a bus?"
"You come tomorrow. Tomorrow bas" Presumably the police said that there will be a bus for him tomorrow.

I know I know. How leceh things are. Sometimes you just do not want to argue. Mainly because of language barrier.

So my friend came the following day and asked for the bus. Another officer checked his particulars. And said, "When you want to take test again?"
"What take test again?" My friend exclaimed.
"You take test again. You no bas."
"The other man said I take bus today." My friend said.
"No! No! You no bas! You failed!"
"Ohhhhhh I no pass"

Blearrghhhhh. Hahahhahahhaha

Having said that, I just saw a documentary about the Islam missionaries in the old days after the death of Prophet Mohammad. Indeed they covered Europe and went to China. The documentary also said, because the arabic language requires one to use nearly all the vocal organs like the tongue, the throat, the sides of the mouth and the lips, it was relatively easy for them to learn new languages. These certainly helped the missionaries to somewhat blend in and spread the good word of Islam.

Indeed, now that I am learning arabic and tajweed (with an arab), I am practising a lot of throat exercise. the letter like Kha (ح) and Kho (خ) and Ain (ع) and Dzal (ذ) and Tha (ث)and Dzo (ظ) requires a bit more practice and tongue and throat exercise.

Oh if you couldn't read the banners that I put in the previous entry, do not fret, for the english version of it is everywhere. So you will never miss your favourite fast food.