One hundred years ago, this is the type of vocabulary that an Englishman would use when conversing with a local while travelling in Malaya (you can click on the image to make it larger).
Source: Federated Malay States Railways Pamphlet of Information for Travellers 1914.
Some of the expressions are distinctly outdated such as 'Call a Gharry' (a gharry was a horsedrawn cab) or 'Go and get back my clothes from the washerman'.
The Malay translation of rikisha (rickshaw) was kreta hongkong or 'Hong Kong carriage'.
The use of the term 'Asiatic' when referring to people belongs to an earlier prejudiced age and has been replaced by 'Asian'.
The author of the pamphlet warned that 'the adoption of a hectoring tone will prove fatal to mutual comprehension'. That still applies.
The Malay translation of rikisha (rickshaw) was kreta hongkong or 'Hong Kong carriage'.
The use of the term 'Asiatic' when referring to people belongs to an earlier prejudiced age and has been replaced by 'Asian'.
The author of the pamphlet warned that 'the adoption of a hectoring tone will prove fatal to mutual comprehension'. That still applies.
RSS Feed
