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  • a Konglish collocation indicating a thing is the same as another.

    October 3, 2010

  • English speakers visiting Indonesia often think that that is what is implied by the local expression sama-sama. It's not. Sama-sama means 'together with' and among other uses is used colloquially by Indonesians to indicate something equivalent to 'you're welcome' (i.e. 'I am together with you in the offering of thanks').

    Hence you have foreign tourists in places like Bali baffling/torturing local shopkeepers with things like, 'You got shirt same-same like he wearing, same-same red colour but not same-same size, big-big size.'

    The very patient Balinese are probably used to it now :-/

    October 3, 2010

  • funny--once in translation these Indonesian snippets look like Trinnie English patois c. 1958 i.e. the time Naipaul wrote The Suffrage of Elvira. The phenomenon (how current now I'm not sure) is due to Hindi et al., I believe, using adjective reduplication instead of "very" (indeed I have heard Punjabi speakers transfer the pattern into English).

    From the novel:

    "Is this election sweetness that sweeten you up, Baksh. But see how this sweetness going to turn sour sour. See?"

    October 16, 2010