First Experiment With Ummi
“Dio tengoh dakap bini dio,” said Ummi carefully through the external microphone. The recording was successful after a few hilarious attempts. “Maybe you should change the sentence,” she said, still suppressing her laughter. I thought it was a simple sentence in Kelantan, but when I tried to look at it from Ummi’s perspective, she might be right. The meaning was a little offensive for a wife like her – “He is hugging his wife.”
After a few hours of intensive protruding and delightful poking, I finally ended my first preliminary fieldwork experiment in Kelantan. Ummi, of all people in Kelantan, became my very first participant. I thought it would be easier for me to handle my own step-mum. It was supposed to be a full-length recording session, but I had to cut it short because Ummi kept correcting my well-prepared materials.
“We don’t say it like that in Kelantan!” she commented one of the Kelantan words with solemn authority. It didn’t occur to me I could be wrong when I constructed those sentences in Melbourne. But now, it is apparent that my Kelantan dialect is not original enough. In the end, Ummi became my language consultant, instead of a subject that I could manipulate.
In the middle of this panicked moment, I thought of Janet. This mini experiment was her idea.
“Perhaps you can get some data while you are away in Kelantan for two weeks,” she said before I left for Malaysia last week. I said okay and she immediately leant me a sophisticated digital recorder with 24 bit/48 kHz super sound quality. Being a technical fool, I studied the recorder’s manual with curiosity just a few hours before the flight. The operation might look simple, but it turned out to be a total chaos when I handled it for the first time with Ummi. Ummi’s “interference” made matters worse and more complicated. I tried to enjoy the whole experiment, though the materials were so semantically awkward in so many ways.
Anyway, I thanked Ummi for her input. My Ayoh look at me and said, “Tak dok khijo laen nyoh!” Like I’ve got nothing else to do. He had no idea that the recording was part of my PhD project. Don’t worry Ayoh, I’ll show you one day that our beautiful dialect can change the world.
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“Don’t worry Ayoh, I’ll show you one day that our beautiful dialect can change the world.”
Yessss….I like that spirit, mate. Tamat doh nangisnyo…jeles pun dok lagi. Wei, deghah kelik wei… purrr….meow!
haha.. I hope I’ll maintain the spirit!