72 PENANG MALAY. 
Dak is used for tidak as a negation. 
“Did you do it? No.” Hang kah-buat? Dak. Oe! 
Oe is more or less a meaningless exclamation like Oh! usually 
denoting grief or pain as in the phrase Adov mak oe!, “Alas mother 
oh!” but in hailing or in reply to a hail merely means “ ahoy ” 
or “ yes.” 
Boat ahoy! sampan oe! 
Oh brother Mat! O, bang Mat! - (answer) Oe, “ Yes.” 
In connection with dak is a little phrase buat dak meaning “ to 
do ” 2.e. “ to act (as if) nothing (had happened) ”; “ to appear quite 
unconscious of what” is afoot (buat ta tahu). 
“When I passed he was gambling at the side of the road but I 
acted as if I had not noticed anything.” Waktu saya lalu 
dia dok main judi di-tépi jalan tétapr saya buat dak. 
The usual abbreviations of the terms for kindred are in use as 
bang for abang 
kak a kakak 
pak ‘- bapa 
tok % datok: 
che’ S Enche’ 
and the less common 
nek for nenek 
dek . adek 
nak a anak 
which are used only in certain phrases. 
Bang is used in conjunction with a name as bang Tam = abang Itam. 
“brother Itam, ” the brother not being a sign of relationship but 
of respect. 
“Which one do you want brother Din? This or that? Yang mana 
bang Din mahu? Yang ini-kah, yang tu? 
It is also sometimes used in addressing a stranger as 
Bang oe, saya nak tumpang bértanya di-mana rumah si-anu? 
“Oh! brother might I ask you where is so and so’s house?” 
It should not be forgotten that in Malay, titles of relationship 
are used to express not only actual relationship but the relative 
rank of the persons addressed or spoken about as compared with 
the speaker. So that kak: Jah does not mean “my sister Khadijah” 
but “Jah who is of the relative rank of kakak or elder sister to 
me.” Further, abang, adek, kak and tok are used as polite forms 
of address to strangers according to their age and sex to avoid 
using the pronoun “ you” which is considered rude. 
There are also a few words which are shortened to the extent 
of a syllable. . 
tuala a towel tola also tuala 
kuala an estuary kola ,, kuala 
basa accustomed besa ,, biasa 
kuasa power: authority kosad ,, kuasa 
Jour. Straits Branch 
