Sometimes I get so used to reading Dusun news items translated from Malay that I forgot to react when I see that the sentence structures look more Malay than Dusun. Other times when I am in my Kadazandusun teacher-mode, I feel quite upset and wish that writers are more aware of what they are doing. But then again, no one of the current working Kadazan/Dusun people ever did learn Kadazan/Dusun grammar in school so I can't really blame them, can I?
Somehow it still bothers me. When someone decided that s/he would become a Kadazan/Dusun journalist, I believe s/he should be aware that a Kadazan/Dusun sentence begins with a verb, not a 'subject' (or whatever the elements are called). Unless of course the 'subject' is brought to the front, and followed by 'nopo nga' that functions like 'ialah/adalah' in Malay or the copular be in English. Even then it would still need to be followed by further information for the subject.
So "The people are happy" should be
Ounsikou (state verb) i(determiner) tongoulun(person.plural)
or tongoulun nopo nga ongounsikou... (the people are happy...) followed by further information
not
tongoulun(person.plural) ounsikou (happy)
The thing is, I see more and more of this careless way of writing nowadays. People don't seem to make the effort of appreciating the natural elements of the language they are using, and to me it's sad. Or could it be because boundaries between languages living side by side are getting more blurred?
(Note: This is written during one of my grumpy moods. Must be due to reading too many awkward KD sentences)
4 comments:
the writers tend to use conversation sentence into their writing? some case is like that especially for the language that not 'wajib' to be taken in our education system. (just a thought..)
Yoho nopo diti nga minsingilo nogi monurat do Dusun. 10 noh toun do awu asaru mimboros Dusun tu tambalut sangkaraja nga awu koilo mimboros. Haro daa dii sinuratanku hilo id 1DUSUN nga awu noilaan ondum kotunud. Kumaa di mambabasa toi monunurat di koilo kopio do Dusun, alansan oku daa do haro monuduk doho. Kotoluadan.
People from different areas/districts structure their sentence differently. I was talking to a friend about year-end school holiday when he asked "honggo ko maya?" We would normally say "honggo winayaan nu?" (which route did you take) to indicate things that has already past.
According to him that's how they say it, past or yet to happen.
but i agree with you, some of the news items translated from English/Malay just don't feel 'right' in Dusun.
Thanks for the info, kounsikahan dot pinopoilo ko, gia.......:)
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