Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Don’t Porget
This was taken by a friend on a visit to Sumatra. Why porget? Because Malayo-Polynesian (like many other language families) has /p/ rather than /f/, and /b/ rather than /v/.

In the Malay/Indonesian-speaking countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, words and names with /f/ are primarily of Arabic and (to a lesser extent) European origin; and /f/ is often replaced by /p/, giving pairs such as Sufian~Sopian and Mustafa~Mustapa. Telephone is rendered as talipon.

In the Philippines, Spanish /f/ becomes /p/, hence Pilipinas/Pilipino/Pilipina.

And in both Malay and Tagalog, handphone may be rendered as handpon.

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