Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Meanings of "Beautiful" in various languages

My lecture on beautiful has reached a bottled neck as it becomes repetitive to me to explain the same thing for the fourth time. In this semester, instead of me lecturing about what does beautiful mean, I asked several students to share the meaning with the class.

Beautiful in Tamil: —அழகான (pronounce as 'alege'): It is meant only for female.

Beautiful in Arabic: 
—جميل (jamil) for male 
—جميلة (jamilah) for female
Beautiful in Bahasa Java:—Ayu: gadis ayu
—Apeik: for things

Beautiful in Brunei: Bisai (for female, menyeluruh)
Beautiful in Kedayan: Lawa (for female)

Beautiful in Kadazan - Dusun language
The sharing was followed by two Kadazan - Dusun students, they explained the following:
  • —Olumis / olundus / Oligang / olidang(Dusun(Dusun): for both gender (more towards female) 
  • —Awantang (Dusun): specifically for male / handsome 
  • —Ogingo / awanus (Dusun): for things (in Tambunan, Papar and Penampang areas)


Fig 1: Areas where Kadazan - Dusun live in Sabah. 

When I google-ed the word "olumis", I found this photo matching the concept of olumis and Sabahan.
Fig 2: Miss Earth Sabah Top Four at Olumis Borneo Batik House. Source: Rungitom Life

Beautiful in Iban Language
—Bajik : for female, berasal daripada satu mitos, mengenai seorang perempuan yang bernama ‘Kumang’
—Sigat: for male, pasangan Kumang, namanya ‘Keling’


Fig 2: Miss Kumang Gawai Festival 2013, Natalie . Source: New Sarawak Tribute.

Fig 3: Mr Keling Gawai Sibu 2013, Mr Kevin Kedit. Source: Borneo Post Online


Beautiful in Chinese Language

Do read this article: 《不懂羊就不懂中国人 武汉学者详解羊的传人说》

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