Wednesday November 28, 2007
Rais tells DBP to stop borrowing foreign words
KUALA KLAWANG: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) has been told not take the easy way out by borrowing words from foreign languages to be added into the Malay vocabulary.
Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said such a regressive attitude would not benefit the Malays, who have a rich heritage.
“What I don’t understand is why should we borrow words from other languages when we have our own. A fine example is the word iklan (advertisement). I have been made to understand that the DBP dictionary no longer uses the word iklan and has changed it to advertansi,” he said.
Dr Rais said there were many other examples and the DBP had to stop this.
He was responding to a comment by Grik MP Datuk Dr Wan Hashim Wan Teh who claimed that DBP had run out of ideas and failed to do proper research on Malay words.
Wan Hashim said DBP also used words such as bajet (budget) and konsultansi (consultation), although there were words in Malay that denoted the same meaning.
“DBP should borrow foreign words only after it has exhausted all options in looking for a suitable word in Malay,” said Dr Rais at the opening of a RM3.5mil public library by Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
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