If you had trouble appreciating the title, then just blame the generation gap. Or then again, perhaps it's actually a sign of serious aging in process (though I'd rather conveniently subscribe to the former).

I was listening to my four kids having a conversation during our family dinner the other day, and trust me, it was a revelation of sorts. I was equally amused and horrified at the same time; bearing witness to blatant abuses to the Malay Language. Sometimes I too struggled to grasp the meaning of some supposedly 'new' words and phrases that I once thought I've duly mastered. For example: "Hek-eleh ... poyo giler ..."

I do not understand

For the uninitiated, the word 'poyo' here could mean anything between uncool, not phat, square, boring, nerdy, ugly to being a downright jerk. Gross, I hear you say? Well, come to think of it, perhaps it could mean that too, and more. Hence its brazen usage by the Rakan Muda Generation. What is immediately evident is the reaction it brings; it seems that one would prefer to be called 'lembab' or even 'bodoh' rather than 'poyo'. Maybe to them being a 'poyo' makes one The Ultimate Social Pariah.

I still recall how my father used to strictly monitor the types of magazines that I read, for fear of getting infected by the dreaded symptom referred to as 'Pencemaran Bahasa' (language pollution). So, understandably it is particularly frustrating now for me, as a father, to actually have to listen to my own kids proudly brandishing their 'Bahasa Melayu XP Version 5.2 (Updated 2006)'. Of course, who are you to complain. To them, you are just an 'Otai', which is actually an adulterated version of 'Old Tie'.

If you think having to hear the kids resort to using such language is awful enough, then maybe you haven't heard enough after all. As if to add salt to injury, the Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka has actually decided to announce that the words 'Ori' (from the English word 'original') and 'Cintan' (used as a colloquial word to mean 'amorous') are now officially accepted as full-fledged authentic Bahasa Melayu words.

Makes you wonder what is the prevailing criterion for a word to be accepted as such.

Not enough words

Granted, Bahasa Melayu as a language does face the dilemma most minor languages have; it suffers from inadequate vocabulary. Thus began the almost feverish borrowing from other languages since more than two decades ago. Hence words like 'imunisasi' (immunisation) and 'polarisasi' (polarisation), 'Globalisasi and Melayu Global' (later glokal, for `global and local'). The possibilities were endless, and people were gleefully adding to their new found vocabulary. But when words like 'ori' gets in, any self-respecting linguist can't help but frown.

I don't have anything against borrowing, or more precisely, adopting words from other languages, except for the obvious fact that we already have words such as 'asli' to sufficiently mean `original'. And come to think of it, I've never once used the word 'ori' to denote that meaning. So why the haste to announce it as a new `Malay' word?

I'm sure my 80 year old grandmother, for one, would fume like a locomotive if she knows this. After all, she's been using words such as senalar (frequent), kebelai (hungry), peghosah (disturb) for as long as she could remember... so why on earth aren't those words accepted yet?

I was still watching my kids and listening to what sounded like Double Dutch to me. One of them caught my gaze. "Hek-eleh ", he said. I smiled at him and, absent mindedly blurted " poyo?" Almost simultaneously, they all laughed approvingly. "Tau takpe", another one said and lovingly put her hands around me.

There you are, I told myself. Tau takpe (meaning: If You Know, Then It's Okay)

ZAIM AL-AMIN would like to dedicate this article is dedicated to his wife Nina Norfaizah and my kids Daniellia Zainisya, Hilmi Firdaus, Daniellia Zetrisya and Iqmal Firdaus.