You Called Her Mama

Tun Teja wrote in the comment box about the origin of the word 'Babu' which are used by some of our Bruneians for 'mother'. The perception is that the word 'babu' is used by family of Pengirans but of course that are also non-Pengiran families who used the word as well. In Brunei, our usage for the word mother ranged from the English Mummy or Mum to the Arabic Umi to the Brunei Mama or Babu. Seldom surprisingly I have heard Brunei children used Emak or Ibu even though these are standard Malay. We do use Abah or Bapa.

Why Babu? I don't know and I haven't had the time to do a research on how babu came about. I would suggest however that we go back in time. In English, for the meat, we have cows when the animal was still alive but we used beef to call its meat. I read somewhere this is due that in the old days, the common English people spoke English whereas the royalty or those high up spoke in French. So in French, boeuf means the meat of a cow and hence beef was used. As time passes by, cows and beef became English words.

Babu, from what I have read, I would guess would most likely come from the word, 'va pruh' which is a Sanskrit word. Like the English/French, our word origin would likely be Sanskrit/Malay. There are many Sanskrit words which became Malay words without us realising it. 'Va pruh' means leader or father, grandfather etc. It is quite spectacular though for it to become 'mother' in Brunei's context. But if we were to follow the English commoner/French royalty theory and apply it to the Brunei commoner/Sanskrit royalty (Pengirans), we may be on the right track.

Anyway, I may be very very wrong. If someone out there has a better theory, I and the readers of this blog would love to hear about it. 'Va pruh' became 'Baba' or 'Aba' in Persian and Arabic and also in Urdu and Hindi.

A quick check on Wikipedia, looking up Wiktionary, you get the following definition:-

+++++

The term babu, also spelled baboo, is used in modern-day South Asia as a sign of respect towards men. It is a derivation of bapu which means father. The honorific "ji" is sometimes added as a suffix to create the double honorific Babuji. In northern and eastern parts of India, "babuji" is a term of respect for one's father. It can also be used as a term of respect for any respected elder or man. In some Indian states, "babu" is also used as a generic word of respect to address men, especially unknown ones, e.g., "Babu, can you help me ?" In Bengali, "babu" is used as suffix to a person's name to show respect while calling him by name, e.g., "Sudarshan-babu, could you please come here!"

In British India, "Babu" was a term used to describe a native Indian clerk. The word was originally used as a term of respect attached to a proper name, but later, especially when used alone and not as a suffix, was a derogatory word signifying a semi-literate native, with a mere veneer of modern education.[1] In the early 20th century the term Babu was frequently used to refer to bureaucrats and other government officials, especially by the Indian media; in this sense the word hints at corrupt or lazy work practices. It can also mean the pimp or client of a sex worker. The term babu has thus fallen out of favour in polite society, since it may be taken as an insult.

In Indian languages, the term "babu" may be suffixed to a person's name, but the term "babuji" is always used by itself.

"Babu" also means grandfather in Swahili.

+++++

Like I said, it would really be interesting how 'babu' became 'mother' in Brunei.