Cabut Babut

Last night I was at the Semi-Final of the National Quran Recital Competition. Yes! There is a Semi-Final for those wondering and asking. 15 Male and 11 Female competed for 8 places in the Final. It was at Pusat Dakwah. From these, 8 were chosen, 4 for each gender.

After the competition, we were sitting together for a late supper with my Minister who is the guest of honour and the deputy minister for religious affairs, both veterans of living in Kampong Ayer. The conversation around the table soon turn to words used in Kampong Ayer and in the past by Bruneians and not used very much by today's Bruneians. The three words for today's lessons are as follows:-

The first word is Babut. Babut is almost similar to Cabut. Cabut means to pull out but Babut is pulling out something but struggling hard to pull whatever it is out. For instance if you want to pull out the Tongkat Ali plant, you do not cabut. You have to turn your back to it, grab the plant and then wiggle it out while pulling strongly. Interestingly enough, in Jawa, babut means carpet.

The second word is Salualai. I am not sure how it's spelled but that's what I heard last night. The word was once used officially in a government instruction which appeared in Pelita Brunei. The usage was something like this ".. jangan salualai menfotokopi.." So salualai means something like another Brunei word selarah-larah or do as you like.

The third word is Tumarjal. Again I am not sure how it's spelled. The word appears in context in a sentence like this '... tumarjal tia sudah akhir-akhir ani ...' which means '... now there is a lot of people at this late stage ...'

I can't find the last two words in the Kamus Bahasa Melayu Nusantara but both of the Ministers remembered that these words being used. Anyway, you might find them useful to show off your new Brunei words in the right occasion.