Grandfather's Kris...

[Alam Shah]

Originally Posted by Antonio Cejunior

When when our son was about 7 or eight, we spent a month in Malaysia, starting at Penang where we stayed at a resort called Battu Ferringhi, they told me at the time it meant Portuguese Stones, so I'm just selling for the same price I bought it. Then we proceeded to Kuala Lumpur (what is the meaning of the city's name, please?) then we went to the Portuguese Settlement in Melacca (we call it Malaca) and saw the A Famosa built by Afonso de Albuquerque (Note that Alfonso is Spanish, not Portuguese) and we then went to Kota Kinabalu. It was a fantastic time we spent in Malaysia.

Batu Feringgi, the ‘foreigner's rock’ is a beach for lovers and dreamers.
Kuala Lumpur, meaning ‘muddy confluence’,
Melacca, Malaca or Malacca, in local Malay languaga is, Melaka.

Originally Posted by Antonio Cejunior

I appreciate whatever language meaning you can explain to me.
I noticed in Malaca that the school bus had a sign saying SEKOLA, which is very close to ESCOLA, the Portuguese word for School.
I'm interested very much in understanding why did the Portuguese words stuck, no matter how twisted, whereas a could not find any Dutch words.

Oh yes, the school bus... the yellow bus with the black lettering of SEKOLAH meaning 'school'.

Originally Posted by Antonio Cejunior

In the late 1960's I travelled to Europe with someone who asked me what was my nationality and I told him, Portuguese: he immediately recited these four words: djanela, bandera, pistola, cadera. This is pure Portuguese and that really hit me hard.

~lol~
'bandera' is flag in Portugese, is it? If it is, in Malay, flag is 'bendera'.

Originally Posted by Antonio Cejunior

The Japanese have incorporated about 400 Portuguese words in their vocabulary.
So you may understand my interest in linguistics involving influences of the Portguese in the Far East.

Unfortunately, I'm not a linguist, but it would be interesting to know how many words got incorporated into the Malay language...