Tilang Kamerau

[Royston]

At home and bored while recuperating from some form of " plague"
Reading through past posts and trying to match up some of my collection with some of yours. I.E " playing the name game "

Have re-read Banks article on Hoplology of Sarawak.

Due to the (dubious ?) miracle that is Facebook I recently made contact with an ex workmate who is now married and living in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
His wife, her friends and some of his workmates ( guys from Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei ) have been trying to find a meaning for " Tilang Kamerau" for me.

Too much success so far, there appears to be too many variants within the different languages and dialects of Borneo. None of them can agree with each other even to the extent of Sabah Ibans saying it is Sarawak Iban and vice versa.

Does anyone here know exactly which dialect the words are ?
Or even know the meaning.
Regards
Roy

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by Royston

.....

Does anyone here know exactly which dialect the words are ?
Or even know the meaning.
Regards
Roy

Hullo Roy,

The silence is deafening ......

I plead guilty.
Therefore, please accept my humblest apologies.
Unfortunately, I am constrained by certain sensibilities.
However, very generally speaking, I can say that your term refers to a type of fish that migrates overland in times of drought/during prolonged dry seasons.
Although my spelling of the term may be slightly different, I am not in a position to suggest any correction (allowing for variation in regional spelling/pronunciation ).
May I suggest that your friends try to seek counsel from a Saribas manang bali, or even a Skrang manang bali?

'nuff said!

Best,

[A. G. Maisey]

That is an interesting suggestion Amuk, but does it apply to the languages spoken in Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah?

I do not doubt your knowledge of these languages, its just that I do not know.

If this "tilang kamerau" were Javanese usage, we could understand it in two different ways:- "tilang" is a variant pronunciation of "hilang" = "lost", "disappeared", "vanished"; "kamerau" is a variant pronunciation of "kemarau" = "dry season" ( can also mean the dry bottom of a boat after bailing), "tilang" also has the colloquial meaning of any sort of police ticket, like a traffic infringement ticket or similar.

So, "tilang kamerau" could be understood as "a dry season speeding ticket" --- pretty unlikely for a weapon name, or "the dry season has disappeared" --- possibly quite appropriate for a weapon name.

But this would be Javanese usage, not North Borneo.

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

That is an interesting suggestion Amuk, but does it apply to the languages spoken in Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah?

.....

Hullo Alan,

Using 'gun analogy': I always try a 'sharp-shooter' rather than a 'blunderbuss' approach.
Thus what I have written above pertains only to the subject in question AND 'understood' by the protagonists/locals. Manangs are usually the best source of traditional knowledge. (My ancestor advised that to learn about metals, consult an mpu; to learn about wood, consult a maranggi ). Certainly, I am aware of all that you have brought up, but I could see no relevance in including them in my writing. Rather, it would simply add confusion.

BTW ..... being a expert, were you to have the weapon in question in your hands to play with, you will no doubt come to realise why it was named thus.

Best,

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks Amuk.

You are of course correct in that if what I wrote were to be offered as a definitive response to the original question, it would be totally irrelevant and could cause confusion, however, it was not presented as such. Rather I posted the Javanese meanings as an illustration of the relationships between the languages in this part of the world.

Incidentally, I am not an expert in anything, most especially in anything at all associated with mandaus, however, you have raised my interest in the reason why this particular type of mandau is named thus, could you please oblige with an explanation? Thanks.

While I'm asking questions, could you please oblige by telling me what a "manang bali" is. Thanks again.

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Thanks Amuk.

..... however, you have raised my interest in the reason why this particular type of mandau is named thus, could you please oblige with an explanation? Thanks.

While I'm asking questions, could you please oblige by telling me what a "manang bali" is. Thanks again.

Hullo Alan,
YW.
I normally try not to engage in discussion which I feel can go on " 'til the cows come home". I usually just leave 'skyhooks' that interested parties can use for further research to their own satisfaction, should they so wish.
As a mark of my respect for you, I will answer your queries.

Basically, like the creature it is named after, it is short/small, light and quite effective.
The blade is curved upwards like a cavalry sabre, but with the blade having a reversed profile-taper (widens to the tip) and quite narrow at the handle end. Approx. 1/3-1/4 from the tip the back-edge slopes down to a point. Except for at the beginning and at the end of the slope (where there is a more sudden drop/curve), the slope is quite gentle. Unlike the usual mandau it was mainly used as a sword, as it would be next to useless as a chopper. Occidentals often mistake such an item for a "child's " weapon.

Manang bali is the third and highest order of priests. They, like the other priests, are the guardians of their culture and are probably the only people who still know Basa Sangiang.

BTW Roy,

Hilang/Ihlang/Ilang/Illang is merely the the Kenjah word for 'knife' which has been misinterpreted/mistranslated/adapted/adopted.

I am quietly confident in my knowledge. However, as always, I am open to persuasion by incontrovertible evidence.

That will be all.

Best,

[Royston]

Thanks Alan and Amuk

Interestly my mates wife says that Kamerau means dry season in Sarawak iban
I notice that musim kemarau is dry season in Bahasa Indonesia.
Were you using Bahasa or Jawi Alun?

The lads from Sarawak at first said it is Sabah iban but then relented by saying that if you change the spelling a little to Hilang Kemarau you would get a Hilang( some sort of sword) belonging to a person named Kemarau.

None of this looks likely, except perhaps for Hilang.


I await more communications from a drillship somewhere in the south china sea.
If they are not forthcomming I might well suggest a "Shamen", Amuk

Roy

[A. G. Maisey]

Royston, when I wrote my post I was actually using basa daerah Solo, that is, ngoko as it is spoken in Solo, which is a corrupt form of ngoko, the lowest level of Javanese. My point in writing the post was to try to demonstrate that words occur in different languages and dialects with slightly different spellings and slightly different meanings.

The languages of Maritime SE Asia are a sub-group of the Austronesian group of language and are known as the Malayo-Polynesian languages. This language group includes, but is not limited to, Malay, Indonesian, Javanese, Balinese, Achinese, as well as the languages spoken across the Pacific, such as Fijian, Hawaiian, and Maori.

Interestingly, a lot of the cultural practices and beliefs that we find in SE Asia can also be found in Polynesian culture and society.

So, when we eventually find out exactly what 'tilang kamerau' actually does mean, we will very probably be able to find very similar words with very similar meanings in other languages of the group.

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by Royston

At home and bored while recuperating from some form of " plague"
Reading through past posts and trying to match up some of my collection with some of yours. I.E " playing the name game "

Have re-read Banks article on Hoplology of Sarawak.

Due to the (dubious ?) miracle that is Facebook I recently made contact with an ex workmate who is now married and living in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.
His wife, her friends and some of his workmates ( guys from Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei ) have been trying to find a meaning for " Tilang Kamerau" for me.

Too much success so far, there appears to be too many variants within the different languages and dialects of Borneo. None of them can agree with each other even to the extent of Sabah Ibans saying it is Sarawak Iban and vice versa.

Does anyone here know exactly which dialect the words are ?
Or even know the meaning.
Regards
Roy

Hi Roy,

As far as I know the only source who ever mentioned the name ' Tilang Kemarau ' was Schelford who described a sword of Batang Lupar origin which he donated to the Pitt Rivers museum. ( Heppell, two curators a classification of Borneo swords and some swords in the Sarawak museum collection) Banks followed the description of Schelford so if I understand correctly the whole naming of swords of the Tilang Kemarau type started with this one and only case. Maybe that was correctly described but its a quite narrow base.....


I just found and old Malay-Dutch translation for the word " Kamarau" what simply means " fraai"or "helder" Transl to English " fine" or " bright".
That seems to me a quite more plausible translation than " dry season" or is the word kamerau referring to the brightness of the sky when it means dry season ?

source translation : Tijdschrift voor Neerland's Indië jrg 9, 1847 (1e deel) [volgno 2]

regards,

Arjan

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for that additional information Arjan.

In respect of "kamerau", this is a very common word in Malay, Indonesian, and Javanese. True, the vowels are inconsistent, but this is a characteristic of these languages, especially Javanese, which is linguistically classified as a non-standardised language. It would surprise me if "kemarau" in variant spellings was not found in a multitude of languages and dialects throughout SE Asia.

Common usage of the word is "musim kemarau" = "dry season".

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Thanks for that additional information Arjan.

In respect of "kamerau", this is a very common word in Malay, Indonesian, and Javanese. True, the vowels are inconsistent, but this is a characteristic of these languages, especially Javanese, which is linguistically classified as a non-standardised language. It would surprise me if "kemarau" in variant spellings was not found in a multitude of languages and dialects throughout SE Asia.

Common usage of the word is "musim kemarau" = "dry season".

so if I understand correctly nowadays its always a two word combination with the word "musim " ( season) ?

regards,

Arjan..

[A. G. Maisey]

No Arjan, not always, but it is the usage that you hear most, simply because the year is split in two:- dry season and wet season. The word does have other applications, but the opportunity for those applications is very much less than reference to half of each year.

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

No Arjan, not always, but it is the usage that you hear most, simply because the year is split in two:- dry season and wet season. The word does have other applications, but the opportunity for those applications is very much less than reference to half of each year.

Ok, so due to that most used combi I think its the modern Bahassa for dry season while the old Malay style is " bright /nice season"