Talk:machiam

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Sonofcawdrey

Etymology

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The alteration from macam (i.e. macham) to machiam is unexplained. According to Hock's Baba Malay Dictionary (2006) the corresponding word is pronounced (and spelled) macham, which lacks the excrescent /i/. So I think we can rule out Baba Malay as a source. BTW, some Singaporean Malay speakers I queried said that it is possibly a Chinese (mis)pronunciation of the Malay word, though this is clearly speculative.--Sonofcawdrey (talk) 01:05, 16 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

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