Oghen Kelantam Jual Laksam
Laksae Part IIContinuing with my 'keropok leko' vs 'keropok lingkar' & 'keropok gote' vs 'keropok gentel' blog earlier and 'laksae' vs 'laksam', I'm going to 'blebae' (nag) more on this.
Thanks to those commented on my previous entry way back in Nov. This is my theory of what actually happened with one of my best breakfast dishes, laksae. [I normally take 2 klosong of laksae for my breakfast whenever back at Tanah Serendah Sekebun Bunga].
Large proportion of Kelantanese (especially in Kelantan) do have some problems of adjusting their tongues to speak the standard BM, or what Kelantanese label as 'kkecek luar' (bercakap bahasa orang luar; 'orang luar' is what we called those non-Kelantanese). Often, their tongue adjustments resulted in rather funny and strange all sort of sounds/dialect; something I would rather say sounds between Terengganu's and God knows what. The ending syllable of a word has always been in the loose and lazy 'ae' sounds for Kelantanese. Thus, to force a word to be ended in a rather definate sound is quite a challenge to our untrained tongues.
Examples:
'Kelatae' becomes 'Kelantam' or 'Kelanten'
'Jalae' becomes 'Jalam' or 'Jalen'
'Makae' sometimes heard as 'Makam'
Once, a Kelantanese friend was talking (to a non-Kelantanes) on how easy it was to prepare tom-yam.
And this is what he said (partly),
'Senen saje, katak-katak serai pahtu... ' (It's so easy, just pounce a few stick of lemongrass and .... )
Suddenly the amphibian somehow come into the poor tomyam. Coz why, in Kelantanlingo, ketuk is 'katok'. So much of trying to kkecek lua.
Thus, it's understanable when Kelantanese food stall operators in Kay El uttered the word 'laksam' for the humble yet delicious 'laksae'. Trying to kkecek lua it was. Sadly, the world was introduced to the cuisine as laksam, and laksam it has wrongly become. [bengang aku]
Tabek should be given to Terengganu khepok leko sellers who stick to their mothertongue and not trying to kkecek lua by saying 'keropok lengkor' for instance. It simply stays as keropok leko where it should/could have been truly and rightly 'kerepok lingkar' instead.
So, once and for all:
IT IS LAKSAE , NOT bl**dy laksam !!!
posted by Atok @ 1:20:00 am
