Languages: the Lifeline of our Communication

Reading an English Buddhist text can be a revealing exercise, in the sense that some of the Buddhist terms appear familiar. I'm referring to their similarity to romanized Malay words that we have learned since young, both in spelling and in meaning.

The teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha, who hailed from India, as embodied in the various sutras (scriptures) passed down through centuries, naturally would adopt the lingua franca of the day, Sanskrit. This only goes to show that some of the Malay terms have Sanskrit roots. Here is a sample, from the perspective of Buddhist terms, courtesy of this on-line Buddhist Glossary of Terms, and this Wikipedia source:

dana: Giving, liberality; offering, alms.
Dharmacakra: the wheel of Dharma (laws and doctrines), which means cakra is wheel or disc as in melontar cakra (discus throwing) as a field event in athletics.
dosa: Aversion; hatred; anger. One of three unwholesome roots in the mind. This generally means sin in Malay.
dukkha: Stress; suffering; pain; distress; discontent.
naga: A term commonly used to refer to strong, stately, and heroic animals, such as elephants and magical serpents.
rupa: Body; physical phenomenon; sense datum.
sukha: Pleasure; ease; satisfaction.

So in a way, we have learned some words from other languages that can be written in romanized forms. One exception that I know is Chinese, even when in the romanized form called Ping Yin as it is a system based on phonetics only. The Chinese characters are in block form made up of basic strokes, and they are mono-syllabic, one sound per character, which can be any of the four basic intonations.

Personally, I have not been very careful at enunciation when it comes to Chinese, often giving a word the wrong intonation, evoking earnest reprimand from wify, and perhaps silent demur from others. But I have tidied up somewhat. And having a chance to converse with Chinese from China and Taiwan in Mandarin since we moved here is a big help.

Not to say that my spoken English is flawless. I recall attending an internal seminar on presentation last year. Each attendee was asked to do several 5-minute oral presentations, once at the beginning, once mid-way, and once at the end, with critiques from both the course instructor and fellow colleagues. Guess what, I was told that the proper way to pronounce the first syllabus of the word “colleague”, or at least the American way, is like “call”, and not “curl” as I have been happily doing it before that day. Even CE, my youngest, is not averse to, in fact I think she is thrilled at, correcting her good old Dad's spoken English.

But that's OK since I'm not a native English speaker anyway. One thing I've learned though, is to speak slowly, making sure to enunciate each sound syllabus clearly, a far cry from my days of staccato machine gun-like delivery. I also find that speaking slowly helps to reduce my accent, an acquired trait that I just can't get rid of.

I marvel at the beauty of both the spoken and written word, and their inherent utility in communication. We should feel blessed that we are able to read, write, speak, and hear, and therefore be extra careful in wielding these tools of communication lest we be misconstrued. Similarly, we need to be extra attentive in listening lest we misconstrue others.