Mujo Batok di Tangga

My sister sent this to me today. It is true you know, when people say Trengganunese and Kelantanese are foreigners, their politicians are always misunderstood because it takes only their own kind to translate the meaning behind their statements which always regarded as harsh and unfounded. That is why people from their own states never get offended the way the rest of the world are with the statments made by their politicians. No one wondered how those words were spoken with such sincere straight faces.

Just like Cantonese dialect, conversations are deliberately aloud and laden with sarcasm and again uttered with sincere straight faces really express the closeness and happiness among them.

Here's Bustamann's take on the meaning of the Trengganunese word 'Mujo' and then my take on something I learnt after cycling around Paya Wetland on the meaning of one proverb. And then, YamYam2u's intellectual input that now turn this into a concrete finding.

Melepaskan Batok di Tangga
In school, we were all taught that the act of Melepaskan Batok di Tangga which is used as a proverb illustrates someone who does something lazily. For years I cannot comprehend how the act of clearing the throat by coughing by the staircase portray laziness. But, the teachers will say it sternly "Macam orang batuk kat tangga kan nampak macam orang malas nak bagi salam betul-betul pada tuan rumah". "Habis cikgu, kalau nak nampak rajin batuk kat tempat lain la?" The teacher will just continue flipping the exercise books as if she didn't hear that question.

Wanna know what that picture has to do with the meaning of the proverb?

Melepaskan Batok di Tangga is originated from Trengganu, the school text book authors thought Batok is an old spelling for batuk (cough), therefore ingeniusly changed it. In the olden days, the fishermen uses batok to scoop the water from the tempayan (tall basin made out of clay) to wash their feet off beach sands before walking up the staircase to get to the front door of their homes. Usually, the lazy ones will just scoop and splash their feet and throw the batok on the ground and it will be covered with dirt. THAT'S the actual act of laziness because once the batok is picked up to scoop water (olden days no water supply through pipes, it's sea water collected in the tempayan) again, the water in the whole tempayan gets clouded.

If you don't believe me, go to Paya Wetland, visit the Rumah Melayu Trengganu. They will explain it again to you. "Sor Hai" isn't it all of us who believed our teachers

YamYam2u's input dated 13/11/2004 (THIS is the right meaning of 'batok').

"hi maine, very interesting. i hope i don't come across pedantic but just for the sake of sharing information, here's a bit more factoid about 'batok' from my linguistic reference.

It is indeed a sort of 'penceduk' made from tempurung. however, it is different from the 'gayung' (which i believe is what your picture illustrates), in that a batok is not fitted with a handle, long or otherwise. it is just the tempurung part with opening and is usually used to scoop/measure rice but is also used to scoop other things, water for instance.

The word origin, according to my source, is indonesian; javanese in fact. that it is/was also a part of trengganu lexicon is perhaps not all that surprising since archaic words can and do unexpectedly survive in different dialects of a shared language. another javanese word that is also found in trengganuspeak which i think (i may be wrong though) is not used in other semenanjung dialects is 'aron'. it means parboiled, and is usually used to refer to rice or other boiled/steamed food that is almost, or three-quarter, cooked."

Thanks Yamyam2u for the headsup! I searched and provided here a corrected illustration of the meaning of 'batok' to suit the meaning that you have provided.