Watch the following video. What do you see?
Do you know the difference between padang, ladang and sawah? Click on the plus (+) sign to see the answer.
In English, both wet and dry rice fields are referred to as paddy fields. The term ‘paddy’ is borrowed from the Indonesian-Malay word padi, which can mean 1. rice, especially threshed unmilled rice, or 2. wet land in which rice is grown.
It is common for words borrowed from one language to another to undergo a shift in meaning, and this is the case here. The English word PADDY is derived from Malay padi, but padi never means ‘rice field’!
In Indonesian padi refers exclusively to the rice plant, or to unhusked rice! Once the rice is husked, it is called beras. When cooked, it becomes nasi, and when overcooked, it turns into bubur (porridge).
There is a popular Indonesian proverb: Nasi sudah menjadi bubur (the rice has turned into porridge). You say this in regret to something that you have done, and that cannot be undone. In a situation like that, in English we would simply say: “It’s too late (to make a change)”. The proverb conveys the idea that a situation has already deteriorated or become irreparable, similar to the English expression “It’s no use crying over spilled milk.” It suggests that just as rice cannot be turned back into individual grains once it has become porridge, a situation that has already progressed cannot be reversed.
Click on the plus sign and read the summary of the text that we are going to watch carefully. Pay attention to the spelling of each word as this is a dictation exercise. After you have read the text, close the spoiler, and then complete the dictation exercise.
Dengarkan baik-baik dan tulis apa yang Anda dengar.
Padi
Look at Sneddon 3.51-53 for the various functions of the particle -lah. In our sentence Beras itulah yang dapat kita beli di toko -lah functions as a foregrounder. Sneddon writes:
Jawablah pertanyaan-pertanyaan di bawah ini.
Look at the following two sentences:
Padi bisa ditanam di sawah atau di ladang.
Rice can be grown in irrigated or dry fields.
and
Beras itulah yang dapat dibeli di toko.
This [beras] is the rice that can be bought in shops.
In both cases the verb is passive as the patient (beras and padi) are in initial position. A grammatical construct as “can be” is expressed by either bisa di-… or dapat di-…
Bisa and dapat are synonyms. Bisa is used in colloquial language whereas dapat is typically used in the formal register. The language of the media can be described as a kind of relaxed formal language where both types of register can be employed.
Note that dapat kita beli (can be bought by us) in our text is also a passive construct known as Passive Type 2. If you forgot what that is, consult James Sneddon, Reference Grammar (International Edition) or Comprehensive Grammar (US Edition) 3.28.
Another example of the formal register is setelah (after), which is sesudah in more colloquial Indonesian. Likewise telah is the same as sudah. You never use telah in spoken language whereas both sudah and telah are accepted in written language.
If you don’t know what passive means, look it up here. English has only one passive voice, Indonesian has a few.
According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, a tree is defined as a “woody plant that regularly renews its growth (perennial). Most plants classified as trees have a single self-supporting trunk containing woody tissues, and in most species the trunk produces secondary limbs, called branches.”
In Indonesian, the semantic spectrum of pohon is much wider than that of a tree. Every plant with a stem is considered pohon. This includes all kinds of plants that would never be called a tree, such as cabai (chilli), jahe (ginger), and even climbing plants such as kacang panjang (long beans), and woody shrubs such as singkong (ubi kayu) (Cassava) are classified as pohon.
Merupakan (to be, constitute) is similar to adalah (to be), but there are two differences: 1. Merupakan can be negated whereas adalah cannot. 2. Merupakan can only be used for nominal subjects. Therefore, you cannot say saya merupakan) because saya is a pronoun and not a noun. Even though merupakan is formed with affix -kan it is intransitive. There is hence no passive.
It is frequently used to avoid the use of adalah in two consecutive sentences: Padi merupakan makanan utama orang Indonesia dan biasanya disajikan dengan lauk. Lauk adalah makanan seperti daging, ikan, atau sayur yang dimakan sebagai teman nasi.
Dengarkan rekaman berikut untuk melengkapi teks rumpang di bawah ini.
Here is a recipe for this delicious dessert in case you want to try it.
Bubur ketan hitam (black rice porridge) is an Indonesian sweet dessert made from black glutinous rice (beras ketan hitam) with coconut milk (santan), and palm sugar (gula merah). Salt and pandan leaves (daun pandan) are added to enhance the flavour. It is often served as dessert or snack, for supper, for tea time, for breakfast, or to break the fast (buka puasa).
There are many recipes available online, such as this. Note that this recipe calls for palm sugar (gula merah) and granulated sugar (gula pasir). In Indonesia, gula pasir is always white sugar, but you can also use brown sugar. However you should not substitute gula merah with either white or brown sugar! Palm sugar has a very distinctive taste, which is completely different from cane sugar or beet sugar. It is made either from the sugar palm (enau) or from the coconut palm. Buy the one from the sugar palm! It is usually sold in round blocks, and it is dark reddish brown in colour.
Not all recipes use pandan leaves, but it does make a difference! Palm sugar and pandan leaves (an Indonesian loanword in the English language) are available at any Asian grocery.
padi
[a]rice (the plant)
[q] [a]to be, constitute
[q]tanaman
[a]a plant
[q]penghasil
[a]producer
[q]ketiga
[a]the third
[q]setelah
[a]after
[q]Tiongkok
[a]China
[q]sawah
[a]wet (irrigated) rice field
[q]ladang
[a]unirrigated field
[q]membutuhkan
[a]need
[q]mengairi (•air)
[a]to water, irrigate
[q]irigasi
[a]irrigation
[q]mata air
[a]a spring
[q]sedangkan
[a]whereas, while
[q]pohon
[a]any plant that has a stem; shrub; tree
[q]singkong
[a]cassava
[q]dipanen
[a]harvested
[q]diproses
[a]processed
[q]beras
[a]husked rice
[q]menghasilkan
[a]to produce
[q]beberapa
[a]several
[q]jenis
[a]sort, kind, species
[q]umum
[a]common
[q]nasi putih
[a]steamed rice
[q]utama
[a]main
[q]lauk
[a]side dish
[q]teman
[a]companion
[q]beras merah
[a]brown rice
[q]mengandung (•kandung)
[a]contain
[q] [a]besides
[q]santan
[a]coconut milk
[q]gula merah
[a]palm sugar
[q] [a]porridge
[q]direbus
[a]boiled
[q]populer
[a]popular
[q]kali
[a]times
[q]dalam sehari
[a]in a day
[q] [a]left over
[q]disimpan
[a]be stored, be kept
[q]sebagai
[a]as
[q]sarapan
[a]breakfast
[/qdeck]