Going By the Colour

When two Syrians, Iraqis or Palestinians meet they inquire after colour. “Shlounak?” they’d ask of each other.

“Shlounak” is a how-are-you-word. But it means more than that because what the person is actually asking is, ‘how is your colour?’ In Algeria it is even more puzzling, “Ishrak?” How do I see you?

In Trengganu we use the polite apa kabör? when greeting people we respect. Apa kabör? What news? How are you, in other words.

And then there’s guana gamök?

Gamök (Standardspeak, gamak) on its own is ‘reckon’, ‘guess’, ‘estimate’; whilst the meaning of its mainstream derivative form, tergamak is ‘calculable’. So, tidak tergamak would be something that is incalculable, beyond reckoning (which some of you may have stashed in your bank accounts). Say tidak tergamak in Trengganuspeak, dök tegamök, the world shifts to another where correct forms and proper behaviour hold sway. The move now is towards social inhibition, anxiety, where a person expresses concern that what he desires to do may not be acceptable, cause him embarrassment or turn his cheeks to a crimson colour.

This is the colour of discomfort or embarrassment, not one of health as enquired about in the Arabic shlounak. Looking at the face, we would say, in Trengganu, mèröh mmerang. (bright red), and looking at the hands they are, as we say, ketör gelitik, trembling with fear, or desire, or both, and noticeably so to the wide world. These arise from feelings of acute inadequacy as to prevent one from making an approach to say hello. When meeting a VVIP (so V that it has to be repeated) for instance, or an intended paramour.

Now, guana gamök? is a many-faceted enquiry depending on tone, or situation or the expected repartee. If the second syllable of gamök is raised, it is probably a ‘How are you?’ If dropped slightly, it could be a ‘What do you think?’ And then there’s the red-rag guana gamök?, with the exaggerated final syllable rising higher than the coconut tree, often accompanied with (or following) a shove. You can tell from the chest surging forward, blood in the eyes (mèröh mmerang) and arms akimbo that this is a declaration of war.

This is where, after the event, someone wiser would say, “Sèdèr, tegamök nye buak tu!” Here there are meanings with varying intensity: “My, he’s got the cheek!”, “He’s got the gall!”, “How he does it, I don’t know!”

That last one is the gamök that we spoke about when you went slightly off colour at the thought of approaching your employer in the fish market to ask for a raise. Dök tegamök, so you abandon the idea.

One morning in the half refurbished surau, Wang Mamak (the surau chairman) asked Father (the treasurer), “Berapa bekah gamök-öh?”

This is how room space was measured in Trengganu, by the number of trays (bekah) it will accommodate on a feast day. “How many trays do you think will go in here?”