Ziraffe!


Sebatang pembaris kayu di Popular, Ampang Point. Jenama Ziraffe.. Hurmm. This does sound familiar..

Back in 1995 when I was in standard 1 I had an argument with my Bahasa Melayu (or Bahasa Malaysia, I can't tell) teacher over the correct spelling and pronunciation of the word 'giraffe' in Malay. I recalled my ABC book spelling it as 'zirafah' so I was 'zirafah' all the way. My teacher said that it was 'girafah'. Since I'm 7 years old schoolboy and she's about 5, 6 times my age she won hands down.

Ziraffe, girafah.. I guess bukan cikgu aku sorang yang confuse. Still, the ruler does look a lot like a giraffe kan? Brilliant branding.

By the way, I did a little research just now and this is what I found out. A few hundred years back, the humble and noble giraffe is called camelopard, an amalgamation of camel and leopard (go figure). The English word giraffe evolved from the French girafe which evolved from the Italian giraffa which is derived from the Spanish and Portuguese girafa, all based on the Arabic zarafa from where we got our zirafah from. 

Woohoo! Cikgu BM aku tu European!

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You’re currently reading “Ziraffe!,” an entry on pelangi hitam putih

Published:
Friday, August 08, 2008
by amerhadiazmi