Help with song lyrics

[Bobolink]

Total newbie, here, and I have a problem that Google can't seem to solve. I've been listening to songs on Youtube to help me understand the Indonesian language. Bottom line, I've run into one that no online service can adequately translate. The song is "Mik Susu - Nadhira Rafa". Here are the lyrics:

Mik susu adik bangun mimik lagi
Mik susu adik nangis mimik lagi
Mik susu mau bobo mimik lagi
Susunya habis adik rewel minta lagi

This song defies all online translation services because nothing understands the meaning of "mik", and "mimik" translates to "mimic", which is utter nonsense within the context of the song. Yes, I know the meaning of all the other words and can get the general gist of the song, but I'm stumped. I know that a native speaker of Bahasa Indonesia at the age of three would have no problem.

Can anyone help with this? I hate leaving this behind without fully being able to understand something that is targeted at kids of kindergarten age.

 

[john madden]

*Drink" in Javanese.

 

[dafluff]

In this context, it is "baby talk" for drinking. Other common baby talk usages in Indonesian:

"maem" or "mamam" for eating.

"bobo" for sleeping (also seen in the song above).

 

[Bobolink]

Thanks, John and dafluff. I guess that makes a bit more sense, now, even though the song is about not being able to drink. Although ... in the context of the actual vido, maybe it's the baby demanding milk and not her older sister commenting. It didn't occur to me that this is baby talk, which is something I've always found fascinating -- interesting studies to be had, there.

I actually figured out "bobo" from the context, since the performer is acting out the scenario. I wouldn't have made the connection between "maem/mamam" and "makan". This does, however, remind me of a very disturbing paper I read in college many years ago about babies viewing their mothers in the same way a lion views a zebra. Yeah -- nightmare fuel.

"Mimik" is still a bit of a conundrum, since online services aren't consistent. Most simply don't know or associate the word with English "mimic". Google Translate (don't hit me, please!) sometimes thinks it's equivalent to "to express", and sometimes just ignores it, depending upon the context in the sentence. It kind of makes sense in the lyrics as "express", but only just kind of. I also find it interesting that "mimik" contains the afore-discussed "mik", and my sense of Indonesian grammar and how words are often crunched together is a bit problematic.

Again, though, thanks to both of you. Learning new laguages at my age is a steep uphill battle (don't ask, but I remember when Haight-Ashbury was a thing). It doesn't help with how many dialects are present in four main languages spoken in Indonesia, either, and I suspect that much of my source material draws from many of them. It's a bit bewildering, but this old brain will eventually work it out if it survives the trek to the top of the mountain.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

Whether a language is a dialect of Indonesian or a completely separate language can be difficult to judge. Linguists use the Swadesh list of 100 common words to identify the degree of similarity.
One thing that is common these days is that a kind of intermediate language forms which contains elements of Indonesian and elements of the regional language. For example, even though a language like Balinese, Sundanese or Bugis may have a different word for "eat" in their home language, they use "makan" nowadays, especially when living outside their home region (even when talking to people from their own tribe).
Anyway it all makes things more confusing for those of us trying to learn.

 

[dafluff]

"Mimik" is still a bit of a conundrum, since online services aren't consistent. Most simply don't know or associate the word with English "mimic". Google Translate (don't hit me, please!) sometimes thinks it's equivalent to "to express", and sometimes just ignores it, depending upon the context in the sentence. It kind of makes sense in the lyrics as "express", but only just kind of. I also find it interesting that "mimik" contains the afore-discussed "mik", and my sense of Indonesian grammar and how words are often crunched together is a bit problematic.

I think the problem arises from the fact that in proper Indonesian (as defined by KBBI), "mimik" is a cognate for "mimic".

Hasil Pencarian - KBBI VI Daring

kbbi.kemdikbud.go.id

 

[Bobolink]

Thanks for your comments, Herbert. I think you pretty well summed up the problem I'm having. In addition, virtually all learning sources available to me are for Bahasa Indonesia, which I understand is, paradoxically, spoken by very few native Indonesians. The fact that "mik" is Javanese never occured to me.

There really isn't a lingua franca in Indonesia as far as I can tell, since "Indonesian" has been in constant flux since its introduction as the "official" language of one of the most populous regions in the world. Rather, common parlance appears to be Bahasa Indonesia hybridized with various dialects, and even that depends upon where you are. For allegedly being one of the easiest languages to learn it can be quite bewildering.

And that, dafluff, is the crux of everyone who's having a problem learning how to speak with native Indonesians. "Proper" Indonesian is a standard that, apparenly, very few people are following, and those who do seem to frequently be perceived as "snooty" -- kind of like using Queen's English to most speakers of other British English dialects.

Oh well, I'd love a copy of KBBI, just to browse in my spare time (yes, when I was a kid I read dictionaries jufor fun), but it's not much use by itself for learning the language since it's entirely in Indonesian. It's sort of like that age-old: Q: "How do you spell (fill in the blank)?"; A: "Look it up in the dictionary"; R: "But I can't spell it!"

I wasn't aware of KBBI Daring, but I might set up an account, there, so thanks for the link. It looks like it might be a valuable learning resource, with a bit of slogging back and forth between definitions. I had to do that sort of thing in college when I was doing research for my degree, since most of the papers I needed to read were in over a dozen languages in which I had no expertise. Lots of work, but it was pretty fun.

Anyway, thanks everyone. You've all been a great help.

 

[john madden]

If you are prepared to "learn it from a book" then Google "James Sneddon Indonesian language". Well regarded. And I wish you better luck than Manuel.