The Hindu : dated December 12, 1952: Malay and Tamizh linked?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 12, 2002

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous - This Day That Age

dated December 12, 1952: Malay and Tamizh linked?

R.N. Sivasambu said in a Letter to the Editor, "In tracing the origin of the Malay name `Orang Kling' to the Tamil `Oram' and `Kalinga', the article in The Hindu of December 7 seems to fall into the common error of trying to trace to uncertain origins for names. `Orang' is a pure Malay word meaning person or man, and is common in such combinations as `Orang Puteh' (person-white for White People) and `Orang Utan' (man-jungle for ape). Thus `Orang' can have nothing to do with Tamil `Oram' (shore). `Kling' is supposed to be a Malay variation of Kalinga or Koringa (a rather controversial point). Some people maintain that it was a corruption of the English word `killing', and that persons deported from India to Malacca for capital offences were referred to in Malay as `Orang Killing'. In the years before the war, Orang Kling used to be a term of contempt in Malaya for Indians, and we had a tough task persuading Malayans against using that obnoxious term... A distinguished Tamil playwright told me that Kuala Lumpur could easily have got the name from Tamil Kuvalayampuri. I assured him that `Kuala' and `Lumpur' were Malay words meaning mouth or estuary, and marshy or swampy tract.

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