Talk:machiam

Etymology

The alteration from macam (i.e. macham) to machiam is unexplained. According to Hock's Baba Malay Dictionary (2006) the corresponding word is pronounced (and spelled) macham, which lacks the excrescent /i/. So I think we can rule out Baba Malay as a source. BTW, some Singaporean Malay speakers I queried said that it is possibly a Chinese (mis)pronunciation of the Malay word, though this is clearly speculative.--Sonofcawdrey (talk) 01:05, 16 November 2015 (UTC)