sumpah

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Malay sumpah (“to swear, to make a promise”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˈsumpa/, [ˈsump˭ä]
  • With pitch accent: IPA^(key): [ˈsum˧p˭ä˦˧], [ˈsum˨˧-]

Verb

sumpah (invariable)

1. (Manglish, Singlish, intransitive) To promise; to earnestly swear that something is true.

   I don’t know anything about this scandal — sumpah.

   • 2004, Elangovan, O$P$, Singapore, →ISBN, page 16:

     I sumpah (promise) mak! Anybody can come to see you mak. I won’t tell bapak mak. If you are happy, I am happy mak. Don’t kill me mak.

   • 2017 July 4, Lee Hsien Loong, “38 Oxley Road (Debate on Ministerial Statements)”, in Parliamentary Debates: Official Report (Parliament of Singapore), volume 94:

     And because of the gravity of the matter, I voluntarily made my submissions to the Ministerial Committee in the form of sworn statutory declarations or, as they say in the coffee shops – sumpah.

Indonesian

Etymology

Inherited from Malay sumpah, from either:

• Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sumpaq. Cognate with Tagalog sumpa and Javanese sumpah; or
• Old Javanese sumpah (“oath, imprecation”), śumāpa (“to curse”), śāpa (“curse, malediction, abuse, oath, imprecation”) +‎ -um- (“active, indicative verb”), from Sanskrit शाप (śāpa, “curse, oath”).

First attested in the Telaga Batu inscription, 683 AD, as Old Malay [script needed] (sumpaḥ).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈsumpah/ [ˈsum.pah]
• Rhymes: -umpah
• Syllabification: sum‧pah

Noun

sumpah (plural sumpah-sumpah)

1. oath, vow

   Synonym: ikrar

Hyponyms

• sumpah advokat
• sumpah apoteker
• sumpah berselam air
• sumpah bohong
• sumpah ceker
• sumpah celup
• sumpah celur
• sumpah dokter
• sumpah Hipokrates
• sumpah jabatan
• sumpah mati
• sumpah menyelam
• sumpah minum air keris
• Sumpah Palapa
• sumpah palsu
• sumpah Pemuda
• sumpah pocong
• sumpah potong ayam
• sumpah satir
• sumpah setia

Derived terms

• bersumpah
• bersumpah-sumpahan
• mempersumpahkan
• menyumpah
• menyumpahi
• penyumpah
• penyumpahan
• persumpahan
• tersumpah

Noun

sumpah (plural sumpah-sumpah)

1. curse

   Synonyms: kutukan, tulah

2. swear

   Synonyms: makian, umpatan

Hyponyms

• sumpah sepata
• sumpah serampu
• sumpah seranah
• sumpah serapah

Derived terms

• menyumpah
• menyumpah-nyumpah
• menyumpahi
• penyumpah

Adverb

sumpah

1. (colloquial) seriously, no joke, I swear, on God - emphasizing the seriousness or truthfulness of a statement.

   Bukan aku yang ambil, sumpah!

   I'm not the one who took it, I swear!

Further reading

• “sumpah”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Malay

Etymology

There are two main theories as to its etymology:

• From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *sumpaq. Cognate with Tagalog sumpa and Javanese sumpah.
• From Old Javanese sumpah (“oath, imprecation”), śumāpa (“to curse”), śāpa (“curse, malediction, abuse, oath, imprecation”) +‎ -um- (“active, indicative verb”), from Sanskrit शाप (śāpa, “curse, oath”).

First attested in the Telaga Batu inscription, 683 AD, as Old Malay [script needed] (sumpaḥ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsumpah/ [ˈsum.pah]
• Rhymes: -umpah, -pah, -ah
• Hyphenation: sum‧pah

Noun

sumpah (Jawi spelling سومڤه, plural sumpah-sumpah or sumpah²)

1. oath

   Synonyms: ikrar, akuan

2. promise

   Synonym: janji

3. cursing; profanity; swearing

   Synonyms: kutuk, maki, tulah

Verb

sumpah (Jawi spelling سومڤه)

1. to swear, to promise.

   Aku sumpah, aku tak tidur dengan suami kau!

   I swear I didn't sleep with your husband!

2. to curse; to cuss; to swear

   Sambil dihukum mati, Mahsuri menyumpah Langkawi supaya tidak aman selama tujuh keturunan.

   As she was executed, Mahsuri cursed Langkawi to seven generations of unrest.

Adverb

sumpah (Jawi spelling سومڤه)

1. (colloquial, Malaysia) seriously, no joke, I swear, on God - emphasizing the seriousness or truthfulness of a statement.

   Mi tarik pedas ni kasi kenyang gila, sumpah!

   These spicy lamian are so mad filling, on God!

Derived terms

Affixations

• bersumpah
• bersumpah-sumpahan
• dipersumpahkan
• disumpah
• disumpahi
• mempersumpahkan
• menyumpah
• menyumpah-nyumpah
• menyumpahi
• persumpahan
• persumpahkan
• sesumpah / sumpah-sumpah (“chamaeleon”)
• sumpahan
• sumpahi

Compounds

• ambil sumpah
• balik sumpah
• makan sumpah
• sumpah besi kawi
• sumpah celur
• sumpah jilat besi
• sumpah keramat
• sumpah menyelam
• sumpah minum air keris
• sumpah palsu
• sumpah potong ayam
• sumpah Quran
• sumpah serapah
• sumpah serenah
• sumpah setia
• sumpah uji api

Descendants

• > Indonesian: sumpah (inherited)

References

• Pijnappel, Jan (1875), “سمڤه soempah”, in Maleisch-Hollandsch woordenboek, John Enschede en Zonen, Frederik Muller, page 32
• Wilkinson, R. J. (1901-1903), “سمڤه sumpah.”, in A Malay-English dictionary, Singapore; Hong Kong; Shanghai; Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh Ltd., page 408
• Wilkinson, Richard James (1932), “sumpah”, in A Malay-English dictionary (romanised), volume II, Mytilene, Greece: Salavopoulos & Kinderlis, pages 500-1

Further reading

• "sumpah" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017
• Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*sumpaq”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI