The Guna Guna Post

Technorati tags: Humor, Malaysia, Politics, Wordplay, Guna

guna - (Malay) v. use or to use

Guna is a deceptively simple word. Apart from Malay, it is also a word in 11 other languages, 12 if you count Indonesian (similar to Malay, but commonly used in a different context). But in this post, we'll stick to the use of guna in Malay, used in Malaysia, since Walki has no expertise in Awabakal, Kamilaroi, Swahili, Uyghur or any of those other languages (with the possible exception of Indonesian).

But guna is also an abbreviated form of many Indian names. Take Gunalingam, or Gunasegaran, or Gunasamy - for short, we'd call all of them Guna.

Back to Malay linguistics, though, guna can have many connotations, depending on how the word is used, or if other words are added. Which is the gist of this post - enough words, cause the rest is in pictures (mostly).

Guna
Article by P. Gunasegaram, taken from Screenshots

tak Guna
Owner of Screenshots recently implicated by Guna

When you add a negation of tak (meaning 'not'), you would think you get 'not' guna, right? WRONG - tak guna has a totally different connotation - it means 'hopeless' or 'good for nothing' (with apologies to Jeff Ooi).
(more guna's of guna in the full post)

kena Guna "used" or "manipulated" as father-in-law says may be the case
(image taken from Screenshots)

tamat tempoh Guna Past (one's) shelf-life - no wise-ass guesses on which one, okay?
(picture by AFP, taken from here)

Such a wonderful word isn't it? Simple, yet with wide-reaching and diverse meanings... AND FINALLY:

Guna-Guna Magic spell, charm or hex

which is something we're all probably under, since one one simple, four-letter Malay word could have created so much havoc lately!!