Note. Langkawi Paddy Field, picture taken on December 13, 2014.

The Folklore

I’m going to tell you a story about mastery mastery is a well known legend that originated from Southeast Asia mastery was the daughter of a Molly couple who moved from pucket 2 what is known as polanka we at this point of time mastery was married to a local warrior named one darrows when the war hit one Diaries had till they leave for the war at this point of time my story be friended a young man called deramon now sorry was a very beautiful lady and the chief of the villages wife was very jealous of her beauty and began to spread rumors about mastery and rahman’s relationship not long after the rumors grew stronger and explicitly the villagers decided that something has to be done to punish masury for committing adultery even though mastery insisted her in innocence she was unable to prove herself and the villagers decided to punisher on behalf of her husband I do feel that it’s a little strange because but anyway what they too do things on their own isn’t it it’s so the tight herttua pole Anne didn’t speak hurt too well nothing hurt nothing worked and the villagers soon got really upset the mystery told them to use her father is Currys and that was the only way that she could be killed the villages went to masury’s father’s house took the curry’s and stabbed her Trina white blood flowed from her body and in her dying breath she cursed the village she said board next seven generations uncle we will not prosper and there will be a lot of troubles waiting ahead for the village now while many are unsure if this is a real story there have been a lot of efforts trying to bring back the 7th generation of the langkawi Princess masury it was claimed that they found the 7th generation oh masury si surendra and brought her back to langkawi and even offered her a place to stay which she declined

For this task, I used Word to transcribe one of the well-known legends of an island in Malaysia, Pulau Langkawi. This story centered around Mahsuri, who cursed the island for seven generations in her dying breath after being punished for a crime she did not commit.

Reflection

 I initially used Speechnotes but after “folklore” was transcribed into “the offensive f-word+lore”, I thought it will be a good idea to explore another tool. I honestly would have felt rather embarrassed having to include an unedited script here which would have included a few of the infamous f-word.

• How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?

 As I spoke, I watched my words being transcribed without punctuations- no periods, no commas, no exclamation marks. It was as though I spoke in one breath. Written English would have given us the opportunity to record cues to help indicate when to pause, stop or portray strong feelings through exclamation marks. Another deviation is that my transcribed story lacked paragraphing, sentence structure and cohesion. A written text allows its writer to signal shifts in thoughts by arranging ideas in paragraphs. With written English, linkers would also have been used to “glue” ideas together, making it easier for readers to follow.

• What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”? What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?

In addition to the lack of punctuation and paragraphing, there were a few other issues with this text. The autocorrect function detects and changes words to what it thinks is right. Spelling is always “correct” in a way (If you are like me who sometimes wonder if words such as “committing” has one or two “t”s, you will appreciate Word’s good job in spelling those words right). Unfortunately, Word is unable to capture some proper nouns which is not native to the English corpus. For example, Mahsuri was spelt as mastery; keris (a dagger) was recorded as Currys; and Wan Darus was detected as one darrows. Also, some words are recorded as how they are linked when pronounced- “punish her” was written as “punisher”. As I suspected that if I were to speak slower and clearer, (and so I did), Word did capture words more accurately.

• What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?

If the story could have been “scripted”, the script would have been edited a few times for clarity so that it is easier to read and understand the story. Having a script would have allowed for arrangement of recollection of thoughts so that the story flowed better.  I would also have been able to read without the need to pause or repeat the same words several times while I tried to recall the plot of the story or identify the right words for narration. Also, it would have been possible to avoid speaking in fragments and using multiple speech fillers.

• In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?

An oral story-teller could use intonation, cadence and volume to induce emotions to a story. Gestures and body language could also provide insights to a story shared verbally. Rising intonation may signify a surprise or anger without the use of specific words for elaboration. Further, in oral storytelling, one could increase the pace in the rising action of the story. A written story will be entirely dependent on its reader’s interpretation without a space to clarify or share thoughts about a story read.

Finally, this version of the legend is one of those that I remembered. As a legend that was originally passed down orally, it is no surprise that a local historian claimed that there are at least 14 versions of this story. As Ong (2002) suggests, oral storytelling relies on its storyteller’s memories to construct a story to be passed from generation to generation. Passing recounts through the word of mouth may sometimes skew a story, depending on the person narrating it. In this sense, written stories carry more weight and validity over time. It is also, however, impossible to deny that written texts do take away the richness of verbal communication. All said, we are fortunate that with technology, it is possible to have the best of both worlds- verbal communication and written texts.

Reference

Ong, W. J. (2002). Orality and literacy : The technologizing of the word. Routledge.