I was at Bugis street the other day on a shopping (ie: bargain hunting) trip with a friend. We passed by the food stalls on level one, and one stall's sign caught my eye.
I didn't take a picture, because I didn't want to court trouble (It's not exactly GEM service over there :s) but the sign advertised for "roti bun".
?!?!?!?!
For those of us who speak Malay and/or Tamil, that's a classic case of repeating words. Because in both languages, "roti" simply means "bread".
So in other words, said stall was advertising "bread bun". Wow.
Anyhoo, it's quite weird isn't it! Bun is already a form of bread, I mean they are both made of the same main ingredient, that is flour.
So once again, I went to dictionary.com (I'm so predictable :D) to test my hunches.
bread-noun
1. a kind of food made of flour or meal that has been mixed with milk or water, made into a dough or batter, with or without yeast or other leavening agent, and baked.
bun-noun
1. any of a wide variety of variously shaped bread rolls, usually leavened and slightly sweetened or plain, sometimes containing spices, dried currants, etc.
Ahhh so there is some variation in the meanings of both words. Nevertheless, "roti bun" or "bread bun" is akin to saying "vegetable salad" or "egg omelette", isn't it? As in, is there any other way to make them? :s
I considered going up to the uncle and saying:
"Uncle, your powers of description is breath-taking".
But he would probably just reply me with:
"*()$&*!($ Want to buy or not? Don't want, go away lah! *insert expletives here*"
And so, I kept my linguistic knowledge to myself and continued on my bargain hunting trip.
