In Penang Hokkien, Sikhs are called "bangkali". AFAIK as I know, there is no word for real Bengalis.

1) Is this true of other Chinese dialects in Malaysia

2) What about outside Malaysia

3) What about other Malaysian languages

4) What is the reason for this confusion

Bengalis are people from Bengal. Bangkali sounded similar to Bengali because the "beng" sound is not common in chinese. It is the same as asking if "roti" is the same for all chinese dialect. While roti may be used by all chinese dialects in Malaysia to refer to bread, the chinese word for roti is "mian bao". I am not sure how indians will refer to Bengalis. I believe it would be similar. After all it is the name of a state in India where these people came from. How many way you think people will refer to Johoreans or Kelantanese. I am sure the sound sylabble "Jo" and "hor" will be intact no matter what language.

Some call them "mang-ka-li" in chinese dialect.
It is just some weird pronunciations.

Sorry I wasn't clearer. I thought everybody knew ...

Bengalis would be people living Bengal. "a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent" as wikipedia puts it. Now Bangladesh + West Bengal.

Punjab (where Sikhs live), is on the other side of India, about 2000km away.

Now I am confuse. What is you topic actually?

Well, in short, most people in Malaysia get confused.
I for one can't tell which is Punjabi or Bengali. It never crossed my mind.
We are just so used to the name "Bangkali" or "Mangkali".
This is an interesting topic.

P/S It is just like we call Indonesian "Indon" without really knowing they are Javanese, Bugis etc.

This post has been edited by ALeUNe: Oct 13 2010, 03:33 PM

Indonesian is country people. Javenese, Bugis, Chinese, Malay, Boyan, Acheh, Madura(Really scary one) are RACES.

Bengali ada misai panjang kot haha.

This post has been edited by SkywalkerxX: Oct 13 2010, 03:52 PM

Before I write my apologies to the Sikhs. I do not mean any insults.

I think it is the turban. Sikhs wear turbans. As I understand it, it a religious thing to wear a turban. Bengalis also wear turbans. I guess they had a strong turkish and arabic influence being closer to those nations.

The actual Bengali you are referring is what we know now as "Bangla". Bangladeshis do not wear turban and most of them are Muslims.

Punjabi is an ethnic/race but Sikhs is a religious group of that consists mainly Punjabis.

Naruto,
Perhaps they did during the colonial days.

hmm from the Indian history books I've read, there are minority Punjabis who lived in Bangladesh (well, there was no Bangladesh at that time, refer to the area you've explained earlier).

From such knowledge, many Chinese immigrants (well, referring to that time) thought that they are the "Bengali" because they did come from Bengal (modern day Bangladesh) region - while in fact, they are minority Punjabi living in that mentioned region.

Bangla is bangla dude. Bengali is different.

but your second sentence make sense, it is better we ask Punjabi and Bengali.

I initially thought this is a silly reason. If there are Sikhs in Bengal, and some of them came to Malaya. Why did we call them Bengali when (1) most Bengalis in Bengal are not Sikhs (2) most Sikhs in Malaya did not come from Bengal.

Then I found this article here http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file...81336&sec=north which answers some of my original questions. Their informal poll shows that nearly all Malaysians (though I suspect they conduct their poll only in KL) use "Bengali" to refer to "Sikhs". However it leaves two other questions still unanswered.

1) do other communities outside Malaysia similarly use "Bengali" to refer to "Sikhs"? What about in Sabah and Sarawak.

2) how did this mistake arose? It seems that the reason you put out is the best we have so far. However, I would like to know if you did read/hear this somewhere, or is it just conjecture on your part.

Since I opened the thread, I've learnt that using "Bengali" to refer to Sikhs is incorrect. Normal English language usage tells us that a Bengali is a person who comes from Bengal. For example, a Pakistani is a person from Pakistan. Punjabi is also the wrong term since not all people from Punjab are Sikhs (although 60% of Indian Punjab are Sikhs).

Bengali are not sinkhs.

A Sikh is a follower of Sikhis religion while Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal (now divided between Bangladesh and India) in South Asia.

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Added on October 14, 2010, 8:56 amPunjabi are people from Punjabs

This post has been edited by Potatojii: Oct 14 2010, 08:56 AM

so... is Benggali is an offensive term? i think its offensive, i never dare to say the word Benggali to my Sikh friends

Oh, you just got their ethnicity wrong... even more incorrect, Sikh is a religious group, not an ethnic.

why then we call Portuguese as Benggali Putih.... they are not from Bengal

because Malaccan thought they are from India... well the first Portugese visited Malacca came from Goa.

For what I know Sikh is a religion and Punjab is a place
Anyone can be a Sikh but Punjabi is people who comes from Punjab

I not know about what benggali is
Roti benggali I know

Mereka di gelar Benggali Putih sebab bermisai dan berjanggut.

Paraphrasing from my history book.

This post has been edited by faceless: Oct 15 2010, 09:49 AM