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ma zeh

Commonly found variants; note these may range from acceptable alternatives to non-standard forms or incorrect spellings*.
* Singlish is a largely spoken creole, and as such descriptivism (recording forms that reflect actual pronunciation in spoken language, or as appearing in the linguistic corpus) is more pertinent than strict prescriptivism. Nevertheless, the use of more standard forms (or for words originating in languages with Latin script, such as Malay, accurate to the original spelling) is recommended and encouraged.

also can:

ma jie ma che ma je ma chi ma ji ma tse ma zeh

majie

简 繁

→

Cantonese:

妈姐

jyutping:

maa2 ze2

expand for details Detailed etymology

definitions

noun

  1. any of the women from Shunde, Guangdong, who travelled overseas to places such as Southeast Asia in the early 20th century to seek work as maidservants. They typically wore a black-and white samfu, and were often indentured to serve a single household and never marry for their entire lives.

    2. I never wandered beyond the watchful, guarding eyes of my majie ...

    — 2022, Joyce Lim. "Towards a More Conscious and Inclusive Capitalism", in “One United People”: Essays from the People Sector on Singapore’s Journey of Racial Harmony. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. ISBN: 9789815009972

    Her name was Ah Thay and she looked after me until I was about 15 years old ... Known as "majie", these women ran the households in those days. My mother gave Ah Thay full authority over me and, for a long time, I thought of myself as Chinese.

    — 2012, Glenn Knight. Prosecutor. Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd. ISBN: 9789814408806. p.19


related:

ah che ah ma jie jie