Talk:Nonja (Malaysian orangutan)
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Meaning of name
[edit]First, if she was a Sumatran orangutan captured from the wild, she was born in Indonesia, not Malaysia. It seems rather less likely that her name came from Malaysian specifically, than that it came from from Malay (of which Malaysian and Indonesian are varieties), and someone simply confused the two. Second, "nonja" doesn't mean anything in either Malaysian or Indonesian. However, given the time and provenance of the name, it would have used the Republican Spelling System, and so would be spelt "nonya" in the modern Enhanced Indonesian Spelling System. This is an uncommon variant of the common word "nyonya", which means not girl but woman, especially a married woman, especially one of high status (or of Peranakan ethnicity). "Grande dame" would not be a terrible translation, and there it is in the original reference, zoo official Ron Magill referring to her with that very phrase. I submit that this is not a coincidence and that the most likely explanation is that her name was intended to mean "grande dame" (using the older spelling system) and the BBC reporter simply erred in reporting. Rotcaeroib (talk) 03:40, 2 April 2020 (UTC)
Malaysian?
[edit]What is the basis of the claim in the article title that Nonja was Malaysian? This claim is not in either of the sources and seems to directly contradict the claim that she was a Sumatran orangutan captured from the wild. Rotcaeroib (talk) 15:40, 2 April 2020 (UTC)