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Bahasa, ia maujud yang aneh. Sejak dulu, manusia tidak pernah mengalih kelihan daripada merunutinya. Mencari jawapan tentang itu-ini. Tapi, misteri bahasa masih terkatup. Dah, terus kekal beruang dalam kemisterian. Sebab itu saya sentiasa dirasuk dengan misteri bahasa. Mungkin bukan sejak sekolah (maklumlah kesedaran keilmuan masih belum bertapak kemas). Mungkin hanya sewaktu saya mengaji pada tahap prasiswazah sampailah pascasiswazah di UKM dan USM; serta kini sebagai akademik pelawat untuk menekuni falsafah bahasa Melayu bagi kajian pascakedoktoran di School of Philosophy, Psycology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Sejak berada di tahap pengajian tinggi, runutan akal saya kekal tertumpu pada bahasa, dan cabang-cabang keilmuan yang ternatijah daripadanya. Semenjak itu, saya tidak menoleh lagi. Saya terus membiarkan diri dibalut rasa ingin tahu tentang tabiat sejati bahasa. Dialek, linguistik sejarawi, sejarah bahasa, sejarah linguistik dan falsafah bahasa, inilah cabang-cabang bahasa yang menjadi runutan. Meskipun begitu, bahasa kekal menetap pada takah kemisterian. Nah, bukankah bahasa itu sememangnya berbaloi sekali gus bermanfaat untuk dikaji?
(Language. It is a strange existent. Since time immemorial, humanity has never looked away from tracing its threads, seeking answers to this and that. Yet, the mystery of language remains locked fast, continuing to reside within its own enigmatic space. For that reason, I am perpetually haunted by the mystery of language. Perhaps not since my school days (for academic consciousness was not yet firmly rooted then). Perhaps only when I was studying at the undergraduate level through to my postgraduate studies at UKM and USM; and now as a visiting academic delving into the philosophy of the Malay language for my postdoctoral research at the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Ever since entering higher education, the pursuit of my intellect has remained fixated on language, and the branches of knowledge that stem from it. Since then, I have never looked back. I have allowed myself to remain wrapped in curiosity regarding the true nature of language. Dialectology, historical linguistics, language history, history of linguistics, and the philosophy of language; these are the paths of language that I trace. Even so, language abides on its plane of mystery. Ah, is not language then immensely worthy, and at once deeply rewarding, to study?)
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