Tose or not Tose? – Dewan Bahasa Takes Heat For Highlighting Malay Spelling For Indian Traditional Dish

We’re not going to lie, we’ve always assumed that ‘Thosai‘ was the Malay spelling to the well-loved Indian dish because it’s what we heard growing up here and considering in India, it is known as ‘Dosa‘.

Little did we know that ‘Thosai‘ is actually the Malaysian Indian term for the dish and that the Malay language has their own word for it too.

Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) took to their Twitter profile to highlight the word ‘Tose‘ (Yeap, you heard that right), while emphasising that it is the Malay spelling for the name of the traditional Indian food item.

Though, as you can imagine, this didn’t sit well with many people who consider the Malay spelling to be unnecessary when the dish is Indian 

“It’s Thosai. Don’t be smart in changing the spelling of other culture’s food items.”

“Leave the spelling to the Indian community since the food item is from their culture.”

Some also defended DBP, pinpointing that they were merely showcasing the Malay spelling for the dish

It is also important to note that DBP did, in fact, make a mistake here 

DBP mentioned in their definition of ‘tose‘, that the traditional Indian dish is made with rice flour. This is not true for Thosais are made from uncooked rice and urud dal (black gram).

With all that being said, which spelling would you use?

Share your thoughts in the comment section.

Also read: US Restaurant Whitewashes Indian Dish Names & It’s Actually Kinda Funny