Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/307

 A GRAMMAR OF THE MALAY LANGUAGE.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

the other cultivated languages of the Indian Archi- pelago are written in their respective native characters, the Malay is always written in the Arabic alphabet, to the twenty- eight letters of which, by the simple contrivance of increasing the number of diacritical points of cognate letters, it adds six, expressing sounds unknown to the Arabian language. In this manner, the whole number of substantive letters in the Malay alphabet amounts to thirty-four. Three of these only are vowels, all long. The short vowels, also three in number, are represented by orthographic marks, called by the Malays sânjata, and by the Javanese sandangan; the first word meaning armour, and the last clothing, terms which imply that they are considered mere adjuncts, and not substantive letters.

The Arabian alphabet, imperfect for the Arabic itself, is very ill adapted to the Malay, a language, the genius of the pro- nunciation of which is very remote from that of the Arabic. No fewer than twelve of the Arabic consonants are, either not pronounced at all by the Malays, or but very awkwardly, and are, in fact, changed for cognate letters of their own system. The letters g and k are not distinguished in ordinary writing. With rare exceptions, the marks which represent the short vowels are altogether omitted, and left to be understood by the reader. The characters which represent the long vowels, i and u, represent also, in some positions, the consonants y and w.