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/310

 liquids or semi-vowels, namely, l, r, w, ñ, and y, the two first occur frequently, coalescing with a consonant, but the rest rarely. The only letter of the native portion of the Malay alphabet that is not invariably pronounced in the same way is k, as will afterwards be noticed.

Native Vowels.—The Malay vowels are six in number: a, â, e, i, o, and u. Their pronunciation is so easy, and, with the exception of the second, so much like that of the same letters in the languages of Southern Europe, especially in the Spanish and Italian, that it is not necessary to describe it. The vowel which I have distinguished thus, â, is neither a short or long a, but a distinct and peculiar sound, which has a separate character to represent it in the Javanese alphabet. It is the sound which is so frequent in English, and usually represented by u, as in the word hubbub. It occurs, not unfrequently, as an initial, and very often as a medial, but it never ends a word or syllable. The vowels e and i, having in the Malayan alpha- bet but one letter to represent them when long, and none at all when short, are apt to be confounded in pronunciation. The same is the case with regard to o and u. The distinction, indeed, can only be made with certainty, when a word is common to the Malay and Javanese, as, in the latter, there are separate and distinct characters for all the vowels. Among some of the Malay tribes the vowel u, it may be remarked, is often turned into â, as sâpârti, for sapurti, which is obviously a cor- ruption, since it is practised with foreign words to the destruction of their etymology; as in the Sanskrit words putra and putri, a prince and princess, which are pronounced pâtra and pâtri. The Malay diphthongs are two in number, ai and au, but neither in the Malay, or any native alphabet, are they repre- sented by distinct characters. They are, with few exceptions, found only as finals and medials. For the diphthong ai, the vowel e is often substituted; as, for pakai, to invest or clothe, pake; and for pand·ai, skilful, pand·e.

Peculiar Arabic Consonants.—To the native consonants are to be added those which the Malay has borrowed from the Arabic, and which are found only in words taken from that language. These are by no means so easily, or so conveniently, represented