Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/54

 CHAPTER IL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE MALAYS. Aljjhabet. Grammatical Structure' Written Language, hiotvn by the name of Jaivi. — General Character, — Cere- 7nonial Language scanty. — Derivation and Composition. — Literature* — Metrical Composition. — The Pantun.-^The Sayar* — Prose Composition. — Romances. — Character of Prose Composition* — Origin of the Malay Language* — Its Diffusion. — Used as a Lingua Franca. — General Uni- formity. — Spoken tvith most Propriety in the State of Queda. 1 HE native sounds of the Malay language, like the other improved languages of the Archipe- lago, are twenty consonants, ^e vowels, and two diphthongs. The Malay, unlike the other po- lished languages, has no native alphabet ; but, as with the modern Persian, is written in the Arabic character. That it may express alike the sounds of the Arabic language, and those indigenous sounds which do not belong to the Arabs, six supplemen- tal letters are added by the simple contrivance of