Page:Journal Of The Indian Archipelago And Eastern Asia Series.i, Vol.2 (IA in.ernet.dli.2015.107695).pdf/630

 With the letter wa, the power is not only that of two vowels u. and o, but also of the consonant w. As a vowel, it may be invariably expressed by u, for the natives themselves do not always clearly dis- tinguish between the u and o.

The letter ya is not only the two vowels e and i, but also the con- sonant y. As a vowel I represent it invariably by its most frequent sound of i. In the Arabic Malayan alphabet, in order to distinguish the vowels from the consonants in the case of both letters now un- der consideration, a double letter is used at the beginning of words, which consists without distinction either of the letter, a. or the soft aspirate humza. I have no doubt that this was borrowed from the lost alphabet of the Malays, on which the Arabian scheme was form- ed, for it is analogous to the practise of the Javanese and other na- tive alphabets in which the vowel a is considered as a substantive, and its power changed by the application of the other vowel points. This native a is evidently represented by the Arabian alif aspirate which is never pronounced.

In the system adopted, therefore, the Arabic letters wa and ya will be represented, according to their position in a word, either by w. and y. as consonants, or u. and i as vowels, just as v. and y. are sometimes made to serve with ourselves.

The short vowels of the Arabic alphabet are noted by orthogra- phic marks, three in number, which represent, respectively, the sound which in the native alphabet I have given as á,—that of e. or i., and that of o. or u. But these orthographic signs are hardly ever written, so that it is impossible to tell which of the vowels is to be expressed. I shall represent all of them by the vowel a short, hav- ing the true sound as pronounced by the natives of the Archipelago as is done in dictionaries in the oriental character.

There still remains one letter of the Arabic alphabet to be re- presented, the peculiar guttural vowel called ain. It is a substantive letter of the alphabet, and, according as the supplementary vowel marks are applied, it is a. e. i. or u. I distinguish it by a grave accent, leaving the sound for the explanatory word. The natives treat it as an ordinary vowel without any attempt at a guttural pro- nunciation.

The whole of the Roman letters necessary to represent the Ara- bico-Malayan alphabet will be 40 in number, and as follow a. á. ä. à. b. c̈. d. ḋ. e. é. f. g. ġ. h. i. j. k. k̇. k̈. l. l̇. l̈. m. n. ṅ. ñ. o. p. r. s. ṡ. s̈. t. ṫ. ẗ. u. w. y. z. ż. It is fortunate, however, that this cum-