Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra11121883roya).pdf/281

 NOTES ILLUSTRATING THE CHANGES WHICH CONSONANTS UNDERGO IN PASSING FROM ONE MALAYAN DIALECT TO ANOTHER.

As one of the principal objects of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society is to trace the origin of the various dialects of the Malayan Peninsula and Archipelago, I have thought that the following notes, though hastily put together, and with very little material to work upon, may prove interesting and give a clue to those who are more capable of following the tangled thread of Malayan etymology to its source than I am.

I have taken the Malay language as the starting point whenever possible where three or four examples of a change are given, it must be understood that thirty or forty could as easily have been supplied: but a change exemplified by only one word must be considered doubtful until corroborated, as I hope each one will be, by further contributions from some of the large number of poly- glotts whom the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society counts among its members.

A. M. FERGUSON, Jnr.