THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 79 



such words mure legible : and lastly we will consider (III) 

 what alterations could be made in modern Malay spelling- which 

 would produce uniformity without destroying the Malay ideal of 

 obtaining legibility without the use of vowels, that is to say 

 without a retrograde movement in the direction of Arabic ortho- 

 graphy such as has hitherto been advocated by European scholars. 



I. With few exceptions the spelling of manuscripts 300 years 

 old conforms exactly to the rules of Arabic orthography. 



(1) One of the first peculiarities which would be noticed 

 by a person only acquainted with modern Malay spelling is that 

 final wau and ya are only used in these MSS. for the purpose of 

 forming the diphthongs att and at. Thus we find the following 

 words, which I have taken from all the different MSS. spelt with- 

 out final >/•'/'/ <>r ya as the case may be : — 



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