THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 87 



but ono or two of these are also found without the tashdid, as 

 well as some which have it in the other MSS., as, 



bakwa bri dergan menergar tergah 



It is a remarkable fact that the early Dutch translators of 

 the Bible made a wide use of the tashdid, and even when spelling 

 such words in the ronian character they were in the habit of 

 placing' a stroke over a letter in place of the tashdid. Thus we 

 Hnd : •• snddah, henna" etc . and even the following' words, which 

 are not found in our MSS. viz.. 



•• iiiakL-a, padda, derri, sagalla, adda, appa, bacjiji." 



Curiously enough the use of tashdid with the short vowel, 

 after having completely gone out of use, was introduced once 

 more in the middle of last century by the lexicographer van de 

 Wall. This writer, however, does not use the tashdid indiscri- 

 minately with all words containing the short vowel, as appears 

 to have been done in the old MSS., but confines its use to those 

 words which have the accent on the short vowel. Such words 

 for instance, as, 



Jcras kekal betid Hum pegarg bli keji glar blah 



which carry the tashdid in the old MSS.. are written by van de 

 Wall without it. and we find him using this sign only in such 

 words as : — 



"dengngan redda henna petjtjah" 



•6f 



o 1 - 



y 



In regard to this use of tashdid he himself says in his intro- 

 duction to the first volume of his uncompleted dictionary, p. 

 xvi : " As in the case of the vowel points and other signs, the 

 " Malays in their ordinary writing disregard the tashdid, "sign of 

 " strengthening,' which when placed over a letter shows that that 

 4 * letter must be doubled : but that is no indication of its non-exis- 



