94 THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 



" called an accent, and is usually situated in the penultimate, 

 " and with the addition of an affix changes its position to the 

 " new penultimate. The fact that Europeans pronounce both 

 kk Javanese and Malay words so frequently, I might say almost 

 " always, with the accent on the ante-penultimate, even when 

 " this is merely a grammatical prefix, and say for instance 

 "tulisan, Pdrgeran, Kdlitan, Pdchitan, would surely be the 

 " strongest argument against that assertion, if that pronunciation 

 " must be considered as having its origin in an unprejudiced con- 

 " ception of the native pronunciation. But the Javanese and 

 " Malay words which are most used by Europeans are generally 

 " learned not so much by conversation with the natives as from 

 " writings, in which owing to faulty transliteration the exact 

 " pronunciation and particularly the accent are left quite uncer- 

 " tain. For one European who first learns to pronounce say the 

 " word Pargeran from the Javanese, there are perhaps twenty 

 "who became acquainted with it only or in the first place 

 " through European conversation or writings ; and even if one 

 " afterwards had the opportunity of hearing it pronounced by 

 " natives, then one would have to pay a good deal of attention 

 " and must have some interest in the subject in order to re- 

 bk cognize and to abandon a wrong pronunciation which one has 

 " once appropriated ; especially Avhen it is so generally accepted 

 " among our fellow countrymen that it would appear to be 

 " pedantic or eccentric to deviate therefrom. If one considers 

 "that in Dutch and kindred languages the accent, far from 

 " having any preference for the penultimate, usually falls fur- 

 " ther back, one will not be surprised to see this tendency in the 

 " European pronunciation of native words. This phenomenon 

 " therefore has in my opinion no more value in deciding the true 

 "native pronunciation, than one would be justified in doubting 

 " that the name Palembang should properly be pronounced 

 " Palembang (Javanese pa-lem-bang) because the majority of 

 " Europeans, even if they have lived there for years, called it 

 " Palembang ; or that the place where I am writing this is called 

 " Sala, because Europeans, although they know better, never 

 " call it anything but Solo among themselves. 



" As regards Malay, no one is less able than myself, espec- 

 " ially in opposition to Mr. v. d. Wall, to refer to my own 



