THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 97 



" represent the pronunciation ; but how could anyone think of 



" writing- . rVa A J if in this derivative, as in "the root, the first a is 



'•to be pronounced long 1 and the second short, or above all thing's 

 * k how could this spelling' come into general use ? If, however, in 

 " this respect the pronunciation agrees with the spelling, 

 " then though allowing- that the length of the vowel is some- 

 " thing quite different from the accent, it would be difficult for me 

 " to imagine such a change in the first syllable and in the division 

 " of the syllables otherwise than in connection with and a result 

 " of a corresponding 1 change in the position of the accent. Even 

 "if it be admitted that the first change could be imagined with- 

 " out the last, and that it actually exists in Malay, how can one 

 " conceive that the * inclination to modify the pronunciation of 

 " the people according to the way a word is written, ' could lead 

 " to the alleged tendency of literary Malays to place, in addition 

 " to the natural accent, a second, grammatical accent on a syl- 

 " lable which properly had no claim whatever to any accent at 

 " all ? Indeed in that case the wiitten word is already, without 

 " that misplaced accent, in entire agreement with the true pro- 

 " nimciation : but then the Malay himself must comprehend too 

 " well the difference between length and accent to confuse the 

 " one with the other and thus to let himself be misled into such 

 " an unnatural pronunciation. 



" Moreover, that the Arabic character, by its imperfect re- 

 " presentation of the pronunciation and especially owing* to the 

 " habit of omitting the vowel points, has really exercised some 

 " influence upon the pronunciation, can. I believe, be properly in- 

 " f erred from some corruptions which find therein a complete ex- 



" planation. I find a strong example of this.in the word ^S** 



" which is pronunced margastoewa, instead of mregd-sattwa, as it 



" should be sounded according to the Sanskrit spelling*. There 

 " would certainly be nothing astonishing' about this corruption 

 "in itself: but it is difficult to ascribe to mere chance the fact 

 " that the corruption is just of such a kind, as is favoured by the 

 " illegible manner of writing* without vowels : to which the fact 

 " that it is probably not an everyday word may also have con- 

 " tributed. The same thing, though with less foundation, may 



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