98 THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING . 



" be supposed in regard to w -^ ^pronounced satia, manusia, 



" witb three and four syllables, in place of sat(ja,mamtsya, with two 

 " and three syllables. Perhaps in the same way the spelling 



" J$cl»\.Xu might have caused the change in the pronunciation 



kk from mendapdtkan to mendfjpatkan ; but in grammatical forms it 

 "is more difficult to admit that much an influence upon t^e 

 " pronunciation of the people could have come from a compara- 

 " tively recent written character. And for the inlluence which 

 "Mr. van de Wall ascribes to it, I can not even find a reason- 

 " able cause." 



These extracts have been translated from the Dutch, and 

 are given here at such great length for the benefit of those to 

 whom the Dutch Journals are not available. Before stating 

 my own views on this question of the spelling and pronunciation 

 of derived words, it seemed only fair to give the reader the 

 facts and arguments which have already been used on both 

 sides. 



There can be no question but that, as stated by Cohen Stuart, 

 the Dutch scholars up to the time of van de Wall universally held 

 that the Malays actually pronounce such words as they are 

 written. How they can have been led to this conclusion can 

 perhaps be understood when it is considered that their study of 

 the Malay language was prosecuted for the most part in Java or 

 in places which are under strong Javanese influence. Robinson 

 formed this opinion because he learnt the language in Batavia 

 and Bencoolen. Marsden also studied at Bencoolen, and wrote 

 his grammar and dictionary in England, where of course he had 

 not the advantage of native help.* 



*The Dutch scholar II. N. van der Tuuk seems to have had no personal 

 knowledge of the way in which the Malays of the Peninsula pronounce 

 derived words, for he wrote in 186(3 in his notes to Abdullah's Pancha 



Tandaran: — '-^, ^'S$ The writer always spells thus, and not 

 " aSLj^Sj and so also he spells aL;V* antl Mut ^;- a 4X'.\£j and not 

 "' «olx^»; <£>«iL*« and not oViLw < In the Menangkabau dialect the accent 



