100 THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 



be read in my hearing by a number of Malays, with the result 

 that I have only been able to detect an entire change of accent 

 in the following classes of words : 



(A) In some w r ords derived from roots ending in org by the 

 addition of the prefix an, as timbarg, tiinbdrgan ; Idrarg, lardrgan ; 

 bilarg, bildrgan; ddgarg, dag dig an ; pdndarg, pemanddrgan. 



(B) In some derived words formed by the addition of the 

 suffix i, as: buka % bvktfi; serta, serial i ; inula, muld?i\ turun, 

 turuni ; tdhan , tahdni ; kdsehan, mergasehdni* 



(C) In some polysyllabic derived words formed with the 

 suffix i, the accent is carried forward to the suffix i on 

 the addition of the possessive pronoun vya, as, jdlani, di-jalani- 

 mja ; mergobati, di-obati-vya-lah. This should probably be 

 attributed to the difficulty of pronouncing the consonant nya 

 following the vowel i, which necessitates a pause. 



In the majority of words the root most distinctly re- 

 tains the original accent, as for instance jddi, jddikan ; mdkan, 

 mdlcanan ; dergqr, kedergaran ; obat, mergobati; sdlak, kesdlahan ; 

 sural, di-surat-nya-lah. It w r ould be ridiculous to pronounce 

 these words, jadikan, malcdnan, kedergaran, mergobati, kesaldhan. 



There are, however, a large number of derived words, chiefly 

 words of four or more syllables, in which the original accent 

 almost or perhaps entirely disappears, without, however, any 

 particular accentuation of any other syllable, the word being 

 pronounced with an equal stress on all the syllables. Such 

 words are: perkatd an, kekaya'an, menjalani. 



Taking the pronunciation of the above-mentioned words 

 into consideration, it would be easy in the case of the words in 

 (^4) and {B) to account for the position of the strengthening let- 

 ters, alif, ivau and ya ; and even in the case of the words given 

 above where the stress is equal on all the syllables, one could 

 understand the omission of the strengthening letter from its 

 proper place in the root, though its transference to the pen- 

 ultimate would be difficult to explain ; but when we come to 

 such a spelling as, 



* It should be noted that in such roots as turun and tahan the stress is 

 nearly equal on the two syllables, the change of stress in turuni. tahaui is 

 therefore very slight. 



