THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 1 01 



perbudtan perardkan pekerjdHan jadikan Icatdkan di-perlakiikan 



<y^jJ $jj oV^S i£i*r c^ Sf^J* 



it becomes simply impossible to account for it on any theory 

 of phonetics, unless indeed one is prepared to admit the 

 possibility of a complete change of pronunciation in the short 

 space of 300 years, which appears to me to be out of the 

 question. 



There is, however, it seems to me, a much more feasible 

 explanation of this peculiar discrepancy between the spelling 

 and the pronunciation of those words, and that is to be found 

 in the existence of a cognate language, the Javanese, in which 

 it is admitted that the accent in derivatives actually does change 

 its position and fall upon the penultimate. Moreover the pro- 

 bability that Javanese was the pattern from which this peculiar 

 Malay spelling was copied becomes still stronger when it is 

 pointed out that Javanese words of this kind are written in the 

 Javanese character in a way which has quite a strong analogy 

 to this peculiar use of the strengthening letters in the penulti- 

 mate. As the Javanese characters are not obtainable in Singa- 

 pore it has been necessary to resort to the arrangement given 

 below, which represents as nearly as it is possible in Roman 

 characters the way in which such words are spelt in the Java- 

 nese character. 



eb gl. eh gl n. gu gn y 



I t t 



b'e-gal he-gal-lan gan-ti gan-ti-ya 



run h. 



run h hn. 



tu 



tu 



run-tuh 



run-tuh-han 



g > > 



o '• >a > ' '•>•> 



rtj 



O^j o*y<) 



? rg i tg i 



a nk. a n e'c p r m r rg 



k 



a-nak a-nak-ke pa-rirg ma-rirg-rgi J 



