THE EVOLUTION OE MALAY SPELLING. 103 



We will now proceed to inquire : 



II. What changes have the Malays introduced in their 

 spelling during the last 300 years with a view to greater 

 legibility. 



It has already been pointed out in I. ( I ) that it is now 

 the almost invariable custom of the Malays to write final wait 

 and ya in words which end in the vowels e and i. o and u, as well 

 as in those which end in at and au. This change has been accept- 

 ed by van de Wall. Pijnappel, Klinkert. v. Wijk. Wilkinson, and 

 all other modern European authorities. 



(2) The use of final alifioi words ending* in the a sound, 

 has not. however, been accepted by any of the above-mentioned 

 lexicographers, except in those words which have the stress on 

 the final syllable, as sela, kra, etc. The extent to which the 

 final alif is now used appears, however, to justify the practice. 

 in view of the fact that it renders a large number of words far 

 more legible, and in the absence of any counteracting disadvant- 

 age. In the new Malay Spelling Book, No. 1. now used in the 

 vernacular schools of this Colony, the following words are found 

 with final alif: 



bargsa baiva bisa benda buta china ehoba chita dada 



Ldii \jV» Lmji \jo* \jy_ \X*>- \>y>- \^>. Ijlj 



denda depa gila hasta hela heja Jcena huda lada lusa 



\x> Uj -ii? U-» %* Uf \£ \*f \si LjJ 



muda nyala rusa salt y'a sisa semoa 

 o^« j\>, ^-jj \?b"~ »-**•« Uc-* 

 AVhereas the following are written without final alif: 

 add a pa bacha bapa bagimana biasa buka vhoba dia 



" merit/ had <>nr and lh> same written character in common, and now still lias 

 "in common a large proportion of words, which cannot well bo distinguish- 

 "ed except by those who know how to compare them, and by some deriv- 

 ••'ations which are peculiar to the one language rather than to the other." 



