HO THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 



krirg payorg torch tidor timpa ionda talis 



(7>j When both are closed syllables, the weak letter should 

 only be inserted in the. second syllable if the vowel sounds of 

 the two syllables are similar. 

 Examples : — 



benterg dindirg rirggit tindeh tnmboh tvndoh turggul vnjoh 



{<■) If the sounds are dissimilar, one being the a sound and 

 the other wait or yet, the wau or ya must be written in which- 

 ever syllable it occurs. Thus : 



bimborg bantirg bintarg Jcambirg kvmbarg targgorg hugging 



£* £~i £~n fe$ g*f fcfs £*y 



(d) If the vowel sound in one syllable corresponds to wau, 

 and in the other to ya, then both should be written, as : yt^S 



It will, of course, be understood that it is quite impossible 

 in this way to represent all the possible permutations of vowel 

 sounds that may be formed with the same consonants. This 

 could only" be done with vowel points. The great majority of 

 words in ordinary use will however be covered by the above 

 rules, and something must be left to the imagination of the 

 reader. 



(e) In such common words as tirggal amd parggil, it is doubt- 

 ful whether the insertion of the ya would be of any use. The 



Malays are so accustomed to the spelling J^J and J^il 



for these words that careless readers invariably pronounce these 

 forms tirgr/al and parggil- even when they stand for targgal and 

 perggaL and w^ould certainly continue to do so even if tirggal and 



parggil were spelt VSjJ J^*j : anc ^ as most Malays strongly ob- 

 ject to the insertion of the ya in these words, I would advocate 



