THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. Ill 



its omission, for the present at any rate. Similarly a few other 

 very common words might be spelt without the weak letters, as : 



miutit jniitd pin tii jumpa chinta habis puteh timbul bolth oleh 



I;;.* Uj yuJ \l«r \zjz- ^.V* £y J.^ Aj\ ^ 



rattts mulia himpon bsok lebeh 



(4) The alif should be used, as explained above, in all 

 words where in the old MSS. a taskdid is found over wau, as in 



btioh 



bunt 



duct 



jiia prempnun 



tuan 



liiar 



oU 



•** 



!>■> 



] fr oV^V 



oV 



& 



This use of alif does not appear to be necessary where tash- 

 did is found over ya in the old MSS., for the Malays never spell 

 otherwise than 



0"U~£ O"^^ &*XK<» 



(5) («) In root words, the use of the weak letters to leng- 

 then the vowel sound in open syllables requires but few remarks. 

 In words of two syllables, these lengthening letters are almost 

 invariably found in the first syllable, the exceptions being- those 

 words in which the accent falls on the last syllable, the first 

 syllable having the short vowel sound, as : 



bla km sela tra 



% \f 5L \j 



In three-syllable roots, the lengthening letter is placed iu 

 the penultimate : but in one or two words which have final alif 

 the lengthening letter is omitted from the penultimate, as 



{b) In derived words the aim should undoubtedly be to 

 bring the spelling into agreement with the pronunciation as far 

 as possible without making an entire revolution in the present 



