112 THE EVOLUTION OF MALAY SPELLING. 



system of spelling'. As a general rule, the spelling of the rout 

 should remain the same as it was before the addition of the pre- 

 fixes and suffixes. No change of spelling is necessary when the , 

 vowel sound of the last syllable of the root is e, i, o, or u. This 

 will be made plain by the following three sets of examples : 



b\ The tinal syllable open : 



ganti gantikan gantian laJcu hdu-nya lakukan 



b'\ Final syllable closed and containing a weak letter : 



kaseh kaseh-nya kaselti unjok imjokkan unjoki * 



b 6 . Final syllable closed but without a weak letter : 



fikir Jikirkan fikiran bunoh buituhkan pembunohctti 



(c) If the last syllable of the root has the open a sound, 

 the alif must always be written when a suffix is added, even if 

 the root does not require final abf. as, 



ada ada-lah rasa rasa-nya raja rajakan 



(d) If the last syllable of the root is closed and has the a 

 sound, the addition of a suffix commencing with a consonant 

 produces no change in the spelling of the root, as, 



dapat dapatkan susah susahkan susah-nya 



but if the suffix commence with a vowel sound, the alif is usually 

 written in the last syllable of the root : 



* Unjoki may also be spelt L Ssi*^\- ^ee page 102, footnote. 



