20 LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN INDO-CHTNA. 



I. Suppression or weakening' of the first syllable : — 



Maliy. Cambojan. Peguan. 



Kayu ... ... jhee [choeu] ... chhu [tsu] 



Kijang ... ... k-tan [kedan] ... 



Katup ... ... k tap fkcdap] ... 



(Jaram ... ... kram [tram] ... 



Jawa ... ... jwa [chvea] ... 



Tarum ... ... trim [rrom] ... 



Pusat ... ... phchet ... 



Perak* ... ... prak [prak] ... 



Besi* ... Pasoa. 



Sarong- ... srdm ... 



II. Loss of initial consonant; — 



Chin chin ... anchicn ... kachin. 



Tebn ... ... ainbau [ampou] ... ban. 



Tabong ... ... ainban<r [ampong] ... 



Daching ... ... anjing pinching] ... 



III. Loss of first syll ible : — 



Tumbok ... ... pok [bok] ... 



Abang ... ... pong [bong] .. 



Letak ... ... tak [dak] ... 



Kering ... ... ring ... ... 



Esok ... ... sack ... ... 



"'"[Note] Achinese besoi, •'•'iron." It is perhaps worth noticing 

 that the Cambojan word for silver, like the Peguan for iron, is 

 Malayan, while the Cambojan for iron, viz., tek [dek] is common to it 

 and Chinese. The Cambojan word for gold is mas [meets']', the same as 

 the Malay mas, dmas ; but this is believed to be of Indian origin. For 

 tin the Peguans use the expression pasoa dak [pasoa daik], literally 

 "water iron," alluding presumably to the alluvial formations where 

 tin ore is got by washing river sand, while the Cambojans call it Samna 



o ^ 



pdhdruj [S&mnd pahdng], from which, as samna appears properly to 

 mean " lead," I conjecture that the Cambojans first got their tin 



o 



from Pahang, for the word pahdng does not seem to have any mean- 

 ing in their language, so far as can be ascertained from the Dictionary. 

 Similarly in some of the Western languages (e.g. Arabic and also 

 Hindustani, T believe) tin is called by a name cd-kala'i derived from 

 Kalah, a place on the Western shore of the Peninsula probably iden- 

 I ical with Kedah. 



Jour. Straits Branch, 



