Note on the name Kuala Lumpur, 



By E. Mac fad yen. 



Kuala Lumpur is generally assumed to be a descriptive title — 

 1 Muddy Mouth' — but the use of a descriptive epithet to qualify 

 the word Kuala is so unusual, that one frequently hears ingenious 

 explanations put forward to account for it in this instance. 



Kuala in place names is commonly qualified by the name of 

 the river or tributary which debouches at that point into the sea 

 or a main river; Kuala Perak for instance or Kuala Kubu. If 

 one met a Kuala Merah it would naturally be the name of a place 

 where a Sungei Merah flowed into some larger river. I do not 

 think it would occur to Malays to speak of a place as Kuala Merah 

 because the water there had a red tinge. 



Some old residents of Kuala Lumpur have even gone the 

 length of suggesting that a small stream known as the Sungei 

 Lumpur once flowed into the Klang where the Selangor Govern- 

 ment offices now stand. If so the name Kuala Lumpur would be 

 quite natural; but I much doubt there being any historical basis 

 for this hypothesis. 



An old Malay who worked for me in Kuala Langat used to 

 speak of Kuala Lumpur as Pengkalen Lumpur and I have once 

 or twice questioned Malays on the subject who said that old-fashioned 

 people used that name for the place. It is to be noted, moreover, 

 that the town of Klang was formerly known as Pengkalen Batu; 

 a name by which it is still considered good form to describe the 

 place in full dress writing. 



At a time when there were only two settlements on the Klang 

 river it appears probable enough that one should be called Peng- 

 kalen Batu and the other Pengkalen Lumpur. The place up 

 stream, however, was from the first almost exclusively a Chinese 

 settlement and anyone who has heard Chinese residents of places 

 like Pengkalen Durian or Pengkalen Kempas refer to these places 

 will agree that 'Kalen Lumpur is about as near an approximation 

 to the correct form as they would be at all likely to attain. 



I suggest that this is possibly the origin of the name. The 

 transition, by a false analogy, to Kuala Lumpur would be tempting 

 to people much more accustomed to Malay place names beginning 

 with a Kuala than with a Pengkalen; and at a time when the 

 ' tulisan Eoman ' was an undiscovered art there would be few 

 obstacles to the mistaken version becoming stereotyped. No large 

 or indigenous Malay element existed in the population to correct 

 such tendency. 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 72, 191( 



