A Kelantan Glossary, 



By W. E. Pepys, 

 F. M. S. Civil Service. 



Introduction. 



The omissions and shortcomings of this glossary will be ob- 

 vious to the many Europeans who have some knowledge of Kelantan 

 Malay. The only excuse for its publication is that I know of no 

 other published collection of Kelantan phrases and idioms except 

 Mr. A. J. Sturrock's article " Some Notes on the Kelantan Dialect/' 

 published in the Journal of the B. A. S. (Straits Branch) in 

 December 1912, to which I am much indebted in the compilation of 

 the following pages. 



It has been my object to include (1) words and expressions 

 peculiar to Kelantan, most of which have a Siamese origin, (2) 

 words used in Kelantan in a different sense to that in which they 

 are usually found in the F. M. S. and (3) words which, though 

 common in literature, are rarely heard colloquially in the F. M. S., 

 though daily used in ordinary speech by Kelantan Malays. 



Most oi the words included I have noted when first heard in 

 the mouth of some Kelantan Malay : but some too have been in the 

 ■first instance supplied me by various Malay clerks, whose assistance 

 I gratefully acknowledge. 



I am also indebted, to Mr. E. 0. YVinstedt, to whom I showed 

 this collection, for criticism and advice. 



In such a compilation as this, spelling presents an unusual 

 difficulty; since most of the words being essentially colloquial and 

 rarely if ever written, there is no standard. I have in the majority 

 of cases followed phonetic spelling. 



W. E. Pepys. 

 Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, 20th Sept., 1916. 



Pronunciation. 



Malay as talked in Kelantan is in many ways different from 

 the language spoken in the Western States : and the European who 

 comes here from the other side hears a jargon, the worst feature of 

 which (from his point of view) is not the intersprinkling of Siam- 

 ese or local terms, which he may soon pick up for practical pur- 

 poses, but the clippings and contortions of words he used -to know 

 but in their new form fails to recognise. Xor is the difficulty con- 

 fined to Europeans : Malays from Perak or Selangor find it almost 

 as hard at first to understand or make themselves understood. 



Jour. Straits Branch R. A. Soc, No. 74, 1916. 



