THE LANGUAGES OP THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 221 
Small weight, often assimilates to the &andg, and therefore 
easily transmutable, 
la Malay generally implied or inherent in consonants ; may be expresied’by 
aliph with the vowel marks baris di bawa (kesrah) or bar is di atas ( clamma .) 
Javanese— The alphabet does not represent this sound, although it is some¬ 
times heard ; when this is the case it aeems to be only a less strong e, and in 
writing takes the mark of the e [v. m. taling.) 
Bugis — no letter or vowel mark; very rare and properly the i contracted!. 
Batta— ib but more frequent. Butun , Ende, infrequent. 
• T 
h 1 
A vowel of great importance from its piercing liquid tone, 
which enables it to give a decided character to those dialects 
which it pervades. 
Mat. —the mark baris di bawa h. The long i is the simple ia, or the ia pre¬ 
ceded by a consonant with the b aris di bawah ; Jav. v. m. ulu, nearly the same 
in form and name as the Bat .; Bug. letter ia, v. m. yesena, fuller tone than the 
Mai.; Bat . letter i , v. m. ulu a ; But, Ende softer than in the otherjanguages* 
e, e, e, e* 
Tnetbevocal tube is the same length anteriourly as in i 9 
but it is wider throughout. In the natural and usual mode of 
producing this vowel, there is a slight motion in the tongue. 
It begins in fact with the a shape of the canal and ends with 
the z shape, although the change is too rapid to be easily 
distinguished by the ear j e therefore is not a pure vowel. 
In e the canal is the same length anteriourly but wider 
throughout.* This is the sharp or open sound of e , naturally 
produced by drawing the lips back and depressing the tongue 
as much as possible, when the e can still be naturally and easily 
pronounced, while the e can only be produced by raising the dor¬ 
sum of the tongue so as to narrow the space between it and the 
palate. 
v/ 
e 
e Is sometimes considered the short sound of e, but it has too decided a 
character of its own to take this place. The short sound of e differs from this 
and approaches, less closely certainly, to a and i, but although these sounds 
graduate into each other and are indifferently used in some words, they are in 
general sufficiently distinct. The sound of a in man, mat, &c—if the sound of 
6, which is often improperly given to it, be avoided,—comes nearest to the e. 
Mai.— This is the proper sound of the common affixes bar, ter, per. It 
cannot be distinctively expressed, either by any letter or mark, 
e, e 
This vowel possesses little weight, and does not occur fre¬ 
quently in the vocalic languages of the Archipelago, It is 
used more to intensify the strong vowels by contrast than for 
Us own sake. 
* W e here use the grave accent in place of the comma over e . 
A a 
