THE BIN0A OF JOHORE, 
289 
mountains between the river heads, the whole country is easily ac¬ 
cessible to the Malays, so that there is hardly a kampong that is not 
visited by them. It is probably a consequence of this continual in¬ 
tercourse that the Binud language has been almost superseded by the 
Malayan. That they spoke a distinct language before the Malays 
occupied their rivers I am quite satisfied, althongh they have no tra¬ 
dition that they ever did. This conclusion is drawn from the follow¬ 
ing considerations. Although their knowledge of Malay is very con¬ 
siderable, they speak it in a rude, imperfect manner. They are igno¬ 
rant of many words which even illiterate Malays know and occasion¬ 
ally use. They often speak ungramatically, and have adopted phrases 
such as a foreigner would have recourse to, but which are not idioma¬ 
tic Malay. They apply some words in a restricted sense, and give 
too great a latitude to others. An instance which is of constant oc¬ 
currence will illustrate this. The word “ bodo” signifies an ignorant 
person. The Binua almost invariably use it for st I dont know.” 
One day I heard its meaning still farther stretched. A woman picked 
up a champada in the forest and called out to her husband “ bodo /” 
I asked how a fruit could be a bodo, and it was explained that the 
word meant that the champada “ would not do,” was too much de¬ 
cayed to be used. Some words of the ancient language still keep 
their ground, and are more generally heard than the corresponding Ma¬ 
layan words. Others again have hitherto escaped oblivion, but are so 
seldom used that it is probable they will ere long be obliterated. 
Their pronunciation of the Malay is exceedingly broad and is also 
guttural and somewhat nasal.* They speak very slowly and give to 
every letter its full power. A striking peculiarity is that they speak 
the Malay as it is written, which proves either that they acquired the 
language before the fashion was introduced of omitting the final k 
and initial h in many words, or that the Malays from whom they 
originally learned it had not adopted these elisions. Thus they say 
" k&wnri tiawdak tawhu” “ tiilian hindawk hilir.” All the Malays 
around them in the Peninsula have dropped or greatly softened the 
final k and initial h t but they have no knowledge of the period when 
the change took place. It was probably gradual and insensible, and 
must have been subsequent to the introduction of Islamism when the 
Arabs gave their alphabet to the Malays. I cannot venture to decide 
how far the nearest Malayan race who retain a similar pronunciation 
* The Bermun tribes have a drawling, nasal speech, but not harsh and 
guttural. 
