A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

Ixxxvi DISSERTATION,
English missionary at Singapore. Having had the pleasm-e of
being acquainted with Mr. Thomsen, I can vouch for his exten-
sive acquaintance with the oral and written Malay. The words
in the Bugis part of his vocabulary are given in the native as
well as in Roman letters. The Bugis consonants are as follow,
kj g, ng, m, nk,— p, b, m, ng, mp, — t, d, n, nr, — ch, j, ii, nch
a, r, \, ^y, s, h, y. Thus we have a class of gutturals, labials,
and palatals, with two nasals to each. The last one of these
nasals in each series are respectively named nkak, mpak, nrak,
and nchak, in Mr. Thomsen's explanation, but to all appearance
pronounced like the first nasal of each series. No explana-
tion is given by Mr. Thomsen of these peculiar nasals, nor can
I find that they are used in the vocabulary. The vowel a, the
liquids r, 1, w, and y, with the sibilant and aspirate, are thrown
into a miscellaneous class.
The vowels are represented by orthographic marks, as in the
other alphabets of the Archipelago. The mark for i is a dot over
the consonant, and for u one under it. A perpendicular stroke,
with a single barb to the right, and placed before the consonant,
represents e, and a similar stroke after the consonant, the barb
being to the left-hand, represents o. There is a peculiar vowel
in the Bugis, not found in the Malay or Javanese, but which
is apparently the same as that which I have described as existing
in the Sunda, and which has the sound of the German o, and as
such, it is represented in this work. But it may also have, in the
Bugis, the sound, " on " and " ong,'' according to its position in a
word, that is, be a syllable composed of this vowel ending in either
of two nasals. The vowel a, as usual, is inherent in, and follows
every consonant, unless another vowel mark is attached to it,
and in this case it is superseded by the latter. It is itself a
substantive letter, and standing alone is an initial. Witli the
marks of the other vowels, in the same way in which these are
applied to the consonants, it becomes one of these vowels as an
initial. The vowel sounds of the Bugis, then, are a, e, i, o, u, o.
It wants the a of the Malay and Javanese. The aspirate is
found in w'riting only as an initial, and although existing in
the language at the end of a word, it is left to be understood
without any sign to express it. This, with the anomalous
;