Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

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APPENDIX
NOTE ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE COMPARATIVE
VOCABULARY.
The system on which the vocabulary has been arranged is as follows :—An
attempt has been made to classify the native words in accordance with their
apparent relationships. ^ Each separate paragraph so formed has then been
arranged under English key-words, which latter are printed in the thick type
known as Clarendon. These key-words alone are in strict alphabetical order,
and for the rest, where the alphabetical order has been departed from, crossreferences
are given by adding the letter and number of the paragraph to be
referred to. The numbering begins again with each letter of the alphabet. In
the arrangement of the paragraphs the dialects, as far as consistent with the
above principles, run (as a rule) in the order Semang, Sakai, Jakun, ending
with INIalayan and Malay forms.
In view of the diversity of the materials drawn upon, it was necessary to
indicate in the case of every word the source from which it was derived, and for
this purpose the name of the source, in an abbreviated form, was put after every
word. A list of these abbreviations is given below.
When a phrase occurs (of which only one word of course is explained by the
paragraph in which it is placed) a cross-reference, by letter and number, has
been given to the place or places where the rest of the phrase is explained in all
cases where this appeared to be necessary.
With regard to the use of the vocabulary as an authority, while something
has been said above as to the respective weight to be attached to the several
sources, it need only be pointed out that words attested by one source only must
for the present be regarded as doubtful, while those which are recorded by
several distinct authorities can be received with a higher degree of confidence.
By means of this criterion it will generally be possible to form a correct judgment
as to whether a word can be considered as properly authenticated ; the bringing
together of the work of many collectors tends to eliminate their individual
idiosyncrasies, and the Comparative Vocabulary so formed is therefore of far
greater value than each and all of the several sources from which it has been
compiled.
In its compilation the pre-existing Comparative Vocabularies of Griinwedel
and Schmidt^ have of course been of much assistance, but reference has always
been made to the original authorities from which they drew. These authorities
have been reproduced in their own original spelling,* but inasmuch as their
systems of orthography differ considerably and no reader could be expected to
remember them all, the standard orthography adopted in the linguistic part of the
present work has been added wherever it differs substantially from that of the
1 The arrangement is, of course, in Maldka (1894), pt. ii. pp. 145-190.
many cases merely tentative and ^ Sprachender SakeiiindSejnangauf
necessarily, in the imperfect state of our Malacca undihr Verhdltuiszti den R'lonknowledge
of these dialects, provisional Khmer Spracheu (1901), pp. 415-488.
only. In some instances paragraphs * The only exceptions are the
have been recast while passing through following : for Logan's acute accent
the press ; but to this proceeding there ('), by which he indicates length of
are obvious limitations. No doubt in vowel, the sign of length (~) has been
many cases future research will throw substituted. Emeric's 6 (explained as
new light on the subject and amend the sound of "ought") has been
the present classification. rendered by a, and (in final syllables
? Materialien zu?- Keiintniss dcr only) his e (explained as the sound of
Wildeii Sidmme anf der Halbinsel " her ") by ci'.