A grammar of the Malayan language, with an introduction and praxis..

MALAYAN LANGUAGE. 115
into a vowel or aspirate, as ameh for ^j^\ amas gold, dareh for ci^b
darat the shore, kick for ^^
h'as hard, kulah for li^J^ ^w/fff a measure,
kiilih for i^j^ A'?7//i skin or bark, sakili for l^-^L sdkit sick. If this
practice be a provincialism, it must be allowed that in the countries
where it prevails the people speak a softer dialect than where either
the mute letter or the hard guttural is retained in pronunciation.
The employment of the j
as a final letter, although it is not found
in any other part of a genuine Malayan word, we may presume from its
universality to be as ancient as the introduction of the Arabic character,
but we have no direct proof of its existence in the oral language of the
Malays previously to that period. There are not wanting, however, some
glimpses of light to direct our opinion as to its originality, if not in this,
in some at least of its cognate tongues. Although not frequently occur-
ring in the Batta, Rejang, Nias, or La7npimg languages of Sumatra
and its neighbourhood, I find it to prevail in the dialects of the Phi-
lippines, particularly the Pmnpanga (of which, as well as of the
Tagala, Bisaya, and Yloco, I possess copious dictionaries, both printed
and manuscript), and what is not a little remarkable, it is found also in
the dialect of the great East-Insular, or, as it has been termed, Polyne-
sian language, spoken in the island of Madagascar, where, for in-
stance, the word ^p\ anak child, is pronounced zanach, according to
Flacourt, and annach, according to Drury's very genuine vocabu-
lary ; fjJ^ nidsak to boil, and also, ripe, is, in both these senses, massac,
jy ttiak the sweet juice of certain palms, is toak ; ^j^ clikhak the
house-lizard, is tsatsac ; jjc~j sunduk a spoon, is sonrouc. These two
authorities (and they are quoted in preference to that of vocabularies
formed in later times by persons conversant with the Malayan) may be
admitted