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

MALAYAN LANGUAGE. 1 1(
which it belonged in the primitive, and a proportionate length of sound
given to the short vowel of the other syllable. The rules by which these
changes are governed being of importance to the due knowledge of the
most artificial and dehcate part of the language, must here be detailed
with a minuteness which their utility alone can excuse.
By long vowels we are to understand, in our acceptation of the terms,
the quiescent letters \ a, j it, and ^ t, and by their being rendered short
is meant that they give place to their corresponding short or supplemen-
tary \ovieh,/at-hah, dammah, and hesrah, as will appear in some of the
examples hereafter given ; but as these people are in the habit (common
also to the Persians and Turks, and even to the Arabians themselves) of
neglecting to mark these supplementary characters in their writings, the
vowel is in fact altogether omitted, and the sound only must be under-
stood to remain in the pronunciation of the next preceding consonant.
From the authority of such books as appear to be written with the most
skill and precision, these rules are compiled, and they would be more
perfect if the native writers were themselves more consistent with each
other.
The most general rule, but admitting of exceptions as will hereafter
appear, is, that upon annexing a particle, the long vowel in the first
syllable of the primitive, if a dissyllable, or, if a trisyllable, in the pe-
nultimate (the situations where they usually occur), becomes short, and
the short vowel (expressed or understood) in the second or last syllable
becomes long. Thus ^^ kuda a horse, when the contracted pronouns ^
nia, cSku, or * 7nu are annexed in order to form the possessive, chanoes
the J for its corresponding short vowel dammahy the fat-hah for its cor-
responding long vowel I, and becomes ^\^ kuda-liia his horse, i^\^
kuda-ku