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

MALAYAN LANGUAGE. si
their language so frequent as in Arabic, the genius of the former being
unfriendly to the recurrence of consonants without the intervention of a
vowel sound.
jjjJuU tcshdld (named also jLi shaddu) signifies corroboration, and being
placed over a letter in the form of (-), has the effect of doubling it; in
which case the former of the two sounds coalesces with the precedino-
syllable, and the latter, with its proper vowel, forms the subsequent one,
as in the words i.::^ tanwiat finished, i,;:.^^^ jennat paradise, j_f^ clicrrei
to separate. It may be applied to any of the strong letters excepting .
ch, 1 ng, and ^
nia, which letters, not being themselves of a simple
nature, could not be doubled without a harshness of sound ; and also to
the two weak letters j and ^, although not to i. When placed over
the J or ^^, the former half of the letter thereby doubled remains quiescent,
and the latter half becomes moveable, as in c^ biiwang or buang to throw
out, 'j_o' tiyang or fiang a pillar, c:.y muwat or muat to load, ^^ tiiwd
to reap : but double letters being in general so little necessary for ex-
pressing the liquid or fluid sound of the words, it would be uselessly
employing the learner's attention to enter further into the rules by which
the tcshdld might be applied ; for we should bear in mind that these
refined orthographical distinctions were invented for a class of languages
with which the Malayan has no radical connexion, nor scarcely any pro-
perty in common : yet are they elaborately taught by tl>e natives to every
youth who commences the study of his own with some tincture of the
Arabic language ; and a copious syllabarium, where all the sijijdla are
exhibited, is prepared for his exercise. Examples of this may be seen in
the Alphabetum Arabicum, printed at Rome in 1592 (with beautiful types),
and in Gladwin's Persian Moonshee, printed at Calcutta in i-jgS'
G Hcanxah