A Dictionary, English and Malayo, Malayo and English/The Preface
THE
PREFACE.
THE Peninſula beyond Ganges ſtretching down to Johor, which is the extream Southern Point,and is the moſt Southern did Point of Land in Aſia, is generally called and known by the name of the Malayo Country, and very probably with great Reaſon, it retaining to this day the Malayo Language, as the Mother Tongue, and general Language of the Country. Whereas in all the Iſlands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Maccaſſer, Balee, Cumbava, Sallayer, Bootoon, Booro, Ceram, the Mollucas, and Innumerable other Iſlands, the Malayo Language is received and generally used in all the Trading Ports of thoſe Iſlands, only as the Trading Language, moſt of thoſe lſlands having a peculiar Language of their own: Nay on ſome of the greater Iſlands, (as particularly on Borneo) there is ſeveral different Nations and Languages, with ſeveral of which I have converſed. But I muſt tell you, that the Malayo Language ſpoken in the Iſlands, is ſomewhat different from the true Malayo ſpoken in the Malayo Country, altho not ſo much, but to be eaſily underſtood by each other. The Malayo ſpoken in the Iſlands is called Baſa dagang, that is to ſay, the Merchants or Trading Language, and is not ſo well eſteemed as the true Malayo.
The Inhabitants of thole Iſlands are ſuppofed to proceed originally from the Malayo Country, as being the neareſt Continent, from which the Iſlands proceed in a conſtant Progreſſion, innumerably diſperſed all over thoſe Southern and Eaſtern-Seas to New Guinea, part of Hollandia Nova, and from thence by that wonderful large Iſland of Hollandia Nova, which reaches to Forty four Degrees, South Latitude, not far to the Eaſtward of which Southern Point is other Land, which probably may be part of Terra Auſtralis, and likely to reach near to Terra del fuego the moſt Southern part of America, as yet known to us, and by this way is not improbable America came to be peopled, as ſome have not without great Reaſon conjectured. As to the Religion of the Malayo's, they are now Mahometans, but they ſeem to have been Anciently meer Pagans, having not in their Language, the name of God, or Angels, or Church, or Devil, except what's borrowed out of the Arabick Tongue, from whom alſo they have received many other Words. And thence it is, (viz. from the Alcoran) that they have their Letters, having had anciently none of their own, but have tried the Arabian Letters, excepting only ſuch as are Guttural, and of difficult found; the Malayo Language being of plain ſound and eaſie Pronounciation, and on the contrary, for ſome founds not in the Arabick, but proper only to the Malayo Tongue, they have bin forced to add ſome few of their own, as appears in the end of the Alphabet; ſome few words they have taken from the Indoſtan and Perſian; as for Wheat, Bread, &c. things not growing or made in their Country, but brought to them from Indoſtan, Perſia, or Arab and they together with the thing, received the Country-Name it came from.
But to return to my purpoſe; I am to tell you, that by Nineteen Years continuance in Eaſt-India wholly ſpent in Navigation and Trading in moſt places of thoſe Countries, and much of that time in the Malayo Countries, Sumatra, Borneo, Bantam, Batavia, and other parts of Java, by my Converſation and Trading with the Inhabitants of which places, I did Furniſh my ſelf with ſo much of the Malayo Language as did enable me to Negociate my Affairs, and Converſe with thofe people without the aſſiſtance of a Prevaricating Interpreter, as they commonly are.
In the Year one Thouſand ſix Hundred Eighty eight, I embarked Fort St. George, as a Paſſenger on the Bangala Merchant, bound for England, which proving a long Voyage, and I being out of Imployment, did at my leiſure time, ſet down all that came into my Memory of the Malayo Language; which together with ſome helps that I have attained ſince, has furniſhed me with ſo much of that Language, as I think may be of great uſe to Trade and Converſation in the Malayo Country, or am of the South-Sea Iſlands, in which Countries ſo great a part of the Trade of India is negociated and capable of being much Improved, eſpecially to this Nation, who I hope, will not be unmindful of ſo Valuable a part of that Trade; but as we may by convenientSettlements in thoſeSouthernSeas ſhare with the Dutch, the Profits thereof, and I finding ſo very few Engliſh Men that have attained any tollerable Knowledge in the Malayo Tongue, ſo abſolutely neceſſary to Trade in thoſe Southern Seas, and that there is no Book of this kind publiſhed in Engliſh, to help the attaining that Language; Theſe Conſiderations, I'ſay, has imboldened me to Publiſh the inſuing Dictionary, which I am ſenſibe has many Imperfections, l having had very little help to aſſiſt me, and not having had the opportunity of Converſation with any Malayo, ſince I begun this Work, nor in ſeveral Years before.
That the ensuing work may become the more uſeſul to my Country
Men, for whom it is designed, I thought my self obliged to give some
saccount how Lhave Spell'd the Maleyo Words, with our Letters, that
they may be the less liable to be mistaken in their Pronunciation: And
this /do sor the following Reason.
Thothe spelling ofeveryl anguage, which is written in its ovn Native Cbaracter ought to be the ſame, which the beſt Authors who have wrote in that Language have observ'd, in tegard those who were Masters of the Tongue, must needs knowbest the force of their own Letters, and with mhat Letters to express the sounds of their several words, and in this respect their writings must he our Rule, the Observation of which being that which Grammarians call Orthography. But in writing any Language in a Character, which is altogetlier a Stran- gertoit, uid only proper to some other Tongue, as if. Hebrer orerebich was to e vritten in English Letters, there this Rule wholly fails us. And therefore where this is done, its thie bufiness of him that Composes la Book, or writes but a Sentence, to set down the words of jhe Forreign Tongue in such Letters of bis ovn, as may best express the true sounds of the Language which he writes.As for Example, is I was to write these two Arabick Word Gul, which is in the Engliss Character Ab boona. that is Our Fether, and so if Our Father was wrote in the Arabick Cha- recter, it must be thus exprest 9). This lintimate, in regard this Rule altho it be lust and Reisonable it should be most strictly obletyd; vet in all the Histories and Books of Travels, wbich, bhave met with that have heen vritten in Englis, either through ignorance, carelesuess, or a senceless sollowing the corrupt Copy of Strabgers, it bas been hardly tiken notiie of: So that those Writers, when they have delivered us either che names of Rersons or Places, or some Proverb or. Sentence in the Lan- guage of those People, to which we are Strangers both to Tongue and Character (and theresoreithey have done it in our Letters,) they, have erformed it so slightly, not to say worse, that the Englisi Reader having read the words according as they iere spell'd in our Letters and Pronuncia- tion, has no more pronounced the Language, or the true sound of it, than the Jargon ofone of our Children of two Years old, is the true Eloquent Sound or Just Pronunciation of the Englisb Tongue, and this has pro ceeded not from his fault in reading, but from the Authors in writing those Foreign WWords so perversely. This This I could prove in many Inſtances, and therefore that (as much as may be) I may avoid this Error, which I complain of in others, I desire that they who intend to uſe the following Dictionary, will take notice what Rules I have obliged my ſelf to follow in ſpelling the Malayo Words in our Character, which are theſe that follow:
(1.) In general, I have endeavour'd throughout the whole Book, to expreſs the Malayo words agreable to our true Engliſh Spelling, by giving the Vowels and Conſonants the ſame Sounds which we obſerve in reading and writing Engliſh Tongue, without the leaſt regard to any other Language whatſoever.
(2.) Take notice that the [a] where it has no mark is to be founded as we Pronounce it in Man, Can, Fan.
(3.) Where the [a] is to be founded broader as in [Rābā] [Bāpā] [Āwa] it is then marked with a long ſtroak over head [ā] according as the Latin Grammar teaches to make long Syllables, and it is to be founded as we do the [a] in Shall, Fall, Maul.
(4.) The [e] is to be founded as in Engliſh words, and where its marked long over head, there the Accent is to be laid on that Syllable as in [Sēlēmoot] the Syllables [Sē] [lē] is to be founded long as the [e] in the Latin words Erēmus, Docēbo, or as the Syllable [re] in the English words, Regard, Require.
(5.) The [e] Final, or at the end of any word, is not to be founded, but ſerves as in Engliſh words to draw out the Syllable longer, as in the words [Pohone] [Mohone,] which words conſiſts of two and not three Syllables, as [Po-hone] [Mo-hone] and the laſt Syllable [hone] is founded as we pronounce the mock Iriſh Lamentation O hone O hone.
(6.) When any words are ended with double [e] or [ee] as in [Jarree] [Nantee,] which words conſiſts of two Syllables as [Jar-ree] [Nan-tee] the accent lies on the laſt [e] and the laſt Syllables, [ree] [tee] muft be founded as the English words Mie, See.
(7.) When the [i] is marked long as in [Tītah] [Tīang] it is then to be founded as [y] and the Syllable reſts on that Letter, as in Title, in all other caſes, as in Engliſh.
(8.) The fingle [o] is founded as we uſually do, as in [Sōbat] [Hōbat] the firſt Syllable [Sō] has the ſame found as the Engliſh Mono-Syllable So: But where the double [o] or [oo] is uſed, which is very frequent in this Language, according as I have wrote it, I deſire the Reader would carefully obſerve (ſince indeed here lies the greateſt difficulty in Pronunciation) that they are ſounded full, but ſhorter than generally we found the [oo] in Engliſh, and has near the ſame ſound as the [U] in Latin, as its founded by the Germans, Danes, and I think all other Europeans. unleſs the Engliſh, as in Ubi, Una. Laman:A dictionary, English and Malayo, Malayo and English (1701).pdf/17 Laman:A dictionary, English and Malayo, Malayo and English (1701).pdf/18 Laman:A dictionary, English and Malayo, Malayo and English (1701).pdf/19