h, and the first syllable of panjang is often pronounced like the English word "pan," and the second syllable is pronounced so that it would rhyme with the English word "bang." Such short a sounds do not exist at all either in Malay or Chinese, and should be carefully avoided. The first syllable of panjang should be pronounced more like the English word "pun," and the second syllable should be made to rhyme with the English word "young."
When two vowels come together, both must be sounded, but the first must be run into the second; thus au becomes very nearly the sound of ow in "cow," and ai has almost the sound of the English i in "ice."
The consonants ng and ny have been formed into double letters, to help the reader to remember that each of them represents a single sound. In a monosyllabic language like the Chinese, there is no danger of anyone attempting to sound, say, the n and the g separately, but in Malay this mistake is frequently made by beginners; it should therefore be remembered that ng should be pronounced as in the English word "singer," never as in "single," the latter sound is represented in Malay by ngg; the two sounds can be compared in the Malay words singa and singgah.
ORTHOGRAPHICAL SIGNS IN MALAY.
The hyphen is used to separate from the words to which they are attached those prefixes, suffixes and other particles which do not form an integral part of the word itself. These are the preposition k-, the abbreviated numeral s-, the passive prefix di-, the pronominal suffixes -ku, -mu, and -nya, and the particles -lah, -kah, nah, -tah. The preposition di is distinguished from the passive prefix di- by the absence of the hyphen.
The inverted comma is used to represent the Arabic nasal letter ain, and will only be found in words of Arabic origin. A nasal sound must be given to the following vowel.
The apostrophe is used between two vowels to indicate that they should be pronounced separately, as, perkata'an mula'i. The apostrophe is also sometimes placed at the end of a word, taking the place of final k, which in Malay words is not sounded like a k, but indicates that the final syllable of the word must be pronounced very short indeed, and the breath drawn in to produce the shortening of the sound, as in the word tengok or tengo'. Final h has also the effect of shortening the last syllable, but not more than half as much as final k, and with a distinct aspiration.
THE ACCENTS AND SIGNS IN CHINESE.
In Hok-kien Chinese there are nominally eight tones, but as the 2nd and 6th are the same, there are really only seven. The following are the accents used to represent the seven tones :-
1st tone a (no accent), representing a high and perfectly level tone.
7th tone a, representing a lower, but also perfectly level tone.
2nd tone á, an explosive tone propelled forward, like a decided imperative in English, as one says "down" to a dog.
3rd tone à, a downward or falling tone, beginning at the 7th tone level and falling till the voice dies away.
5th tone â, the voice first falling and
