Malay-English Vocabulary/Introduction
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INTRODUCTION.
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The Vowels.
The five vowels have the continental sounds:—
- a as in father.
- e as the ey in they.
- i as in ravine.
- o as in hole.
- u as in rude.
In open syllables these vowel sounds have always a greater degree of intensity than in closed syllables.
In addition to the above there is in Malay, as in nearly all Oriental languages, another simple vowel sound which is often called the short vowel sound. In the different systems of romanizing, this short vowel sound has been variously represented by a, ă, e, ĕ, i, ĭ, u, ŭ; but all these different methods of representing this vowel sound are open to the great objection that they mislead Europeans and even natives into giving it an incorrect pronunciation, and in a dictionary they have the additional disadvantage of giving rise to so much diversity and uncertainty in the spelling of words containing the short vowel that prolonged search is often necessary before it can be discovered which of these vowels has been used by the lexicographer to represent the short vowel in the particular word which is being sought for. Experience has shown that the best way to spell words containing the short vowel with a view to helping the student to a correct pronunciation, is to omit the vowel altogether, and it is believed that the omission of the vowel will obviate the difficulty of finding such words in the vocabulary. The exact sound of the short vowel should be learnt if possible from a Malay; it is almost identical with the half-vowel sound in the first syllable of such words as "machine" and "balloon."
When two vowels come together, both must be sounded, but the first must be run into the second; thus au has very nearly the sound of ow in "cow," as pisau, mau; and ai has almost the sound of the English i in "ice," as, sungai, pakai.
The consonants in Malay are pronounced as in English, except that the r should always be sounded much more clearly and with more of a ring than in English. The consonant ng represents a single sound in Malay, and should be pronounced like the ng in "singer," never as in "single;" the latter sound is represented in Malay by ngg; thus the two sounds are found in the words: si-nga and sing-gah. The letter k in Malay when it occurs at the end of a word is not sounded like the [ 11 ]English k, but the syllable in which it occurs must be pronounced very short indeed, and the breath drawn in so as to produce the shortening of the sound. The apostrophe at the end of a syllable indicates a similar abrupt sound. Final h has also the effect of shortening the last syllable, but not more than half as much as final k.
In the transliteration of the purely Arabic letters no distinction has been made between ت and س ;ط and ح ;ص and ه; or ق and ﻚ. The other Arabic letters have been transliterated as follows:― ث th, خ kh, ذ dh, ز z, ش sh, ض dl, ظ tl, غ gh, ف f. The nasal letter ‘ain ع which changes its sound according to the vowel written with it, is represented by a rough breathing (‘) placed before the vowel. The purely Arabic letters given above are very generally mispronounced by Malays, dh being pronounced as z, th as s, and sometimes f as p, and z as j. Such words are given in the vocabulary under both letters in order to make it easy for the student to find them; thus idhin will also be found under izin, and thalatha under salasa.
Orthographic Signs.
As already stated, the inverted comma represents the Arabic nasal letter ‘ain. It is placed before the vowel which has the nasal sound, as in the words ‘alam, ‘ilmu, m‘alim, do‘a.
The apostrophe represents the Arabic sign hamzah, both at the end of a word as described above and also in the middle of a word between two vowels, where it indicates that the vowels must be pronounced separately; this is also the case where the short vowel sound is followed by another vowel, as in the words s‘isi, k‘atas, t‘akan, the hamzah being used in such cases in the Malay character. The apostrophe is further used to indicate an initial short vowel before the consonants m and n, as in the words ‘mas, ‘ntah, ‘nggan, etc.
The hyphen is used in this Vocabulary to show the division of the words into syllables, except where the division is marked by an apostrophe or an inverted comma or by the mark ' which shows where the accent falls, as described below. In ordinary writing the hyphen should only be used where a word is reduplicated, or to separate from the words to which they are attached those prefixes, suffixes and other particles which do not foum 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. [ 12 ]References to the Grammar.
Words which are followed by numerals in parentheses are referred to in the “Practical Malay Grammar” in the paragraphs of which the numbers are given, where in every case some further explanation of such words will be found. By this means the Vocabulary becomes to some extent an index to the Grammar, and in regard to the use of certain words the student is enabled to obtain a large amount of information which could not possibly be looked for in a Vocabulary.
Root Words and their Derivatives.
In the Malay language a very large number of words are derived from root words by the addition of prefixes or suffixes. Sometimes several prefixes and suffixes are attached to the same word, and there is so much variety in their use that it would be extremely cumbersome to insert all such derived words in alphabetical order as separate words. The plan which is followed in this vocabulary is that which has been adopted in all Malay dictionaries, namely to put all derived words under the head of the roots from which they are derived.
Some prefixes and suffixes are only used to form nouns, and others are used with verbs. The former are:
Prefix p, which denotes the agent.
Prefix p and suffix an, forming abstract nouns from verbs.
Prefix per and suffix an, forming verbal nouns from verbs.
Prefix k and suffix an, forming nouns from adjectives and nouns.
Suffix an forming nouns from verbs, and usually expressing
the thing which is affected by the action.
The verbal forms are:
Prefix ber, which forms present participles with intransitive verbs.
Prefix ter, which forms past participles.
Prefix di-, which forms the passive voice.
Prefix m, used with transitive verbs.
Suffixes kan and i, which form transitive verbs.
In this vocabulary the derivatives will be found in the following order: (1) compound words and phrases formed with the simple root in combination with other words; (2) the verbal derivatives; (3) derived nouns. Only those derivatives are given which are in ordinary use; the fact that any particular derived form is not found in the vocabulary must not be taken as an indication that it cannot be used.
In the case of words which are essentially verbs or can be used as verbs in the root form, the derivative formed with the prefix ber or m, as the case may be, is given immediately after the root. Where the prefix ber is thus given it may be taken to indicate that the verb is [ 13 ]intransitive, and where the prefix is m that the verb is transitive; in the latter case one of the suffixes kan or i is sometimes given to show which of these forms is most commonly used; in some cases either may be used. Some roots may be used either transitively or intransitively, in which case the derivatives with ber and m are both given. It must be understood that the prefix m can always be used with derivative verbs formed with the suffix kan or i; this being the case it has not been thought necessary to give the derivative formed with m as a distinct form of the word.
In derived words formed with the prefixes ber, ter, per, di- and k, the first syllable of the root undergoes no change, and the word can therefore usually be discovered without any difficulty, but with the prefixes m and p the root in many cases changes its form. A reference to the following list of changes will usually enable the student to decide what the root is:―
If the root commences with
l, m, n, or r, it undergoes no change;
b, the prefix becomes mm or pm, as buka, mmbuka;
p, the prefix becomes mm or pm, and the initial p of the root is elided, as putus, mmutus;
d or j, the prefix becomes mn or pn, as dapat, mndapat;
t or ch, the prefix becomes mn or pn and the initial t or ch of the root is elided, as taroh, mnaroh;
g or h or a vowel, the prefix becomes mng or png, as gali, mngali;
k, the prefix become mng or png and the initial k of the root is elided, as karang, mngarang;
s and sometimes ch, the prefix becomes mny or pny and the initial s or ch of the root is elided, as suroh, mnyuroh.
The chief difficulty in discovering the root arises when the root commences with p, t, or k, from the fact that when the initial letter has been elided there is no means of knowing what that letter may have been; thus the root of mmutus might be either mutus or putus, and that of mnaroh and mngararg might be either naroh or taroh, or karang or arang respectively. When in doubt the student must look for both forms. Thus with derivatives commencing with mny, the root should first be sought for under the more common letter s and then under ch, those commencing with mn should be looked for first under t and then under n, those commencing mm under p or m, and those commencing mng under k or under the vowel which follows the mng. Similarly of course with derivatives formed with p in its various forms.
Words of Foreign Origin.
The Malays have a remarkable aptitude for adopting foreign words, which in most cases become assimilated to the Malay style of pronunciation, the spelling being sometimes changed to suit the new [ 14 ]pronunciation. It is important that the student should know the source from which such foreign words have come, in order that he may be able to discriminate between synonymous words and decide which should be used in conversation with the various nationalities by whom Malay is spoken. Thus one would not hesitate to use words of Chinese origin in speaking with the Baba Chinese, or to use Javanese words in conversation with persons who come from the Dutch Indies, whereas one should avoid words of Arabic or Persian origin except when speaking with educated Malays. It should be remembered, however, that some foreign words have become so thoroughly incorporated in the language as to be well understood by all, as for instance such words as waktu, ‘umor, smoa, bumi, fikir, fakat, etc. A large number of English, Portuguese and Dutch words, however, though well understood in the Settlements, are practically unknown to natives living in the interior, so that it is necessary to exercise some discretion in the use of such words.
Spelling of Foreign Words.
Malay lexicographers have usually romanized words of foreign origin in harmony with the spelling of the language from which such words are derived rather than with the way in which they are pronounced by Malays. This plan of having a different system for romanizing foreign words causes great confusion in a vocabulary and has been avoided as far as possible in this work. Such words will be found spelt phonetically according to the Malay pronunciation. Thus Sanskrit and Arabic words which are pronounced by Malays with the short vowel sound are so spelt in this vocabulary, whereas most lexicographers who use e for the short vowel have spelt such words with a, i, or u, as tantra, nischaya, and pusaka, which are here spelt tntra, nschaya and psaka. The former arrangement, though perhaps scientifically correct, presents such unnecessary difficulties to the unsophisticated mind that a consistent system of phonetic spelling appears preferable. Again it may be more accurate to write kalimat shahadat, but as the Malays always say klimah shahadat, it would be misleading to spell otherwise.
Accent in Root Words.
In order that one may pronounce correctly, it is just as important to know on which syllable the stress should be laid as it is to have every word spelt phonetically. A novel feature of this vocabulary is that the stress on each word is shown by means of an accent, in the same way as is done in Webster's Dictionary. It will be noticed that in root words the accent usually falls on the penultimate. When the vowel of the penultimate is short, however, the accent very frequently falls on the last syllable. In some two-syllable words there is an almost equal stress on the two syllables, and in such cases the [ 15 ]accent depends a great deal upon the position of the word in the sentence. For instance when the words tiang, turun or tahan come at the end of a sentence the accent falls on the last syllable, but when placed elsewhere in the sentence there is some uncertainty as to the accent, though it generally seems to be on the penultimate. Words of Arabic origin are often accentuated by the Malays in a manner different from the Arabs. In this vocabulary no attempt has been made to indicate the original Arabic pronunciation; the aim has been to accentuate every word in the way in which it is ordinarily pronounced by Malays in the colloquial language.
Accent in Derivatives.
Many authorities on the Malay language have maintained that in derivatives the accent moves forward on the addition of a suffix from the penultimate of the root to the penultimate of the derived word. The Dutch scholar van der Wall was the first to controvert this theory, which is also opposed by the grammarian Gerth van Wijk, and is undoubtedly incorrect. As a rule the accent in derivatives remains on the same syllable on which it stood in the root, the principal exceptions being words ending in ang, in which the accent falls on the penultimate of the derivative on the addition of the suffix an. Those who wish to see the arguments on both sides of this question will find it fully discussed in a paper on “The Evolution of Malay Spelling,” in No. 36 of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, published as a separated paper by the Methodist Publishing House.
In regard to the division of the syllables it will be found that on the addition of a suffix commencing with a vowel the final consonant of the root is carried forward to commence the new syllable. The Malays invariably divide the syllables in this way, each syllable being begun with a consonant wherever it is possible. The same thing is done when a prefix ending in a consonant comes before a root commencing with a vowel, as m-nga-uu from mng and aku.
Synonyms.
Another special feature of this vocabulary is that synonyms or words of cognate meaning and sometimes those of exactly opposite meaning, are referred to in the case of a very large proportion of the words. This is intended to open up a very wide field of study to those who wish to make a careful comparison of the precise meanings of Malay words, and who desire to be able to discriminate between words of nearly similar meaning. The advanced student is strongly recommended to make such words a special study.