CHAPTER II
PHONETICS
§ 8. In studying the Malay language which has for the vehicle of its expression an alien alphabet, it is necessary to remember that a language is built not of letters but of sounds. It were too elaborate here to deal with sounds so clusive that they have no graphic symbol. But Malay words are composed of the following sounds represented by letters.
§ 9. Consonant.
(a) Guttural class.
A glottal check or abrupt closing of a final vowel made by stopping the breath. It is represented by ء or ق, romanized ’ or k, as in ڨوکوء poko’ or ڨوکق pokok (and in a few cases rendered confusingly by ك e.g. بايك baik, تيليك tilek and so on). Whatever the symbol in Arabic or Roman script, there need be no difficulty, if it is remembered that final k, no matter how represented, in Peninsular Malay never indicates any other sound than this of the glottal check.
h like the h in Ah Amy, Ah Isabel, Ah uncle; a semivowel rather than an aspirate. It is sounded distinctly only between two similar vowels a … a, o … o as in rahang, bohong, leher. [The Arabic ھ occurs like alif at the beginning of Malay words as a graphic prop for a vowel, which in Arabic cannot stand as part of the syllable but must be accompanied by a consonant; e.g. for u and i except when they are used as semivowels w and y—ايسڤ or هيسڤ isap, اولو or هولو ulu: and to indicate the presence of the indeterminate vowel ĕ,
