differences in Malay dialects, of which for the Peninsula at least no exhaustive study has been made. Dr. Fokker, who wrote primarily of pronunciation in West Borneo and who moreover, I believe, has since modified his views, distinguished in each of the first five vowels three variations of sound;
(a) Long and clear. a as in Ah: ragut, jadi, chabut, sabut, batu. e like ea in swear: beta, merah. i as ee in week: siram, kirim. o as in bore: oleh, orang, tolak. u like oo in moor: kurang, surut.
(b) Short and clear. a nearly equivalent to u in cup: ikat, isap, kĕrap. e as in padre or nearly like i in kitchen: oleh, ekur, pĕrentah. i as in German Sinn or almost like ee in been: pipi, manis, tapis. o as in pillow: taroh, jatoh, bongkar, pohon. u as in put: pulang, siku.
(c) Short and toneless surd. a as in canto or nearly like o in some: lĕnyap, kurap, lapis, banding, ganti. e as in German Brell or shorter than ai in said: oleng, chĕbek, ejek. i as in kitten, sing: sĕring, bĕtis. o as in German Gott or nearly as o in lot: bohong, komeng, korek. u in German Butter, dumm or the French pronunciation of géranium, album: těrus, takut, kapur, subur.
Some of these examples at any rate do not fit with the pronunciation of the Peninsula. It is easy to exaggerate the long clear a; and jâdi, pâdi, pâdam, châbut, are not heard in the Peninsula. Again, the distinction between a (b) and a (c) would seem to be merely that in unaccented syllables the vowel is less definite that in accented: and this fact leads to the blending of the sounds represented by i and e, by o and u, § 20 (c); e.g. gosol or gesil, ekor or ekur, a blending never found in accented syllables. Moreover, elaborate as it is, Fokker's analysis certainly fails to exhaust all the sounds in Malay the first o in bodoh is closer than o in bore but longer than o in pillow; and merah has an e more open than that in beta.
