as p. In Malayo-Javanese works ڎ represents a palatal d found in Sanskrit and in Javanese, though not elsewhere in Malayo-Polynesian languages; it is exotic and not employed now. لا lam alif, a combination of two letters, is sometimes regarded as a separate letter of the alphabet. So too is hamzah ء.
§ 16. Besides the alphabet, Malays have borrowed from the Arabs certain diacritical signs, most of which have become almost obsolete in their writing. These are:
(1) The vowel points, in Arabic called harakat, in Malay baris or sěnjata, which represent short vowels and when followed by ي ,ا and و become long vowels.
Fathah or baris di-atas ــَـ = short a or if followed by alif long a.
Kasrah or baris di-bawah ــِـ = short e or i or if followed by ya, long e or i.
Dlammah or baris di-hadapan ــُـ = short o or u, or if followed by wau long o or u.
These vowel points have fallen into disuse, being replaced against Arabic usage by huruf saksi (§ 18 (d)).
(2) Hamzah ء is found in Arabic at the commencement of word or syllable with alif as a prop; alif by itself having no sound except that after a consonant it serves to prolong the vowel fathah: this use of hamzah is not practised in Malay. For its Malay use sec § 18 (e).
(3) The jazm ــْـ which shows that the consonant over which it is placed closes the syllable and does not begin a fresh one: for example, placed over kh in bakhshish it signifies that the word is pronounced bakh-shish and not bakhěshish.
(4) The tashdid ــّـ : see § 18 (e).
§ 17. From the evidence of the earliest Malay manuscripts extant, it is clear that there was a fixed standard for the
