The Malay Language and How To Learn It

THE
MALAY LANGUAGE
AND
HOW TO LEARN IT
BY
C. N. MAXWELL
KYLE. PALMER & CO., LTD
KUALA LUMPUR
All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

THE
MALAY LANGUAGE
AND
HOW TO LEARN IT
BY
C.N. MAXWELL
Malayan Civil Service (Retired.)
Author of "Malayan Fishes" and

" T h e Control of Malaria"
2nd IMPRESSION
December 1933
KYLE, PALMER & CO.. LTD.,

KUALA LUMPUR.

CONTENTS.
Page.
Preface i
Introduction iii
Chapter.
I. Pronunciation 1
II. Pronunciation 4
III. Books 7
IV. How to use a Manual 10
V. Teachers 13
VI. How to use a Dictionary 15
VII. Intonation and balance 21
VIII. Comparisons 23
IX. How to avoid monotony 27
X. Tone-imitative words 31
XI. Tone, poise, balance and metrical brevity 35
XII. Word-building 42
XIII. Descriptive words 44
XIV. How to use a Grammar 48
XV. Theories and facts 53
XVI. How to recover lost ground 59
XVII. The use of the right word 62
XVIII. Why you should learn Malay 68
XIX. False etymology 71
XX. The Binding element 74
XXI The destructive element 83
XXII. Triplets 86
XXIII. Range and flexibility 90
L'Envoi 94

PREFACE.
T
HIS is a little book, and purposely so, because it
breaks away from all the rigid standards laid down
in text books.
My publishers suggested, six months ago, that I
should write an up-to-date Handbook or Hints on the
study of the Malay language and, as you will see, if you
read further, what I have given them is something very
different from what they expected. At any rate the little
craft has been launched and the question to be decided
is whether she is sea-worthy. I want, and hope for,
every kind of weather, and if she stands up against
every buffet without damage to the hull and spars, and
will ride through every gale without losing any but the
lightest gear, her lines and general plan, as now
published, should appeal to other designers and builders.
She is Malay, as I sense it, throughout: Malayan
timber in the hull, spars and planking, and the sails have
been made on a Malay loom.
Malayan coir for the ground tackle, and Manila,
which is Malay, for the standing gear, stays and running
tackle. There are no foreign bolts or shackles! You
cannot beat hard-wood trenails for holding a hull
together.
I have not wasted much thought on the quality of
her paint, and the paint of course, is foreign, but, what
you will find I have done is to add several dollops of
mixed metaphors to it.
Every criticism will be welcome but I hope you will
not mind my saying that as the little boat is intended
entirely for hard work in Malayan waters the criticisms

ii
that I shall value most will be those from the Malays

themselves.
Now for the personal note which every preface

demands.
My official career in Malaya began over forty years

a g o ; in 1890, to be exact, but I can go back further than
that.
In 1873, I arrived in Taiping, as a child in arms,

and, during the next three years learned English and
Malay before returning to England.
Though all the Malay speech was forgotten, traces

remained, and something of what the child of four had
grasped of Malay thoughts and their expression
returned to the man many years later.
This something was the Malay fairy I hope to

introduce to you.
C. N. MAXWELL
LUMUT
DINDINGS
5th April 1932

iii
INTRODUCTION.
INGUISTS are born, not made, and to many
L people the acquisition of a foreign tongue is an

insuperable difficulty.
The Malay language however makes an immediate
appeal by its obvious simplicity, and most new-comers
to Malaya acquire a smattering of the language within
six months with an ease that surprises them.
But, this acclaimed simplicity is a snare. The man,
or woman, who has rapidly acquired a smattering, finds
after five years, or twenty five years, that no further
progress has been made, and for him, or her the
subtleties of the Malay tongue have never been revealed.
And, yet, the simplicity remains, and European
children, only five years old, speak, if they have Malay
nurses and Malay servants to speak to, with a purity
and sense of correct balance and intonation which their
parents have neglected to appreciate until it is too late.
The child has learned because it has been limited in its
movements and every step is taken under guidance.
Its knowledge is complete in respect of its immediate
surroundings, and as it grows that knowledge will take
it further and further afield. The adult who goes too
fast and too far to begin with, without a guide, travels
in circles which tire him out, and get him nowhere.
The child delights in the language. The adult who has
been compelled to learn, and has chosen the wrong way,
ends with a marked distaste for a tongue which has
defeated him.
Let it be agreed therefore that you will get nowhere
without a Malay guide.
The next point to be considered is the extent of
your journey. It is just as well to know before you

iv
start how far you can g o ! You can go a very long way
inasmuch as the Malay tongue is, probably, spoken over
a larger area of the world than any other language,
except English. It is the language of the Straits
Settlements of Singapore, Malacca and Penang; of the
Malay Peninsula, which contains the States of Patani,
Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Trengganu, Pahang, Perak,
Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Johore. It is the
language of the Riaou Archipelago, and of Sumatra and
Borneo, and is spoken in the sea-ports of Java.
There are colonies of Malays in South Africa and

Ceylon. A knowledge of Malay will carry one right
through the Malay Archipelago and far beyond.
The roots of the language extend over an area which

includes Madagascar, Easter Island, Formosa, New
Zealand, many of the South Sea Islands, the Philippines
and Fiji.
" The importance of Malay has been recognised by

Europeans since the sixteenth century when Magellan's
Malay interpreter was found to be understood from one
end of the Archipelago to the other." (1)
" For Malay, as for Hindustani, a magnificent future

may be anticipated among the great speech-media of
Asia and of the world.
They manifest that capacity for the absorption

and assimilation of foreign elements which we recognise
as making English the greatest vernacular that the world
had ever seen." (2)
" Malay has bought its popularity as a medium of

speech over so vast a territory at the same price at
which English has acquired its world-wide sway;

v
grammatical finesse and linguistically interesting forms

have been lost in equal proportion as the language has
affected larger circles of population." (3)
(1) W. E. Maxwell. Manual of the Malay language.
1881.
(2) Cust. Modern Languages of the East Indies.
(3) H. L. E. Luering, Ph.D., J.R.A.S. 1903.

CORRIGENDA.
Page 19 for Peret read Peret

19 „ bangsar „ bangar
40 „ Argus peasant „ Argus pheasant
56 „ paradigm „ paradigma
57 „ makota „ mahkota
68 „ betwen „ between
80 (line 3) for Sa-jamban sa perulangan
read Sa-laman sa permainan
87 for gulong layer read gulong layar
93 „ melambang „ melembang
93 „ ribbed „ (ribbed)
94 „ are „ are

CHAPTER I.
PRONUNCIATION.
In the Introduction, attention has been drawn to

the danger of haste in the acquisition of the Malay-
language.
For that reason it is advisable to commence the
study before reaching Malaya.
If the student speaks English and no continental
language there will be preliminary inhibitions and
handicaps to be overcome.
For example, a considerable advance will be made
when words such as MUSSOLINI, ANITA, MURREN,
INTERLAKEN, ADELBODEN, BERNE are pronounced
with the true continental intonation.
A still further advance can be made by obtaining
the correct pronunciation, from a really qualified author-
ity, say, an Indian Civil Servant, of such simple, but
commonly, badly pronounced words, as, RAWALPINDI,
RAJPUTANA, SOMALI, RANPURA, CHITRAL,
NALDERA ETC.
At this stage the student may expect to find some
rules regarding the correct pronunciation of Malay
vowels and consonants, but he is earnestly advised to
be patient and to continue with oral and aural exercises
until he has absorbed something of the accent and
balance which together make up the genius of the Malay
language.

2 THE MALAY LANGUAGE
Below will be found a list of 152 Malay words.

They are typical of the Malay language and, when they
can be pronounced correctly, no further difficulty will
be experienced with any other word in the language,
even words of 3 and more syllables. But, it is essential
that the lesson should be oral and aural. The meaning
of the words is of no importance, at this stage, and the
meaning should not be learned until further progress
has been made.
A Malay teacher who speaks Riaou-Johore Malay
is required.
There should be no difficulty in obtaining the as-
sistance of such a teacher in Europe. Very many
Malays go to England, and to the continent of Europe,
to complete their education, and the address of a well
educated Malay who would teach the correct Malay
accent should be obtainable either from the Malay In-
formation Agency in Trafalgar Square or from the
Professor of Malay at the School of Oriental Languages
in London.
The tutor should read these 152 words slowly, right
through from beginning to end, until the student has
become accustomed, and acclimatised, as it were, to the
sounds and the general atmosphere of the language.
When the student is confident that he can imitate, he
should run through the-whole list, ticking off his mis-
takes.
Three lessons of an hour each should suffice, and
a solid foundation on which future knowledge can be
permanently built will be well and truly laid.
Here are the words :—
Ada, adek, adohi, adu, agak, agas, ajar, ampun, anak,
angkat, apa, arang, ayer.

AND HOW TO LEARN IT 3
Bacha, baik, bagus, baju, bawa, barang, belah, beli,

belum, benar, betul, biar, biji, bini, biru, bola, buleh, buat,
burok, burong.
Cham, champor, chari, chepat, choba, chuchi.
Dada, daging, dalam, demam, dengan, dengar, dia,
diam, diri, dosa, dua, dudok.
Ekor, ela, elok, esok.
Gaji, gedong, gelap, gelek, getah, getek, gila, giling,
gosok, gulong, guna, guroh, guru.
Habis, halus, haus, hujan.
Ia, ibu, ikan, ini, intan, isi, itek, itu.
Jadi, jaga, jahat, jahit, jalan, jangan, janggal, jauh,
jawa.
Kali, kain, kaum, kawan, kembong, kumbang, kena,
kenan, kenang, kenyang, kita, korang, kurong.
Lagi, lebar, lebat, lengan, lenggang.
Makan, makin, macham, mari, merah, merak,
minum, muda, mudah.
Naik, nanti, naung, nyanyi.
Paha, pahat, pahit, pinggan, pinggang, panggil,
parang, prahu, pergi, pulau, puloh.
Rebus, ringan, ringgit, sampai, sampah, selesai,
selisek, seliseh, sumpah, susah, tahan, tahu, tahun, taroh,
tua, tuah, tuak, tuan, tuang, tutup, yang.

CHAPTER II.
PRONUNCIATION.
Read this chapter and go right through the book

if you can do so without fatigue. I hope you can, and
that you will do so many times, but do not commence
to study this chapter until you have mastered the exer-
cise contained in Chapter I. When every one of the 152
words can be pronounced with an easy confidence, every
two-syllable word in a Malay dictionary can be looked
up when required, and pronounced correctly, at sight.
Not only this, but the student will have gained sufficient
self confidence to be able to ignore and refuse to imitate
the accent of the majority of Europeans who daily
mutilate the Malay language.
The following words should be learned under the
Malay teacher's guidance and, probably, will be
pronounced correctly at the conclusion of a single short
lesson.
Sumatra, Java (Jawa), Medan, Deli, Orang-utan,
Perak, Selangor, Pahang, Johore, Kuala Lumpur, Klang,
Bukit Jugra, Ulu Langat, Sungei Linggi, Sungei Kesang,
Sri Menanti, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Trengganu,
Kelantan, Tanjong Rambutan, Tanjong Gelang,
Penyabong.
Remember henceforward, never to alter your pro-
nunciation in imitation of Europeans. When in doubt
always consult an educated Malay.

Practise repeating the key-words in these first two

exercises, rhythmically.
An ear for fine gradations of accentuation is essen-
tial; it has been cultivated in the course of these two
lessons and the cultivation should continue until it be-
comes natural and habitual.
The pupil has now learned, without rules, and, en-
tirely by imitation, how to pronounce every Malay
word.
It will be a useful exercise, now, to check that
knowledge.
I want you to prove to your own satisfaction that
imitation first and reasons afterwards is the golden rule
in learning a language.
You have learned that every vowel has a vocalic
value and also every consonant.
Even the indeterminate vowel " e " has a value.
It is sounded rather clearly in words like "betul"
and "benar" and less clearly in words like "gelap" and
"kena."
If you try to pronounce the " k " separately in the
English words knot and knee you will obtain the cor-
rect vocalic value of the " e " in " kena."
Pronounce the short final " a " like the " a " in
quota, viz. ada, apa, bacha, raja.
Note how the sound of the letter " a " changes both
before and after the letter " h." Compare Pahang and
parang, jahat and jahit, bau and bahu.
The " h " is sounded in the words bahu, prahu, tahu,
jahit and pahit as a very delicate aspiration ; it is almost

a spiritus lenis, but, nevertheless, the sound is there.

Learn to breathe it softly, but never leave it out.
" B " is always sounded, though the sound is faint,

in such words as sembilan, sembilang, sembilu. The
letters " mb " form an integral part of the root word in
each case.
Final " h " in words like suroh, merah, guroh, buleh,

belah, jauh, susah, taroh, must be sounded.
It is always sounded by Malays but is a stumbling

block to the average European.

CHAPTER III.
BOOKS.
Books recommended for the beginner are Dr.

Winstedt's Dictionary of Colloquial Malay and W. E.
Maxwell's Manual of the Malay Language.
They are both small books.
At the very first opportunity Wilkinson's large Malay-

English Dictionary in two volumes should be purchased.
It costs, I believe, twenty five dollars, now, but is
more than worth its weight in gold. No one can master
the Malay language without it, unless they speak Dutch
and are able to consult Dutch authors.
You may, usefully, employ a vocabulary or an

abridged dictionary to begin with, but the habit should
be formed, early, of consulting Wilkinson and thus
getting at the heart of the language.
In the abridged dictionaries, twenty English words

are balanced by some twenty Malay equivalents, whereas
Wilkinson will introduce you to the very important root
words and the very many derivatives which spring from
them.
The relationship of these derivatives to the root

stock is immediately recognisable, and consequently one

can learn fifty words from Wilkinson with the same

facility that one learns ten words from a vocabulary.
It is inadvisable to burden a beginner with proofs at
this early stage but one illustration may, perhaps, be
permitted.
The Malay word Baik means good and the
expression Ta' baik means no good; bad; and that is
enough to satisfy fifty per cent., of the Europeans who
profess to speak Malay.
But with the minimum of effort you can go very
much further.
Baik—goodness; excellency; of a satisfactory char-
acter ; in a proper or fitting way.
Baik-lah—good: very well: all right; that is as it
should be.
Baik-baik—carefully, well.
Baik - - - baik: as well as - - - and.
both - - - - and.
equally - - - - and.
Sa' baik—baik: as well as possible; however well.
Baiki, membaiki and perbaiki: to repair, to restore
to a satisfactory condition; to improve.
Ta' baik: not good; bad.
Examples:
Orang baik—a good man.
Orang ta'baik—a bad man.
Budi baik—a good disposition, kindness.
Jalan baik-baik—walk carefully, " watch your step."

Jaga baik-baik—look out, be careful, beware.

Baik di Melaka baik di Singapura—both in Malacca
and in Singapore.
Baik jantan baik betina—both men and women.
Sa' baik-baik-nya—just as good as.
Choba membaiki—kindly repair.
Ta'buleh di-baiki—beyond repair.
Winstedt's Malay grammar is a work that may be

consulted with some advantage by advanced scholars
but not, in my opinion, by beginners. My own view is
that every beginner should learn from the lips of
educated Malays until a facility and ease of expression
is obtained.
Malay is such a live and vigorous language that
dissection robs it of all its charm.
Beginners will be learning the comparative anatomy
of the living structure with every new phrase and form
of expression and grammatical post-mortems should not
be allowed to distract their attention during these early
studies.
Books with phonetic systems should be avoided.

CHAPTER IV.
HOW TO USE A MANUAL.
An hour a day should now be devoted to the study

of Maxwell's Manual, which though written more than
fifty years ago is still unsupplanted.
Do not learn long lists of words. If you learn

twenty words and do not use them you will lose them.
Make it a rule to pick out the words you intend to use
and take an opportunity the same day, not tomorrow, of
using them.
Once you have used a word and have been

understood by a Malay, and a Malay has used that same
word in course of conversation with you, that word is
your property, henceforward, and will come when
required with the correct accent.
With five new words a day rapid progress can be

made, possibly too rapid. The learner who is content
with fifty words in the first month should find himself
the master of five hundred, and a very useful vocabulary
too, at the end of six months.
Remember that everything depends on the gradual

assimilation of correct balance in accentuation and
modulation, first with single words and then with
phrases.

The phonetic charm of the language will make an

early and lasting appeal to those who take meticulous
care to get the exact shade of modulation of each word.
The drudgery which will always be the lot of the

person who relies entirely on brain power to overcome
the mysteries of the Malay language, and who digs
laboriously into a Manual, will be entirely absent in the
case of the person who will use all his natural senses.
A language is made up of sounds. The person who

refuses to use and to trust to his ears, but sits silently
poring over symbols is wasting his time.
If, in addition, he has an accent of his own, every
Malay word, and every Malay, will be a stranger to him
throughout his career in this country.
There is no argument in favour of speaking French

with an English accent, and none in favour of speaking
Malay with an Oxford or any other provincial or foreign
accent.
The Malay language, when you come to think of

it, has a very high place among the speech-media of
the world and the forces that built it up are much too
great to be treated carelessly.
How an hour's work with a Malay Manual every

day and a rule not to learn more than five words a day
can be reconciled, would seem to be difficult. My answer
is that it is a mistake to commit too much to memory
and all wrong to overload your memory.
Read in the Manual what is said about the parts of

speech and about the construction of sentences, etc., and
when you have had enough stop, even if it is after ten
minutes. Pick out the words you want and use them.

Those words will suggest others and some

expression your teacher has used will remind you of
something you saw in the Manual. You will then
return to the Manual tomorrow with a definite quest and
something new will be gained.
Remember the years that you wasted in Europe

learning Latin or French prepositions one day and
adverbs another and do not make the same mistake
again.
As you progress with your colloquial exercises,

every necessary part of speech will present itself as the
need for it arises. The most necessary will demand
attention first and the least necessary will not obtrude
themselves until much later.
Text books, manuals and dictionaries are meant for

reference but your note books will be the true record
of your progress.
If I were an examiner, again, I should ask the

student to produce his note books. These books would
shew how he was learning, would bring examiner and
candidate together to their mutual benefit, and do much
to banish the nervous tension which so unfairly handicaps
many earnest and conscientous workers who do not do
themselves iustice at examinations.

CHAPTER V.
TEACHERS.
Bear in mind, always, that the initiative must be

yours. You are the person who desires to learn Malay,
whereas the aim of your teacher is probably, and quite
reasonably, to learn English from you.
What you will have to do, therefore, is to teach
your teacher to teach you Malay. You must draw him
out and he will appreciate it if you do so.
Receptivity, not originality, is one of the most
deeply-seated characteristics of the Malay race and I
should doubt if there is in all Malaya a qualified teacher
with original ideas on imparting a knowledge of his
own language.
The fact that he has been teaching for years need
not necessarily carry weight: he may be wedded to a
dull and tiresome technique which saves him a lot of
trouble and will be valueless to you.
Therefore select, when you have the opportunity,
a man who is alert and interested, and, as you and I are
providing the initiative and arranging the course of
instruction, pay by the lesson and not for a course, and
change your teacher as often as need be.
If you have the good fortune to find a teacher who
is keen and quick to follow your lead, stick to him.

That the discussions will improve his English and your

Malay equally, does not matter. You may take it for
granted that he has no knowledge of the general
principles in a language which make what we call
grammar, and a Grammar which contains sentences such
as " Laying stress on activity, me derivatives will
generally express the active voice, but there are
exceptions, and the prefix has not entirely extinguished
the dual nature of the root verb " will be for him, and
every Malay teacher, a sealed book. But, by the time
you have worked together for a few months you will
find that you have covered a great part of the ground
which the grammarian laboriously ploughs.
Your teacher, who naturally speaks grammatically

(and it is a striking fact that every educated and
uneducated Malay speaks grammatically and
idiomatically always) will teach you to speak as he does.
Can the grammar do more?
Refer, nevertheless, to the grammar from time to
time, just to note your progress and to see how natural
features magnified in the book into formidable obstacles
have proved to be simple natural features.
And, when you have passed your examinations you will
be able to recommend a qualified Malay teacher!

CHAPTER VI.
HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY.
I want you get into the habit, early, of looking

always for the root meaning of simple words; the real
meaning which so many people overlook.
A vocabulary will tell you that 'ada' means to

exist, to be, but it means much more than that. It
means existence itself, and so you come to adakan to
create. It is not enough to learn that anak means child,
atas, up, bawah, down, naik, go up, turun, go down, and
not only is it not enough, but it is giving you just those
very false notions and early false impressions which it
is my aim to help you avoid.
Wilkinson will help you all the time and this is how
he does it.
Anak—offspring; issue; a child; the young of an
animal; the natives of a place; the relationship of a
component part to the whole, or an accessory to the
principal object.
Anak angkat—a child by adoption.
Anak dagang—a foreigner.
Anak negri—a countryman (as opposed to a
foreigner).
Anak anjing—a puppy.

Anak sungei—a tributary.

Anak dayong—an oarsman.
Anak jari—a finger.
Beranak—to be possessed of a child; to bear a child.
Peranakkan—native born.
Peranakkan Pahang—native of Pahang.
and many more examples.
Atas—position over or above.
Bawah—position under; below; the lower side or
portion of anything.
Naik—motion up or upwards; to ascend.
Turun—descent; passage from a higher position to
a lower, whether literal, as in the case of rainfall, or
figurative, as in the case of loss of rank; descent from
generation to generation; travelling to the sea from a
place situated inland. So, colloquially, it is as
unnecessary, redundant, and wrong to say naik atas as
it is to say turun ka bawah because naik alone, suffices
to explain progression upwards and turun means
progression downwards.
Now, take the word angkat. By many people, its
use is limited to the meanings, to lift, to carry, and
incorrectly so.
Angkat—lifting up on high; elevation; raising;
bringing up.
Angkat tangan—to lift up the hand.
Anak angkat—an adopted child.
Angkat-angkat—the carriage, shape or gait of a
person or animal.

Angkatan—an expedition; the entire party making

up an expedition; a squadron of ships; a caravan.
Pangkat—rank, dignity.
When a word is ready to serve you in many ways
surely it is wise to make the fullest possible use of it.
Why paddle in the shallows ?
Dalam is a word you will find explained in the

dictionary and in the manual (page 64). A word which
can be adverb, substantive, adjective or preposition, like
many other serviceable and adaptable Malay words.
This adaptability is a feature which should appeal to

you if you speak English. Let me try to explain. Look
up in your English dictionary the word " heart," and see
what you get.
Heart—heart to heart, take to heart, by heart,
hearten, heartful, hearty, heartsome, heart-broken,
heartiness, heart-sore, heart-sick, heartless, dishearten,
big-hearted, black-hearted, good-hearted.
You cannot but agree that all these are useful
familiar words and that they are all connected by simple
ties to the root word heart. Now take the Malay word
"hati."
Hati—The liver and heart; the seat of the feelings;
the core or heart of anything.
Bakar hati—passionate wrath.
Besar hati—presumption, pride.
Busok hati—foul disposition.
Jauh hati—alienation of feelings.
Kechil hati—spite.

Puas hati—satisfaction.
Sakit hati—annoyed feelings.
Susah hati—sorrow, regret.
Perhatikan or memperhatikan—to realise.
Ambil di hati—to nurse a grudge, to take to heart.
Bacha di dalam hati—to recite mentally.
It is not a question of looking out for and learning

out of the way words, but of finding very early in one's
studies the kind of descriptive word that corresponds
in Malay to the English synonym that any English
person would recognise without needing to be told the
meaning. The English child will spontaneously say
"puff", "puff", when it hears a locomotive engine, but
the Malays have no letter 'f' and no sound in their
language which requires this symbol, and so, when the
English child hears "puff," "puff," the Malay child hears
"suk," "sir" "sur," or some other expressive variant.
You will learn from your Manual, Grammar and

Dictionary that the Malays have a large number of
words to express very simple actions and you may come
to the conclusion, very reasonably, that the language is
illogically diffuse, because you have not been told the
why and wherefore of this apparent plethora of un-
necessary words.
But, it will be an erroneous conclusion. So much

of the language is descriptive that the student will find
that even the dictionaries cannot give every shade of
meaning and that as he, by degrees, captures the sense
of certain sounds, which never vary, he will be able to
understand what is said without a dictionary and even
to get an extended meaning.

Instead of jumping to the conclusion that a langu-

age that has 20 words for "to carry" is difficult, it will
be much more wise to accept the view that the fact that
there are descriptive words to illustrate each action,
naturally, simplifies the language.
Now, let us try a few tastes and smells for a change
and see whether you can learn to differentiate between
odours and flavours and can really catch the spirit of
Malay expression.
Bau—smell; odour; scent.

Busok—stinking; foul.
Hanching—a rank smell, as of urinals.
Aring— ditto.
Pereng— ditto.
Hamis—a fishy smell.
Hanyir—a fishy smell, or the smell of unwashed

human beings.
Hapak—musty.
Peret—fetid, strong stench.

Mamek—altered in flavour, for the worse.
Maung—ill flavoured; nasty; nauseating.
Bachin—the special and peculiar smell of salt fish.
Bachang—a fruit with a strong distinctive smell.
Basi—stale; "turned" sour.
Bangsar—a putrid pervasive smell, as of stagnant

water.

Banyar—an evil odour, not so wide spread as bangar.

Bau hangit—the smell of scorching.
Sedap—pleasant to the taste.
Tengek—rancid.
Do not learn these words now if they mean nothing
to you but if one or two strike you as being expressive
adopt them.
You must realise that busok, as you say it and hear
it, can only refer to something unpleasant, and
hanching, with the accompanying curl of the nose, must
tell its own tale if it is to be of any use to you.
The dictionary will tell you that bachin means
putrid, and so it may to some people, but those who like
their game "gamey" or their Stilton "ripe" may under-
stand why Malays say of salt-fish, jikalau ta' bachin
ta'sedap, if it is not "mellow" it is not tasty.
Sedap should suggest the smacking of lips and
certainly not suspicious sniffing, or sniffing of any kind,
but Abdullah (Hikayat Abdullah) started the notion, now
accepted, that it applies to pleasant scents and sensa-
tions.
Though Ta'sedap badan rasa-nya means I don't feel
well, the correct idea intended to be conveyed is that the
speaker is "out of sorts" and has a nasty taste in his
mouth.

CHAPTER VII.
INTONATION AND BALANCE.

Attention has already been drawn to the importance
of a correct accent. As the student progresses he will
discover how intonation serves to express surprise, doubt
and interrogation. For instance the interrogative
particle kah should not be dragged into a sentence unless
it balances nicely or unless it is difficult to put the
interrogative tone neatly into the sentence without it.
If you ask the question " May I come in ?" Buleh
masok? the interrogative tone is clear though it would
be equally correct to say buleh-kah masok?
It is difficult to make a hard and fast rule, because
a Malay, describing his attitude of doubt, might well
emphasise his doubt or dilemma in the following
sentence by kah twice over. Shall I enter the house or
not? Masok-kah aku dalam rumah atau jangan-kah?
Susu ada? Is there any milk?
Sudah makan? Have you eaten?
Makan siap? Is dinner ready?
are perfectly good colloquial sentences.
Remember that it is never right or polite to reply
" y a " " y e s , " tout seul, and not always polite to reply
"tidak" " n o . " The affirmative is " s u d a h " "done,"
" completed," " finished" and the negative as a rule
"belum" "not yet."

lya-kah? Is that so? achieves balance.

The value of the particle may be illustrated thus:—
Ada-kali patut? Is it fair?
Si-anu ada-kah lagi? Is so and so still alive?
Angkau anak si-anu-kah? Are you the son of so
and so?
Angkau-kah anak si-anu? Surely you are not the
son of so and so?
Kah is joined even to interrogative words.
Such expressions as Apa-kah sebab kamu ka-mari?
For what reason do you come? Di-mana-kah si anu?
Where is so and so? Di-mana-kah angkau dapat itu?
Where did you get that ? have the authority which usage
confers but would appear to be examples of the use of
the redundant particle in order to achieve balance. The
question has already been indicated by mana or apa.
Remember to affix the particle kah to the emphatic
word of the sentence. In the sentence Is it right ?
Ada-kah patut? the emphasis is on the " is it."
The student should now take particular care to
listen for examples of correct intonation and well
balanced expressions.

CHAPTER VIII:
COMPARISONS.
Everyone learns his own language before he studies

grammar. In learning foreign languages the unfortun-
ate student is generally forced to learn grammar first;
one of the finest obstacles to the acquisition of a langu-
age that the wit of man has devised. English boys and
girls who learn French and German in England learn
less in six years than they would learn in six months
in France or Germany, without grammars.
In Malay " the comparison of adjectives is expressed

not by change in form of the adjective but by various
methods of circumlocution." R. O. Winstedt, Malay
Grammar, 1913 page 57. The learned author gives
examples, some certainly involved and circumlocutory,
for which no authority is quoted, which is a pity.
Malay literature, certainly, is full of long drawn-out
and circumlocutory sentences but,Malays speak better
than they write, and I think it would be fair to say that
Malays use few words in making definite and explicit
comparisons in ordinary conversation. For instance, in
comparing the size of two houses yang mana besar
rumah dia atau rumah sahaya means which is the larger
his house or my house and, besar rumah dia means his
house is the larger and, sama besar ke-dua-nya means
they are both the same size. There is no circumlocution
here.

Let us look, just for a moment, at a few words used

for making comparisons:—
Bagei—like.
Rupa—form; appearance; beauty; looks.
Makin—more; the more.
Sa-rupa—of one appearance with; resembling; like
Saperti—like; similar t o ; in accordance with; as
regards; as far; with reference to.
Akan—approach t o ; motion towards; t o ; in the
direction of.
Dengan—with; by; in accordance with.
Sama— identity; sameness; similarity; parity.
Baya—size; form.
Sa-baya—equality in size and shape; resemblance in
figure and build; equality of age.
Banding—match; comparison, the comparison of
two similar objects.
These words indicate that Malays do not make a
cult of futile degrees of comparison. They look for
similarity, not differences. No Malay would ever worry
his head about the comparative differences of dissimilar
objects, and no Malay would be rude enough to draw
comparisons between his superlative possessions and
those of his neighbour. Comparisons are odious and
aggrandizement would certainly have been dangerous in
Malaya 100 years ago. English people say " b e t t e r "
when they mean " just as well," and " r a t h e r " when
they mean " yes," and use comparatives and superlatives
freely where no comparison is intended or indicated. It
is a feminine foible to emphasize small talk with

superlatives. All this is foreign to Malay and any

tendency to translate should be checked. Malays have
their own way of being emphatic. Although good,
better, best may be translated as baik, lebeh baik and
yang baik sekali, these terms are more often heard from
foreigners than from Malays to whom good is good
enough and sufficiently descriptive. After all, yang baik
sa'kali simply means that which is altogether good.
In support of his " circumlocution" theory Dr.
Winstedt has constructed (vide p.p 58 and 59) some 17
sentences which purport to compare the relative heights
of palm trees, of which, a betel palm is as tall as a
coconut palm, Pinang sanyiur tinggi-nya, is an example.
This is a clumsy sentence. It is bad Malay in that
the numeral coefficient, which would, at least, explain
whether trees or fruit are referred to, is lacking, and,
as all Malays speak idiomatically, these 17 examples of
Malay as it is not spoken diminish the authority of a
work which contains much useful information.
The support of this theory should, if authority
existed, have been found in the Malay classics, say, the
Sejarah Melayu or the Hikayat Hang Tuah, vide page 4
of the Preface of this Grammar.
Deripada chempedak baik nangka, deripada t'ada
baik ada.
The jack fruit is better than the chempedak,
something is better than nothing at all. Half a loaf is
better than no bread.
—Ht. Abdullah.
Endah khabar deri rupa.
The description is fairer than the reality.
Things do not come up to expectations.
—Ht. Abdullah.

Makin lama makin baik.

The longer the better.
Dengan sa-buleh-buleh-nya.
To the best of his ability.
—Ht. Abdullah.
It is a significant fact that these four examples can

be found in the Hikayat Abdullah and I think in no earlier
book. Abdullah was a contemporary of Raffles and
greatly influenced by his English friends. His Hikayat
was written partly as a text book for Englishmen
studying Malay. These examples have been used in
nearly every text book written during the past half
century and are now current in the language but
there can be little doubt that they are the inventions of
Abdullah.
The student should ask himself whether the simple
adjective requires a degree of comparison or special
emphasis to make its meaning clear before he gets into
a bad habit.
Abdullah got into bad habits and Wilkinson
criticising the Hikayat wrote " it offends in many ways
against the canons of native literary taste. Abdullah
really pushes colloquialism too far."

CHAPTER IX.
HOW TO AVOID MONOTONY.
To ensure progress some method of keeping interest

alive is necessary. It is not enough to rely on a Manual,
a Dictionary and a teacher.
The two former are useful and indispensable for
regular reference and the latter for regular tuition. But
too much regularity makes for boredom and boredom is
fatal to progress, and the regular teacher may, and
usually does, depend entirely on his pupil for ideas as to
the general trend and nature of study. Moreover, if he
is what is known as a " munshi," of the usual type, he
comes bored and goes away with alacrity, to the mutual
relief of his pupil and himself.
One way of increasing knowledge is to take a simple
word, already familiar, and to see how many
combinations can be formed with other familiar words.
The aim should be to find combinations that will be
useful forthwith.
Working in this way you will not be taxing your
memory with a rapidly increasing vocabulary of
disconnected words but simply getting the best value
from every word you know.
The Manual may be compared with an Army drill
book. The exercises I suggest will be more in the
nature of the actual drilling of sections on a

parade ground or the tactical direction of troops in

the field.
Take five words, for example,
Jalan, Mari, Bawa, Pergi, Nanti.
Mari—Come here (i.e. to the place from which I
speak).
Bawa mari—Bring here.
Bawa ka-mari—Bring here.
Bawa jalan—Conduct: take for a walk.
Bawa jalan ka-mari—Conduct to this place.
Bawa pergi—Take it away.
Nanti sahaya mari—Wait here until I return.
Many more combinations will come as progress is
made.
Look for contrasts. When you learn the word for
" up " learn the word for " down."
" O p e n " should suggest "shut," " b a c k w a r d s " —
"forwards," "go"—"return," "dead"—"alive," "long"—
" short " and so on.
By drilling your words in this way you will learn
their mobile powers: from simple squad drill you will
gradually proceed to evolutions on a larger scale with
perfect confidence.
To obtain the full value of every word look it up in
Wilkinson's dictionary.
Learn to play games with words. Do not slavishly
follow a text book but strike out along any trail that
seems worth following, and see to it that your teacher

goes with you. Keep on checking your accent and do

not hurry. Poise and balance are just as important as
accent.
Make Malay friends and talk to them. Do not
depend on your personal employes too much. They will
politely praise you and talk down to your level.
Here is another way to get all the value out of a
word. Take " tengah" which conveys the idea of a
central position.
Hence, tengah malam—midnight.
tengah hari—midday.
tengah makan—in the middle of a meal
tengah naik—half—grown.
sa'tengah orang kata—some people say, which
conveys the idea that opinion is divided.
tengah potong—while cutting i.e., in the middle
of the act of cutting.
potong sa'tengah—cut up half.
potong di tengah—cut in the middle.
(Note: potong tengah does not mean cut in half).
tengah tiga—2½ (see Maxwell's Manual,
numerals).
sa'tengah jalan—half-way.
di tengah jalan—in the middle of the road.
Now follow the road; the edge of the road, main
road, lane, corner of the road, straight road, broad road,
narrow road, winding road, the road forks, cross-roads,
cut across the road, a short cut, the opposite side of the

road, of a stream, cross the stream, wade, swim, by-

ferry, by boat, paddle, row and so on.
This is good practice and will help you to be fluent.

Don't study Malay in solitary seclusion, but find men to
share your teacher and to add interest and emulation.
How many Europeans do you know who will talk Malay
freely without a trace of self-consciousness before an
audience of Malays and Europeans? Few I think!
Many men are tongue-tied because they learned the
little they know alone with a book, and many more
because they picked up words here and there and are
afraid to voice them in public because they never hear
these words pronounced twice in the same way by other
people.
The system of affixation can be best learned by

making a game of it with, say three other people and
the teacher. One person calls out a root word, say
beri, bestowal; the act of giving; allowing, and the others
take it in turn to supply the derivative forms berian, gift
memberi, to give, etc., etc. When this is easy, a rule
can be made that each successive root must begin with a
different initial letter and thus in a very short time you
will know all that it is possible, or necessary, to know
about the system of affixation and will have put your
knowledge into practice. If you don't like games and
prefer strong meat let me suggest, as the alternative,
that Winstedt will supply you with some 32 pages of
concentrated information relating to the system of
affixation.

CHAPTER X.
TONE—IMITATIVE WORDS.
In the learning of a language everything depends

upon your ability to imitate sounds. You may be
confident that you have mastered the rudiments of
Malay intonation and that your ear is attuned to catch
gradations of sound which the careless student has never
heard. If this is true it is all to the good, and you will
never regret it. A very large number of the Civil
Servants in Malaya do not understand Malays when they
are speaking among themselves.
They learned what they know from books, and not

by ear, and it is impossible to learn how to tune a
musical instrument, much less play it, as it should be
played, from books.
Let me test you with the assistance of a great

Dutch authority Dr. J. Pijnappel. This is what he
says:—
" We are here referring to verbal reproductions of
sound. The Malay languages are remarkably rich in
' tone-imitative-words ' and, in accounting for this
wealth, it is necessary once more to have recourse to the
argument that it is here a question of an aboriginal
people who have acquired an ear sensible to the minutest
distinctions of sound, such as would be almost, if not
quite, imperceptible to ourselves. The facility and

acuteness, with which the Malay is capable of

distinguishing between slight variations in tone, is indeed
remarkable."
Here you have the " open sesame," to the correct

acquisition of the Malay language, in a nutshell.
The language is simple and sounds simple. As I

have said before, European children speak it perfectly,
and you can do so, also, provided that you do not
deliberately dull the edge of the perceptive and receptive
instruments given to you by nature.
Can you hear and distinguish between the sound of

a drop of water falling from the roof on to a hard
surface, such as a cement drain, " tik," " tik," and the
sound of drops dripping on to a soft surface, such as a
leaf "tis" "tis"?
If so, you are getting at the root of the Malay

language. But, be certain. The principal idea conveyed
by the word " t i k " is represented by the explodent t
while the final k merely serves the purpose of abruptly
breaking off the tone to imply a sudden ending. Practise
this. You will find that the t is all of the word except
for the all important fraction of a k which terminates
it. The word is not " tick."
If you are now prepared to agree that the words

" tik " and " tis " convey to your mind exactly what they
convey to the mind of a Malay and are ready to go
further along the same lines you will learn to speak
Malay, with ease.
If you cannot do this, you may be learned in Malay

literature, and you may write profoundly on the subject,
but, to the Malay you will always be a stranger.

To resume the same line of reasoning, onomatopoeic

(tone-imitative) words to which we are accustomed in
our own language such as, patter, crash, bang, pop etc.,
have variants in the Malay language which it is very
necessary to learn, and if we are agreed that " t i k "
"tik" is as expressive as "patter" and "tis" "tis"
as expressive as " drip " " drip " we can proceed with a
clear and open mind, to tik, tak, tok, and "tis" "tas"
"tus." We shall be able to hear in "dum" the deep
note of a big drum where hitherto we accepted " bang "
as sufficiently descriptive, we shall hear in "sur" the
sound of heavy rain falling on trees, and in "turn" the
hollow booming sound of the explosion of a cannon, and
the words " ketar" and " getar" will be no less
descriptive than our English words shivering and
quivering.
As you go on from "tik to titek, a drop of water,
and on again to ketik, ketak and ketok, and to many
more derivatives, it will be clearly proved how the
changes in this and in other roots, indicate the flat, dull,
heavy, thick, coarse and great as compared with and
opposed to the sharp, clear, light, thin, fine and small.
One word will suggest another and words you have
never heard before will be readily understood.
The tik, tis and ting will be associated in your mind
with small things, and the tok, tong and dum with the
big and heavy things.
Berdentam, berdentum will express the variation in
the depth of sound of big noises, and berdentam meriam
yang besar, berderap bedil yang kechil," " the heavy
guns boomed and the small arms rattled away ' will not
only be understood but be indelibly implanted in the
mind with no effort.
To learn words which suggest their meanings is no
strain on the memory. No English children have any

difficulty with words like tickle, waggle, twinkle and, as

they grow, words like huge, immense, ponderous, come
into their vocabulary with only one possible meaning
which can never vary or be forgotten.
I do not suggest that you should now search for

tone-imitative words in Malay and commit them to
memory. To do so would be a great mistake. As you
learn, little by little, and, more and more, these " tone-
imitative words " will, if you are meticulously careful,
in the early stages, to pronounce correctly and catch the
correct tone, draw attention to themselves in no
uncertain manner. They will plant themselves in your
memory, but if you go gathering bundles of words you
will never get them to grow.

CHAPTER XI.
TONE, POISE, BALANCE AND METRICAL

BREVITY.
I warned you, in the last chapter, against collecting
bundles of words and, all along, I have warned you
against learning too much and overloading your memory.
And why r Because, there is a hidden genius in the
Malay language which few people find; a fairy that
comes at once to children, but evades grown up people
who know too much; people who have forgotten that
they were children once, and that their own mother
tongue has its own fairy also.
You must have sharp ears and sharp eyes to hear
and see the fairy. People who can find no difference
between kata and katak, ikat and ikut, bulu and buloh,
rambut and rumput, will never recognise the droning
sound of a beetle's wings, and you must be able to
distinguish between many finer variations in sounds long
before you can hear the faint vibrations of a fairy's
wings.
When "dengar" sounds to you as though it could
not possibly mean anything else but " listen," " hark!"
and dengong" can mean nothing else but "humming,"
you are on the right track, but still a long way from
the fairy, not even warm yet, though perhaps you can
now hear the rustle of a dry leaf in the jungle, keresek,
the crackle of the dry leaf, underfoot, keresak, and the
heavy careless tread ia the jungle keresok.

When you instinctively take note of little things and

can follow the connecting links from the tik of a drop of
water to the ketek of the longest pair of legs of a
grasshopper, and so on to the "menitek" which comes
to mean the beating, which by constant taps, flattens
out a piece of gold into gold leaf you will gain a great
deal.
The tik you know, and what can ketek mean except
a click or a flick. The drop of water that falls on a hard
surface does not drop like a gob of mud; it spurts ex-
plosively. The drop that fell on a soft surface, splashed.
And so if you flick a grain of padi from your finger
and thumb "ketik" would describe the action, and
" k e r f s " properly applies to the flick or jerk used for
some soft article.
A grasshopper's long legs, ketek, come into action

with an audible click, and so does the crooked hammer
of a gun; ketek again. Further yet! keting is the name
for that part of the back of the leg between the calf
and the heel, while urat keting is the tendon Achilles
and mengeting is only used in the sense of severing
that particular tendon; so you can understand why ting
ting means hopping.
No book can teach you where and how to find the
genius of the language. You must find the way your-
self. But, I cannot resist the attempt to explain the
ting and also the tang and tong which go with it.
Ting is the tone-imitative root which corresponds to
the English " ring."
Ting tang tong, as you can hear, are notes of vary-
ing depth and describe ringing, chinking, twanging and
booming. The ting being clear and fine, the tang deep-
er and the tong deepest and most resonant.

Kelenting—continuous tinkling.
Kelentang—clanging.
Kelentong—the deep-toned cattle-bell.
Kentong-kentong—a hollowed-out block of wood
used as a gong.
The idea conveyed by these roots is tautness. The
tautness for example of the string of a musical instru-
ment or the compressed tension of a coin or a gong
which enables them to give forth a chinking, ringing,
twanging or deep resounding reverberation. With ideas,
such as these implanted in your mind you will find it
easy to understand much more than you can say. Malay
will not be a multitude of separate disconnected words,
to be learned, one by one, with great difficulty, but a
language with a liet-motif, and with cadences and chords
which harmonise, so that you can not only follow the
methods of its creation and expression but even antici-
pate the interpretation.
I hope I have not gone too far. But, just try lock-
ing at a few words in the light of what I have written
and see if they respond.
Ketang also Getang, tightly closed like the cover of
a jam pot.
Peting, jerking away a small object with the fingers,
(under tension).
Tegang, tautness, stretched to the full.
Chekang, tight, compressed tightly.
Sengkang, a cross bar used to keep something apart
or stretched to the full, a thwart in a boat or the spar
that keeps the mouth of a net open.

Sering—stiff.
Gerebang—spread out, extended.
Geting (and gen ting)—slenderness almost to the
point of breaking, but still not breaking.
"Biar geting jangan putus"—"Let it be frayed but
not broken "applies, say, to the frayed rope which draws
up the bucket from the well, and so, proverbially, means
"We are pinched to the limit but can bear it. We are
still on the right side of starvation."
From a Malay fairy tale, Sri Rama, published by
W. E. Maxwell in 1886 I will borrow a metrical passage
in which a tropical day-break is described.
This story was taken down verbatim by Malays
from the lips of a professional story-teller and that is
the explanation of its rhythm; a rhythm which abounds
in the spoken language but is sadly, so far, wanting in
Malay literature:—
I have taken a few liberties with the text because
the original scribes made some clerical errors.
" Tengah malam ter-lampau

Dinihari belum sampei
Budak-budak dua kali bangun jaga
Orang tua ber-kalih tidor
Embun jantan rintek rintek
Berbunyi kuang jauh ka-tengah
Burong selanting riang di-rimba
Ter-dengok lembu di padang
Sambut menguwak kerbau di kandang
Bertepok mandong arak mengilai
Fajar sidek menyelengsing naik
Kecheh-kechoh bunyi murai
Taptibau melambong tinggi

Berkukur balam di hujong bendul

Ter-dengut puyoh panjang bunyi
Puntong sa'jengkal tinggal dua jari
Itu-lah alamat hari handak siang."
The following is a somewhat free translation:—

" Long had past the hour of midnight,
Lingered yet the coming daylight;
Twice ere now had wakening infants
Risen and sunk again in slumber;
Wrapped in sleep were all the elders,
Far away were pheasants calling,
In the woods the running partridge
Shrilled, and dew came dropping earthwards.
Now lowed oxen in the meadows,
Moaned the buffaloes imprisoned,
Cocks, with voice and wing responded,
And, with feebler note the murai.
Soon the first pale streak of morning
Rose, and upwards soared the night birds;
Pigeons cooed beneath the roof-tree,
Fitful came the quail's low murmur;
On the hearth lay last night's embers,
Foot-long brands burned down to inches,
Heralds all of day's approaching."
No one knew better than the translator the impos-

sibility of capturing in a translation the languorous
melody of the original. The simple peasants, the homely
life and the apposite and descriptive similes. They were
all familiar.
The small children who always disturb the house-

hold twice during the night, and the elders, recognising
that a new day was at hand, turning over for just one
more sinking into forgetfulness.

The drip of heavy dew from the palms on to the

thatched roof, lulling men to slumber contrasted with
the calls of the wide-awake birds.
The far-reaching cry of the argus peasant in the

depths of the jungle and the shrill call of the long-
billed partridge. The snorting bellow of the oxen
answered by the penned-up buffaloes. Cocks clamouring
joyously, for notice, with voice and wings, and the
curtain of the morning gradually rolling up.
When you have watched the night-jar's flight, which

is never seen except at dusk and at dawn, you will
realise how truly " melambong tinggi" described its
swooping, falling flight, and you cannot mistake the
bird because its call " tap-ti-bau " is incessant and un-
mistakable, as he flies. We come to the robin, the
murai, which for choice, roosts in a tree, near to a
house and to human beings, and calls you, very early
in the morning, with a few soft liquid notes quite differ-
ent from his midday song. The quail, also, constantly
in evidence near human dwellings with its long drawn
staccato call, and the cooing and murmuring of the
tame pigeons and caged doves which share the dwellings
of men.
There is a subtle and homely touch in the reminder

to the sleepy house-wife that last night's embers can
still be blown into a blaze, and thus save the trouble
of making a new fire.
You may complain that this is not the kind of

Malay you wish to learn: that there is nothing here
about the life that is lived nowadays in busy towns and
in royal palaces, and that what you want is modern
up-to-date Malay.

I am tempted to digress, but there is more that I

want to tell you about the language first. But, to
satisfy your impatience I will let you into a secret.
You will have concluded, rightly, that the passage,
which I have quoted from Sri Rama, depicts the home
life and surroundings of a typical Malay peasant. But,
as a matter of fact, it is an account of a mighty Malay
Raja and the home life and surroundings of his palace.
The explanation is that there was no difference
between the home life led by a Raja, or any Chief, and
the life led by a peasant, fifty or sixty years ago, and to
tell the truth there is very little difference nowadays,
except for the imported expensive and uncomfortable
foreign trimmings.
The story is foreign, it is founded on the Ramayana,
and the rural phraseology makes the Indian legend a
story of real life to all Malays, whether Chiefs or
peasants.

CHAPTER XII.
WORD-BUILDING.
There are many people in Malaya who confine their

conversational efforts to words of two syllables and
compress, if they possibly can, a three syllable word
into two syllables.
These people are confused by the appearance of
long words and when they do attempt to pronounce
them they remind one of a nervous rider scared of a
fence, but, shutting his eyes and rushing it.
And, yet the Malay system of building up words
is beautifully simple and musical and sensible.
I advise you to get your teacher to pick out for
you some really long words and then look them up
in Wilkinson's dictionary. Look for the root: it will
always be in a central position. Learn to pronounce
them and soon long words will have no terrors for you.
Be very careful not to over-accentuate any portion of
a word, and do not demand that your teacher over-
emphasises for your benefit or you will get him into
a bad habit to your mutual confusion. There is very
little accentuation of special syllables.
From primitive roots word-building grows by the
use of natural vocalic powers. For instance, the notion
of frequency in Malay, as in other languages, is con-
veyed by the vibration of the tongue.

The average student is appalled by the appearance

of such words as menggeletar, menggeletok, menggel-
etek, etc. but such words would have no terrors for a
child.
As Dr. Pijnappel has pointed out, children habitually
render the thing they see, or what they see occurring
by self-coined tones, due to clearly indicated natural
causes.
The transition from tik to ketik has been explained.
Now what can be more natural than the growth of
ketik to keletik, to express the sound of continuous
"ticking", or the gradual phonetic growth of getar,
quivering, to the frequentative form geletar, continuous
quivering, and so, to the verb menggeletar to tremble.
Once you realise how simply and how naturally
these words roll off the tongue and how expressive they
are you will find intensive and frequentative words
quite attractive.
You will be delighted to find that verbs, nouns,
adjectives and adverbs will all come as required once
you have got the knack of tacking on the simple pre-
fixes and suffixes which label each word as certainly
as a card index system.
If you depend on a grammar to teach you the
system of affixation you will find that you will never
speak Malay with confidence. You cannot learn to talk,
walk, swim, ride or sail a boat from a book. A man
must learn by imitating other men and using his
senses. It is not until after he has learned how to
progress with confidence that he can extract from books
additional information of value.

CHAPTER XIII.
DESCRIPTIVE WORDS.
We have learned something about tone-imitative

words. We have made a start. Let me now draw
attention to some words which, when you get used to
them, are self-descriptive and action-descriptive words.
Generally speaking, in the Malay language, the
words describing little actions can be readily
distinguished from those which describe big actions by
tones which gain in volume as the subject matter
increases in size.
The same system which classifies imitative tones
serves to classify descriptive tones, though there is no
hard and fast rule.
Languages, like English and Malay which have
borrowed so much from foreign sources cannot have
hard and fast rules. But, for all that, it is not difficult
to see that diminutive objects and small actions have
their own distinguishing characteristics at the fine end
of the tone scale, and that big objects and actions have
corresponding characteristics which accurately place
them at the other end of the scale.
For example:—
Sikit-sikit—very little in quantity.
Dikit—a small quantity.

Demit—small.
Petek—to pick, with the finger and thumb.
Kutip—to pick up a small object, from the ground.
Kotil—to break off a very small piece.
Sa'dikit—a small quantity.
Sa'kotil—a very small piece.
Sa'kotis—a small pinch of something.
Iris—to cut into thin slices.
Tiris—to ooze, to leak very slightly.
Turis—to scratch a line, and so, to tap a rubber tree.

Renjis—to sprinkle.
Perchit—to spurt out.
Chungkil—to pick or probe with a fine-pointed
instrument
Garis—to scratch.
Changkat—hillock, shallow.
Bukit—a hill.
Tipis and Nipis—thin.
Now compare with:
Baniak—abundance.
Gedang—large.
Besar—large.
Pungut—to collect.
Kaup—to draw towards oneself into a heap.

Chapai—grasping or seizing with the whole hand.
Chakar—to scratch, with a rake, claws, or the nails

of all the wide-spread fingers.
Genggam—grasp.
Sa'genggam—as much as the closed hand can hold.
Panggal—to chop through.
Sa'panggal—a chunk.
Bochor—leaky, (much stronger than tiris)
Bobos—holed (much stronger than bochor)
Tuang—to pour.
Churah—to empty out to the last drop or grain,

water from a bucket or grain from a sack.
Changkol—a hoe.
Luka—a wound.
Gunong—a mountain.
A navigator, to fix his position, as he cruises along

an unfamiliar coast, takes cross bearings on prominent
land marks. One bearing will not fix his position on the
chart; two bearings give an approximate position, but a
three-point bearing gives an absolutely reliable fix.
" A wink is as good as a nod to a blind horse " but I

will venture a wink as a final illustration.
Kejip—a wink.
Kejap—the closing of the eye.
Kejam—the prolonged closing of the eye, (as in

sleep, and in death).

Here you have a three-point bearing, and your

course of study will be swifter and safer if you make it
a rule to co-ordinate such elements, as you proceed
because they are the natural features of the language.
You have, if you have been a year in this country,
very often used the expression nanti sa'kejap " wait a
moment." Did you realise that it meant " in the
twinkling of an eye?"
Prospero:—Go, bring the rabble.
Ariel:—Presently.
Prospero: Ay, with a twink.
Ariel: Before you can say 'come' and 'go,' and
breathe twice; and say ' so ' ' so.'

CHAPTER XIV
HOW TO USE A GRAMMAR.
If you are a Government official and have to pass

an examination in Malay, as every Government servant
in Malaya should be compelled to do, you will be required
to have some acquaintance with the contents of
Winstedt's Malay Grammar.
To many people this is a severe test.
To be confronted early in one's study of a language
with the condensed and crystallised knowledge of many
learned authorities, all packed tight into two hundred
pages, is an experience which, I am glad to say, did not
befall me or my contemporaries.
I understand that the student of the present day
crams hard and trusts to luck that he will be examined
in the particular subject that he memorised the day
before the examination.
And yet, Winstedt's Grammar is a valuable work
which I, and of course all people who learned to talk
Malay from Malays, can read with interest, and with
a critical, analytical, and profitable interest.
This however is poor consolation to the student who
is still, let us say, in the five-finger-exercise stage, when
the mysteries of counterpoint are meaningless to him,
and the nuisance of it is that his Malay teacher is in the
same boat.

The latter can talk Malay, and possibly fair English,

but the English required by Winstedt to explain his
meaning might be double-Dutch as far as he is
concerned.
Let us hope that a later edition will be modelled on
the style of such masters of plain English and eminent
philologists as Barrie and Kipling!
Now then, let us get to work!
Armed with an English dictionary and a Malay
dictionary skim through the pages of this grammar,
making up your mind that you want to get a general
idea of the pasture before you begin to browse.
If you strike a patch that interests you make a note
of it and put a pencil mark on the margin. On page
20 for instance, Professor Pijnappel gets a five-line
notice on a subject which you and I have learned
something about.
Don't wade, and don't memorise, but just hop, skip
and jump not forgetting to leave marks behind and
limit the time of your early forays to, say, 20 minutes.
By the end of a few weeks there should be quite a
number of pencilled lines in the margin which will
roughly demarcate the areas you have dealt with.
So, by degrees, there will be a definite and increasing
portion of the book which you have found quite
interesting because it explained what you wanted to
know.
Remember always to teach your tutor as you go
along. Tell him what Winstedt says and discuss each
new find with him.
Sometime your tutor, when he has grasped the idea
may disagree with the grammarian. Don't check him:

this is not insubordination, but valuable criticism, even if

the tutor is, sometimes, wrong!
When you have taken your part in a critical
discussion you will have learned a lot that will never
be a strain on the memory and, moreover, will never be
forgotten.
Consult, criticise and discuss: that is the way to
ensure progress.
Let me give you an illustration of the kind of
criticism I mean.
On pages 101-103, Reduplication is dealt with, and
examples are given. You are told that the
" reduplication in the names of animals, which by going
in flocks or shoals or having an abnormal complement
of legs and wings suggest plurality; and also of things
which by their nature suggest it."
" Most of these never occur in single form: anai-anai
white ant; lumba-lumba porpoise; kupu-kupu, rama-
rama butterfly; biri-biri sheep, kala-kala scorpion:
kura-kura tortoise; laba-laba spider; kisi-kisi trellis
work."
This definition does not fit all the circumstances and
gives you, without destroying general principles, an
opportunity of criticising and at the same time of
learning quite a lot about the system of reduplication.
The definition fits white ants, sheep and trellis work:
but does it fit the porpoises, butterflies, scorpions,
tortoises and spiders?
Passing over the fact that there is no reduplicated
form of word which applies to most mackerels and
herrings which swim in enormous shoals what is the
characteristic movement of porpoises? Most decidedly,

it is a billowing movement, and , as Wilkinson will tell

you, lomba is a word specially applied to the porpoise, or
to a horse when it is cantering or galloping. So lomba-
lomba will be rightly associated in your mind, as you
have seen porpoises, with competition, repetition and
continuity of action, and not with shoals.
(When you discuss shoals of fish with your tutor the

jaru-jaru which is a mackerel will serve to lead you to
another form of reduplication. The jaru-jaru is a local
term, the form chencharu has a much wider use, and then
there is chenchodak, a reduplicated form of todak).
The grammarian has left it to you to decide which

category includes the butterflies but, I think flocks have
it, and not legs and wings.
How did the tortoise and spider get here ? What is

there in their nature that suggested reduplication and
how did the centipede and millipede with their abnormal
quantity of legs manage to keep out? Personally, I
think Winstedt might have told us a little bit more about
the tortoise.
Dr. Leuring, a great linguist, has made some

interesting observations on this subject. (The formation
of words. Journal S.B.R.AS. 1903). He explains, inter
alia, that reduplication is intended to specialise the use
of a word, and also to differentiate. Langit-langit, a sky,
yet not a sky: a baldachin. Buat-buat, to do, yet not to
d o : to pretend. Ayam-ayam, a hen, yet not a hen; a
waterfowl.
In the same way, puteh-puteh means whitish, not

white. Biru-biru, bluish, not blue. Api-api, the
mistletoe which causes trees infested by it to have the

appearance as if burnt by fire (api) and so on. And, I

will add Kura-kura, a spleen, yet not a spleen, though
like it in certain aspects, a tortoise.
And how does this appeal to you ?
Laba, profits, " money bags." Laba-laba " the

money spinner " the spider.
Bagaimana laba-laba chinta kaseh sayang kapada
telor-nya—As passionately as the spider loves its eggs.—
Proverb.
Now this explanation of the connection between a
spider and profits seems to me to be natural and
self-explanatory, though I have no authority for it, and
the next time you see a spider sitting with her bag of
eggs slung under her, like a miser with a bag of money,
just spend a moment in considering whether the
connection strikes you as being correct.
If it does, in that moment, you have added two

words to your vocabulary which you can never forget
(profits and spider) and what is more you have struck a
new lode, the appearance—imitative lode which applies to
the tortoise, the mistletoe, the clothes-horse, the
carpenter's trestle, etc., etc., a lode that it will pay you to
follow.
There is a tendency nowadays to reduplicate too
much. This should be checked. I heard a Sikh
Watchman outside my hotel while I was busy with this
book, describing his attempt to catch a thief somewhat
as follows. "Dia kurus-kurus kechil-kechil punya orang.
Dia lari-lari kuat-kuat and so on.
At the same time, reduplication is a constantly

recurring and valuable feature and you will find more
about it in another chapter.

CHAPTER XV.
THEORIES AND FACTS.
I like that metaphor " struck a new lode!" There is,

certainly, a similarity between the work of a geologist
and that of a grammarian; very valuable work which
simplifies the task of the prospector. And the similarity
persists because, though the geologist can map out the
general features and suggest indications, it is the
prospector who proves whether the reef or lode exists.
In Malaya, geologists have given suggestions which

proved, on examination, to be barren, and in the Malay
language a grammarian may work out a rule which
becomes fallacious because the exceptions to that rule
smother it.
But, the same explanation applies to both geological

and grammatical errors in calculations and hypotheses.
The intrusions, upheavals, and faults which have
interfered with the normal geological structure of a
country are paralleled by the invasions, conquests, and
foreign influences which have interfered with the normal
structure of a language. But, this fact does not serve
to bolster up erroneous geological or grammatical
theories. The prospector cannot be humbugged all the
time.
The geologist and grammarian must be original

workers not the collectors of a melange of the facts and

theories of other people. When the exceptions over-

power the rule, the rule cannot stand, but, unoriginal
workers are stubborn folk and apt to copy and serve
up exploded theories.
It is in this spirit that the student must go to work;
in the spirit of adventure, the spirit which never leaves
a prospector, once he has made a strike, and which
makes a language a life-long delight once one has
unearthed, unaided, even one or two of the secrets which
are withheld from the undiscerning.
You see now, that I have been trying to put myself
in your place all through this book. We did not like the
grammarian to begin with; we did not like his
scientific style, but, after all, it differed, very little, from
the style of a geologist. The next stage was one of
toleration of a necessary burden, and now we can say
"thank you for the indications, they have told us where
to look."
Let us prospect:—
" Broadly, reduplication always implies indefinite-
ness." " It is not used where a definite number is
mentioned." Lima orang, five men, never lima
orang-orang. Winstedt's Malay Grammar, p. 101. True!
it is never lima orang-orang, but does this " indefinite -
ness" theory stand all the tests ?
What is the Malay word that expresses
" indefiniteness ?"
Barang, just barang alone, not barang-barang as
one would expect.
Barang—Indefiniteness; any thing of an indefinite
character; things in general; articles with
the idea of indefiniteness attached to them ;
anything; any.

Barang apa—anything whatever.
Barang apa pun jadi—anything will do.
Barang mana—any where.
Barang-bila—whenever.
Barang-barang—goods, property in general.
Now barang-barang certainly indicates a definite
collection of goods, property or luggage and it is the
un-reduplicated form barang that implies indefiniteness
every time; so we have struck a barren patch on our
first expedition.
However, there is another indication we might
follow up.
In the phrase "bukan barang-barang elok-nya:"
"her beauty was no ordinary beauty," one may gather
that barang-barang means ordinary. But, the use of the
negative in this phrase is to intensify and emphasise, to
affirm, not to deny: as one might, vulgarly, remark " She
was no ordinary piece of goods."
So though we have failed to find what we were
looking for we have certainly gained in knowledge and
experience.
We might now begin to regard this " indefiniteness "
theory as a doubtful proposition, just as likely to be
wrong as right.
Let us turn for advice to another grammarian,
Dr. Luering, (a profound authority, whose assistance to
Wilkinson is acknowledged in the preface to his
dictionary).
Luering refuses to accept the " indefiniteness"
theory or the " plurality " theory.

As you know, orang means a human being, man or

woman, and it can be singular or plural, without
alteration.
Orang Melayu— a Malay, or the Malay race.
Brapa orang—how many people.
Luering holds that reduplication has the effect of
specialisation and differentiation, emphasis and
repetition. " I will not make (he writes) any superfluous
quotations, but in half a dozen grammars which lie
before me, I find it stated that this is one of the plural
formations, though in almost every case, the said
grammarians find it impossible to state why the word
should be reduplicated, as already the single word implies
the plural, and why even the reduplication should be
joined together with the adjective segala which is
universally accepted as indicating the plural. A few
careful grammarians have noted the fact that only few
words can form plurals by means of a reduplication.
This observation should have led them to a correct
understanding of the meaning of such alleged plurals."
"The universal paradigm of this "plural" in
grammars is raja-raja. It is well known that raja alone
can mean " kings;" now if raja-raja should be used to
avoid ambiguity, or to distinguish it from a possible
singular " king," why should, in almost every case.
segala be added; segala raja-raja where the translation
"all the k i n g s " or " all k i n g s " is quite out of the
question ?
" In accordance with other Malayan languages,
including the Malagasy, I explain the reduplication as
intended to specialise the use of the word."
Take for example the ever-recurring phrase in
Malay court novels; di-hadap uleh segala raja-raja dan
mentri, hulubalang serta biduanda sekelian.

" Not once in this frequent phrase is another of the

nouns, which are all plurals, found in reduplication.
"The heading of this paragraph (specialisation and
differentiation) will supply the explanation of the
difference."
" While the other nouns denote certain offices or
ranks, the members of which are equal among them-
selves, all being ministers or officers of the body guard,
or pages, the title " raja " includes all princes of royal
blood inclusive of that large class of attendants at
court who, by some however distant blood relation with
the ruling prince, are thereby differentiated from
outsiders We may translate the phrase therefore:
(The prince) waited upon by the various classes of
rajas, and the ministers, officers of the body-guard, and
the pages together."
With this well reasoned argument uncontroverted it
is difficult to accept the view given by Winstedt on
page 102 of his grammar that lembu-lembu means oxen
of all kinds, orang-orang, all sorts of men, and makota
segala raja-raja, the crown of all kinds of princes!
And what all kinds of plural princes are doing with
one unreduplicated crown is a mystery to me!
Now turn to page 45 of Maxwell's manual and you
will see that he says "the plural is also express-
ed sometimes by repeating the noun; as raja, a king,
raja-raja, kings: tuan, master, tuan-tuan, masters."
"All nouns are not capable of this duplication. As a
general rule, it may be said to be mainly confined to
nouns expressing persons or animate objects."
I like 'to think that my father who died five years
before Dr. Luering's paper was published was one of the
careful grammarians to whom Dr. Luering refers.

And this reminds me that I should give a reason

for recommending the student to use Maxwell's Manual.
I do so because it is recommended by Dr. Reinhold Rost,
the learned librarian of the India Office Library, in his
article on the Malay Language and Litera'ture in the
Encylopaedia Britannica (1883).
I have no financial interest in the Manual, and I take

this opportunity of suggesting, that in fairness, to an
author, who wro'te fifty years ago, under difficulties, the
publishers should bring out a new edition with the few
important revisions which it is now possible to make.

CHAPTER XVI.
HOW TO RECOVER LOST GROUND.
There are many people who have come to the

conclusion that they cannot learn any more Malay: they
feel that they have come to a dead-end, a defeatist end.
If they will accept the view that there has been a
basic error in their method of learning, I hope they
will find hints somewhere in this book which will appeal
to them, because this book is not meant only for
beginners.
Say, for instance, that you have a vocabulary of
some 500 words and some knowledge of the construction
of sentences. You don't want to upset all that and
begin again with the laborious job of wading through a
Manual.
How would it do, in your case, to take stock of
your knowledge ? I would suggest that you begin with
a note book, and write down, every day, the words that
you know, as they occur to you at odd times. In a
week or two the note book will be ready to be checked,
and then you will want a Malay teacher. Let him write
against each of your words the word as it should be
spelled, and let your first few lessons be devoted to
acquiring the correct accent and to familiarising your-
self with the written appearance of each word. You
will now have consolidated your knowledge and
acquired confidence.

If you still have a feeling that you are too old to

learn more of the language in the usual recognised way
you are probably right and I should not advise you to
attempt it.
You should strike out a new way. How would it
be if you arranged to join forces with one or two
people who have not been long in the country and are
working with a tutor. Your complex, under such
conditions, would be anything but inferior, because you
already know quite a lot and would start off with a
tremendous advantage, and interest and emulation
would soon change your mental attitude.
That is one way, but there must be many ways.
Another suggestion, based on the fact that no man
is too old or settled in his ways to take up a hobby, is
that you start collecting words that will have an
immediate bearing on your work or your hobby. Of
course, this advice does not apply to modern mechanical
electrical appliances, and it applies very little to law, or
except Malay customary law. But, it applies to
commerce, to mining, to planting, and every form of
agriculture, to forestry, irrigation, building, live stock
etc etc.
Choose your own subject and let it be one in which
you are interested and willing to talk of to your own
countrymen. Your purpose will, now, be to collect
every Malay word dealing with that subject, and,
because it is your subject, every new Malay word will
have a definite connection and a special vitality which
will be impressed on your memory with ease.
To use a planting metaphor you will have re-
conditioned all the old areas, cut out all useless trees
and are now improving your new areas by grafting

with specially selected material of a high-yielding
strain.
Then, when next you find yourself with an opportu-
nity of conversing with a well educated Malay, you will
speak Malay to him, and not English, and you will have
a new interest in the country and its people.

CHAPTER XVII.
THE USE OF THE RIGHT WORD.
What a drab world this would be if all women

looked alike, wore the same kind of clothes and we had
only a dozen words to describe them!
And, what a dreary life we should lead if all books

were written in one style and to one pattern.
A wise choice of words makes life really worth

living.
The men who are listened to and the authors whose

books are read have a larger audience and a greater
number of readers in proportion to their power to find
the fitting word and thus create and hold interest.
All this is very obvious and trite but it has to be

said because it has a special application to the general
attitude of unthinking men towards the Malay language.
For instance, here we have a rich language in which

every action has its appropriate word and every industry
its correct technical vocabulary and yet the aim of many
civil servants is to limit their knowledge of Malay words
to the irreducible minimum.
Now is this fair? How can a man educate if he

does not understand?

Are we satisfied with the system of education which

has been imposed on this country? Are we satisfied
with the method of imparting a knowledge of
agriculture ?
If these teachers do not know the language of the

people they profess to teach they are imposters.
And, how are imposters detected? By their igno-

rance; and, who detect them and are too polite to say
so, though steadfast in their determination to refuse to
follow their teaching? The Malays.
Whether you are a fisherman or a farmer, a sailor

or a cook, you must have the words which fit your
pursuits and you will not take long to make friends with
the man who obviously shares your interests or to detect
the fellow, who pretends to, but uses the wrong words.
But, putting education aside, conversational ability

converts a dull dog into an interesting person.
The man who asserts that it is unnecessary to use

different words to express different modes of carrying,
for instance, and boasts that one word is good enough
for him, and will take him all through Malaya, is not
interesting, polite or consistent, because he requires
quite a lot of different words in his own language. He
will be careful not to talk like a fool in his own
language.
He will not dare to say "dogs" when he is talking

about "hounds", or "tail" when he means "brush"
He does not consider it a useless waste of words

to talk of frogs, hoofs, coronets, pasterns, fetlocks,
cannon-bones, knees, and hocks although he has that
useful word "legs".

I suggest to you that such verbs as touch, finger,

nip, pinch, handle, press, poke, prod, clasp, grip, grasp,
squeeze, spank, smack, punch, elbow and shoulder are
all needed in your vocabulary.
They describe the actions performed by the tip of
the finger, the whole finger, the finger and thumb, the
open hand, the closed hand, the fist, the elbow and the
shoulder; and you want them all; not one, two, or even
three words will suffice. If you are limited in your
choice, your expressions lack freedom and miss the
meaning you wish to convey.
If you are keenly interested in any branch of work
or sport you must admit that you collect and assimilate
with pleasure every word that will make it easy for
you to discuss your pet subject.
The charm underlying all forms of collecting is the
gradual acquiring of knowledge, and in the case of
pictures, prints, china or the words of a language this
includes the processes by which they were produced.
Apply the same reasoning to the Malay language
and you cannot but agree that every descriptive word
is necessary and is the only word that can be used.
Mark this! It is the only word that a Malay would
use to a Malay and the only word that you will use
when you have learned to talk Malay.
The man who is paid to work in Malaya, among
Malays and in the interests of Malays, obtains his pay
under false pretences from the moment that he ceases
to take every possible opportunity of enlarging his
knowledge of the Malays and their language.
Let us go thoroughly into this subject because if
you want to feel that the language is as alive as your

own language, it is only the nuances, i.e. the shades of

difference, and slight variation in expression, accentua-
tion, feeling, colour and tone that will help you to find
the genius which is the soul of every great language.
The greatest forces in the world are to be found in
atoms, and a grain of sand is the result of the attrition
of mountains.
It is by an understanding of molecules that every
science progresses: you cannot afford to overlook little
things.
Let us begin with the expressive English word nip,
which describes graphically the closing action of the
finger and thumb, or the action of bringing the teeth to
meet.
Now compare:
Ketip—the bite of a small insect, nipping gently
with the finger and thumb, or holding gently
between the teeth.
Ketit—a pinch.
Sa-ketit—a pinch of something.
Chubit—pressure between finger and thumb,
pinching.
Gigit—to nip, to bite.
Kepit—pressure between two connected surfaces,
as for instance between the arm and the side
of the body, or the hinges of a door.
Sepit—similar to (kepit) but tighter pressure, as
between the claws of a crab.
Apit—pressure between two unconnected sur-
faces, as cane in a sugar mill, or paper in a
printing press,

Bibit—lifting light objects between the fingers.

Chuit—a touch with the finger to attract attention
silently.
Words such as these are really only one degree
removed from the sign language with which man first
communicated with other men.
The teeth come together when you say gigit just

as the lips come together when you say nip. The lips
come together and part instantly in chubit to describe
the action of the fingers which come together and part
instantly when pinching. In chuit you have first the
pursed up lips to signify silence and then the light touch.
I have to give you the long interpretations, but

the interpretations should not be committed to memory.
The word must fit the action.
"Tuck" a book under your arm and say "kepit"; if

it fits and satisfies, the word is yours.
When "gigit" has a definite place in your vocabu-
lary, go on to kunyah, chewing, mamah, masticating,
genggeng, mouthing, and gonggong, which is what a
dog does with a big bone.
Don't learn unnecessary words but learn every word

that will help you to reach the level of the man you
wish to talk to. It is foolish to affect an attitude of
superiority to cover your ignorance, as foolish as it is
ineffectual.
Now let us turn to page 179 of Winstedt's grammar

to see what he has to say about the rich vocabulary of
the Malay.

On this page you will find some descriptive words;

three words, for instance, for kicking, with the toe, the
side of the foot and the heel.
The words you use in English are, of course, toeing,
heeling, hacking, punting, hoofing, kicking.
And this is what the grammar tells you on this
subject:—
"Idiomatic talk between Malays of all
classes will employ many words of minute
significance in woodcraft, husbandry, industries
and domestic life: talking among themselves
with no pretence to fine phraseology peasants
unconsciously affect a nice precision in words,
so that lists like the following are in daily use".
If this tells you nothing else, it tells you definitely
that the Malay peasant makes daily use of a large and
adequate vocabulary; so you have no valid excuse which
will permit you to neglect the finer points of the
language, just because your work brings you into
contact with peasants.
The Court Malay, or Raja Malay, as I have heard
it called, need cause you no anxiety. There is no such
language. All the Malay words relating to Royal actions
if written down would not take up half a page of this
book.
Without the language of the kampong there would
be no life or language in the Court.

CHAPTER XVIII.
WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN MALAY.
While I write the whole world is in the trough of an

economic depression, a depression not caused by nature
but by a disregard of natural laws.
Although nature has never been more bountiful,

there is world-wide want and distress due to the fact
that mankind has tended more and more to work in water
-tight compartments; each country that arrogates to it-
self the right to build up tariff walls converts itself by
so-doing into a beleaguered city which can only be fed
expensively through narrow gateways.
Trade and Commerce, the exchange and barter by

which alone men can live untrammelled in a world of men
is strangled by man's suspicion and misunderstanding of
his fellow men.
The more friendly the intercourse the fairer the

trade and the greater the security.
You may ask what all this has to do with learning

Malay but surely the answer suggests itself.—
It is the friendly barter betwen man and man that

makes for peace and plenty, that enables communities
to grow and increase, and that brings into being systems
of law and order over wide homogeneous territories,

Colonisation by which one race imposes a system of

law and order over a territory inhabited by a race speak-
ing a different language can only be rightly and
legitimately exercised when the dominant race under-
stands.
To understand means the ability to put yourself in
the other man's place.
Now to whom does this definition apply?
It applies in the first place to every person who has
any part to play in the administration of the system of
law and order, and it applies with nearly as much force
to every person who is attracted by the fact that law
and order exist, to push his trade or practise his
profession in that Colony or Dependency.
Every mistake that has been made in the
administration of Malaya has been due to ignorance of
the history, traditions, and language of the Malay people.
In Agriculture, Education, Health Measures, Land
Adminstration, and in every branch of Adminstration,
there must be understanding if there is to be a progress
which the people of the country are to share. The best
Governor, the best Judge, the best District or
Agricultural Officer is the man who best understands
the language and is independent of prevaricating
interpreters.
"I am to tell you, that my nineteen years

continuance in East India wholly spent in Navigation
and Trading in most places of 'those Countries, and much
of that time in the Malayo countries, Sumatra, Borneo,
Bantam, Batavia and other parts of Java, by my con-
versation and Trading with the Inhabitants of which
places, I did furnish myself with so much of the Malayo
Language as did enable me to negotiate my affairs, and

converse with those people without the assistance of

Prevaricating Interpreters as they commonly are."
The above is an extract from the Preface of the
pioneer work by an Englishman in the Malay language;
a Malay-English, English-Malay Dictionary and Gram-
mar, written by Thomas Bowery, and printed in London
in the year 1701.
Bowery had a knowledge of idiomatic Malay which
might well be envied by many an official in the Malayan
Civil Service, to-day.
It has been suggested, quite reasonably, that Raffles
gained an early mastery of the Malay language with the
aid of Bowery's book, and it is well to remember that
Raffles was the servant of a trading company, the East
India Company, as well as an Empire builder.
They say that the worst insult you can offer an
Englishman is to ask him to think! Nevertheless, I ask
you, administrators and merchants, of every rank, grade
and description, to think, ponder, and act.

CHAPTER XIX.
FALSE ETYMOLOGY.
Kala-Kala, scorpion, we found grouped together

with butterflies and tortoises in the Grammar, but un-
explained.
Trying to find the constant scientific or scholastic
term that will fit a group is labour in vain, because real
Malay words, though never inconsequent, are rarely
constant.
There is a mercurial fluidity in the language that
defies grammatical clamps, and, fluidity is destroyed by
restraint.
The Kelvin compass will serve to illustrate: it points
always in one direction and owes its minute accuracy to
its mercurial base.
And, as a compass is deflected by a piece of iron so
is a speech deflected, from its true course, by foreign
words and false etymology.
Kala-kala, scorpion, is not Malay but owes its
adoption to Hindu influence; it is the name of a dark
and destructive Hindu deity, and it has managed to
destroy a good Malay word over a considerable area of
the Peninsula.
Start with the roots Keng, Kang, Kong. There is
a "straddling" notion conveyed by these roots which you

will find in the words Kengkang, Kangkang, Kongkong,

and numerous other descriptive words.
Jengkeng, the scorpion, derives its name from its
habit of moving, like some other crustaceans, on tip toe
and from its straddling irregular movements. (Jang-
kang, a specie of crab and udang galah, the "poling"
prawn).
Jenkeng becomes kelejengkeng to illustrate the blind
fury and swiftness of a scorpion's attack.
And now let fluidity work! The repetitive idea is
not constant in the prefix Kele. There is also an
intensive and dispersive idea, sometimes.
Mayar, which I should connect with the Sanskrit
root Maya, meaning unsubstantial, phantom-like, is the
luminous millipede, and so, Kelemayar.
Rub this millipede under your boot and you will get
the dispersive luminous, phantom-like effect, and you will
I hope, be able to find a dispersive, spreading idea in the
word Kelemumor, dandruff, scurf.
Kala and Maya, both Sanskrit words leave you in a
blind alley, whereas Jengkeng has a hundred relations.
Let us follow one, Kang, and select two of its
derivatives Bekang and Lekang.
The dictionary will give you two separate meanings
for these two words and you might not realise that
they both mean the same thing.
Both bekang and lekang mean bent open and they
are both applied, for example, to a fish-hook that opens
out when unequal to the strain of a heavy fish.
Lekang, as the dictionary will tell you, means
shelling, or applies to a fruit the stone of which is easily

separable from the edible flesh in which it is encased.

The meaning is all contained in the root-word Kang and
that is what you must listen for—the root that means
" opening out" whether of straddling legs, the fish-hook
or the gaping open of the firm flesh of the! rambutan
fruit. In each case there is an initial meaning of
tenseness, stiffness or rigidity which it requires a certain
amount of strain or pressure to overcome. Take shel-
ling peas, for instance. The pod is tense, the action of
shelling releases the peas and leaves a warped, gaping,
straddling pod.

CHAPTER XX.
THE BINDING ELEMENT.
You will have gathered by this time that what I

am trying to impress on you is that the Malay language
is vivid and alive and that the majority of Malay words
delineate and describe themselves as they are uttered.
It is as though one man reeled off a series of mind-
pictures which his auditors can hear and see at the
same time. I am not a learned person, and I do not
know what philologists and grammarians have said on
this subject. The difficulty, of course, for the
grammarian is that it is impossible to make a rule, and
what would a grammar be without rules! But, it is very
clear to me, that we, whose native tongue is English,
are peculiarly adapted to learn one other language well,
and that language is Malay.
Our language is full of words which depict their
meaning: jolt, jerk, jagged, hop, skip, jump, heave, reel,
roll, bundle, snap, bite, gnaw, mumble, and it is from
words such as these that classics are born. As a result
of the Norman conquest, and of centuries of foreign
influence, the English language lost and gained. It is
now a highly disintegrated and corrupt language which
foreigners find extremely difficult to learn.
But, as long as we still retain a stratum of the early
speech, Anglo-Saxon and Middle English, English
children will never need to ask the meaning of the

words they learn first, and it is not until children are

fluent in root words that they begin to pester their
parents to explain the meanings of long words which do
not photograph themselves instantly on the child's
memory.
And, all this applies in equal force to the Malay

language, which has undergone the process of being
disintegrated and corrupted by foreign influence, but
with this difference that the corruption has been
extremely rapid during the past quarter century.
There is still a genius in the English language, and

still a genius in the Malay language, but they are not
so easy to find, nowadays, because so much of the trail
is overgrown, and so many of the old landmarks have
been lost.
You will, I hope, talk all this over with your tutor and
with Malays, and get on friendly terms with the
language, and then it does not really matter if you have
only a moderate vocabulary. Five hundred companion-
able words will be a great stand-by and they will
introduce you to their relations whom you will
recognise, at once, and always remember, when you
meet them, by the strong family resemblance.
From the beginning you must look for the thought

tha't gives life to the expression. It is what Malays
thought that fashioned the suitable word. When you
think as Malays think you will transpose, which is a
very different thing from translation.
Personally, I am still learning Malay, and English,

as every person, who is dependent on either of these two
vigorous, growing languages, must do, until he ceases to
be interested in life.

Quite recently, I got, what was to me, a new

meaning for an old word which fitted exactly and
required no explanation.
I was in a small boat, with an out-board motor, and
we were going along with the nose of the boat cocked
up, and the stern squatting and dragging a stern wave,
behind.
I told my Malay boatman to shift his weight
further forward and used the expression "eret sangat"
to signify that the boat was drawing a wave behind
which decreased speed.
"Pachak" said he with a grin as he shifted his
weight forward and that was the appropriate word.
Now 'pachak' means piercing or sticking a sharp
pointed stick into something and it has a special
application to the caltrops (sharpened stakes stuck in
the ground at an acute angle) which were used for
defensive purposes round a Malay stockade in the old
fighting days.
Short sharp stakes, planted in this way, had a
considerable effect in slowing up the advance of an
enemy.
Now, here we were, with the boat skidding along on
her stern sheets, and the bow sticking up at an angle of,
perhaps, 15 degrees and while "eret" was the right
word for progression under resistance, i.e., the dragging
of the stern, 'pachak' in one word summed up the
landlubberly appearance of the boat, and the need for
bringing the boat on to an even keel in order to
increase the speed.
And, 'pachak' has a lot of relations with a strong
family resemblance:—
pachok, chuchok, chachak, etc., etc.

So my advice to you is that you welcome the real

Malay word when you meet it and its relations.
Get the idea of curvature from words like lok, telok,
jelok; the idea of curvature combined with encompassing
from words like lengkong, relang, relong; of sharp
angularity from siku, biku, etc; of more gradual angul-
arity from bengkok, lengkok, bengkong, bongkok, etc;
the projecting idea from anjong, tanjong, etc, the
converging idea from words like tajor which applies to
the slope of a roof or to the funnel-like entrance of a
fish-trap.
The Sanskrit element in the Malay language will
interest you, I hope, and you will find it dealt with in
W. E. Maxwell's Manual. The Persian influence on the
language is slight, and though there is a growing Arabic
element, that element gives the Englishman much less
trouble than it does the Malay. Four hundred years
have not been a long enough period for the Malay tongue
to attune itself to all the Arabic consonants.
I hope I can say, without giving offence to, or being

misunderstood by, my Malay friends, that a national
tongue is the nation's heritage and that the Malay
language is too big to be ever dominated by an Arabic
influence. There are a number of indispensable Arabic
words now incorporated in the Malay language and my
remarks only apply to unnecessary words for which
Malay equivalents exist.
The great languages of religion, Hebrew, Arabic and

Latin stand firm and are in no danger, but, they are not
the great languages of commerce.
Malay will spread, as English has spread, as a
trading medium, and within the past half century some
knowledge of it has spread far into India and China.

If we are ever to have a definite national unity in

Malaya it will arise from the national language now
understood, and, if need be, spoken by every Malay in
the country, just as well as the Somerset, Yorkshire or
Westmoreland peasant understands, and, if need be,
speaks the King's English.
The Malay language as it exists, with its healthy

mixture of Arabic and Sanskrit should be preserved ,and
it is time that the Malay Peninsula should have a
national language for official and trade purposes which
will be also the language of literature.
Here we have a language that Shakespeare would

have rejoiced in, and yet, when it comes to be written.
Malays go out of their way to mangle it with Arabic
phrases which are meaningless to most of their readers.
Malays, who are, naturally, descriptive in narration,

will find their true place in industry, only when they have
released themselves from the voluntary trammels which
now hamper them.
To use another metaphor; a State barge is all very

well for ceremonial purposes and for display but it is a
cumbersome craft and useless for every industrial
purpose.
And, all the while, the Malay writers and men who
might be men of affairs are confined by false ideas of
etiquette to uncomfortable barges when a wide choice of
serviceable boats is open to them. We shall have
descriptive writers who will arouse the Malay race from
its lethargy, and poets too, when they write of the
things that they hear and see with the vigour and
discernment which only one medium can supply and that
is their mother tongue.

Mr. Andrew Caldecott has recorded a Song of Origin

from Jelebu, and has published it with a free translation
in the Hiawatha metre.
Thanks to him, it has now become literature but it

was composed, not for reading, but, for recitation.
I give a short extract which will not, I think, be out

of place in this Chapter on The Binding Element.
"Maka di tengok
Adat kampong yang bersudut
Sawah yang berlopak
Rumah yang berkatak tangga (1)
Bilek yang berbunyi.
Maka ada-lah adat

Tetekala negeri sudah lebar
Orang pun sudah ramai
Adat bertentu, bilang beratur
Beruleh kechil pada yang gedang
Beruleh yang gedang pada yang tua.
Apa-lah kata orang tua?

"Dalam alam raja-nya,
Dalam luak penghulu-nya,
Dalam suku lembaga-nya,
Berumpok masing-masing,
Berharta masing-masing,
Herta orang jangan di-tarek,
Untok anak jangan di-berikan."
Dudok kita ber pelerasan

Berdekat rumah, dekat kampong,
Buleh minta meminta,
Akan jengok-menjengok
Sakit dan pening,

Sa-jamban sa-perulangan,
Sa-perigi sa-permandian
Sa-jamban sa-perulangan,
Tanah-nya datar, ayer-nya jerneh,
Muapakat-nya esa.
And this is the free translation:—
Next we see the jungle custom

Yield to custom of the hamlet:
Holding dove-tailed into holding,
Split in lots the rice-grown meadows,
Short-runged ladders fixed to houses,
Rooms with voice of men resounding.
So the men wax strong in number,

And the lands they till grow wider,
And the custom of the hamlet
Groweth to a broader custom,
Stablished custom with set sayings.
The grown hath lordship of the little,
O'er the grown the old have lordship.
Hark ye then! how say the old men ?

"The king within his kingdom reigneth,
The Chief within his shire commandeth,
The headman o'er his tribe presideth.
Each shall get his share and portion;
Take ye not the goods of others;
Squander not the children's birthright."
So we gathered close together,

Homestead clustering on homestead,
Neighbour marrying with neighbour,
Visiting in time of sickness.
Used one shelter for ablutions,

From one well drew bathing water;

For our pastimes used one common;
Level was our land, our water
Clear, and in our village councils
Trusted each his neighbour's promise.
(1) Berketak tangga, "the ladders creaked with

tread" vide "a Naning recital" by J.L. Humphreys.
J.S.B.R.A.S. No. 83.
So this line might read "Creaking ladders count
the callers." C. M.
My purpose, in quoting an extract from this
Teromba, is to draw attention to the binding element
which runs all through i t ; the element which made it
easy to remember and which is all pure Malay.
But, even here, two foreign words appear which
weaken the structure.
The Arabic word adat, customary law, introduces a
legal aspect which would be absent if the Malay word
peraturan, organisation, had been adhered to.
The strength of an organisation is attacked as soon
as legal quibbles can be raised to the detriment of sound
established custom.
The other word is the Arabic Muapakat (muafakat)
and this has ousted a much better Malay word, Kabula-
tan, which expresses the idea of " rounding-off " into a
homogeneous form.
Just as water takes the shape of the receptacle into
which it is poured, whether it be a bamboo or a coconut
shell, so do the councils of earnest men working with
a single purpose, for the common good take one form
(kabulatan), and that form loyally accepted by all

became the custom which all understood and all followed

because, in the long run, as experience proved, it was
fair to every one.
These foreign interpolations tend to convert a wise

people with wise customs into a disorganised race of
argumentative quibblers and hedge-lawyers.
With peraturan and kabulatan they achieved

permanence but no two people will agree to sink their
differences as long as they can argue interminably about
the adat and depart from the spirit of old time cus'tom
with the assistance of muapakat.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE DESTRUCTIVE ELEMENT.
The elements which break up a language and make

it difficult to learn are what philologists, rather un-
fortunately, term "loan-words":—borrowed, but never
returned!
Such foreign words may exist side by side with
their synonyms, as jika "if", Malay, and lau "if", Arabic,
live together as jikalau: but they generally tend to
replace and destroy them.
The invasion of foreign words for which no Malay
equivalent existed, or exists, comes under a different
category, altogether, but it should not be difficult to
exercise some control over the adoption of unsuitable
words in a country where there is very little current
Malay literature.
Let us begin with English and with the Govern-
ment. We find such words as Forest Reserves, Forest
Guards, Forest Rangers, Visiting Teachers, Standards,
District, Agricultural Field Officers, and Coconut
Inspectors.
In no Malay word will you find a final syllable
closing with such combinations as "st" or "rts";
Ct, rd and d at the end of a word are unpronoun-
cable to a Malay; the "v" dropped out of the language
some 200 years ago, while the "f" never existed,

To get over the difficulty Malays slur two words

into one, and so we get poresgat as the nearest approach
to Forest Guard, and the Kampong elder gives utterance
with a mild and detached interest to such abnormal
intrusions into his speech as Postenjer, Forest Ranger,
Bistenjer, Visiting Teacher, Kokernet, Coconut Inspec-
tor, and Tuan Kacha-kacha and Sistin Kacha-kacha
which serve to distinguish the Agricultural Field Officer
and his assistant.
Anglicise by all means:—let us have motor kar,

aeroplane, taligrap, talipun. Let us, also, keep old loan
words like guru. Surely Pejabat is better than
"Department", Pegawei than "Officer" which is confused
with overseer, and melawat than "visiting."
The Arabic element is a more serious intrusion.

Of the 35 characters in the Malay alphabet, 5 are
peculiar to, and of vital importance to, the tone langu-
age of the Malay, viz. ng, ch, p, g and nya.
12 of the Arabic characters are practically unpro-
nounceable by the Malay, viz. Tha, Kha, Dzal Za, Shin,
Sad, the aspirated D, the palatal Z, 'Ain, Ghain, F and
the guttural K. Educated Malays have some success
with some of these characters but it is only an approxi-
mate success.
Consequently, for popular usage, 23 letters or
characters supply every need.
The unnecessary characters clog the wheels of
progress; the Malay writes Thalatha, Mahmud, Khamis,
Dluha, etc. but he says Selasa, Mahmut, Kamis and
Lohor while the harsh gutturals defeat him entirely;
and as long as his literature leads the Malay away from
his language his industrial progress will be retarded.

The Sejarah Melayu has a story which aptly hits off

the quickness of the Malays to note that the early
Muhammadan traders gave them something exceedingly
difficult to learn while they themselves devoted most of
their energies to pushing their trade! However, I will
keep to the point, with another story from the same
book, (translated by Dr. Winstedt). "Tun Mai took
lessons from the Arab teacher. He was not apt at
learning, because it is hard for a Malay to pronounce
harsh Arabic sounds. So the teacher was upset and
remarked " Your pronunciation is very bad; I make
one sound and you another! Quoth Tun Mai, 'Yes, I
find it very hard to pronounce Arabic, as it is not my
own language. If you talked Malay, you would be in
a similar case!'
The teacher replied, 'What difficulty is there in the

pronunciation of Malay that I cannot master? Quoth
Tun Mai, "Say Kuching", The Arab said "Kusing".
Quoth Tun Mai "Wrong"! Say Kunyet". The Arab
said "Kuzit"...."Say Nyiru". The Arab said "Niru".
Said Tun Mai "A pretty notion you have of pronouncing
Malay! Just like my notion of pronouncing Arabic".

CHAPTER XXII
TRIPLETS.
I can, only, give three in this small book.

Siring
Movement, lengthwise, in or out and, so on,
Sarang
to weaving, plaiting, undulation.
Surong
Siring—a plaited contrivance for catching prawns.
Sarang—a spider's web, a bird's nest (woven by

the in and out action of the beak of the bird),
a bees' nest, (with honey-combed, mesh pattern).
Surong—pushing lengthwise, as in " shooting" a

door-bolt, launching a boat; ayer bharu menyu-
rong pasang, the flood tide is just beginning to
push its way up river.
Relations—Sirat, netting together; meshing, Selirat,

inter-woven etc. etc.
Specialised form—Sirat—sirat, a salt-water eel.
Giling
Galang Rotation, under pressure, of a cylindrical object.
Gulong
Giling—Batu giling a cylindrical stone used for

crushing.

Galang—a roller for a boat, and, by extension, rollers

used as bearers for a floor.
prahu tergalang: a boat "laid u p " on rollers.
Gulong—gulong layer: rolling up a sail; mengulong
tilam to roll up a mattress.
Relations—gelek, guling, golek, golang, sanggul etc.
Specialised form—Senggulong, the millipede that
rolls itself up into a ball, when touched.
Sisir
Sasar Indented
Susor
Sisir—a comb, harrow; pisang sa'sisir: a " comb "
or bunch of bananas, sisir rambut; a fringe of
hair.
Selisir; walking round the fringes of anything, but,
keeping on the inside; walking round a ship or
a fenced-in field, keeping within the fence.
Sasar—Pergi datang ber-sasar-sasar, going confus-
edly backwards and forwards and in and out.
Susor—The outer edge or border; to skirt, to move
along (but outside) the confines.
susor pantei; the edge of the beach.
Relations—Sisil, sisi, susup, sasap, sasau, etc.
Specialised form—Rumah gajah menyusur; a house
with a porch of a particular shape.
T hope these three examples have given yon a new
view of the language and that you will realise the
mnemonic value of triplets.

If you are an earnest collector you will find very

many more and it will be your own findings which will
interest you and keep you interested in the language.
And, you will probably come to the conclusion which
is gradually meeting with acceptance that Malay was
originally a monosyllabic speech. Your own research
will satisfy you, combined with what you have read in
this book, that it was originally a monosyllabic language
with three tones and that this three-toned monosyllabic
element is still the real basis of the language as it is
spoken today; the language that, I hope, you wish to
speak.
The process which has brought about the growth
of single-syllable roots into words of two and more
syllables is, I suggest fairly obvious and I do not think
the following explana'tion runs counter to any known
facts.
Let us take the view that the whole of the Malay
Peninsula, Siam and Cambodia, (and a very much larger
area, which, possibly, included Thibet as Vaughan-
Stevens asserted nearly 50 years ago) was occupied at
one time by a race with a monosyllabic language and
that subsequently another race with a dissyllabic form
of speech gradually over-ran this vast area; the latter
intermarrying with the former, adopting their root
words but, altering them slightly to suit their own
phonetic needs.
Thus the tik, tak, tok, became ketik, ketak, ketok—
the ke not being either a component part of the root or
an affix required to extend the meaning of the root.
The Aryan cook who finds it necessary to convert
the English word " stew " into " estew " is doing today
what Aryan intruders did to the root words in Malaya
in a pre-historic age.

Personally, being an imaginative person, I find no

difficulty in thinking that these primitive people must
have existed in an epoch which pre-dated the Sanskrit
language and that both the Sanskrit and Malay
languages were to a great extent derived from their
speech. If that is a correct view, it is not difficult to
imagine Sanskrit rapidly growing in an open country
with a vast population while Malay, which was the
language of a forest people who were far from the
trade routes, isolated by the forests and comparatively
few in number, had a much slower growth.
This serves to explain, at any rate, why the race

with a dissyllabic language and with a civilisation some
centuries, possibly, in advance of the primitive race found
no difficulty in fraternising with the latter and under-
standing their monosyllabic language, because the root
elements in it were common to both races.
Further, every student of genetics realises the value

of a cross back to the primitive stock whether it be in
the breeding of animals or of plants. Sanskrit, (may
I say?) outgrew its strength as a trading medium just
as Latin and Greek did, and just as the sugar-cane lost
its strength and its place as a commercial product until
it was re-vitalised within the past few years by a cross
back to the wild primitive stock, so may the vigour of
the Malay language be ascribed to its original purity
and its fortunate cross back to the same strain.

CHAPTER XXIII.
RANGE AND FLEXIBILITY.
It is possible to exhaust the vocabulary of

grammatical terms and still to fail to impart to the
learner the essential aid that gives that easy confidence
which is of vital importance in conversation,
The one unfailing and unfading charm that every

man and woman need never lose is the possession of a
pleasant voice.
The beauty which we can all find in the great

languages owes its existence to classic moulding and
not to stereotyped impressions; and the power, and all
beauty is power, lies in modulation and flexibility, and the
greater the power the greater the range of its influence.
And, so it does not do to disdain a language which it

has taken ages and the minds of millions of men to build.
The inspiration which is the breath of the Malay

language came from the earth and from the jungle and
spread until the lowly forms of speech were capable of
giving expression to the every thought and the every
human need of the Malays.
It is flexibility, not rigidity, that permits of growth

and if you believe this you will learn the language in a
new way.

You will not say "the dictionary gives a meaning for

this word and that is good enough for me" because by
so doing you accept the rigidity which kills instead of
the flexibility which permits growth.
You may argue that the triplets to which I have
drawn your attention tend to induce rigidity but if you
compare them with, say, the ruled lines in your first copy-
book, what are they but guides ? And, you may compare
them, if you will, to the ruled lines in a music score which
do not draw the mind of the musician away from the
music that lies between them.
You must remember that the dictionary maker is a
recorder and 'that often by recording accepted erroneous
definitions he perpetuates errors.
Therefore be your own recorder and let the
dictionary help you. If the triplet tinggal, tanggal,
tunggal fails to convey to you the idea of separation
you have missed the meaning. But, why miss such an
obvious meaning, which can be settled for good and all
by reference to the dictionary?
It is not difficult. It is surprisingly easy, and thus
you will find the language simplified, and there will
come to you an allure that will always take you further.
To show you how to avoid erroneous definitions I
will use another triplet which will take you from the
earth to the fruit of a tree, then to a house and finally
out to the open sea.
Let me begin with the erroneous definitions given
in the dictionary; erroneous, in that they are incomplete,
unconnected and therefore misleading.
Lembang—Low-lying swampy or broken land; mud;
a puddle.

Melembang—to take a circuitous route; to " beat

about the bush."
Lambong—The side or flank.
Belambang—A rough lath or unplaned plank.
Lembing—A light spear or lance.
Now take the triplet:—
Belimbing Ridged, ridged
Belambang longitudinally,
Belombang or ribbed.
and, now take the dictionary again!
Belimbing—Ridged longitudinally: the shape of an
object which has long ridges running from one
end to the other; a name given (owing to their
appearance) to a well known fruit and to the
leathery turtle.
Belambang: Lath or unplaned plank. This misses
the connection. Add, therefore, the laths used
to press down and protect the thatch of a roof
from strong winds, laths which extend from
the roof ridge to the eaves, and horizontally,
at regular intervals (ridged longitudinally and
across).
Belombang: swell of the sea.
(Longitudinal surging up).
With these guides the primary meaning of tanah
lembang will be maintained, i.e. land which is ridged
and furrowed; alternately wet and dry, land which is, or
has been cultivated; and so by extension, swampy rice
land.
So you may confidently, and correctly, envisage the
lembing as a light javelin which was so-called because

its shaft was grooved longitudinally, and when you come

to figures of speech melambang will mean zig-zag
progress " to go off at an a n g l e " (or tangent) and
" lembang" will mean " blarney," or the soft spoken-
ness of the " sloppy" description which the extended
meaning of the word can convey.
Lambong kiri Adam: the left ribbed side of Adam.
Shall we take a trip of another kind, now? just
one of many possible excursions.
Lembu: Ox, Burong lembu, a Heron.
Ikan lembu: a " leather-jacket " fish; Mata lembu—
a marine shell.
In each case the description fits. The fish has
horns, the Heron has a call exactly like the lowing of
an ox, and the shell has a lid (operculum) which
resembles a " bull's-eye."
And "Mata" reminds me, as Malay words will
always remind one, to ask you whether you have over-
looked "anak mata" the pupil of the eye.
Did Mata show you orang-orang mata, Men, yet
not men, but the tiny images of them to be seen
mirrored in the pupil of the eye?
This is an expression that you will probably never
use, but, because of its fairy-like daintiness, I defy you
to forget it. And, now that you have glimpsed the
fairy in the language, do you know what biji mata
means ? " Light of my eyes," " my darling;" as the
Irish would say " core of my heart."

L'Envoi
If I have succeeded in passing on to you something

of the spirit of a great language I shall be satisfied.
Satisfied, because I have handed on something that

I feel has been missing for a long time, and, now it is up
to you to carry on.
There is something in the spirit of a great public

school which no rules or regulations can define, the spirit
which follows and stays with the men of Great Britain,
all over the world, when they have learned as boys "to
play the game".
This was the spirit I found among the men who were
putting Malaya on the map more than forty years ago,
the spirit of fair play and friendship; and, the memory of
those men is held in reverence to this day by the people
of Malaya.
"And only the Master shall praise us,

and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money,

and no one shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of the working,

and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees
it For the God of Things as They
Are."


The Malay Language and How To Learn It

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The Malay Language and How To Learn It

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THE

KYLE. PALMER & CO., LTD

All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

Author of "Malayan Fishes" and

KYLE, PALMER & CO.. LTD.,

All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

All Rights Reserved, National Library Board, Singapore

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that I shall value most will be those from the Malays

Now for the personal note which every preface

My official career in Malaya began over forty years

In 1873, I arrived in Taiping, as a child in arms,

Though all the Malay speech was forgotten, traces

This something was the Malay fairy I hope to

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INGUISTS are born, not made, and to many

L people the acquisition of a foreign tongue is an

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There are colonies of Malays in South Africa and

The roots of the language extend over an area which

" The importance of Malay has been recognised by

" For Malay, as for Hindustani, a magnificent future

They manifest that capacity for the absorption

" Malay has bought its popularity as a medium of

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grammatical finesse and linguistically interesting forms

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Page 19 for Peret read Peret

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In the Introduction, attention has been drawn to

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Below will be found a list of 152 Malay words.

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Bacha, baik, bagus, baju, bawa, barang, belah, beli,

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Read this chapter and go right through the book

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Practise repeating the key-words in these first two

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a spiritus lenis, but, nevertheless, the sound is there.

" B " is always sounded, though the sound is faint,

Final " h " in words like suroh, merah, guroh, buleh,

It is always sounded by Malays but is a stumbling

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Books recommended for the beginner are Dr.

They are both small books.

At the very first opportunity Wilkinson's large Malay-

You may, usefully, employ a vocabulary or an

In the abridged dictionaries, twenty English words

The relationship of these derivatives to the root

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can learn fifty words from Wilkinson with the same

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Jaga baik-baik—look out, be careful, beware.

Winstedt's Malay grammar is a work that may be

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HOW TO USE A MANUAL.

An hour a day should now be devoted to the study

Do not learn long lists of words. If you learn

Once you have used a word and have been

With five new words a day rapid progress can be

Remember that everything depends on the gradual