CHAPTER II.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE MALAYS.
Alphabet. Grammatical Structure Written Language,
known by the name of Javoi.—■General Character.— Ceremonial
Language scanty.—Derivation and Composition.—
Literature.—Metrical Composition.— The Pantun.— The
Sayar•— Prose Composition.—Romances.— Character of
Prose Composition.— Origin o f the Malay Language•—Its
Diffusion.— Used as a Lingua Franca.—General Uniformity.—
Spoken with most Propriety in the State of
Queda.
T h e native sounds of the Malay language, like
the other improved languages of the Archipelago,
are twenty consonants, five vowels, and two
diphthongs. The Malay, unlike the other polished
languages, has no native alphabet; but, as
with the modern Persian, is written in the Arabic
character. That it may express alike the sounds of
the Arabic language, and those indigenous sounds
which do not belong to the Arabs, six supplemental
letters are added by the simple contrivance of
increasing the number of the diacritical points;
and thus the modern Malay alphabet amounts to
thirty-two consonants. The genius of Malay pronunciation,
however, being remarkably soft, and
vocalic, many of the harsher Arabian sounds are
either modified, or omitted in speaking; and, in
writing, seldom serve any other purpose than to
mark the etymology of a word.
The Malay language is remarkably simple in its
grammatical form. Words are not modified by inflection,
or other change to express gender, number,
or case. Gender is ascribed to no object
without sex. Number is denoted by distinct words,
expressing plurality or singularity. Cases are
always expressed by prepositions.
The verb is hardly less simple than the noun. Of
modes it may perhaps be said to have two, the indicative
and imperative; of tenses it cannot be said to
have more than three, a present, expressed in the
simple form of the verb, and a past and future, each
expressed by an auxiliary. The most important
changes which the verb undergoes, are the changes
from a neuter to an active form, which are effected
either by affixing or prefixing certain inseparable
particles, or both.
The written Malay language is known to well
informed Malays by the singular appellation of
Jam, a term the origin of which, as it maybe connected
with the history of the people and their lan