A Manual of the Malay language / With an Introductory Sketch of the Sanskrit Element in Malay

This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding:
ḳ, ḥ, ṭ, ḍ, ṇ, ṃ, ṛ (letters with dot under: except ḳ and ḥ, these are used only in Sanskrit words)
ṅ (n with dot over, in Sanskrit words)
ă, ĕ, ŭ (vowel with breve or “short” sign: only ĕ is common)
ā (a with macron or “long” sign)
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In the section on Sanskrit origins, anusvara was printed as m̃ (m with tilde). It has been changed in this e-text to ṃ (m with dot under) for more reliable display. Note also that ś is written as ç, ṣ as sh, and ṛ as ṛi.
A few typographical errors have been corrected. They are shown in the text with mouse-hover popups . Hyphenization is as in the original. Note that in modern written Malay, hyphens are generally not used except in duplications such as “siapa-siapa”.
Je n’en refuis aulcune de phrases qui s’usent emmy les rues; ceux qui veulent combattre l’usage par la grammaire se mocquent.
Montaigne.
The language which I have endeavoured to illustrate in the following pages is the Malay of the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca, some knowledge of which I have had the opportunity of acquiring during sixteen years’ service in Penang, Province Wellesley, Malacca, Singapore, and Perak.
Native pedantry has endeavoured to classify various styles of speaking, as the court style ( bahasa dalam ), the well-bred style ( bahasa bangsawan ), the trader’s language ( bahasa dagang ), and the mixed language ( bahasa kachau-kan ), but all that can be correctly said is, that a limited number of words are used exclusively in intercourse with royal personages; that persons of good birth and education, in the Eastern Archipelago, as elsewhere, select their expressions more carefully than the lower classes; and that the vocabulary of commerce does not trouble itself with the graces of style and the copious use of Arabic words which commend themselves to native writers.