A difficulty which attends the classification of Malay words into various parts of speech, according to the system applied to European languages, consists in the number of words which, while yet unmodified by particles, are either verb or substantive, substantive or adjective, adjective or adverb, according to the context. Baniak, as an adverb, means much, as an adjective, many; jalan is either a road or to walk; panjang either long, tall, or length, height. The same thing occurs in English in a minor degree; but with us the difference between cold and a cold, or between to brush and a brush, is rendered distinct by the use of the article a and the particle to. Many Malay words must thus be treated as now substantive, now adjective, now verb, according to the position they occupy in the sentence.
The noun undergoes no change to denote number, gender, or case.
Number.
The plural, if not sufficiently made plain from the context, is often indicated by the use of such words as baniak, many, sumua, sa-kali-an, and sagala, all.
It is also expressed 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.
When there is nothing to show whether singular or plural is meant, the number remains indefinite, but may generally be assumed to be plural. In such phrases as menembak burong, to shoot birds, membĕli hayam, to buy fowls, the substantives are clearly plural, though nothing marks them as such. To restrict the number, and show that one bird or one fowl is meant, it would be necessary to use the word satu, one, with the idiomatic term ekor (lit. tail), which is always used in enumerating the lower animals; as menembak sa’ekor burong, to shoot a bird; membĕli sa’ekor hayam, to buy a fowl.
Gender.
Inflexion is unknown in Malay, and gender has no place in the grammar of the language. Most nouns which signify animate things are of both genders, and the sexes are distinguished by the addition, in the case of persons, of the words laki-laki, male, and perampuan, female, and in other cases of the words jantan, male, and betina, female. Jantan and betina are also applied vulgarly to persons. If an apparent exception is found in such words as putra, a prince, and putri, a princess, derivation from a foreign language may be suspected. The inflexion in the word just cited is due to the rules of Sanskrit grammar.
Declension.
There is nothing in the Malay language which corresponds with the cases of a Latin, Greek, or Sanskrit noun, which are formed by changes of termination, or of a Hindustani noun, which are formed by postpositions. In Malay the cases are expressed, as in English, by prepositions:—