Malay is mainly dissyllabic, but there are not wanting evidences of a former monosyllabic tendency. The syllable bu, bun, or bung, for instance, occurs in a considerable number of words conveying an idea of roundness:—
| Bu-lan | the moon. |
| Bu-lat | round. |
| Bu-ah | fruit. |
| Bu-yong | a jar. |
| Bu-tir | a grain, globule. |
| Bu-sar | an arch. |
| Bu-kit | a hill. |
| Bu-sut | an anthill. |
| Bun-tar | round. |
| Bun-ting | pregnant. |
| Bun-chit | pot-bellied. |
| Bun-tut. | the buttocks. |
| Bun-toh | a numeral affix implying rotundity (cf. lún, Burmese), used with such words as chin-chin, a ring; and kail, a fishhook. |
| Bung-kok | hump-backed. |
| Bung-kus | a bundle. |
Many others might be cited.[6]
Another characteristic list of words might be made, compounded with the monosyllable tang (which in Sakai and Semang means “hand”), and conveying an idea of seizing or holding.
| Tang-an | the hand. |
| Tang-kap | to seize. |
| Tang-kei | a stalk. |
| Tang-gong | to support. |
| Tang-gal | to drop off (having left hold). |
| Tong-kat | a walking-stick, &c. |
The history of the Malay people is to be discovered in the language itself, for no authentic records of pre-Muhammadan times exist. Just as an insight into the early history of our own nation may be obtained by analysing the component parts of the English tongue, and assigning to each of the languages which have contributed to make it what it is their due proportion of influence, so, by resolving the Malay language into its separate elements, of which native, Sanskrit, and Arabic are the chief, and by examining the words contributed by each, it is possible to follow with some approach to historical accuracy the successive advances which the Malay people have made on the path of civilisation.
The aboriginal dialect, prior to the admixture of Sanskrit, must have been but the poor vocabulary of men hardly raised above savage life. The purely native element in Malay furnishes all the necessary terms to express the physical objects surrounding men leading a primitive life in the forest, and all that has to do with their food, dwellings, agriculture, fishing, hunting, and domestic affairs.
The use of a Sanskrit word for “plough” seems to record a revolution in agriculture. The primitive cultivation of the Malays was carried on by clearing and burning the hill-sides (a system still largely adopted in native states where land is plentiful and timber valueless), and the cultivation of the wet ricefields of the plains, which necessitates the use of the plough, would thus seem to have been resorted to only after the arrival of the Hindus.
As soon as the analysis reaches moral ideas, or objects requiring some advance in civilisation, it is found that they are expressed by words of foreign origin. These are, for the most part, Sanskrit or Arabic. The latter require no notice here, for they are of comparatively recent introduction. For the most part, they consist of terms incidental to the ethical and religious teaching of the Muhammadans. The Arabic element in Malay is not accurately determinable, for new expressions are constantly being introduced.
A sketch of the Sanskrit element in Malay is all that there is space for here.