The omission of the Arabic characters has enabled the printers to put out this work in a very compact form and at a costConsiderably below what it would otherwise have been.The great defect of Malay vocabularies printed in the RomanCharacter has always been the difficulty of finding many of the words owing to variations of spelling. Comparatively fewEuropeans make any serious attempt to learn the Arabic character, and those who do will no doubt require a dictionary rather than a vocabulary. Great care, however, has beenTaken in the selection of the words, and it is hoped that very fewWhich are in common use or are likely to be needed by the student in the first two or three years of his study of the language have been omitted.In this vocabulary, as in the 'Practical Malay Grammar,' theMalay words are printed in roman letters only.

It is believed that this will be found to be a very great advantage.The introduction should be carefully studied by those who desire to make an intelligent use of this vocabulary. This makes it just as easy to find a word containing the short vowel as it is in a Malay dictionary printed in the Arabic character, for instead of having to look up such a word as nschaya or psaka under two or three different vowels, the student will be able to find it at once from the sound. Its peculiar feature is the entire omission of the short vowel.

The vocabulary itself contains manySimilar lists for instance a list of the different classes of workmen will be found under tukang, a list of the classifiers or numeral coefficients under s-, cloths under kain, stones under batu, etc. At first the student will no doubt have some difficulty in finding out what is the root of some of the derivatives, and it will be necessary for him to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the use of prefixes and affixes this, however, will be found to be a blessing in disguise, for it is impossible to read or speak the Malay language intelligently without a thorough understanding of the derived forms.An appendix containing lists of English words with their MalayEquivalents has been added. Owing toThe immense number and variety of the derived forms in the MalayLanguage, this is the only arrangement which is at all satisfactory, and has been adopted in all dictionaries and in one or two vocabularies. The student should not fail to make the fullest use of the Grammar, not only on account of the importance of thoroughly understanding the grammatical construction of the language, but also because he will otherwise be unable to profit by the frequent references made in the vocabulary to the numbers of the paragraphs in the Grammar, where fuller information will be found in regard to the use of certain words than could be given in a vocabulary.Derived words will only be found under their roots.

Luering, and my thanks are due to him for theValuable assistance which he has rendered me by reading and criticising the manuscript previous to publication.The demand for a new edition of this vocabulary has enabled me to correct a few errors which crept into the first edition, and to addA number of words which, though not in frequent use, are liable to be met with by the student.An attempt has also been made in this edition to indicate words-Which are peculiar to the Malay spoken by the 'Babas,' or Straits-born Chinese, and some of their differences of pronunciation. Several alterations and additions have been made at the suggestion of Dr. My list of words has been compared with other vocabularies in order to ensure that no important word has been omitted. When in doubt as to the precise meaning of aWord I have occasionally referred to Wilkinson's Dictionary, Part I, but as the second part has not yet been published this work has only been referred to in regard to such words as come in the first half of the Malay alphabet.

In the different systems of romanizing, this shortVowel sound has been variously represented by a, a, e, e, i, i, u. INTRODUCTION.The five vowels have the continental soundsВ :In open syllables these vowel sounds have always a greater degreeIn addition to the above there is in Malay, as in nearly all Orien-Tal languages, another simple vowel sound which is often called theShort vowel sound. It is hoped, however, that the Baba Malay words here given, marked (B.), will help to explain some of the peculiarities of pronunciation met with in the Settlements, where Chinese influence predominates.W. For the most part the same words are used, but the idiom is different, and would require a more thorough elucidation than could be given in the introduction to a vocabulary. There is a radical difference in the structure of the sentences.

The apostrophe at the end of a syllableIndicates a similar abrupt sound. The letter kIn Malay when it occurs at the end of a word is not sounded like the English ~k, but the syllable in which it occur? must be pronouncedVery short indeed, and the breath drawn in so as to produce theShortening of the sound. The consonant ry represents a single soundIn Malay, and should be pronounced like the ng in ' singer,' never asIn ' singleВ ' the latter sound is represented in Malay by njg thus theTwo sounds are found in the words: si-nja and sirg-gah. The exact sound of the short vowel shouldBe learnt if possible from a Malay it is almost identical with theHalf-vowel sound in the first syllable of such words as ' machine ' andWhen two vowels come together, both must be sounded, but theFirst must be run into the second thus au has very nearly the soundOf ow in 'cow,' as pisau, man and oi has almost the sound of theThe consonants in Malay are pronounced as in English, exceptThat the r should always be sounded much more clearly and with moreOf a riig than in English. Experience has shown that the best way to spell words contain-Ing the short vowel with a view to helping the student to a correctPronunciation, is to omit the vowel altogether, and it is believed thatThe omission of the vowel will obviate the difficulty of finding suchWords in the vocabulary.

My Kamus