Arabic alphabet used by the Malays.
This sound can only be expressed in Arabic writing by the vowel-point called fathah (Malay, baris di-utas); it is a dash placed over the consonant to which the vowel belongs. The particles ber-, ter- would be written بَر، تَر.
(The fathah, however, denotes a short a as well as a short e as kapada كَڤَدَ).
In the words sembah, salutation, homage, bendang, a rice-field, senduk, a spoon, the first syllables are not pronounced like the English words gem, men. An indefinite sound is given to the syllables mentioned, as if it were attempted to pronounce the two consonants without an intervening vowel, s’mbah, b‘ndang, s‘nduk.
Some English scholars seeking a satisfactory mode of rendering Malay in Roman letters have attempted to do what the Malays have not thought it necessary to do for themselves, namely to denote this peculiar vowel-sound by a particular sign. Crawfurd professed to distinguish it by d; Keasberry wrote ŭ; there is perhaps good reason for this in works intended for the use of students beginning the study of the language, vocabularies, grammars and the like. But the authors of the Government spelling-system, who selected ĕ to express the sound in question, might have spared themselves this additional vowel-symbol.
As we have seen above, this sound can only be expressed in writing by Malays by the fathah, short a or short e. Why not be satisfied with a or e to express it in English? This is quite sufficient for purposes of transliteration, and scientific men do not want to burden their text with accents to denote sounds not expressed in the native text. We do not distinguish by a different sign each of the numerous ways of pronouncing e in the English or French language.
Once quit the safe ground of transliteration and trust to that uncertain guide—the ear—and all chance of uniformity is at an end. Let us see how the systems mentioned above have worked in practice. Take, for instance, the short syllable sa, which is frequently found as the first syllable of Malay words. The authorities who have been quoted are not agreed when to give the syllable the
