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.
A careful classification of the principal Sanskrit words which are found in Malay helps to indicate what must have been the condition of society when the Aryan came into contact with the islanders of Sumatra. It shows, independently of other proof, that Hindu colonisation must have gradually introduced the Malay races to institutions, ideas, pursuits, and wants to which they had hitherto been strangers. Many of the incidents of commerce, most of the metals and precious stones, the pomp and ceremony of royalty, and the use of the elephant, are shown, by the Sanskrit nomenclature employed in describing them, to be of Hindu importation. From this it is not difficult to infer the primitive condition of a people to whom all these things were unknown. So, the Sanskrit names of many weapons indicate a period when the rude weapons of savage Malay tribes—blowpipes, spears, &c.—were supplemented by arms of a more formidable character, for which they were indebted to India. Other groups of words show, independently of other proof, that the Hindu religion was successfully planted among the Malays and flourished for a time, and that the monarchical form of government was introduced in Malay countries by Hindu settlers and rulers.
The word “rulers” is used advisedly, for the theory of Marsden as to the manner of the introduction of Hinduism seems to possess greater claims to general acceptance than that advocated by certain other writers, notably Leyden and Crawfurd. Crawfurd asserted that the Sanskrit words adopted in Malay came originally through the Hindu priesthood, and that the priests through whom this was effected belonged to the Telugu race, this, in his opinion, being the people who, commencing by trading with the Malays, proceeded to partial settlement in their country, and ended by converting them to Hinduism and introducing the language and literature of the Hindus. He entirely discountenances the idea that Sanskrit could have been introduced by a people of whom it was the vernacular language.7 He admits, however, that in Southern India Sanskrit was itself a foreign tongue; that Sanskrit has found its way into Javanese and Malay in a state of comparative purity, and not intermixed with Telugu; and that there is no trace whatever of any extensive settlement of the Telugus in the Malay Archipelago.
Marsden’s contention, on the other hand, points to Gujarat as the quarter from which Hindu civilisation penetrated to the far East, and to conquest as the mode in which the way was cleared for its introduction.8
Before proceeding to classify some of the Sanskrit words which are found in Malay, and to deduce any theories from their presence, it is necessary, in order to avoid misconception, to notice several difficulties which cannot be overlooked.
In the first place, it is not meant to be asserted that the Malays have obtained all the words enumerated further on direct from the people of India. All theories founded upon the presence of Sanskrit words in Malay must apply with equal force to Javanese, which contains a larger proportion of Sanskrit words than Malay. “Sanskrit words are found in greatest purity in the Javanese, and next to it in the Malay, their corruption increasing as we recede from Java and Sumatra.”9 It may be assumed, therefore,