io6 A GRAMMAR OF THE

nouns may, however, stand in connexion with proper names and titles, without partaking of any possessive sense, as ^^jsS ^y tOan putri the. princess, a^^ \^ nabi muhammed the prophet Mahomet, jjcX-i^ ^j raja iskander the king Alexander ; and synonimous words standing for the same object must of course be excepted ; such as j\:Jj ^^^ j^y^ utan rimba belantarCj which signify a waste tract of country overrun with woods ; ^^ f^jj tirei kalambu the curtams (of a sleeping apartment).

A verb in the infinitive mood immediately following a noun, ' partakes of the nature of a possessive noun, and becomes subject to the same rules, as ^b jcJ tanda berahi a token of loving, ^U^ ^^j runiah ber* main a house to play in, or, a play or gaming house.

When a pronoun personal directly follows the noun, whether annexed or otherwise, simple possession is implied, being the ordinary mode of expressing it, as y^^^j^ ^U tangan amba my hand, Ji u^j rumah kamu^ or in the contracted form, ^^ rumah-mu your house, ^t^ arta^nia his effects, ^jH i^ bapa kamt our father*

When any one of the three contracted personal pronouns, cJku, m mu, ^ nia is annexed to a verb, it changes its verbal quality to that of a noun, as ^ ^MJL c^ ^y buat^lah seperti sangka-mu mi act conformably to this your opinion ; ^^ t^jj ^^ j\j tiada Idyik rupa pakei-^ nia the style of his dress is not becoming ; ^^\ c^ ^b c^ seperti bayang jUga ada^nia like a mere shadow is his existence ; fjj^ oL? is-^^ \j^ c^^ J<^ ^} tiada ka^tantH^n pergp-nia dan datang-nia orang itu there is no certainty respecting the goings and comings of that man.

The natural order of words being so litde deranged in this language, the occasion for any signs of agreement between the relative and its antecedent is scarcely perceived, and their concord, like those already

described,

MALAYAN LANGUAGE, 107

described, is known only by position. The pronoun t^ tang^ when employed as a relative, may be said generally to refer to the last preceding noun, as ^^\^^ JjJ oU ^d u^j^. y^ A^ji y^ s^ \j^^ orang kaya atau ber-Mmu atau budiman tang tiada layik per^iuat^an-nia men rich, or learned, or wise, whose actions do not coiTCspond. Here its antecedent is ojj\ orang men, from which it is separated by the intervening quali« lives ; but most usually it is itself the next following word ; as f^yi^J {J^ i£j^ jTijui cSi ^yiJi ^ menolong pa-ampuan tang ampunia laki sudah mati to assist a woman whose husband is dead.

The interrogative pronouns naturally precede the word which con^ stitutes the subject of inquiry, as m\^ c^f apa nama-mu what is thy name ? the verb substantive jl ada is, being understood ; ^1 c^Ua siapa ini who is this ? d^ jU (-Jt«i sidpa mdu pergi who chuses to go ? But the interrogative may be preceded by words connected with it in signifi» cation ; as u^t cJUi «^j^ negri siapa ttu whose city is that ? ^ c^ J^a ^ej^ gampar apa tang ku-^angar what clamour is it I hear ? Or with an interrogative particle annexed, as (ju^\ iS\i\ jlp pulau apa^ah ttu what island is that ? ^\ 4\SLa Jj\ anak siapa^kah ini whose child is this ?

Adverbs or modals as applied to modify the action of verbs, usually follow them in construction, as t^J c^ kdta per-lahdn per^ldhdn speak slowly ; j::,^^ ij:^ nanti sabantar wait awhile ; r j;>tj ^U^ nU ^\ iya tau jnemrbdcha baik^^aik he knows how to read well ; JIC ^U ux^ sudah obis sakali entirely finished. But they may also precede the verb and its nominative case, as 4/jU^ ^b 4^1 ^jXzi^ santtdsa iya datang ka^ mart continually he comes hither ; ^JU>^ um \JLt ^J^ b/iarH sakarang beta sampei it is but just now that I arrived.

As applied to adjectives they«almo8t al?rays precede in regular con-

structiony

no A GRAMMAR OF THE

enemy, or to stoop to him, conquered. It may be proper to notice that the conjunctive ^b being always pronounced short, although written with a long vowel, is throughout this Grammar and Dictionary written dan instead of dan.

Of the indirect conjunctives those which affect the verb in its condi* tional mood always precede it, as ^|^ ^\^ ^JL^ sopaya kaml me^rasa that we may feel ; ^Ji j JiJ^ tneleinkan de larunia unless he run away ; ^L ^^^J>j^ {^^ ^i>^jekalau tuan mau ber^main saja if you mean only to jest Many are employed chietiy to mark the commencement of a paragraph, and are often written in inic of a different colour, as Jj^;--» se-ber-mula in the first place, ^^ci\ ada^pun^ ^ bakwa whereas, ^^^t lagirpiin^ J^ ^Lc tambdh-an pula, u^*H^ sahadan moreover, ^^ ka» tau-i be it known, u:^\ jj^ ^^^iiU^ kamadtan derUpada itu furthermore, subsequendy to that ; and when a different part of the subject is taken up, ^'Ib^ «Ocu^y CiU maka ter-sebuUlah per^kata-an now it is related in the story. Others mark the beginning of sentences, of which uX« maka is by much the most frequent, occurring, indeed, either as an adverb or a conjunctive, in almost every line, yet scarcely admitting of a translation. In the body of the sentence it may often be rendered by our words " ere, before that," as ^b ^jjt ^ CJU yp j\ Jj %;^^ s'arang baldm ada pulang maka lain orang daiang one person is scarcely gone ere another arrives ; at the beginning, by ^^ now, but, and," or any other expletive ; the employment of many of these redundant words serving merely the purpose of distinguishmg the sentences and parts of sentences from each other, in a langus^e to which our system of pointing is un* known. Other conjunctives, as C^juga or jiia only, ^bt C^ j^g^ ada-nia thus, alone it is, affect prindpally the dose of periods, Md like-

the

MALAYAN LANGUAGE, m

the former are for the most part expletive. For the mode of applying them properly or consistently with the received idioms, a moderate degree of practice will avail more to the learner than many rules.

Interjections or impassioned exclamations are not, in any language, considered as the subject of grammatical rules. In composition, however, which does not always represent the language of nature, they are thrown in (as the name imports) with such discretion as to prevent them from injuring, if they do not improve the construction of the sentence. The most common among them precede nouns or personal pronouns, in what would be termed the vocative case if these admitted of declensioD^ and they frequently stand unconnected with any verb or other words, u <^l& ^ hei bapa-ku O my father ! CJjgj] m^ xvch ontong^ku alas, my fate ! ^j^ \j^ '^ niah kam^orang sakali-an away, all of you ! Some follow the interrogative pronouns, as J^ ^Sj lJ\ apa garang-an ka-andak^ mu what, prithee, is thy wish ? Many of them are imprecations of blest* ing or cursing, and in imitation of the Arabian style, are connected with the name of the Deity.

The foregoii^ observations apply chiefly to what grammarians c(»iider as the first part of syntax, or that which relates to the agreement of words, as the second does to their government This latter term implies an influence possessed by the one word capaUe of obligii^ another to confcnrm to it in certain particulars, such as person, gender, and number; which conformity, in Latin and Gi'eek, is usually expressed by the ter* minating syllable: but in a language where no influence of this kind prevails, nor any change takes place in the verb or the adjective in consequence of their connexion in sense with an antecedent nominatiTe case or noon substantive^ it cannot be saidi with uitf practicai at useful

meaning.