W. E. Maxwell

“ 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 force of the vowel a and when to introduce their signs for the peculiar vowel-sound which they want to represent. ”

“ However absurd this derivation may be, its occurrence in a purely native work is at all events conclusive as to the pronunciation of the first syllable.
SYSTEM PROPOSED.
Vowels.
The only use of the accents which will be inserted is to denote that the vowel is expressed in the Malay text. No sign will be used to denote the accentuation of any particular syllable; transliteration, not pronunciation, is the first object to be kept in view. For goneral purposes, the accents may be omitted at option. It cannot matter whether مات, the eye, is rendered mâta or mata. ”

“ Crawfurd claims the advantage of simplicity for his system, yet few persons probably would recognise in S’ex [2] the common Arabic word Sheikh. On the other hand, if the system be purely phonetic, the ear must be entirely depended on; sounds which nearly approach each other will be mistaken one for another, and persons professing to use the same system will very likely spell words differently.
Another important point must be borne in mind, Malay contains a large number of pure Sanskrit and Arabic words ”

“ But a system may satisfactorily secure uniformity which may nevertheless be wanting on the score of scholarship, and, unless sound in the latter respect, it will not answer the purposes of the philologist or geographer. ”

“ Examples:—
1. ماري Mari, come. (Here the four letters m, a, r and i exactly transliterate the four native letters) .
2. تمڤڠ Tampang, a coin. Tampong, a patch. Tempung, a game. Tempang, lame. Tumpang, to lodge. ”