§ 11. Diphthongs.
ai as in German Kaiser or like i in light, but sometimes shortened in unaccented syllables till it approximates to ai in maid.
au as ow in cow, but sometimes shortened in unaccented syllables till it approximates to ow in know.
§ 12. In the Peninsula, there are great differences between Riau-Johor and Kedah pronunciation and even between the pronunciation of each separate state. And these differences require exhaustive treatment, before the pronunciation of the Peninsular Malay can be profitably discussed. Moreover such discussion would be beyond the scope of a grammar. The Peninsula is fortunate in that ‘the language of Malacca (Riau-Johor) played a prominent part in fixing the κοινή διάλεκτος of the golden age’ and that its pronunciation is roughly in accord with classical spelling.
§ 13. Foreign sounds.
Malays have attempted in Arabic and other foreign words to imitate alien sounds, and they have incorporated Arabic letters representing rare sounds in their alphabet, though they have seldom conserved the right and original pronunciation. These are as follows:
Tha ث th as in thin, but commonly corrupted by Malays into an s sound: thalatha pronounced as sĕlasa, ithnain as isnain.
Ḥâ ح a strong aspirate, but not distinguished by Malays from the soft ھ, except that unlike the soft aspirate, it is never dropped out in spelling, e.g. huruf never uruf, hukum never ukum.
Khâ خ a hard guttural like ch in German or in the Scotch word loch, commonly corrupted by Malays to k.
Dzal ذ pronounced by Malays as dz, z, or j.
