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Notes on some Malay words

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Notes on some Malay words

C.O. Blagden (1928) examines a glossary appended to a late-eighteenth-century Malay treatise on royal ceremonial, extracting and discussing words absent from or differently defined in Wilkinson’s Dictionary. The article’s central contribution is lexicographical, drawing on a 1873 copy of the Adat Segala Raja-raja Melayu (composed c. 1779–80 at the request of the Governor of Malacca) to document archaic and specialised vocabulary of the Malay courtly world, and it closes with a revised etymology for the word tamra in the Trengganu Inscription.

Summary

Blagden’s source is a small treatise on the customary ceremonies attending the birth and other life events of Malay rajas, written in Arabic script in 1779–80. The particular copy he examined was made in 1873 and had previously belonged to E.E. Isemonger, a Colonial Treasurer of the Straits Settlements; it had been acquired by the School of Oriental Studies. A separate copy in the Farquhar Collection of the Royal Asiatic Society’s library had been described earlier by Van der Tuuk. Blagden notes that the spelling in his copy is “not always orthodox” and that the glossary at the end contains several words either new to him or differently rendered in Wilkinson’s Dictionary.

The bulk of the article is a word-by-word discussion of roughly twenty entries from this glossary. Blagden presents each word in Arabic script, supplies the Malay definition as given in the manuscript, and then offers his own interpretation, cross-referencing Wilkinson’s and Winstedt’s dictionaries where relevant. The entries span a range of semantic fields: courtly etiquette and self-restraint (lendip, lendit), royal regalia and protocol (the fringed royal umbrella, kawasan as a delimited territorial holding), the graded system of betel outfits by rank (chorong for rajas, jebah for ministers, peminang for commoners of distinction), and various terms for behaviour, desire, and physical action. Where the manuscript text is corrupt, Blagden flags the difficulty and sometimes invites other scholars to assist.

The article’s final section departs from the glossary to revisit a problem Blagden had addressed in an earlier paper (Vol. II, Part III, p. 262): the meaning of tamra in the Trengganu Inscription. He now identifies it with tambera, which occurs in a Malay source (Vol. III, Part I, p. 43) in the sense of formal diplomatic protocol—the proper expressions to be used in official correspondence. He proposes that the word is a Khmer formation from tra (“seal”), a root also present in Siamese and Malay (tera), and that it entered Malay either through Siamese or directly from Khmer, given the long pre-Siamese Malay contact with Khmer populations in the region of Lig.

Key Findings

  • The source text, Adat Segala Raja-raja Melayu, was composed in A.H. 1193 (A.D. 1779–80) at the request of the Governor of Malacca; the copy examined was made in 1873 and formerly belonged to E.E. Isemonger, Colonial Treasurer of the Straits Settlements (p. 36).
  • The glossary documents a graded system of betel outfits by social rank: chorong (for rajas), jebah (for high dignitaries and ministers), peminang (for commoners of some distinction), and an unnamed fourth category (for persons of respectable family) (pp. 37–38).
  • Kawasan is identified as the ordinary Malacca word for a “holding” of village land, defined as a place with a delimited boundary or within the ambit of one’s authority; it is absent from Wilkinson but present in Winstedt (p. 37).
  • Tambera (equated with tamra in the Trengganu Inscription) means formal diplomatic protocol—the proper expressions for official correspondence—and is proposed to derive from Khmer tra (“seal”), also occurring in Siamese and Malay as tera (p. 40).
  • The word lendip (or lendit) is defined in the manuscript as “fitness and courtesy in behaviour,” contrasting with Wilkinson’s “neat, natty, smart” and Winstedt’s “smart, spruce, dandy” (p. 37).
  • The manuscript’s discussion of Malay manners emphasises the “golden mean” (dengan pertengahan, tiada dengan berlebeh-lebeh dan dengan kekurangan), a principle of moderation and self-restraint that the Farquhar MS. does not contain but another MS. renders as dengan santun tertib-nya (p. 36).

Conclusion

Blagden’s definitive takeaway is twofold: the Adat Segala Raja-raja Melayu glossary preserves a layer of archaic courtly vocabulary that standard dictionaries had either missed or misdefined, and the word tamra/tambera is best explained as a Khmer loan (from tra, “seal”) that entered Malay through prolonged pre-Siamese contact with Khmer-speaking populations in the southern Malay Peninsula.

Context

  • The primary source is a single 1873 manuscript copy of an 1779–80 text, now held at the School of Oriental Studies; a second copy in the Farquhar Collection (Royal Asiatic Society) was previously described by Van der Tuuk.
  • The article contributes to the lexicography of archaic Malay court language and to the epigraphic problem of the Trengganu Inscription, extending Blagden’s earlier work in the same journal.

References