MALAY, ACHINESE (ACEHNESE / ACEH / َاچيه), FRENCH, AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY.
PREFACE
A J W. Bikkers 1882
The relations subsisting between the Dutch and the Achinese give the former peculiar facilities for becoming intimately acquainted with the language of their doughty opponents; and, as these lists testify, the Dutch have not been slow to avail themselves of their opportunities.
The Malay equivalents for all the Achinese words are given ; and from these it will be seen that Achinese is merely a dialect of the widely-diffused Malay language. In order to make the book useful to commercial men and traders generally, a large number of Malay words are given for which Achinese equivalents could not be procured. These are, for the most part, words expressive of common objects, and special articles of trade.
For the same reason French renderings have been added for the convenience of the large number of people of that enterprizing nation who are engaged in trade in the Malay Archipelago.
The Lists are repeated and arranged in alphabetical order in four ways, each language in turn having the precedence, 1st the Malay ; 2nd the Achinese ; 3rd the French; and 4th the English.
This enables the book to be used as a reversed Vocabulary for each of the four languages. Anyone conversant with one of the languages can, by this book, instantly find the equivalents in the remaining three, so far, at least, as those equivalents are known.
A short Grammar of Malay has been prefixed to explain the simple grammatical constructions of that very useful language, in the hope that this will be acceptable to all those who are interested in the Vocabularies themselves.
With respect to the arrangement of the words in the Vocabularies, it need only be remarked that many words have been intentionally inserted more than once under different spellings ; for, as it was not deemed expedient to introduce the Arabic character into the book, the entry of words under various methods of transliteration was best calculated to prevent trouble to those who might use the Lists.
The symbols used in the book are explained in the first page of the Grammar ; and to the explanation there given it need only here be added that the mark ? indicates that the word to which it is attached has an interrogative meaning; whereas the mark (?), in parentheses, implies some doubt as to the correctness of the word itself.
A J W. Bikkers 1882
With respect to the arrangement of the words in the Vocabularies, it need only be remarked that many words have been intentionally inserted more than once under different spellings ; for, as it was not deemed expedient to introduce the Arabic character into the book, the entry of words under various methods of transliteration was best calculated to prevent trouble to those who might use the Lists.
The symbols used in the book are explained in the first page of the Grammar ; and to the explanation there given it need only here be added that the mark ? indicates that the word to which it is attached has an interrogative meaning; whereas the mark (?), in parentheses, implies some doubt as to the correctness of the word itself.
A J W. Bikkers 1882
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