Some evidence to support that is from an email I received today, encouraging participation by UBD staff in healthy lifestyle exercises (which are clearly regarded as a good thing). An extract is:
Beberapa aktiviti telah dikenalpasti dan sesiapa yang berminat untuk menjadi sukarelawan dalam megetuai aktibiti bolehlah menghadapkan nama mereka melalui email kepada saya.which might be translated as:
Several activities have been identified and anyone who is interested in becoming a volunteer in leading an activity can forward their name to me through email.Something else that is interesting in this extract is the alternation between aktibiti and aktiviti, presumably reflecting instability in the pronunciation of the word, as is expected in a newly-borrowed item. In fact, it is normal for borrowed words to adopt the phonology of the native language gradually.
For example, take the English words carriage, message, massage, collage, all of which were borrowed from French. The first two have been completely anglicised, ending with [ɪdʒ] and with the stress on the first syllable. In contrast, collage, being a more recent borrowing, still generally has its French pronunciation [kɒˈlɑːʒ] (at least, in British English), while massage is halfway to being anglicised: the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary gives [ˈmæsɑːʒ] as the preferred choice for British English (though it also suggests an alternative with [dʒ] at the end).
While a word is in the process of being nativised, instability is expected, though it is unusual to find variants in the same sentence. The special thing with Malay is that the writing system allows us to reflect on this process more easily than in English.
