Malay Spelling

Learners of English (as well as first-language speakers of English) often complain about the vagaries of the English spelling system. Indeed, it is true that it is sometimes not easy to predict the pronunciation of a word ‒ at first sight, banal looks like it should have stress on the first syllable and be pronounced as [ˈbeɪnəl], rather than the standard [bəˈnɑ:l]; and who would expect ballet to have a silent final 't' unless you already know the word?

It is sometimes claimed that Malay has a completely predictable spelling system, so you can tell how a word is pronounced from its spelling. Actually, this is not quite true. I will here outline three exceptions: the pronunciation of 'e'; the pronunciation of 'ai'; and the pronunciation of borrowed words.

• 'e' may be pronounced as [e] or as [ə]. Thus perang can be pronounced as [perɑŋ] (in which case it means 'brown') or as [pərɑŋ] (meaning 'war'). Sometimes, the first of these is shown with an accent over the 'e': pérang. Unfortunately, this is rarely done.
• 'ai' may be one syllable or two. Thus in capai ('achieve') the 'ai' is pronounced as a diphthong; but in mulai ('beginning from'), the 'a' and 'i' are pronounced separately, because the 'i' is a suffix added to the root word mula ('begin').
• borrowed words may be influenced by their original pronunciation. Thus universiti is most often pronounced with [j] (the initial sound in the English word yes) at the start, just as it would be in English; but untuk ('from') does not have [j] at the start, as it is not a borrowed word.
  

Nevertheless, it is basically true that the Malay spelling system is much more straightforward than that of English, and one empathises with learners who struggle to master English spelling when their own language has fewer problems.