The Za'aba Spelling ( ms, Ejaan Za'aba) was the second major

spelling reform A spelling reform is a deliberate, often authoritatively sanctioned or mandated change to spelling rules. Proposals for such reform are fairly common, and over the years, many languages have undergone such reforms. Recent high-profile examples ar ...

of Malay Rumi Script introduced in 1924. The reform was devised by Zainal Abidin Ahmad or better known by the moniker Za'aba, a notable writer and linguist at Sultan Idris Teachers College. Za'aba's orthographic system principally dealt with the assignment of vowels in closed

syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...

s, distinguished the

schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...

from the half-open vowel /e/ by a new

grapheme In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system. The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...

, and insisted on the use of

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...

s to differentiate

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...

es or post-positional emphases from the

infinitive Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...

s. The system as devised by Za'aba emphasised the importance to represent the original pronunciation of

Johor Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...

-Riau Malay, where various modern standards of Malay were derived, that he viewed as the most elegant form of Malay. From 1930's onward, the Za'aba system gained wide sanction and was used officially in education and civil administration of Malaya, Singapore and Brunei, to replace the older Wilkinson spelling. After the orthography was implemented in schools, it earned the moniker Ejaan Sekolah ('school spelling system'). Despite its official status, the system was continuously challenged throughout the years as other linguists came up with their own suggestions for a reform. The most notable one was by the Third Malay Congress held in 1956 that introduced the Congress Spelling System. The Za'aba orthography was formally replaced by the

New Rumi Spelling Joint Rumi Spelling ( ms, Ejaan Rumi Bersama, ERB) is the most recent spelling reform of the Latin-derived Rumi script, used to write the Malay language. The spelling reform was jointly initiated by the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, and ...

in 1972.

Background

The first major orthographic reform of Malay Rumi Script was initiated by a British scholar administrator,

Richard James Wilkinson Richard James Wilkinson (29 May 1867 – 5 December 1941) was a British Colonial administrator, scholar of Malay, and historian. The son of a British Consul, Richard James Wilkinson was born in 1867 in Salonika (Thessaloniki) in the Ottoman E ...

in 1904, from which the Wilkinson spelling or 'Romanised Malay Spelling' was introduced, and became the official system widely used in all British colonies and protectorates in Malaya,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. Following the growth in the use of Malay in the education system funded by the colonial administration, efforts to improvise the Rumi spelling system were undertaken by various organizations, including the notable Sultan Idris Teachers College. In 1924, after 20 years in use, the Wilkinson orthography was improvised further in a reform initiated by a linguist Zainal Abidin Ahmad at the Sultan Idris Teachers College. Over the years, the system was progressively improvised and was applied in a series of ''pedoman bahasa'' ('guide to language') published by the college. Among several publications that applied this orthography include ''Ilmu Bahasa Melayu Penggal 1'' (1926), ''Pelita Bahasa Melayu Penggal 1'' (1941), ''Daftar Ejaan Jawi-Rumi'' (1949), of which all of them were written by Za’aba. By 1930s, the Za'aba spelling became the official orthography used in Malaya and even adopted in the education system and civil administration. The Za'aba spelling also gained widespread currency in

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

and

. Following the adoption of the orthography in schools, it was called the ''Ejaan Sekolah'' ('school spelling system'). Despite its official status, the system was continuously challenged throughout the years as other linguists came up with their own suggestions for a reform. During World War II, a system known ''Ejaan Fajar Asia'', after the Fajar Asia ('Dawn of Asia') publishing house, was widely used in Malaya and Indonesia. Both countries reverted to their respective old systems as soon as the Japanese occupation ended. In Malaya however, there were continuous efforts to reform the spelling system. In 1956, the Third Malay Congress introduced another spelling system known as the Congress Spelling System, but it was never widely used. In 1959, another reform, this time jointly initiated by Malaya and Indonesia under a Cultural Agreement was carried out with the introduction of Malindo system, but the system was scrapped shortly after, following the

Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation or Borneo confrontation (also known by its Indonesian / Malay name, ''Konfrontasi'') was an armed conflict from 1963 to 1966 that stemmed from Indonesia's opposition to the creation of the Federation of ...

. The Za'aba spelling continued to be used up until 1972, when another major reform took place with the introduction of

The system

Za'aba's orthographic system principally dealt with the assignment of vowels in final closed

s, distinguished the

from the half-open vowel /e/ by a new

, and insisted on the use of

s to differentiate

es or post-positional emphases from the

s. The system emphasised the importance to represent the original pronunciation of

-Riau Malay, where various modern standards of Malay were derived, that Za'aba viewed as the most elegant form of Malay.

Final closed syllables

There were no particular explanations by Za'aba for such amendments, but based on the reformed words, Za'aba seemed to have emphasized on the phonetic realisation in spelling to reflect their original pronunciation in Malay. This was in contrast to the Wilkinson orthography, and even Republican system in Indonesia, that emphasized more on the vowel coherency represented in the orthography.

Schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...

Za'aba standardized the marking for the Malay indeterminate vowel or the

represented by phonetic sound , by introducing a new

. By having the diacritic mark, the Za'aba system able to differentiate schwa from the half-open vowel /e/, which remains to be represented by letter . The objective of this move, was again for the phonetic realisation in spelling to simplify the reading process.

Hyphens

Za'aba also introduced the use of hyphens to differentiate affixes or post-positional emphases from the infinitives.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Cite journal , last1=Mohd Zaidi Abd Rozan , last2=Mikami , first2=Yoshiki , date=2007 , title=Orthographic Reforms of Standard Malay Online: Towards Better Pronunciation and Construction of a Cross-language Environment , journal=Journal of Universal Language , volume=8 , issue=1 , pages=129–159 , doi=10.22425/jul.2007.8.1.129 , doi-access=free Malay language Spelling reform