Old Malay

Hello people. A few days ago I found this page on Wikipedia about the Old Malay language. and I think that is really interesting. In this post, I'm going to translate a story in Indonesian to Old Malay.

According to that page, the Old Malay prefix "ber-" was "mar-". There was no schwa back then, so "a" was used instead. Then the prefix "di-" was "ni-", and the prefix "ter-" was "ka-". But as you might already know, there could be exceptions. I just read "Naskah Tanjung Tanah", and they said "ikor" instead of "ekor". The "e" there is not a schwa. Then, some words with "h" on it do not have "h" anymore now. Like "hayam" is now "ayam", "sahaya" is now "saya", etc. I don't know which words used to have "h" on it, or the pattern behind it, so I think I'll just modify the affixes and schwa. I'm translating a story from this page:

Saikor kaladai marasa iri dangan kahidupan saikor kuda, yang nirawat dangan baik oleh tuannya. Dia nitampatin di kandang yang barsih, saring nimandiin, dan salalu nibari makan yang enak. Dia juga tidak parnah nisuruh untuk makarja. Sadangkan si kaladai, dia harus makarja karas satiap hari, mangangkut barang dan manarik garobak yang barat. Dia tinggal di sabuah kandang yang jarang nibarsihin, dan hampir tidak parnah nimandiin. Salain itu, dia salalu nibari makan saadanya.

Tapi katika kajadi  parang, saurang tantara dangan parsanjataan langkap datang dan naik ka atas kuda itu, lalu manungganginya ka medan parang. Musuh jauh labih kuat, dan tantara itu gugur. Kuda yang malang itu kaluka parah, lalu mati di medan parang. Si kaladai, malihat samua itu, lalu manyadari bahwa salama ini dia salah. Tarnyata nasibnya jauh labih baik nibandingin kuda itu.

There you go! I think it sounds like Minang! 😂 I just realized that Minang do have "e", but the schwa is replaced by "a" just like what the page on Wikipedia said. It really is interesting to realize this. Anyway, please don't quote me on anything. I'm not a language expert. I'm just a language hobbyist.