Adjectives in a Seventeenth Century Malay Language Grammar

Malay grammars produced in the 17th century were a product of Dutch influence. These grammars were written a century after the arrival of the Portuguese and seven years after the arrival of the Dutch. The development of Malay grammatical studies occurred in stages beginning in 1603 with an analysis of conjugations by Houtman, followed by a brief explanation about the formation of words in Malay by Wiltens and Danckaerts in 1623 and finally in 1655, a systematic Malay grammar authored by Roman. Roman’s grammar is a complete Malay grammar that discusses aspects of Malay word classes. However, in this grammar, adjectives were not categorised as an independent word class, instead, it is placed under the noun word class. This paper will explain the discussion of adjectives in Roman’s grammar. Among the aspects that will be elaborated is the position of adjectives in the noun namen word class. In addition, discussions about the formation of adjectives and the degree of comparison of adjectives will be presented as well. Roman’s treatment of adjectives will also be compared with the treatment of adjectives in today’s Malay grammar. This paper concludes that adjectives discussed by Roman were parallel with the climate of opinion in Europe.