Correct spelling of Malay place names

WHY should Tronoh be respelled Teronoh? Because in Malay, a word beginning with a consonant must be followed by a vowel. Hence, Teronoh is correct.

It’s true that there are some commonly used words in Malay that do not follow this rule, like trafik, skru, and brek, but these are loan words.

In 1972, Malaysia and Indonesia introduced a unified spelling reform – in Malaysia it was known as “Sistem Ejaan Baru” – which replaced colonial-era spelling sys- tems in the respective countries. It has proven to be more scientific, scholarly and sensible.

Indonesia immediately respelled their place names according to the new spelling rules. For example, Djakarta, Djawa and Atjeh became Jakarta, Jawa and Aceh respectively.

Malaysia, however, decided not to change the spelling of its place names on the grounds that it might confuse the public.

If there would be confusion now, it would only be temporary.

Elsewhere around the region, Romanised Japanese place names are standardised.

So are the Maori ones in New Zealand.

But Australia’s aboriginal place names do not follow any standard spelling system.

For example, Kalgoorlie begins with a “K” but not Canberra.

Many Malaysians are clueless about Malay spelling even though it is clearly not as complicated or idiosyncratic as English.

We should spell our Malay place names based on the reformed spelling of 1972 because the British era spelling appears uneducated to knowledgeable people.

Politicians should leave spelling to the experts – the linguists – and not let the implementation of correct spelling be impeded by political considerations.