Dr. Zimbel's Treatise on Malay Syntax and Vocabulary, Chapter I

Keeping with a Malay dictionary approach,

Boleh saya katakan, hampir tiada tanda jalan yang jelas bagi menunjuk arah ke sesuatu destinasi. Bagi saya yang pertama kali memandu di Kuching, amat memerlukan penunjuk arah itu -- ketiadaan papan tanda yang jelas ini membuatkan saya berfikir, seolah-olah saya sedang memandu di sebuah kampung yang penduduknya sudah pasti tahu ke mana destinasi mereka. Namun ia cukup tidak adil bagi mereka yang bukan orang tempatan.

Note: in the case of a double-word, the prefix goes on the first instance, and the suffix on the last instance.

suffixes and prefixes with only one affirmation are followed by question marks. If there are at least 2 instances I've found with the same usage, I remove the question mark. In a few cases, I've found apparently contradictory instances.

Doubling a word sometimes means multiples (like sign language), but not always (?)

Prefixes:
Note: in some cases, these can be chained, like Japanese/German: memper- is an example.

be- having?
ber- to
berke-
ke- seperated?
mem- to? (note: can override first letter in root)
men- abstraction?
meng- in reference to another object/person? (note: can overwrite first letter of root)
pe- person?
per- a group? an individual?
pem- -ing in English? (note: can override first letter in root)
pen-
peng- person who?
se- like, such as I have X like person Y
sese- some?
ter- past tense?

Suffixes:
-an - changes adjective to noun.
- bulan - month?
-kan - inverse? again? to
-i
- hati
- imbas
- jadi - partial negation (such as changing can -> may)?
- kaki - with feet?
- letih - energy?
-nya - person did?
-pun
- rumah - female spouse?
- umur - age?
-nya - superlative?
- sekata - agree?


Words with question marks are guesses from roots.

Words with * are from Francis's research.

Words with + are from free.translated.net's Indonesian->English translator

Words with ++ are from kamus

adil -fair/just
amat -very
arah -direction
bagi -for/give
berfikir - to think (root firkir)
Boleh - can/able to
bukan - non-; not; doesn't
cukup - enough/exactly
destinasi - (in Italian, this is "it is assigned" - is this possibly a loan word?)
di - at
hampir - near/close/almost
ia -it/s(he)
ini -this
itu - that
jalan -road/way/route/walk
jelas -clear/well-defined/obvious
kali -times/multiply
kampung -village
katakan - tell/say/suppose (root kata)
ke - to+
ketiadaan - (++) absence/default/lack/non-existence/nothingness
Kuching - A specific city (*)
mana - where
memandu (++) -to guide/to pilot
memerlukan -(++)To need/take/took/entail/involve/require/deem necessary/claim/do with/necessitate
membuatkan (root is buat - make/do/perform) to make again? to make against?
menunjuk (mispelling of mengunjuk - to hold out/to hand over? In any case, the root, unjuk, is hold out/hand over)
mereka - they; them; their
Namun - yet; still
orang - person/people
papan - plank
penduduknya
penunjuk -helping hand/index/landmark/indexes (++)
pertama - first
pasti - definite/certain/sure
saya - I/my/me
sebuah - like fruit/like a number for large objects(?)
sedang - to be in the process of; average/sufficient
seolah-olah - as if (root olah)
sesuatu -like one/like a(?)
sudah - already/finished
tahu - to know/soya
tanda - sign/mark/symbol
tempatan - local
tiada - no/not/not any
tidak - no/not
yang - who/which/that

If the above is true, that gives us:
Boleh saya katakan, hampir tiada tanda jalan yang jelas bagi menunjuk arah ke sesuatu destinasi. Bagi saya yang pertama kali memandu di Kuching, amat memerlukan penunjuk arah itu -- ketiadaan papan tanda yang jelas ini membuatkan saya berfikir, seolah-olah saya sedang memandu di sebuah kampung yang penduduknya sudah pasti tahu ke mana destinasi mereka. Namun ia cukup tidak adil bagi mereka yang bukan orang tempatan.

Can I tell, almost no sign route that obvious for to hand over direction to like one is assigned. Give me that first times to guide at Kuching, very to need landmark direction that -- absent plank symbol that obvious this make again my thought, as if I am in the process of to guide at (like a number of large objects) village that (penduduknya) finished definite symbol to know to where it is assigned their. Yet it enough not fair for their who non-person local.