Information

scope and purpose

texts and word counts

conditions of use

approach

copyright

access to full texts

Scope and purpose

The MCP presents 5.7 million words (including 130,000 verses) from more than 150 sources of pre-modern Malay written text.  This material can be searched on line in a variety of ways, and studied in its contexts.

The site may be useful to those interested in Malay studies (including literature, history and culture) and linguisitics.

 

Texts and wordcounts

• List of texts available for searching.  Unfortunately, for copyright reasons, they are not available for downloading as full texts.
• Wordcount lists showing the total number of words in each text, and the distribution of words through time.

Conditions of use

1. let me know if you find errors or inconsistencies;
2. acknowledge the project in the footnotes and bibliography of anything your write
   (if you are using a particular text, also mention its contributor, or its printed edition)
3. contribute new texts if you have them in digital form

Approach

The uses of Malay concordances and the principles of making them are discussed in:

I. Proudfoot, "Concordances and Classical Malay", Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde vol. 147 (1991), pp.74-95.

A major problem in comparing texts is the lack of consistent spelling.  The project is designed to allow a search target in a standard form to find variant spellings in the texts.  The standard spelling adopted is that prescribed by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia, as found in its Kamus Dewan  (2nd edition, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1984).  For more information, see the Guide.

Copyright

These Web pages are subject to the Australian National University's copyright policy.   Limited copying or downloading of search results is permitted only as ‘fair dealing’ for the purposes of individual research.

The Project is not able to offer access to the full texts.  This restriction is necessary to protect the interests of copyright holders involved in publishing the texts, supplying copies of the texts, or indexing the texts for inclusion in the project.   The exception is the newspaper extracts provided by the National University of Singapore, which can be copied freely for purposes of research.