Characteristics

The Van Ophuijsen system was modelled extensively on Dutch orthography, ostensibly to make pronunciation of Malay and Indonesian words more easily understandable to Dutch colonial authorities. Thus, the system used the Dutch variant of the Latin script, reflecting contemporaneous Dutch phonology. Some noticeable characteristics of this spelling system were:

* The digraph was used to write "j" , for example djari (jari).
* The digraph was used to write "c" , for example tjoetji (cuci).
* The letter was used to write "y" , for example jang, pajah and sajang (yang, payah, and sayang).
* The digraph was used to write "ny" , for example njamoek (nyamuk).
* The digraph was used to write "sy" , for example sjarat (syarat).
* The digraph was used to write "kh" , for example achir (akhir).
* The digraph was used to write "u" , for example goeroe, itoe and oemoer (guru, itu, and umur).
* An apostrophe was used to write the glottal stop , for example ma'moer, akal, ta and pa.
* A diaeresis, for example <ä>, <ë>, <ï>, and <ö>, was used to indicate that a vowel was pronounced as a full syllable and not as a diphthong ( , and ), for example dinamaï (pronounced as , not ).
* The letter <é> with an acute was used to write , while plain indicated , for example énak vs. beli. This character retains some use in pedagogical writing, as in dictionaries and learner materials, to distinguish and , though in the modern Republican Spelling System, both are normally written .

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