SECTION II: SYNTHESIS OF SOUNDS
INTO WORDS.
50. Apart from interjections and words of form, the words of the IN languages, as we meet them when we open the dictionaries (i.e. in the shape which is more accurately called the “ word-base ”), are mostly disyllabic. We may say, therefore, that as a general rule the primary synthesis of sounds is into a disyllabic structure. Thus in the Mal. version of the Rāmāyana, where the story is told of how Hanuman was sent to Langkapura, there is the sentence: “ Now Hanuman was sitting under a maja tree ” = Hanuman pun duduq-lah di bawah pohon maja. Here we have four disyllabic word-bases in succession.
Note.—Mal. lah here serves to emphasize the predicate. — di bawah literally means “ at (the) bottom (of) ”.
51. Monosyllabic words of substance, i.e. verbs and nouns, are rare; some languages possess none at all; Old Jav. has the largest number. And we never find one and the same monosyllabic word of substance running through very many different languages. Probably the one that is most widely distributed is kan, “ food ”.
Food. Philippines, Magindanao: kan — Celebes, Tontb.: kan — Sumatra, Pabian dialect of Lampong: kan — Eastern Border, Masaretese : ka — South-Western Border, Mentaway: kan.
Note I.—It must not be imagined that this monosyllabic kan merely figures in the dictionary: it really exists in living speech. We find in the Mentaway story Ägā-mu-la-laibi the phrase: “ There is no food ” = tata kan, and that is a complete sentence. Again, in the Mentaway legend of the origin of the race we read: “ There were plantains for food ” = aiat kan bago; and that, too, is a complete sentence.
