Note.—kadi, “ it was as if ”.—hiniris, passive of hiris, “ to cut ”.—The use of nāla in this sense may be compared with the Malay taṅkay (hati).
In contrast with the interjections, the words of form are seldom reduplicated; one of the rare cases being the doubling of the negative ta to form tata in Mentaway. On the other hand they are capable of entering into the most manifold combinations with one another. Thus the two articles i and tu occur combined in Hova as itu, in Taimuruna as tui, and in Tontb. as iitu. These composite articles do duty as demonstrative pronouns.—Amongst the words of form we shall consider the articles, the prepositions, the a dubitativum, and the negative.
85. The article i. Philippines, Tiruray: fantad, “ earth ”, i fantad, “ the earth ” — Celebes, Bug.: i Diyo, “ Madam Diyo ” * — Borneo, Tar.: i amaq, “ the father ” — Java, Old Jav.: i bapa, “ the father ” — Sumatra, Toba: pidoh i, “ the bird ” — Madagascar, Hova: i Butu, “ the (young man) Butu ” [1] — Eastern Border, Kamberese: i ama, “ the father ” — South-Western Border, Mentaway: ka i tuan, “ to the master ”.
Note I.—The position of the article in Toba, in pidoṅ i, finds its parallel in another article, viz. the article e, which in Bug. is put after the noun, whereas in Nabaloi it precedes “ The house ” is bola e in Bug., but e baley in Nabaloi.
Note II.—The i in Toba is more accentuated, and is therefore a demonstrative, but when we look through a Toba text, such as the Mula ni debata idup in Meerwaldt, we see that it occurs extremely frequently, and does, after all, perform the functions of an article.
86. As already remarked in § 84, the article i also occurs as a component part of the demonstrative pronoun itu, and
- ↑ [As to the use of articles before proper names, see the footnote to §91.]
