Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/291

127. Languages that are closely related to one another often display a similar treatment of the pěpět. But that also happens in the case of tongues that are widely apart; thus both in Toba and in Bisaya, ě changes into o, hence tělu, "three" > Toba tolu, Bis. tolo. Finally, it also happens that languages which are very closely related to one another differ just in their treatment of the pěpět; thus in the two principal dialects of Minangkabau it is precisely the difference in the representation of the Original IN e that forms the chief differentia between them: the Agam dialect has a, hence Original IN běr₂as, "rice" > Agam bareh; the Tanah Datar dialect has o, hence boreh.

128. The pěpět and prosody. In some languages the pěpět is replaced by another vowel when the verse accent falls upon it. In Tontemboan it is changed into e. "God" in Tontb. is ěmpun, "friend", rěṅan, "friends", rěṅa-rěṅan; but in a poem in Schwarz-Texts, p. 139, 1. 16, in an iambic verse, we find: "Now, gods, friends, ho!" = ja empuṅ rěṅa-rěṅan e. — In Talautese, ě has become a, but under the influence of the verse accent even this a is replaced by another vowel, either e or o; thus in Steller-Texts, p. 66, 1. 2, we find sasobaṅ for sasabbaṅ, "to appear", and elo for allo, "sun".

Note. — For other phenomena occurring in connexion with the pěpět, see §§ 5 and 148.

The RGH-Law.

129. Original IN had two r sounds, a lingual r (=r₁) and a uvular r (=r₂). "Thousand" in Original IN was r₁ibu, but "hundred" was r₂atus

130. The Original IN condition has only been preserved in very few of the living languages, and even there not quite undisturbed, for example in Běsěmah. Běs. r₁ibu, "thousand", r₁acon, "poison", sur₁oṅ, "to push", contain r₁, like the corresponding Original IN words r₁ibu, r₁acun, sur₁uṅ; Běs. dar₂at, "mainland", jar₂om, "needle", nior₂ "coconut palm", are pronounced with r₂, like Original IN dar₂at, jar₂um, niur₂.