SECTION X: PHONETIC PHENOMENA
CONNECTED WITH THE COMBINATION OF
WORD-BASES WITH FORMATIVES.
266. In the IN languages the WB's occur either unchanged or else combined with formatives, i.e. prefixes, infixes, or suffixes. In Ophuijsen's “ Bataksche Texten, Mandailingsch Dialect ”, p. 16, 1. 14: “ The story of the old ox ” = S. of ox which old = hobaran ni lombu na tobaṅ, the words lombu and tobaṅ are unchanged WB's, but hobaran consists of the verbal WB hobar, “ to tell a story ” and the suffix -an, which is used to form substantives.
267. The addition of formatives may, or may not, involve phonetic changes. In the “ Pantun Mĕlayu ”, edited by Wilkinson and Winstedt, Pantun 4, 1. 1, we find: “ Whence flies the dove?” = W. d. f. = dari-mana punay mĕlayaṅ, and 5, 1. 1: “ How can one catch a porcupine ?” = How catch p. = bagay-mana mĕnaṅkap landaq. The WB's are layaṅ and taṅkap; in the derived form mĕlayaṅ we observe no phonetic change, but in mĕnaṅkap the t has turned into n.
268. The phonetic phenomena occurring in connexion with the extension of the WB by means of formatives are either the same as those which we also observe in the interior of the WB itself, or they are different. Old Javanese contracts the Original IN sequence a + i in a WB into e; but it similarly contracts if this sequence should happen to occur in a derivative word. Original IN lain, “ other ” > Old Jav. len, but likewise ma + iṅĕt > meṅĕt, “ to take care ”. — Toba assimilates the r of a prefix to an immediately following l, and accordingly pronounces par + lanja as pallanja, “ carrier of burdens ”. But in a WB, such as torluk, “ bay ”, the r persists unchanged.
