Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/59

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47
ESSAY I

I. Toba has hardly any other type than the variation u : a, and the instances denote a noise or a discordance: ṅumṅam, “ not harmonious ”, suṅsaṅ, “ inverted ”, lumlam, “ confused ”, juljal, “ to contradict oneself ”.

II. Mad. shows no preference for any particular kind of variation; the meaning is again discordance: cekcok, “ non-sensical ”, cokcak, “ strife ”, salsul , “ mistaken for something else ”.

III. Day. does not employ complete reduplication at all, except in onomatopœic words. The reduplication with the same vowel often denotes a mere repetition of the event, the one with a varying vowel a happening in many different places:

jakjak, “ to hiss often ” jikjak, “ to hiss everywhere ”.
geṅgeṅ, “ to resound often ” goṅgeṅ, “ to resound everywhere”.

The most frequently occurring variation is i : a, irrespective of whether the simple root has i or a:

lap, “ to sip noisly ” reduplicated: liplap,
kis, “ to sneeze ”           „          kiskas.

We can observe such phenomena in several other languages besides, but, as Toba, Mad., and Day. have sufficed to show, the various languages diverge to a very marked extent, so that there is no possibility here of drawing any conclusions as to Original IN conditions.


Combination of Roots to form the Word-base.

80. First type of combination of two or more roots to form the word-base: roots serving as words of form are combined. This is a very common phenomenon. Words of form, though very short, can nevertheless often be analysed, e.g. the three cases at the beginning of the Old Jav. inscription of the Śaka year 1272, edited by Kern in Bijdragen 1905: irika diwaśa ni kamoktan Pāduka Bhatāra, saṅ lumah ri Śiwabuddha = “ This (is the) time of the demise of His Majesty who rests in the Śivabuddha sanctuary ”. Here ni is divisible into n + i.