Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/101

This page has been validated.


ESSAY II
89

Note II. — -In other languages kan is found as a radical constituent of disyllabic words of substance, as for instance in the Old Jav. paṅan, “food”, where k has become in conformity with the principles of § 149. Thus in Jonker's Book of Laws, Art. 15, there is the sentence: “If he is a minor lodging with another person, he is liable for his board ” = “If is child under-age living with a man, owes food” " = yen hana rare alit, aṅherṅher iṅ woṅ, ahutaṅ paṅan.

52. If kan, which only appears in five areas of distribution, is the most widely spread monosyllabic word of substance, we must declare that we are unable to style any single monosyllabic word of substance “Common IN”.

53. There are also trisyllabic word-bases, but these, too, are not numerous, and we seldom find any one of them running through a number of languages. Perhaps the most widely distributed one is the word banua, “district, inhabited place”.

District. Philiphines, Pamp.: banua — Celebes, Bareqe: banuwa — Java, Old Jav. : wanwa — Sumatra, Toba : banua — Malay Peninsula, Mal.: benuwa — South- Western Border, Nias: banua.

Note I. — Old Jav. -w for b as in the parallel wuṅa, “flower”, for Common IN buṅa (§ 43).

Note II. — Between the u and the a some of the languages have developed the transitional sound w, hence Bareqe banuwa ; in Old Jav. the u before the a has become a consonant, hence wanwa. An exact parallel hereto is afforded by Common IN buah, “fruit”:

Without transitional sound : Nias banua, bua.

With transitional sound: Mai. bĕnuwa, buwah.

U turned consonant: Old Jav. wanwa, wwah.

Note III. — In Mal. a full vowel preceding the accent is weakened into the pepet. Parallel : the loan-word sĕrdadu < soldado, “soldier”.

Note IV. — Pamp. banua means “sky”. We have a parallel to this transference of meaning in Bis., wherein banoa