Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/104

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INDONESIAN LINGUISTICS

Note.—The first k of palikpik appears in Tontb. as q in accordance with the following law, also formulated by the two Adriani's: "In the case of a Common IN combination of consonants, other than nasal + cognate explosive, the first of the two consonants becomes q in Tontb."

63. Setting the palatals aside, we find in the individual IN languages very various possibilities of consonantal endings, which the following three typical extracts from texts will at once serve to illustrate:

I. Sĕraway sentence, out of the Anday-Anday Riṅgan Sĕdayu: "The king had a son and a daughter" = King had son had daughter = rajaw bĕranaq bujaṅ bĕranaq gadis.

II. Nias sentence, out of the heroic song edited by Lagemann: "He is fallen into the broad sea" = Finished fallen lie into sea broad = no aeχu* ia ba nasi seholo.

III. Mak. sentence, out of the Jayalangkara, p. 101: " He did obeisance, bowing his head down to the ground " = He did obeisance, bowing head his down to earth the = na aqñomba, sujuq ulu-nna nauṅ ri butta ya.

In the first sentence all the words end in consonants, even the loan-word raja, which elsewhere always terminates in a vowel, has acquired a final w in conformity with the phonetic law: "Final a of other languages appears in Sĕraway as aw".† In the second sentence none of the words ends in a consonant. In the third sentence consonantal endings are in the minority.

Now among the various individual IN languages we notice three principal types of consonantal ending: Some languages tolerate no final consonants at all, or only very few, Bug. for instance, two, viz. q and ; other languages admit all the consonants, except the mediæ; others, again, allow all the consonants, including the mediæ, to serve as finals.

*According to Sundermann, the Nias sound x, which he writes ch, is pronounced like the German ch in "wachen".

[Much the same as the ch in Scotch "loch ", therefore.]

† [The Sĕraway vocabulary gives no indication as to the force of this final w, but it may be assumed that it forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel, wherein (it must be remembered) the second member is not a full vowel, but partakes of a consonantal nature.]