Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/216

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INDONESIAN LINGUSTICS

Dialogue we find: " Why don't you care to? " = Why not you care = apa ta nu oba, and " Don't you care for me? " = ta n oba aku .

130. Illustrations of the Rottinese conjugation. It so happens that the whole conjugation is represented in the Animal Play:

I — " I say " = au ae.

Thou — " Don't you know, then? " = Then thou not know = le o ta malelak.

He — " He seeks the man " = nakaneni touk a .

We — " We flee " = ala talai.

You — " Eat! " = mua leonma.

They — " That they may not see me " = That they n. s. me = fo ala boso lita au.

131. In the languages in which the short pronouns are closely connected with the verb, the pronoun only does duty as the subject: Mal. ku lihat can never mean " see me ". In languages where the connexion is a less intimate one the pronoun can also serve as the object. — Illustration from the Mak. Jayalangkara : " (It were better that we roam around than that) the snake should eat us " = Us it eat, snake = kiq na kanre naga.

132. In the languages which possess two series of short pronouns, such as Bug., Mak., and Nias, when at the same time one pronoun is used before the verb and another after it, then the first one is the subject and the second the object. — Illustrations. Bug., from the Injilai: " I kill you " = u sampelle o. Nias, from the Story of Buruti : "I love you " = u omasiqo o.

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133. We have learnt that the IN verb can express genus, mood, tense and person. That, however, does not conclude the cycle of its vital manifestations.

I. We have already heard that certain languages are able to express the beginning of an action, by means of the aorist formative um. — Now some languages can also indicate