Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/217

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ESSAY III
205

duration: thus Old Jav. has given the active formative man- and the passive formative -in- a durative tinge which did not originally belong to them. Illustration, from the Āśramawasanaparwa: "As long as Draupadi was being ill-treated" = D. as + long + as she was + being + ill-treated = Dropadī kāla nira winudan. — Other languages, again, are able to express the fact that something just intervenes during the continuance of an action. But here we do not meet with genuine formatives, but merely auxiliary words of form such as těnah, sědaṅ, or sadaṅ, and the like. Illustration, Mkb., from the Manjau Ari: "A woman was engaged in weaving" = A person woman "sadaṅ" wove = sa oraṅ padusi sadaṅ batanun. — Bont. has a formative naka- to indicate the conclusion of the action. Illustration, from the Story of the Rat and the Two Brothers: "Now they have finished eating" = Now h. + f. + e. they = keceṅ nakakanan ca.

II. Here and there we also find participial formatives. Nias has a present participle in s-, the formation of which has been discussed in Section III. — Illustration, from the Story of the Fish and the Rat: "A woman drawing water" = Woman d. w. =alawe sanaqu idano.

III. In several IN languages number can be expressed. Masaretese has a verbal formative which is da- in the singular, and du- in the plural. Illustration, from the History of the Tagalasi Tribe: "He saw the inhabitants of Tagalasi-Miten sitting there" = Saw i. the T.-M. sit = daaṅak geba ro Tagalasi-Miten duptea. — Nias uses an infixed g as a sign of the plural. Illustration, from the Story of Buruti:

Thou weepest mee o
They weep always mege-ege ira.

In Gayo the formative i indicates the plural either of the subject or of the object, the latter in the following sentence from the Story of the Blue Princess: "She had all her clothes on" = All had + on clothes = mbeh sěloki pěkayan.

Note.—All the phenomena mentioned in this appendix to Section VII occur only sporadically; we cannot draw from them any conclusions as regards Common IN.