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ESSAY IV
255
c is supradental (alveolar), the Malay one palatal, but not purely explosive like the Tontemboan one, but to some extent fricative" (Adriani). "Bontok j and c" (which Seidenadel writes dj and tj) "are dentals, not palatals; frequently they are near ds and ts (d and t ' mouillé ') " (Seidenadel).
61. From these and other descriptions of the palatals, it appears that their articulation varies very considerably in the several languages, so that the name "palatal" is often inappropriate, but more particularly that in several languages they are not purely explosive but accompanied by a fricative sound; in that case they do not represent a single consonant but rather two. From this circumstance many IN linguistic phenomena can be explained:
I. Just as no IN word may have more than one consonant at the end, so too a palatal is not permissible in that position.
II. In Dayak two consonants coming together make the preceding vowel short, as in sǎnda, "pawn, pledge", a simple media makes it long, as in lādin, "knife", but before the palatal media the vowel is always short, as in mǎja, "to visit". Thus j operates like two consonants together.
III. In Sundanese the accent falls on the last syllable when the penultimate contains a pěpět; thus for example in tělúk, "bay"; save that if two consonants follow immediately after the pěpět, as in děnki, "envious", the accent can remain upon the ě, and similarly if a palatal follows, as in sěja, "plan".
Note.—After the descriptions in § 60 we can understand why the native alphabets sometimes write the palatal nasal and sometimes the dental one before the palatals, thus tuñjuṅ or tunjuṅ, "water-lily".
62. Cerebrals or cucuminals. "In Madurese the cacuminals are produced by the articulation of the tip of the tongue against the front part of the hard palate, the tip of the tongue being bent upwards and backwards" (Kiliaan).
63. Dentals. "The Achinese d is formed by the articulation of the tip of the tongue against the gums close to the roots
