Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/308

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INDONESIAN LINGUISTICS

Busang in the like case a hamzah is used, and i turns into e, u into o. Table of examples:

Original IN lima Busang limáq, "five"
děfa depáq, "span"
buta hutáq, "blind"
běli beléq, "to buy"
laki lakéq, "man"
tali taléq, "rope"
asu asóq, "dog"
batu batóq, "stone"
kayu kayóq, "tree".
186. In Madurese all three grades of enunciation may occur in the same word. If a word in Original IN ends in a vowel or diphthong, as mata, "eye", laju, "to proceed", patay, "death", the word is pronounced in Mad. with aspirated enunciation, hence matah, pateh, lajhuh, "thereupon". In the interior of a sentence the aspiration is lost, and thus in the texts appended to Kiliaan's Grammar, I, p. 124, 1. 12, we find: "Thereupon (he) died" = lajhu mateh. Before a pause, due to the speaker being at a loss how to proceed, the word is pronounced with a hamzah, thus lajhuq ... mateh.

The Initial.

187. IN words can, as a rule, begin with a vowel, a semi-vowel, or a simple consonant; and this state of affairs is to be regarded as Original IN. In connexion therewith the following points are also to be noted:
I. Before the initial vowel some languages sound a hamzah (see § 181).
II. Few words in the IN languages begin with the semi-vowel y, and none of them can be shown to be Original IN. Initial w is more frequent, but it mostly originates from b. Of Original IN w there are only three cases: walu, "eight", wara, "to be, to exist", and way, "water".
III. In contrast with the IE languages, is not a rare phenomenon among the initial consonants.