Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/344

This page has been validated.


332
INDONESIAN LINGUISTICS
300. Loss of vowels.
I. ATien tlie vowel ends the word and the next one begins with a vowel, e.g. in Hova. Hain-Teny, p, 136, v. 6: “To be disquieted” = Have disquiet = manan eritreritra < manana eritreritra.
II. When the vowel ends the word and the next one begins with a consonant, in Kupangese. From the story Bihata Mesa, Bijdr. 1904, p. 257, 1. 3: “(They) sit together” = dad buan < dada and buan.
III. lTien the vowel is closed by a consonant, in Timorese. From the story Atonjes, Bijdr. 1904, p. 271, 1. 17: “This mother” = M. t. = ainf i < ainaf and i.
301. Loss of consonants, in Kamberese. From the Story of the Top, Bijdr. 1913, p. 82, 1. 7: “Pasture (for) horses” = pada njara < padaṅ and njara.
302. Special phenomena of the groups of intimate relation mentioned in § 292.
I. In Old Javanese certain pronouns when in a proclitic position may lose a final vowel, even before a word that begins with a consonant. Thus Eamayana, XXII, str. 17, v. 1: “Then shall I recognize thy love” = ṅke k tona asih ta. The k is an abbreviation of ku, the proclitic pronoun of the first person, which appears in that form and with that function in many IN languages; tona is the future of ton, “to see”. Apart from these cases Old Javanese does not employ elision but only contraction or the change of a vowel into a consonant.
II. In Nias after a final vowel in certain groups of intimate relation the voiceless initial consonant of the next word is changed into a voiced (or sonant) one; thus in the combination “principal word + subjective genitive” , or the combination “preposition + principal word” . The word for “heart” in Nias is to2do2, but in the story Siwa Ndrofa, Bijdr. 1905, p. 34, 1. 7, we find: “In (the) heart” " = ba do2do2.
303. The phonetic phenomena of the sentence sometimes take place with strict regularity, sometimes less regularly.
I. Voicing in Nias takes place with strict regularity.