Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/102

90 denotes both a region of the earth and a region of the sky. Li ice wise in Toba banua ginjan = " Upper banua " = " sky ", while banua tona on = " this middle banua " == " the earth ".

54. The initial of words. Every sound of the phonetic scheme set out in § 49 can serve as the initial of a Common IN word. Evidence in support of this is superfluous. But there cannot be more than one consonant at the beginning of a word. Initials of two consonants appear in quite isolated cases; thus Gayo has contracted Common IN beli, " to buy ", into bli*

55. The interior of words, or more precisely, the conson-antal element between the two vowels of disyllabic words. In this position every individual IN language admits one or two consonants, but not more.

56. The commonest case of the combination of two con-sonants is that of a nasal + a cognate explosive, e.g., n + k in Tonsea dunkud, "to speak ironically". This case occurs in every individual IN language, and can straightway be styled Common IN.

57. Another common case of the combination of two con- sonants in the interior of a word arises from the reduplication of the root, which is one of the methods of forming words out of roots. Thus in Old Jav. from the root kab, " to move to and fro ", which does not occur in actual speech, we find the derivative formations unkab and, with reduplication, kabkab. Here we have the combination b + k.

58. Now some of the IN languages only tolerate the first of the two above-mentioned cases : nasal + cognate explosive. Others also admit the second one, e.g. certain languages of the Philippines, Java, Sumatra, and the Northern and South- western Borders. Thus Bis. in the Philippines says kapkap for " to touch ", but Day. in Borneo says kakap, and cannot say otherwise.

59. But we find certain indications which render it prob-able that the languages with the kakap type of combination * [See Essay IV, §§ 187 seqq.]    † [See Essay IV, §§ 193 seqq.]