Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/112

SECTION IV : FORMAL ANALYSIS OF WORDS. Preliminary Observations. 81. Regarded from the point of view of their formal structure, the words of the IN languages fall into five classes: interjections, words of form, words of substance,pronouns and numerals. Interjections. 82. The interjections found in the several IN languages are mostly monosyllabic formations, incapable of being ana-lysed further. They can end either in a vowel or a consonant. Example: the Tontb. Dirge for a Dead Mother begins: “Alas, mother, o mother, o mother !” " = o inaq, e inaq, e inaq. They often appear in reduphcated form, e.g. Sund. bobo beside bo,. a word used in mild reproof; and the reduplication may be accompanied by vowel change, particularly in cases where the word is intended to imitate a sound (onomatopoeia). e.g. Day. pikpak beside pak, “smack ! pop !"” 83. We will take a closer view of one single interjection, one that we are in a position to style Common IN. It is the interjection of affirmation, and its form is a, or when redupli-cated aa, or ia. Yes. Philippines, Iloko : a — • Borneo, Day.: ia — Near Java, Bal. : a — Sumatra, Gayo: a — Malay Peninsula, Mal.: iya — Madagascar, Tangkaranese : ia — Eastern Border,. Kamberese: a or aa. Words of Form. 84. Like the interjections, the words of form are mostly monosyllables incapable of further analysis. They often consist of two sounds, and in that case usually end with the vowel. This characteristic is illustrated, for example, by the words of form contained in the following sentence from the