Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/136

 167. ln several languages we find a formative pa- used for indicating the agent, but it competes with mpa-, par-, pan-, etc., which are of course related to it, but are not identical with it; hence we cannot infer any Common IN factor here.

The Adjective.*

168. The Common IN formative for the formation of adjectives is ma-. In the Tag. riddle about the five fingers, in Starr, " Filipino Riddles " : " Five coconut trees, one is high (= higher than the others) " = limaṅ puno naṅ niog, isa i malayog: malayog is an adjective, formed by means of ma-from the word-base layog. 169. The adjectival formative ma-. Philippines, Inv.: mapia, " good ", word-base pia, " goodness "' — Celebes, Ponosakan: mapihia, "good" — Borneo, Day.: manis, "sweet" < ma + anis, "sweetness" — Java, Old Jav. : maputih, "white" — Sumatra, Toba: malimbo, "high" — Madagascar, Hova: malutu, "dirty" — Northern Border, Form.: matakot, "timid" — Eastern Border, Kamberese: maliṅu, "useful" — South-Western Border, Mentaway: mabatu, " stony ". 170. Several IN languages possess a formative for the comparative, usually -an or -ěn, but it is not distributed widely enough to enable us to call it Common IN.

The Adverb. 171. In the IN languages the adverb is mostly identical with the adjective, or it is a prepositional construction, or a substantive may be used adverbially without a preposition, and the like. Example : In Ranawaluna's Book of Laws, Article II, we find: " Theft of rice, by mowing it by night in the field " = The mowing rice (by) night there in the field= ni midzindza wari alina ani an tsaha. In this Hova sentence the substantive alina, " night ", is used without change or addition as an adverb.
 * [See also § 18.5.]