Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/177

Rh on the one hand, a nd to the passive on the other. And there are languages in which ma- is exchisively neutral. Similarly we often find uses that fluctuate between the one type and the other, as in the sentence from the Mentaway Fishermen's Stories: "The fat fish is now hemmed in " = Fat + fish is + hemmed + in = mokmok maipit.

II. The formative ka, originally, as shown above, a preposition, does duty in some languages as the sign of the future active, in others as the sign of the passive without any implication of tense. Thus the Minangkabau katiṅga, "to be about to stay", is future; the Bug. kacalla, "to be accursed", is passive. Here, too, we can give a rational account of the double evolution of the meaning. We shall see later on that in the IN sentence verbs of motion can often be omitted altogether, so that one may simply say: "I into the forest ", "I out of the town". Now if we think of sentences like " I (am going) to (= ka) dinner", we can well understand that a future in ka- might be evolved out of them; but it is equally comprehensible that a passive in ka- might grow out of sentences like " I (get) into (= ka) the curse ". — Illustrations: Minangkabau, from the Manjau Ari: "You will stay, I shall go" = anku ka-tiṅga, den ka-pai. Sundanese, from the Story of Nyai Sumur Bandung: "The story is told, how Rangga Wayang reached the centre of the town" = It is told, R. W. reaching to c. t. = ka-carios Raṅga Wayaṅ sumpiṅ ka hulu dayöh.

III. Common IN has a formative -ĕn for forming the imperative passive. Alongside of this there is a formative -ĕṅ that has an accusative or causative force ; in accordance with the phonetic laws set forth above it appears in Bug. as -ĕn, in Nias as -o, e.g. in Nias balio, "to transform", beside bali, "to turn back, to return." — Now here, in the case of these two -ĕn's, the imperative passive and the causative active one, I can think of no connecting link, nor have I found any-