Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/179

Rh II. Makassar. 40. The number of formatives that can be attached to the WB at one time varies in the different IN languages, but hardly ever exceeds four. From the point of view of its capacity to form these combinations, the most interesting language is perhaps the Bug. In the Tiruray sentence from the collection of dialogues of an anonymous author: "I am hungry" = melayaf u, the verb has only the one formative, me-. In the Bug. sentence from the Injilai: "She was recognized everywhere" = W. + r + e.s. = riasiisěṅi (n) i, we have, to begin with, the WB isěṅ, "to know", and then four formatives: a, which simply turns the WB into a verb; i, which makes it transitive; si, which expresses the "everywhere" ; and ri, the passive formative.

41. The number of formatives possessed by the several IN languages varies greatly. The richest in this respect are the languages of the North, of Formosa, the Philippines, the intervening islands, and Northern Celebes; Sangirese, for instance, has about a hundred. The poorest in formatives are the languages of the East, Bim., for example, having only two, viz. ma- and ka-. The remaining regions occupy an intermediate position in this respect.

42. Lastly, the formative methods of fashioning verbs also include the method of reduplication, which is a particularly common IN feature in other parts of speech besides the verb, occurs in the most various shapes, and mostly indicates