Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/18

6 can be pursued unchanged through a series of words with similar meanings. Now such a combination of sounds as this we style a root.

3. These roots and these word-bases are the theme of the present dissertation. Our first task will be to extract the root from the word-base; then we must describe the root; thirdly, we have to show how word-bases are formed from roots; our fourth and last duty will be to delineate the characteristics of the word-base. 4. IN linguistic formations are less compressed and more transparent than Indo-European ones; some living IN languages are archaic to a degree far surpassing that of any modern IE language, even the Lithuanian. The IN languages which are geographically furthest apart from each other, the IN dialects of Formosa and the Batan Islands on the one hand and the dialects of Madagascar on the other, stand in a much closer relation to one another than Hindustani and Irish. From all this it follows that we can recognize the root and its characteristics more clearly and certainly in IN than in IE research. Here follows a short comparative table showing how closely Formosan and Batanese —according to Otto Scheerer's researches—are related in certain particulars to Mlg.

5. An insight into the nature of roots and words is one of the more important factors in IN linguistic research. Bopp's attempt to prove a relationship between IN and IE was foredoomed to failure from the start because, for one thing, he made no effort whatever to acquire such an insight before