Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/215

 III. Pronouns can be used with other parts of speech besides verbs.-Illustration, Bug., from the Injilai: "You are a man, I am a bird" = tau ko, ku manuqmanuq.

IV. The short form need not necessarily be the subject, it may be the object.

128. The closer combination. This is found, e.g., in Mai. Here the short form of the pronoun only goes with verbs; between the pronoun and the verb nothing can be interposed ; ku lihat can only mean "I see", not " see me". — The accent does not come into question here, for words that precede do not influence the accent of what follows. 129. But the most intimate combination of the short pronoun and the verb is to be found in Rottinese. The verbal formatives in Rottinese begin with a vowel; and the short forms of the pronouns, which precede the verb, have lost their vowels, e.g. "he" = n < na. Hence it has become possible for the short pronoun and the verb to coalesce into a real unit. For instance, the WB for "to flee" is lai, the verb alai, " he flees" is nalai. Specimen paradigm:

Note I.—Rottinese usually also puts the full form of the pronoun before this conjugated verb, e.g. "I wait" = au ahani. Note II.—The transition from the short form of the pronoun with a vowel to a form without a vowel is neatly illustrated in Mentaway. Whereas in Mak. "I" is only ku and "thou" only nu, in Mentaway one can say either ku or k, nu or n, when a vowel immediately follows. Thus in the same Love