Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/23

Rh II. The word-type of Original IN: In Original IN any sound could be the initial of a word, but there could not be more than one consonant there. Any sound could serve as a final, except the series c j ñ; but here too only one consonant was allowed. In the interior of words, between the two vowels of disyllabic word-bases, there might be one consonant or two, the latter in very various combinations (see § 74).

A great part of the living IN languages has undergone changes in these respects. Some languages tolerate no consonants, or a very limited number of them, as finals; others admit very few combinations of consonants, for instance only nasal + cognate explosive, between the two vowels.

The reader will ask: How does the writer know this phonetic system and word-type of Original IN ? The writer answers: This knowledge is based on detailed comparative studies which will be submitted to the reader on some future occasion. Besides, the whole of the present dissertation will show that these assertions are correct.

12. When in the modern IN languages a derivative is formed from a word-base, the formatives used for that purpose are usually put before the word-base, they are prefixes; thus Sang, possesses nearly a hundred prefixes but only six infixes and five suffixes, and Day. has only one suffix as against a great number of prefixes. Now it is to be presumed that in Original IN, at the time when the monosyllabic roots were used as nuclei for the formation of disyllabic or polysyllabic word-bases, the same principle prevailed. That may, sixthly, serve us as an indication as to which part of the word-base should receive our particular attention during our search for the root, viz. the last part.

This view, put forward here as a presumptive probability, will be shown by the whole course of our investigation to be, the true one.

13. Seventhly, if our investigation were concerned with the IE languages, accent and quantity would be important