Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/265

Rh III. The fleeting pěpět. In some languages the pěpět shares the characteristics of the other vowels: it can occur in long and short form, accentuated and unaccentuated. In other languages, e.g. in Tontemboan, it only appears as a short vowel. Or else, as in Gayo, it cannot carry the accent: hence Gayo túluk, "to verify", but "tělúk", "bay".

This fleeting character of the pěpět is causally connected with various IN phonetic phenomena. So far as I am aware, the pěpět does not become a diphthong in any of the IN languages. In Old Jav., u before a vowel turns into a consonant, hence the conjunctive of těmu, "to meet with", is atěmwa; but before the pěpět the u persists, and the pěpět is simply absorbed, without any lengthening of the u; hence the gerund těmun < těmu + en.

54. The modified (Umlaut) vowels are described and discussed in another connexion (§§ 251 seqq.).

55. The nasalized vowels are not largely represented in IN. The nasalization is caused either by a preceding or a following nasal consonant.

I. The nasal consonant precedes. "In Achinese the nasals impart their strongly nasal sound to the following vowel" (Snouck Hurgronje).

II. The nasal consonant follows. "In Hova, as in French, the nasalization is coincident with the commencement of the vowel" (Rousselot). "In Sakalava, in the case of nasal vowels, one also hears the nasal, e.g. in the first a of the word mandea, "to go", the n sound" (Fahrner).

56. The semi-voivels y and w. " Javanese y is a semi-vowel like the French y in il y a" (Roorda). "Dayak y is to be pronounced as in the English you" (Hardeland). " Bontok w is as in (the English) winter; a consonantal u" (Seidenadel). "Makassar w is to be pronounced like the ou in the French ouate" (Matthes).

With this articulation of the two semi-vowels all sorts of IN phonetic phenomena are connected. " When speaking slowly the Dayak pronounces y as a short i, thus yaku, " I ",