Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/271

Rh 72. Many parallels can be drawn between the IN and IE phenomena of quantity. The IN law of quantity coincides with the German one; cf. Siebs, "Deutsche Bühnenaussprache", in the section entitled "Vokale". Madurese knows no differences in quantity, precisely like Rumanian; cf. Tiktin, "Rumänisches Elementarbuch", § 15.

Quantity of Vowels in Monosyllabic Words. 73. In some languages the monosyllabic words of substance are long, e.g. in Karo. Thus even the Karo word pět, "to seek", wherein ě is — inaptly — used for the pěpět, is pronounced long. In other languages such words are short; so in Hova, e.g. in lǎ, "negation".

74. The monosyllabic affirmative a or o is long in most languages, as is shown especially by the spelling of the texts; thus in the Kamberese Story of the Top, Bijdr. 1913, p. 83, l. 28, we find: "Yes, yes, said they" = ā ā hiwada.

75. Monosyllabic words of form are mostly short, because (for one thing) they have but a weak stress in the sentence. But they may be long; thus according to Meerwaldt the Toba bē, "every", and pē, "even", are long. When a shortly pronounced word of form is formed by composition into a word of substance, length of vowel may ensue. In the Bareqe Tale "The Monkey and the Pig", Bareqe Leesboek, p. 15, 1. 4, we find: "To dig up roots" = maṅkae toraa. Adriani's spelling with aa indicates the length of the final vowel. "Root" = torā, with the accent on the ā, really stands for "that (which is) in (the earth)", the word for "in" being rǎ.

Quantity of Unaccentuated Syllables. 76. The syllables which precede the accentuated one are almost always short. Bugis has some long ones, but a search through the dictionary only reveals about half a dozen cases, and these are mostly unexplained etymologically, as' mēñcána, "shallow".