Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/28

 22.  Here the writer ends this list, for it occurs to him that the method therein followed might be objected to. A very severe critic might observe, that the several series of the preceding paragraph, and also those of § 16, consist of two terms only; that these coincidences might in some cases at any rate be determined by mere chance; and that a higher degree of certainty would be attained if the series comprised a greater number of terms. — Though the writer does not believe that these objections are well founded, he will nevertheless take them into account and will produce series of Karo words containing a larger number of terms :

igar, sěgar, tońgar, " to splinter ": root gar.

měgah, agah, juńgah, " proud " : root gah.

anjuń, " to raise up ", ujuń, " summit ", tanjuń, " hill " : root juń.

lintań, " weal (on the body) ", rintań, " row ", listań, tintań,

" rectilinear " : root tań.

idah, " to see ", dědah, " to look on at ", cidah, " to show ",

pědah, " to teach " : root dah.

ělah, " finished ", alah, " conquered ", tělah, " to end a strife

(by intervening) " : root lah.

sulit, salit, " to peel ", kulit, " skin " : root lit.

23.  The writer could extend this table further, but he desires that his monographs should not exceed a certain compass. As he is not aiming at the production of a vocabulary of roots, he cannot reasonably be required to enumerate every individual case ; he need only produce as many examples as may be necessary on each occasion to give the reader a true insight into the matter in hand. Accordingly all the lists in this- monograph will merely represent a selection of specially characteristic cases.

24.  The writer himself must, of course, take a general survey of the whole of the material, he must at this very point be in a position to answer the question whether it is possible to determine all the Karo roots by the process hitherto followed. The answer is : A great many, but by no means all, of the Karo roots can be detected in this way. For many of