Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/289

Rh fore proceed from an Original IN hamzah. The hamzah-law is peculiarly interesting for the following reason: in IN the hamzah is very widely distributed, in IE on the other hand it is very little known; the phenomena connected with the hamzah therefore mark an important difference between IE and IN.

IV. The law of the mediæ. In a number of IN languages media and continuant interchange in one and the same word. Thus in Bugis the WB for "to cut off" appears sometimes as bětta and sometimes as wětta, thus at times with the momentary media h, and at other times with the continuant w. Probably there was nothing corresponding to this in Original IN; so in this case (in contrast to the other three laws) we cannot have recourse to Original IN at all.

The Pepet-Law. 121. Original IN possessed the vowel ě, described in § 53, produced with the mouth-cavity in a position of indifference, and often called pěpět.

122. This pěpět has been preserved in a minority of the IN languages, e.g. in Old Javanese, Karo, Bugis, etc. Thus Old Jav. has preserved the original phonetic condition in the case of the pěpět, while abandoning it in the case of the EGH-law.

123. The pěpět can change into all the other vowels: a, i, u, e, o. Original IN teken, "staff", results in Makassar takkaṅ, Dayak teken, Tagalog tikin; Original IN enem, "six", becomes in Toba onom, in certain Formosan dialects unum.

124. In several languages Original IN e has a multifarious resultant.

I. The accent is the determining factor. In Hova ě in an accentuated syllable becomes e, in an unaccentuated one i, hence Original IN ěněm > Hova ěnina. In Kolo in the same way the resultants are o and u, hence Original IN ěněm > Kolo onu. Notice the parallel between the more sonorous