Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/294

 282 entia between them. The chief dialect turns final Original IN r2 into k, hence Original IN niur2, "coconut" > niuka, with the supporting vowel a; for this oiiuka other dialects have niuca, niuha, niuta.

The Hamzah-Law. 140. In the living IN languages the hamzah is found as an initial sound before vowels, as a medial sound between vowels or between a vowel and a subsequent consonant, and as a final sound after vowels; in such positions, in fact, as in the Achinese qancó, "to melt", Madurese leqer, "neck", Bugis biriqta, "report", Makassar anaq, "child". — Other positions are rare, such as in the Bontok allqo, "pestle", Tontemboan ĕlaqb, "torch"; and the words in question nearly always offer etymological difficulties.

141. Hamzah is found occasionally as initial, medial, or final of the WB, in which case it is not derived from another sound.

142. In many IN languages words that "begin with a vowel" are pronounced with an emphatic enunciation, where by in fact a hamzah is sounded as initial before the vowel; this rule holds good for Achinese, Tontemboan, etc. It is true that neither the native script nor the transliteration made by scholars is in the habit of representing this hamzah; thus the word for "child" in Tontb. is written anak, but in reahty pronounced qanak, with an initial hamzah.

143. In several languages we find hamzah as a medial between the two vowels of the WB, when there is no other consonant there. In Nias, as the dictionary shows, this is often the case, though it is of course true that a percentage of these q’s result from k, as in ataqu, "to fear" < Original IN takut, and so fall under § 147. In Madurese such a hamzah is found in cases where other languages in the respective words have h or w or no sound at all, as in Mad. poqon, "tree" = Malay pohon = Bugis pōṅ, or in soqon, "to carry on the head" = Javanese suwun.