Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/305

Rh The Aspirates and their Laws.

177. As the majority of the IN languages only tolerate combinations of consonants to a limited extent, some of them merely the combination of a nasal with a cognate explosive, the aspirated consonants are not widely distributed in IN.

178. Aspirated consonants have arisen in the hving IN languages in the following ways :

I. They are found in WB's formed by the doubling of roots having h as their initial and an explosive as their final, as in Old Javanese hathat, "to take care", Bisaya hagliag, "texture". These cases are not numerous.

II. A few languages, like Tagalog, allow the combination of most of the consonants with a subsequent h, and consequently also that kind of combination which we call the aspirates. Hence in Tagalog a word like bugháw, " blue ",is just as permissible as a word like panhik, "to ascend".

III. In Madurese, aspirates arise in conformity with phonetic law by the change of Original IN mediæ into aspirated mediæ; hence Original IN gantuṅ, "to hang" > Mad. ghantoṅ; Original IN jalan, "path" > Mad. jhalan; Original IN dagaṅ, "stranger, trader" > Mad. dhaghah; Original IN kĕmbaṅ, "bud" > Mad. kĕmbhaṅ, "flower".

IV. In a few languages, as in Cham and Achinese, aspirates arise through the elision of vowels. Hence Original IN pohon, "tree" > Cham phun; Original IN tahu, "to know" ^ Ach. thee.

V. Aspirates are found in loan-words from the Sanskrit, as in Tagalog katha, "speech".

VI. Achinese renders the Arabic f by ph, as in kaphé, "the infidel".

179. Only the few isolated cases of aspiration mentioned under § 178, I, can be ascribed to Original IN. There is therefore a great difference in the relative importance of the aspirates as between Original IN and Original IE.