Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/320



SECTION VIII : CERTAIN SPECIAL CLASSES OF PHONETIC PHENOMENA.

225. In this Section will be discussed certain phonetic phenomena which occupy a somewhat special position and are also usually dealt with separately in the IE textbooks. These phenomena are: prothesis, anaptyxis, repetition of sounds, metathesis, haplology, assimilation, "Umlaut", dissimilation, and fracture.

226. The most frequently occurring kind of prothesis is the affixing of a pĕpĕt before words that were originally monosyllabic or had become monosyllabic through some process of phonetic change. The cause of this phenomenon is the tendency towards disyllabism (§ 19). Old Javanese goṅ, "gong", appears in Modern Jav. as ĕgoṅ as well as goṅ. Original IN dur2i, "thorn", passes through rur2i into Old Jav. rwi, in accordance with the principle mentioned in § 137, and then in Modern Jav. undergoes a further evolution into ri, by the side of which now appears a form ĕri. Dutch lijst, "list", appears in IN languages as les and ĕles. 227. This prothetic e is also subject to the phonetic laws of change; hence "gong" in Toba is oguṅ, as Toba alters the pĕpĕt into o.

228. Instead of the pĕpĕt, i may also appear before y and u before w. The Old Javanese conjunction ya, "that", is likewise ya in Tontemboan, but people also use both the forms ĕya and iya, in accordance with what has been said above. Original IN buwah, "fruit", becomes Old Jav. wwah; from this is regularly derived the Modern Jav. woh, but alongside of the latter there is also a form uwoh. Rh