Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/323

Rh On p. 109, 1. 1, we find as an equivalent for the same phrase sapa im pĕsiriq. From ĕn ipĕsiriq there has been metathesis to in ĕpĕsiriq, then the initial e has disappeared, making in pĕsiriq, and finally by assimilation im pĕsiriq has resulted.

239. Metathesis may either be definitive or optional, permitting both forms, the original and the modified one, to exist side by side. Original IN par2i, "ray (fish)", appears in Tontemboan as pair, and in no other form ; but in Sundanese ayud and aduy, "soft", exist side by side.

240. We notice in various languages a certain preference for particular kinds of metathesis.

I. The preference is connected with the position of the sounds in the word. The Mantangay dialect of Dayak favours metathesis in the case of the first syllable of trisyllabic words; it has dahaṅan for the hadaṅan, "buffalo", of the standard Dayak dialect.

II. The preference is related to a particular result. In Sawunese metathesis mostly operates so that an a of the second syllable comes into the first one, the a also changing into ĕ; hence Original IN pira, "how much" > Saw. pĕri, r2umah, "house" > ĕmú, etc.

241. In certain languages we meet with metatheses occurring in regular series. When in Original IN an l immediately precedes the second vowel of a word and an r immediately follows it, then these consonants invariably change places in Gayo; hence Gayo tĕrul, "egg" < Original IN tĕlur2, arul, "brook" < alur2, etc.

242. Haplology. This occurs in IN in the first place sporadically in various languages, thus in Tsimihety. In "Chansons Tsimihety", Bulletin de I'Académie Malgache, 1913, p. 100, V. 10, we find mañi-reboṅo, "growing densely", for maniri-rehono, from the WB tsiri, "to grow".

243. Haplology also occurs in most regular series in connexion with the doubling of words. Here either the first or the second term of the duphcation may be abbreviated by the method of haplology. The first kind, the abbreviation of