Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/329

Rh baeari. It must not, however, be imagined that the o and e here merely fulfil the consonantal function of the w and y : they become full vowels, and hence take on the accent and become the summits of syllables; accordingly the results are the trisyllabic aóak and the quadrisyllable baéari.

263. When a word consists of several syllables, there arises the question where the limits of the syllables lie. In Bontok "two intervocalic consonants are divided and distributed among two syllables", but "ds (and) ts are considered as one sound " (Seidenadel). According to § 60, ds and ts represent Original IN palatals. "In Achinese, when there is a combination of nasal with explosive or even of nasal + explosive + liquid, as in cintra, 'wheel', the first syllable ends with the vowel and the second begins with the combination" (Snouck Hurgronje). This rule must also hold good for some other IN languages; various phenomena point in that direction. In several languages, as in Nias (§ 188), a WB can begin with nasal + explosive ; in others, as in Modern Javanese (§ 69), such a combination does not make the preceding vowel short. And is perhaps also the bĕt n se of § 261 to be regarded as bĕt + nse ?

264. Variahilitij in the division into syllables also occurs. "In Madurese a hamzah between vowels may be pronounced as the end of the first syllable or the beginning of the second" (Kiliaan): accordingly poqon, "tree", is either poq-on or /poqon, or even poq-qon.

265. In Bontok we find a few cases where the limit between syllables is further marked by the shutting of the vocal chords, i.e. by hamzah; thus in the Headhunters' Ceremonies, Seidenadel-Texts, p. 512, 1. 3: totokqkoṅan, "to watch".

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