Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/334



274. Abbreviation of words occurs in very various kinds of cases; certain languages use it in words of every category, others in certain sorts of words, e.g. proper names. Most commonly a word is abbreviated at the beginning, less often at the end, and least frequently in its interior, as for example in the case of Napu au < Original IN anu, “such and such a one, that which”. Very rare indeed are such cases of irregular compression as the Karo ĕrbubai, “to announce a marriage formally” < ĕrdĕmu bayu. Abbreviation always occurs in isolated cases, here and there pretty commonly, but never in definite series determined by phonetic laws, apart from the haplological abbreviations in the doubhng of words (§ 234), which are, however, a special phenomenon. The full form may give rise to several short forms: thus of the above mentioned anu there are in Napu the two short forms au and u. All three forms figure side by side in the Napu text, “The Creation of the World” ; p. 393, 1. 6: “that which we see” = anu ta-ita; p. 394, 1. 11 : “that which is wild” = au maila; p. 394, 1. 11 : “that which lives” = u tuwo. 275. Abbreviation in WB’s, irrespective of the category to which they belong.

I. In Achinese, in consequence of the accentuation of the last syllable, the first syllable of many WB’s is dropped. In the Story of the Clever Blind Man, appended to Van Langen’s grammar, p. 109, 1. 12, we find in the second sentence two abbreviated WB’s next to one another: “To climb a coconut palm” = ik ur. Here ik - < Original IN naik and ur < niur2. II. In Cham we meet with similar abbreviations, e.g. in lan, “month” ", “aphseresis from Original IN bulan” (Cabaton). Rh