Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/336

 Such Dayak names are, e.g., Agap < tagap, “strong”, Adus < radus, “stout”, Ilak < kilak, “love”, Inaw < ginaw, “to shine”. These abbreviations imitate the words of relationship “father”, “mother”, and “child” , which in most of the IN languages begin with a vowel, the Original IN types being, of course, ama, ina, and anak.

V. In technical terms. Here we often meet with very drastic abbreviations, just as in similar cases in IE : of. English pops < popular concerts (Brugmann KvG, § 366, 5). Thus the Bugis ida-ida, which denotes a certain poison, is an abbreviation of “quickly- working poison” = p. q.-w. = racuṅ maqpacidacida.

VI. In compounds. Here, in the first place, the abbreviation may occur at the point of junction of the two words. The first member of the compound loses its final vowel, more rarely a consonant and in that case mostly the aspirate h. Examples: Ampana torarue, “water-spirit” < spirit + water = torara + ue; Minangkabau tigari, “a festival” < tiga, “three” + hari, “day”. Or else the first member of the compound, which usually has the weaker stress, may be abbreviated; as in Busang bĕtaóq, “right side” < beh, “side” + taóq, “right”.

Particular notice is due to certain Bugis abbreviations wherein the first member of the compound loses a final ṅ, as in po-lila, “back part of the tongue” < pon, “stem” + lila; similarly po-lima, “back part of the hand”. The abbreviation is explicable by the fact that a sequence like ṅ + l is not permissible in the interior of a WB ; but why should there be abbreviations like po-kanuku, “back part of the nail” seeing that the sequence ṅ + k occurs very often in WB's ? The reason is that these are analogical formations; po-kanuku has imitated po-lima.

VII. In groups of words that denote a single idea and therefore approximate to compounds. In the first place, such groups as have for their first element a title. In the story Ja Bayur, in Ophuijsen, “Bataksche Texten, Mandailingsch Dialect”, p. 74, 1. 4 from the bottom, we find: “His name