Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/338

326 languages. The Tontemboan negative raqi is often strengthened by the particle ka, thus forming raqica (in accordance with the rule in § 103, II), which again by abbreviation becomes ca. As appears from an examination of all the texts, this ca is especially found in dialogues.

278. The full form and the short form may serve side by side in the language. In Cham " a certain " is holey, or, abbreviated, ley. Now, in the story Mu Gajaung, p. 22, 1. 29, we find: " On a certain day " = harey holey; but in 1. 11: harey ley.

279. In abbreviations, phonetic phenomena may occur which are not otherwise possible in the language in question. Rottinese has a word bindae, " a sort of vessel " ᐸ bina " shell " + dae, " earth "; but in the interior of Rot. WB's the sequence n + d does not occur.

280. A considerable proportion of the IN abbreviations of words have parallels in IE. In IE, as in IN, the species of abbreviation whereby sounds in the interior of words are eliminated, is the rarest: see Brugmann KvG, § 366, 5. — Elimination of the final vowel of the first part of a compound is found in Gothic, e.g. in hauhhairts, " proud ", as compared with armahairts, " merciful " : see Wilmann, " Deutsche Grammatik ", the section entitled " Der Vokal in der Kompositions- fuge". Abbreviations of titles are found, e.g. Middle High German ver ᐸ vrouve, Italian wa ᐸ donna. An instance of abbreviation in exclamations is the Swiss-German mänt ᐸ Sacrament. A case of the abbreviation of the negative going so far as to deprive it of its significative nucleus is the Swiss-German at, “nothing”.