Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/49

Rh means leads to “confused and clouded” thinking: IN possesses sufficient linguistic means to avoid any such defect. It is true, for example, that the root i in Toba is both a preposition and also a demonstrative, but as preposition it pre-cedes the word with which it is in relation, and is prochtic with a weak stress, e.g., na i daṅka = “those on the boughs”, while as a demonstrative it folloivs the word with which it is in relation, and has more stress than it, e.g., pidoṅi = “this bird”.

61. In connexion with this theme we have to put two questions : What shades of meaning can a root have, and which is the primary one among such shades of meaning ? On this occasion we will deal with the matter by considering two instructive cases.

The root lut occurs in many IN languages. In Gayo we find as derivatives of it the words balut, to wind, to twist, bĕlut, “eel”, and kalut, “mental confusion”. One and the same root, therefore, yields a word-base denoting an action, another word -base denoting a concrete thing, and a third one denoting a psychical event. — Should anyone throw doubt on the relationship of these three words, we would draw his attention to the fact that precisely the same phenomenon is repeated in connexion with the Tontb. root sey: Tontb. kĕsey means “to wind” (intrans.), kosey, “eel”, and pĕsey, “doubt”.

62. Now which of the three shades of meaning of the root lut is the original one ?

This root has in many languages the meaning of “to twist, to entangle”, e.g. Karo ulut, “to twist”, Mal. bulut, “to wrap up hastily”, written Mkb. bilut, “irregularly shaped”, Bĕsĕmah balot, “to wrap round”, etc.; but only in quite a few languages does it mean “eel” or “mental confusion”; hence the first-named shade of meaning will probably be the original one.