Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/54

 ficiency ”, remains kuraṅ in Gayo. The chief rule, which includes the majority of the individual cases, runs: a remains a before final ṅ, as in the above-mentioned kuraṅ; exceptions: böṅ, “ a species of plantain ”, and röṅ, “ elderly ”. Now follow the examples:

Karo and Gayo: tul, “ unable to get through ”.

Karo and Gayo: dah, “ clay ”.

Mal. and Bal.: laṅ, “ kite ”.

Old Jav. and Daïri: pu, “ master ”.

Old Jav. bap, " very ", Gayo böp, “ brave ”.

Old Jav. duk, " to push ", Mentaway duk, “ to stamp ”.

Old Jav. pet, " to seek ", Karo pĕt, “ to desire keenly ”.

III.  Examples running through three languages:

Old Jav., Bal., Gayo: luh, “ tear ”.

Old Jav., Toba, Gayo: liṅ, “ word, sound ”.

Magindanao, Tontb., Mentaway: kan, “ food ”.

72. Sixth category: words of form. There is a considerable number of monosyllabic words of form in the IN languages. Some of them run in unchanged shape through so many IN languages that we must ascribe them to Original IN. These include:

n: genitive preposition.

i: locative preposition.

ka: the preposition “ until, to, for ”.

ku: possessive pronoun of the first person.

a: particle of uncertain judgment, hence in Bug. meaning “ or ”, in Old Jav. “ to be compared with ”, in Bis. “ what sort of ? ”.

The following examples exhibit the distribution of some of these monosyllabic words of form, and at the same time illustrate their application:

I. The genitive preposition n:

Mlg.: ra n usi, “ blood of a goat ”.

Gayo: gĕral n guru, “ name of the teacher ”.