Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/83



INTRODUCTION. 1. In the Tagalog language of the Philippines the word for " sky " is laṅit, and it has also the same form in the Tontemboan of Celebes, the Dayak of Borneo, the Javanese of Java, the Gayo of Sumatra, the Malay of the Malay Peninsula, the language of the Mentaway Islands (which lie to the south-west of Sumatra), and in many other Indonesian languages besides these. It is true that in the language of the Batan Islands, northward of the Philippines, we find gañit, in the Bimanese of Sumbawa, an island lying towards New Guinea, lañi, and in the Hova of Madagascar lanitra; but it can be proved by means of strict phonetic laws that these three tongues, in an earlier stage of their development, also used the form laṅit. — We have, therefore, in many IN ( = Indonesian) languages one and the same expression for " sky ", viz. laṅit.

Note. —The accentuation of IN words, including therefore laṅit, is dealt with in § 75.

2. Such IN linguistic material as recurs in many different languages either unchanged or modified only in accordance with strict phonetic laws, we style Common Indonesian. We say, therefore, that there is a Common IN name for the sky, viz. laṅit.

3. The wider the distribution of an IN linguistic phenomenon, the more positively shall we be entitled to pronounce it to be Common IN. Our right to do so will be particularly strong when the phenomenon manifests itself at the most different points of the IN linguistic area: i.e., to put the matter concretely, in the seven great insular regions and the three border districts.

Note I. — The seven great insular regions are: the Philippines, Celebes, Borneo, Java with Madura and Bah, Sumatra,

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