suffix i was originally a preposition. It signified place where and corresponds to the modern Malay di. ‘In Indonesian tongues article and preposition are often identical’ and i was also an Indonesian article.[1]
-in- is said to be a passive formative and is found in the Dayak kinan eaten from kan eat. It perhaps survives in the Malay word binatang, but it has no grammatical significance in Malay. Cp. also sěnantan milk white (of game cocks) from santan coco-nut milk; chěnonut pope's nose in fowl from chonet projecting.
-m- occurs in several Indonesian languages in kuman from the root kan eat. Professor Kern derives even the Malay word těmpat place from the old Javanese těpět spacious, vast + this infix, which he calls a durative. Schmidt summarizes its use in Austronesian tongues generally as expressing ‘manner, internal movement, happening’. It is fairly common in Malay as a crystallized relic and conveys the notion of duration and repetition:—
kunchup closing (of a flower), kěmunchup sensitive plant; kuning yellow, kěmuning a yellow-wood tree; santan coco-nut milk; nyiur sěmantan a coco-nut producing milk. It is commonest with reduplicated forms:—chĕrlang-chěměrlang radiant; gilang-gemilang repeated glillering; guroh-gĕmuroh prolonged roll of thunder; turun-temurun continuous descent; tabur-těmabur all sprinkled; silir-sĕmilir waving to and fro; tali cord, tali-těmali cordage.
-r- and -l- are infixes, common enough in Malay in crystallized forms, but no longer living formatives. So far as can be judged from examples, they appear to denote duration, intensity, plurality, reciprocity, confusion and
- ↑ Like the other Indonesian articles a and ra, which are held to survive as prefixes and suffixes in such words as the Malay anu, bunga from O. J. bung, ratu (Malay dato) from ra + tu master, so too i has been traced in Malay sigi from O. J. sig, tubi from tub, rugi from rug.
