(b) Both place the genitive after the noun.
(c) Both use inclusive and exclusive forms for the pronoun of the first person plural.
(d) There is absolute similarity in structure of words. The old view that Austronesian words were disyllabic had been dissolving for years. Professor Pijnappel a quarter of a century ago analysed words like kělětek, kělětak, kělětok (and one may add bělatek, jělatek sparrow and bělatok, jělatok woodpecker) through kětek, kětak, kětok, down to the onomatopoeic monosyllables tik, tak, tok imitating various notes in tapping. In English, Sir William Maxwell, following Logan, ventured the suggestion, that in tangan hand, tangkap seize, tongkat walking-stick, there existed a monosyllabic root (found in Sakai and Talaing) teng hand. Again scholars have shown that while Indonesian languages have many disyllables like langit sky, bulan moon, puteh white, ulu head, mata eye, they have running through all the group many monosyllabic roots kan eat, tut wind (Malay kentut break wind), num drink, pas loose (Malay lěpas), tong hang (as in gantong), lit (Malay kulit) rind, peel. And critical study of Austro-Asiatic languages on the other side has shown that they contain disyllabic as well as monosyllabic words.
(e) Both families exhibit a remarkable identity in their systems of affixation simple and compound. So they have prefixes k, p, m; infixes m, n, r, l; suffixes n and i. And so far as they can be defined, the functions of these affixes in both families are similar.[1]
- ↑ In this context may be cited some interesting points discovered by Mr. R. J. Wilkinson in his study of central Sakai, a Peninsular language representative of the Austro-Asiatic family, which in its vocabulary possesses old Indonesian words not known in Peninsular Malay to-day, and only to be paralleled in the vocabularies of languages in distant islands of the Archipelago. ‘The introduction of an infix (n, ’u, ěn, or ön) in central Sakai makes the word substantival; jīs dayligh, jěnīs a day, twelve hours; pāp fire-warmed, pěnāp the thing warmed; köh striking, kěnöh club, striker; ehok prod, stab, chěnok predder, spike. A prefix per turns the root into a verb or a passive root into an active root dat die, pěrdat kill; nong journey, pěrnong to go; löt extinguished, pěrlöt to put out (a fire); bet sleep, pěrbet close the eye. These two forms can be combined to form a verbal noun; dat die, pěrěndat murder; pěrěnglöt extinguisher; goï be married, pĕrgöï wed, pěrěnggöï marriage. In certain cases the final letter of a Sakai word changes to n, ng, or m. Sometimes this follows a law of euphony owing to the coincidence of two consonants: chip bird, chīmklāk hawk; klāk hawk, klāng-blok roe; chěrök long, chěröng-sok long-haired vampire. But there are cases where the alteration cannot be so explained; mai person, un mam one person, dök house, nu d’ngnön a house; rōk dart, nar r’ngnon two darts. The conjugation of verbs shows göi to be married, ’nggöi (I) am married, en ’nggöi I am married; běrsōp to feed, ’mběrsōp (I) am feeding. This system has notable points of resemblance with the Indonesian. The euphonic nasal reminds one of such Malay forms as sělang-sěli, bengkang-bengkok, golang-golek. There is one other peculiarity of (Southern) Sakai word formation that is paralleled in Indonesian idiom, for the building of polite and honorific doublets to common words. ‘Given a word in Javanese’, writes Mr. Blagden in The Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, ‘with an open penultimate syllable (and a final syllable preferably open and generally ending in a), to turn it into a Krama or high form, close both syllables with a nasal (or the final one more rarely with a liquid), modify the initial consonant of the final syllable to suit the nasal which now closes the penultimate and change the vowel of the final syllable (as a rule ě, or it may be a, i, or u).’ Mr. Blagden quotes from the Javanese kira, kintěn accounts; segara (Skt.), sěganten ocean; sore, sontěn evening; kalapa, karambil (cp. Malay gělambir) coconut. And he points out how it occurs in other Malayan languages without ceremonial or specialized meaning: dara virgin (Malay), dantěn virgin, of buffalo or hen (Sundanese); jalu male (Sundanese), jantan (Malay); alu and antan, Malay variants for pestle; pěmali and pantang, Malay variants for taboo. Cp. piama, piantan due season, esp. for rice-planting. And again, how it occurs in the aboriginal dialects of the Peninsula āsu’, anjing, nyang dog; puteh, pěntol white; serigala, sĕgala’, sĕranggil jackal; without definite evidence of ceremonial use, except that inost big animals have honorific synonyms.
