Further evidence for the reconstruction of -ew and -ey

• Published in: Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde land- en volkenkunde, 1984, Vol.140 (4), p.451-458
• Main Author: Nothofer, Bernd
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Comorbidity; Diphthongs; Hypotheses; Indonesian language; Language reconstruction; Malay language; Morphemes; Phonemes; Proto languages; Reduplication; Reflexes; Resonants; Tongic languages; Vowels
• ISSN: 0006-2294; 2213-4379; 0006-2294
• DOI: 10.1163/22134379-90003408

Blust's argument in favour of a reconstruction with *a, namely PAN bahi, is mainly based on forms such as Tongan fa-fine 'woman', in which Blust would like to explain the initial CV as a partial reduplication. [...]Blust treats the Tongan form as a reflex of *ba+b-in-ahi, and argues (1982: 19) that Dyen has to identify the first syllable of forms such as Tongan fa-fine as "an unidentified preposed element" because of his reconstruction with *a: *ba+b-in-aHi[ ]. In these languages PAN h was lost and the sequence -ai was reanalysed as the diphthong -ay (Blust 1982:26). [...]the proto-language of these four languages must have had a form *binay. According to the hypothesis which distinghuishes between *-ay and *ay, all reflexes of the eight types of form of PAN baHi[ ] 'female' can be explained with the exception of the first two segments in PMJ Ba+B-inay(-an) (< PAN ba+b-in-aHi[ ]). Type Form1 *B-in-ay2 *Ba+B-in-ay(-an)3 *Bay Bay4 *a-Bs+Bay or *a-Bay Bay5 *Bay B-in-ay or *Bi+B-in-ay 458 Bernd Nothof er NOTES 1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Fourth European Colloquium on Malay and Indonesian Studies in Leiden 1983.1 am grateful to J. C. Anceaux and R. A. Blust for their comments.2 (B) denotes 'literary'.3 One might also argue that the sequence *-aya- became Snd. -euyeu-. Because of the fact that Sundanese does not allow the co-occurrence of the vowel e (and also o) with eu in one morpheme, it seems impossible to posit the following development: *p3Ram (*R >y) (> *p3ysm (*ay > e, *3 > eu) > *peeum (development of a glide between the two vowels) > *peyeum (assimilation) > peuyeum.4 Depending on the preceding phonemes.5 Malay -i also reflects the diphthongs *-iw (e.g. *laRiw > Mal. lari 'to run') and *-uy (e.g. *baluy > Mal. kem-bali 'to return').6 Nothofer (1975:123-45) distinguishes between PMJ B (Jav. w-lb-, -w-\ Mal. b-, -b-\ Snd. b-, -w-; Mad. b-, -b-) and PMJ b (Jav. b-, -b-, -b; Mal. b-, -b-, -p; Snd. b-, -b-, -b\ Mad. bh-, -bh-, -p).