ALAS_COMPLETO
Dipartimento di studi linguistici e orientali
Università di Bologna
GIULIO SORAVIA
THE ALAS LANGUAGE
(NORTHERN SUMATRA)
CONTENTS
Introduction
1.1. Phonology
1.2. Syllabic Structure
2. Historical Phonetics
3.1. Morphophonolgy
3.2. System of affixation
3.2.1. Verb affixes
3.2.2. Noun affixes
3.2.3. Personal pronouns
3.2.4. Adjectives
3.2.5. Numerals
3.3. Wordclasses
3.4. Phrases
3.4.1. Noun phrases
3.4.2. Verb phrases
3.5. Clauses
3.5.1. Types of clauses
3.5.2. Complex sentences
3.5.3. Some syntactic rules
4.1. The position of the Alas language among AN languages
4.2. Analysis of the 100 items of the comparative list
5. Alas-English-Indonesian wordlist
5.1. Foreword
5.2. Alas-English-Indonesian
5.3. English-Alas register
Bibliography
List of abbreviations used in the volume
Ac. Acèh
Al. Alas
AN Austronesian (languages)
Ar. Arabic
cp. compare
Gy. Gayo
id. idem
IN Indonesian (languages)
Jv. Javanese
KB Karo Batak
Me. Mentawai(an)
Ml. Malay
My. Malagasy
Ni. Nias
N Noun phrase
PAN Proto-Austronesian (mainly Dyen)
P Prepositional phrase
Sim. Simalur
Skt. Sanskrit
TB Toba Batak
UAN Uraustronesisch (after Dempwolff)
v. vide, see
var. variant
V Verb phrase
* hypothetical or reconstructed form
> becomes
< derives from
INTRODUCTION
The Alas language is spoken in a small area of Northern Sumatra, more precisely in the district of Aceh Tenggara, Autonomous Province of Aceh. The main town of the area where the language is spoken is Kutacane, the Kabupaten capita townl. The town consists of a double row of houses along the main road, which comes from Kabanjahe and continues towards Blangkejeren northwards and thence, when weather conditions permit, reaches Takengon in Aceh Tengah.
Southwards the road leads to the province of Sumatra Utara, the heart of the traditional territory of the Karo Bataks. Such a location justifies the relative isolation of the area, as the Alas territory is rather mountainous and there is no possibility of reaching the coast eastwards or westwards and the capital town of the province, Banda Aceh, lies in the extreme north and may be reached only following the coastal road via Medan or Takengon and Bireuen.
The Alas are maily devoted to agriculture and have lived up to our days without important contacts with the rest of the world. Their immediate neighbours are the Gayos in the north and the Karo Bataks in the south, who speak a language closely related to Alas. Contacts with the Malays from the coastal regions and the Achehs in the north must have been relatively intense, as the Alas received Islam from them. Near Kutacane small settlements of Toba Bataks may be found in Sigalegale and Lawé Désky along the road southwards.
The Alas people today may amount to about 80.000 people. Although they had been contacted by the Dutch since the beginning of our century, little is known of their culture and traditions. As a matter of fact only their Adatrecht seems to have been studied by Western scholars, up to very recent times.
Some information on them is to be found in Snouck Hurgronje’s volume on the Gayos, but generally the Alas people have been considered a subgroup of the Karo Bataks possibly on a linguistic basis only. In fact the Alas language has been considered from time to time either as a dialect of Karo or of Gayo, without apparently feeling the need of studying the language by itself. This attitude is not only false intrinsically, but prevents from appreciating correctly the whole of the linguisitic situation in Northern Sumatra.
Just a small number of examples may permit to appreciate both the affinities and the diversities of the three languages in question:
Karo : kita seh i kota nari erbih
Gayo : kite sawah ari kute manè
Alas : kite sòh kota ari bòné
we arrived from the town yesterday
Karo : arah selatan ingan énda lit kerangen ras paya-paya
Gayo : ngerat i daérah ni ara uten urum paya
Alas : ni jahènen negeri ènde lòt rimbe nengen paye
south of this land there are forests and swamps
Karo : aku nggo minem lau
Gayo : aku ngge inum weih
Alas : aku nggòu minum lawé
I have drunk water
What appears in existing literature consists mainly of notes of the kind we find in Voorhoeve (1955, p. 9): “Besides Karo-Batak the Northern group [of Batak dialects] also includes the Alas- dialect and Dairi-Batak, with the sub-dialects of Kelasan, Simsim, Pegagan and the Kata Boang of Upper Singkel”. As to Singkel it is listed as a different regional language of the Aceh Province by the researchers of the University of Syah Kuala in Banda Aceh.
Teuku Syamsudin (in Koentjaraningrat 1975, p. 2225) is even more misleading, including Alas within the Gayo dialects, but the purpose of the book was not that of classifying Sumatran languages and the contents were arranged with a division more according to political boundaries than ethnic ones.
Budiman Sulaiman in his grammar of the Aceh language (1977, p. 14) seems to be more correct in listing Alas as a language by itself. On the other hand he only devotes a couple of lines to the matter, stating that: “Bahasa Alas digunakan oleh penduduk yang berdiam di daerah Kabupaten Aceh Tenggara dan di hulu sungai Singkil dalam daerah Kabupaten Aceh Selatan”.
The Alas language fills a gap in the continuity of languages in Northern Sumatra. It is clearly similar to Karo, but shows many traits in common with Gayo. In the past atlases and maps tended to assign clear cut areas to each language. We are nowadays more cautious and realize clearly the existence of a continuum of dialects where variants tend to merge into each other. On the other hand this may be realized only if languages are studied as they are really in use in the territory and not privileging one form assumed to be a standard or adopted as such, as may be the case of some missionaries interested in singling out a standard form for the translation of the Bible or such purposes.
This is the view which led in the past to the reconstruction of Proto-languages and to Neogrammarian views on that matter. Modern sociolinguistics have clearly demonstrated that matters are in fact much more complicated.
Be that as it may, many Indonesian (and non Indonesian) students of linguistics are dedicating their efforts to the study of regional languages and we may hope that in the near future our knowledge in Indonesian linguistics will improve. Non only for quantity of data, but especially for their quality and for the correct theoretical presuppositions in their researches.
The present research was carried on mainly in february and march 1983 with a further review of data in 1985 and the results remained unpublished till now for a series of difficulties in finding a publisher and thinking that other studies were shortly to appear on this language. Though this has partly happened, we feel that our study of the language still deserves some attention.
Thanks are due to my main informant of the time, who assisted me in subsequent checkings of the gathered material. Drs. Sjech Ahmaddin devoted much of his time while I was in Kutacane to help me and I was lucky to find a person having a very good preparation in the field of linguistics.
Needless to say, my debt is to the Indonesians as a whole, who have always been kind and patient up the boasted standard with my tiring presence as a researcher.
Bologna, University, 1999
G. S.
The occasion to publish this work had to wait till 2007 with the advent of digital format. It is now possible to offer this material to interested people, thanks to the help of AlmaDL. Knowledge is no private property and the possibility of access to information is a duty to all researchers. Electronics have given us not only a non expensive opportunity, but also a means to save paper and trees, for a work which undoubtedly interests a very limited number of persons.
Bologna, University, 2007
G. S.
1.1. PHONOLOGY
The inventory of the phonemes of the Alas languages gives the following chart:
p b t d c j k g
m n ny ng
l
r
s h
w y (w)
i u
é e o
a
As to this scheme we may observe that:
a) while the opposition /c/ vs. /j/ and /k/ vs. /g/ is clearly an opposition of voiceless vs. voiced consonant, /p/ vs. /b/ and /t/ vs. /d/ also show an opposition of plosive vs. implosive sound;
b) the inclusion of /e/ in the inventory is beyond discussion as there are clear oppositions of such a phoneme vs. /a/, /é/ and /i/.
Nevertheless the opposition seems to be neutralized in word final position. Words etymologically ending in /-a/ are regularly pronounced as [-e] as occurs in other languages (Malay dialects, Balinese etc.) whilst in other languages the change of /-a/ into /-o/ occurs. Anyhow, as from a synchronic standpoint nothing happens to complicate the phonological analysis of the language, we would prefer to range it as an occurrence of the /e/ phoneme. Otherwise, we could state that the /a/ phoneme is realized as [e] in word final position with an overlapping of two phonemes as regards their phonetic status.
As for this point, however, we observe that:
/p/ is a bilabial voiceless plosive never released word final;
/b/ is a bilabial voiced implosive [C];
/t/ is an alveolar plosive, sometimes slightly retroflex, not released word final;
/d/ is an alveolar voiced implosive [G];
/c/ is a palatal voiceless plosive, sometimes slightly affricate;
/j/ is a palatal voiced plosive, sometimes slightly affricate;
/k/ is a velar voiceless plosive; but word final it is realized as a glottal stop;
/g/ is a velar voiced plosive;
/m/ is a bilabial voiced nasal;
/n/ is an alveolar voiced nasal;
/ny/ is a palatal voiced nasal;
/ng/ is a velar voiced nasal;
/r/ is a velar or uvular voiced vibrant or fricative [S] or [p];
/l/ is an alveolar voiced lateral;
/s/ is an alveolar voiceless fricative (spirant);
/h/ is a laryngeal voiceless fricative, very weak word initial (or voiced);
/w/ is a bilabial voiced continuant with a secundary velar articulation;
/y/ is a palatal voiced continuant;
/i/ is a palatal vocoid, front high unrounded;
/é/ is a palatal front mid unrounded vocoid; it seems to have two different allophones (mid high [e] and mid low [K]). Though there are no minimal pairs to contrast we like better to note the difference in writing by using “è” for the mid low variant as there seems to be no predictable rules as to their pronunciation;
/a/ is a central low vocoid;
/e/ is a neutral central vocoid or sometimes a back unrounded mid high (centralized) vocoid [T], resembling Aceh “eu”. This happens systematically in the prefix /me-/;
/o/ is a back mid rounded vocoid; two varieties exist though not in complementary distribution, as is the case for /é/. We shall mark “o” the mid high allophone and “ò” the mid low one;
/u/ is a back high rounded vocoid.
It may be useful to highline that our spelling follows the lines of the official spelling for Bahasa Indonesia (ejaan baru). This spelling has the advantage of being roughly phonemic and of being very simple and clearly understandable by speakers of Indonesian. Of course there appear to be no significative differences but on a phonemic level; /b/ and /d/ are not implosive in Indonesian, but on the other hand no such sounds are to be found there. /r/ is seldom uvular in Indonesian speakers but again this produces no phonemic opposition.
A further remark may be made for the existence of long vowels, though with no distinctive value and mostly in monosyllables, which are left unmarked in our spelling. No significative stress is audible either.
The following minimal pairs justify the above inventory:
/l/ ~ /r/ asal “origin” ~ asar “nest”
/k/ ~ /t/ dukuk “push” ~ dukut “grass”
/g/ ~ /j/ gagah “bold” ~ gajah “elephant”
/r/ ~ /s/ gelar “name” ~ gelas “glass”
/t/ ~ /j/ geréte “cart” ~ geréje “church”
/ng/ ~ /r/ gugung “east” ~ gugur “boil”
/h/ ~ /l/ guhe “cave” ~ gule “sugar”
/l/ ~ /n/ gule “sugar” ~ gune “use”
/p/ ~ /t/ kakap “axe”~ katak “frog”
/h/ ~ /s/ kerah “dry” ~ keras “hard”
/s/ ~ /t/ laus “go” ~ laut “sea”
/h/ ~ /k/ nahan “next” ~ nakan “paddy”
/r/ ~ /t/ rutung “durian” ~ tutung ”burn”
/m/ ~ /p/ mangan “eat” ~ pangan “be eaten”
/k/ ~ /ng/ tòk “tasteless”~ tòng “still”
/t/ ~ /n/ takal “head” ~ nakal “nasty”
/k/ ~ /c/ keras “hard” ~ ceras “plough”
/b/ ~ /g/ tebu “sugarcane” ~ tegu “draw”
/d/ ~ /t/ made “not” ~ mate “eye”
/ny/ ~ /n/ nyany “sing” ~ nadi “stop”
/w/ ~ /g/ lawi “tail” ~ lagi “and”
/y/ ~ /Ø/ kayu “wood” ~ kau “thou”
/m/ ~ /mp/ jume “ricefield” ~ jumpe “meet”
/m/ ~ /mb/ lemah “weak” ~ lembah “valley”
/s/ ~ /Ø/ kaus “socks” ~ kau “thou”
/ng/ ~ /Ø/ jaring “net”~ jari “finger”
/e/ ~ /i/ babe “bring” ~ babi “pig”
/é/ ~ /e/ maté “die” ~ mate “eye”
/e/ ~ /Ø/ buke “open” ~ buk “hair”
/i/ ~ /ou/ enggi “younger sibling”
~ enggou “already”
/e/ ~ /ò/ babe “bring” ~ babò “shallow”
/e/ ~ /ou/ lime “five” ~ limou “lemon”
/a/ ~ /ò/ kerah “dry” ~ keròh “visit”
/a/ ~ /i/ keras “hard” ~ keris “dagger”
/u/ ~ /a/ kute “village” ~ kate “say”
/u/ ~ /e/ tebu “sugarcane” ~ tebe “towards”
The binary analysis of the phonemes of Alas is given in the following Charts No. 1 and 2.
p b m t d n c j ny k g ng r l s h w y i é a o u e
1. - - - - - - - - - - - - + + - - - - + + + + + +
2. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + - - - - - - - - -
3. - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + -
4. - - + - - + - - + - - +
5. + + + - - - - - - + + + + - - - - + + -
6. + + - -
7. - - - - - - + + + + + + + -
8. + - - +
9. - + - + - + - +
Legenda: 1. Vocalic; 2. Consonantic; 3. Continuous; 4. Nasal; 5. Grave; 6. Acute; 7. Compact; 8. Diffuse; 9. Voiced
Chart 1 - Binary matrix of Alas phonemes
Chart 2 - Binary stem of Alas phonemes
1.2. SYLLABIC STRUCTURE
The syllabic structure of Alas is similar to that of Malay and some other Western Indonesian languages (excluding more anomalous languages such as Nias which has only open syllables or Aceh whose phonemic structure is still puzzling).
The types of syllables which may be found in Alas are the following:
V as in a-nak “boy, son”
CV as in bu-nge “flower”
VC as in òr-ti “meaning”
CVC as in tem-bun “fat”.
The typology cannot be further reduced, as the consonant appearing as a tail of the syllable is never predictable, nor do we find nasals homorganics only in syllable final position.
Actually, syllable final consonants in Alas may be /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /h/, /l/, /r/, besides nasals. Thus, only palatals and voiced implosives are totally lacking. Moreover we can find instances of word medial nasals not homorganic with the following consonant (stop) as in such reduplicated forms as tongtong “sack” or jengjeng “to stand”.
Consonant clusters of some complexity from an articulatory standpoint do appear also in cases such as toktok “betel mortar”, and also in unreduplicated forms such as élmu
“science” (an Arabic borrowing however), but kòrbou “buffalo”, bòrsih “clean” (where a liquid is found), etc.
We excluded the inclusion of a glottal stop phoneme, for the status of /k/ syllable final seems to be clear also form a comparative point of view (the same occurs in Malay). On the other hand this could lead to the simplification of the types of syllables postulating each V syllable as really a sequence of glottal stop plus vowel and thus assimilating it to the CV syllable type. But this would be, though theoretically possible, a stretching of structuralist theories in line with the interpretation of Arabic “phonology” in classical Arabic tradition (where all V syllables were in fact interpreted as a sequence of hamza plus vowel).
In our description only one diphthong is found, viz. /òu/ which is treated exactly as a simple vowel.
Example: enggòu “already” is analysed as a VC-CV word. Tretaing it as a VC sequence /ow/ would not, however alter our syllabic analysis as the diphthong occurs only in word final position. A strong suspicion may arise for this fact as it could be also considered as an allophone of /o/ word final. In fact very rare examples of [o] word final are observed as in /babò/ “shallow”. On the other hand the only example of an apparent /ai/ diphthong is found in sekai “how much” and in this case it seems more useful to consider it phonemically as /sekai/, as in other cases where the final /i/ is clearly a suffix. Example in tande + i which gives tandai. Etymological /ai/ as a diphthong of PAN is systematically found as /é/ in Alas.
Another problem in our analysis is given by a further possibility: the case is for a very frequent occurrence of prenasalized stops. These have been considered as separate phonemes in a number of AN languages and the reason for this may be of a different kind. In the case of Gayo, e.g., at least in a dialect of it, only prenasalized voiceless stops are found, whilst *mb, nd, ngg have become simple nasals (resp. m, n, ng). In Fijan and Melanesian languages, on the other hand only prenasalized voiced stops are found vs. simple voiceless stops, with no occurrence of simple voiced stops etc. In some languages the functional importance of voicing disappears and the opposition of two phonemes presents a further trait. This is also the case for Alas where voiced stops seem to be also implosive. But in Alas prenasalized stops are also found and considering them as separate phonemes could account for a simpler analysis of its syllabic structure, especially considering those cases in which they occur word initially.
Examples are:
mbuwé many
nggusi gums
n(y)jinak tame, etc.
In all these cases the initial nasal is the result of the fusion of an old prefix, with no meaning at the present stage of the language. In some cases it seems to be the result of a phonetic erosion of the word, as in mpat “four” (compare Malay empat) or nggete “mangosteen”.
We suggest to consider the nasal as syllabic itself (a kind of contracted /*eN/). These words could be in fact rewritten as e.g. embuwé, empat, enggeluh, etc. This solution would not alter or render more complicated our typology.
Yet another solution could be, of course, considering prenasalized as single phonemes, with an increase in the number of the inventory, but simplification in the syllabic structure.
Accepting a solution with only four types of syllables, we would have in Alas words made of one to five syllables, showing a structure as exemplified below. In particular:
a) one syllable words (mainly CVC and a single dubious case of V):
V é that (?)
CV be to, towards
gé hear
CVC bal ball
cut little, small
b) two syllable words (prevailing structures are CV-CV, CV-CVC, CVC-CVC):
CV-CV gile crazy
CVC-CV bungki boat
CV-CVC babah mouth
CVC-CVC cengkah lame
VC-CVC ampuh flood
V-CV aku I
CV-V bau smell
VC-CVC idah see
CV-VC biang dog
V-VC uis cloth
uan father
These last are dubious cases for which we prefer an interpretation such as uwis and (u)wan. A similar case occurs with suan “to till (land)” which may be interpreted
phonemically as suwan.
c) three syllable words (with most common patterns CV-CVCV, CV-CV-CVC, CVC-CV-CV, CVC-CV-CVC):
CV-CV-CV bahaye danger
harimòu tiger
CV-CV-CVC besekep cinema
CV-CVC-CV metentu particular, special
CVC-CVC-CV sempurne perfect
CVC-CV-CV mentagi forehead
CVC-CV-CVC lengkaber bat
CV-CVC-CVC megembas swim
CVC-CVC-CVC cinderken build
CV-CV-V setie faithful
VC-CVC-CVC (e)mbòrsih clean
VC-CV-CV antare between
V-CV-CVC akibat consequence
CVC-CV-VC kencuah west
CV-CV-VC seluar trousers
CV-V-CV puase fastening
VC-CV-VC (e)mbiah fear
VC-CVC-CV untungme luckily
CV-VC-CVC buetken take
VC-CV-CVC (e)mbelang wide
The only word in our corpus which could not fit into these patterns is a Dutch loanword: stasiun “station”, which by the way could be interpreted as setasiun (CV-CV-CV-VC), as is possibly the case for the same word in Indonesian.
d) four syllable words:
CV-CV-CV-CVC keterangen explanation
CV-CVC-CV-CV belantare forest
CV-CV-CVC-CVC ngelahérken give birth
CVC-CV-CV-CVC sendalamen walk together
CV-CV-CV-CV Kutacane name of town
CV-CVC-CV-CVC pekembangen development
CV-CV-CV-VC mamelias bad, wicked
CV-CV-V-CV mutiare pearl
VC-CV-CV-V (e)ndabuhken drop, let fall
CV-CV-CV-V rahasie secret
VC-CVC-CV-CV (e)nggancihi change
CV-V-CV-CV kaékane because
CV-CV-VC-CV keluarge family
Some reduplicated words could also be interpreted as four syllable words:
V-CV-V-CV abu-abu grey
More difficult remains the interpretation of words like ilat-ilat “dishonest” or agar-agar “so that”, which may be viewed both as V-CVC-V-CVC and V-CV-CV-CVC, though the former seems to be preferable.
e) five syllables words (this seems to be the maximum expandable structure, if we exclude the further possibility to add the emphasizer suffix -me or the interrogative -kin).
Examples:
CV-CV-CV-CVC-CV kebalikenne on the contrary
VC-CV-CV-CV-CV (e)mpegedangi to lengthen, prolong
CV-CV-CVC-CV-CVC medalan-dalan to go strolling
There is a possibility that five syllable words having different patterns may exist, but the given examples represent what may be found in our corpus.
2. Historical Phonetics
Alas appears to be a rather conservative language vis-à-vis the
classical reconstruction of UAN by Dempwolff, as is the case
for Malay and Karo Batak. Even in the light of Dyen’s
reconstruction the observation retains its validity. The language
is surely more conservative than neighbouring languages such
as Toba Batak and Aceh, and even Gayo.
Taking into account the outcomes of proto-forms, we shall
notice only a few meaningful changes and in doing so we shall
give special attention to Dempwolff’s recontructed forms,
though not discarding Dyen’s or others’, as it has appeared that
these - even at the risk of oversimplifying the matter - are
more closely related to what happens in Western Austronesian.
For Western Austronesian, as a matter of fact, it seems to be
useless to look for subtler comparisons. In fact only the
treatment of *I in Alas compels us to some discriminations.
All other phonemes of Gayo are perfectly explained within the
reference scheme as proposed by Dempwolff in his Lautlehre.
Some inconsistencies are in our opinion not only unavoidably
appearing in any language with regards to Proto-forms as
reconstructed by linguists, but they represent the healthy
recalling of the fact that phonetic laws are never without
exceptions, nay they remind us that reconstructed languages, if
possibly compared with true proto-languages would appear to
be monsters hardly resembling the historical data. So
“exceptions” to phonetic laws are obviously the result of
internal anomalies (analogy, vowel harmony, assimilation/
16
dissimilation, system economies etc.) or external ones (interferences,
borrowings, calques, substrata, superstrata etc.). The
still existing dogma of unexceptionable phonetic law must be
put at a stake and we must use phonetic laws as a useful tool
for memorizing trends in the changement of a particular
language diachronically.
Be that as it may, in order to avoid a too complex frame of
reference which would only work if taking into account a series
of smaller laws and conditions of dubious utility, if any, we
shall stick to Dempwolff forms (UAN), showing, whenever the
case is, some of Dyen’s forms (PAN). In other words we are
aware of some shortcomings in this operations , but it is still an
operations having a coherent method, where, by the way, we
discard the view that too punctilious reconstructions, not
having phonetic value (this would be impossible as no natural
language may have a set of phonemes of the kind which
linguists mark with x1 ,, x2, x3 etc.), may be thought to have
real effect in the changes. It is far more acceptable that the
uniformity of any proto-language is a myth and from the start
there are simply idiolects which step by step become dialetcs
and different languages. This would be a theory of instability
of linguistic forms as against the view that language are
coherent systems in which tout se tient!
Dempwolff’s form are therefore perfectly acceptable for the
sake of a comparison aiming to show regularly occurring
diachonic and comparative phenomena, even if Dyen has the
merit of taking into account a greater number of languages (as
for example Formosan languages still largely unknown to
Dempwolff). But again the sample may be not neutral and the
17
choice of a greater number may not ameliorate the sample. We
mean that if the assumption is that the origin of Austronesian(s)
is thought to be more easterwards, it looks clear that Oceanic
language are more important in comparison than Western
Indonesian. But if we assume that migrations went from South
China to the South and South East, then the whole of the matter
changes.
Be that as it may and certainly not so straighforward, the
comparison of a Western Indonesian language is better made
with other languages of the area, being aware of the fact that
something other has been present in the area some time
complicating matters.
The main phonetic laws of Alas, based on the inventory of
Proto-Austronesian phonemes as proposed by Dempwolff
(UAN) are the following:
*b remains unchanged, though in Alas its pronunciation is
implosive [C]. It never appears word final. Examples
are:
babah mouth UAN *babah, PAN baqbaq
rimbe forest UAN *[â]imba’
babi pig UAN * babuj
kambing goat UAN * kambi®
bònggi night UAN *bI®gi’,PAN *beR®i
/beR®i[„h]
18
*d remains unchanged but implosive [G]. Word final it
possibly becomes /t/. Examples are:
dilah tongue UAN *dilah, PAN *dilaq
jadi become UAN *d’adi’, PAN *zadi
laut sea UAN *la’ud, PAN *laud
bukit hill UAN *bukid
dalan road UAN *dalan/d’alan, PAN *zalan/Zalan
dauh far UAN *da’Ih, Pan *Zauq/za(h0)uq
*Ñ seems to become /d/ word initial, /r/ word final, but
there are dubious forms as:
tenten breast UAN *ÑaÑa’, PAN *DaDa[„h]
due two UAN *Ñuva’, PAN *DewS3a„
bayar pay UAN *bajaÑ. PAN *bayaD
dabuh fall UAN *Ñabuh
*d’ possibly becomes /d/ in medial position, but word initially
it becomes /j/. Examples are:
udan rain UAN *’ud’an/’uÑan,
PAN *quzan/quZan
pinjam borrow UAN *hi-d’am
ejer study UAN *’ad’aâ
janggut beard UAN *d’a®gut
(n)jadi become UAN *d’adi’/zadi
19
*g remains such: there are no cases of it word final.
Examples:
gelap dark UAN *gIlap
gadung k.o. potato UAN *gaÑu®
gelar name UAN *gIla[â]
teguh strong UAN *tIguh
janggut beard UAN *d’ja®gut
*g’ becomes /g/:
igung nose UAN *’ig’u®, PAN *ijuN/q2íjú®
nggi younger sibling UAN *’a®’g’i’
pige how much UAN *pig’a’, PAN *pija
bagas inside UAN *bag’at’
*g becomes /r/ [R], possibly unchanged from a strict phonetic
viewpoint. Examples:
beré give UAN *bagaj, PAN *beRey/beR1éy
wari day UAN *vagi’, PAN *waR1,2i„
bibèr lips UAN *bibig, PAN *bíbíR
berat heavy UAN *bIgat, PAN *beR2qat
rumah house UAN *gumah, PAN *Rumaq
jarum needle UAN *d’agum, PAN *Z2áR123um
niwer coconut UAN *nijug, PAN *ñiuR
20
*h (PAN *q) generally is maintained, especially in final
position, but there is a general tendency to dropping.
Examples:
tahun year UAN *tahun, PAN *taqun/taqween
buah fruit UAN *buah, PAN *buaq
bunuh kill UAN *bunuh, PAN *bunuq
angin wind, air UAN *(h)a®in, PAN *haNin/h2á®in
tòh know UAN *tahu’, PAN *taquh
cp. however pagit “bitter” < UAN *pahit, PAN *paqit. In
some cases we find also e final /h/ which does not seems to be
etymologically present: waluh “eight”, UAN *valu’, PAN
*walu/w2alú„.
*j is retained, except word final (see diphthongs). Examples:
kayu wood UAN *kaju’, PAN *kahiw
bayar pay UAN *bajaÑ, PAN *bayaD
layar sail UAN *lajag, PAN *láyaR12
*k is retained. Examples:
aku I UAN *’aku’, PAN *aku(h)/„aku
buke open UAN *buka’, PAN *buka
manuk chicken UAN *manuk, PAN *manuk
sakit ill UAN *t’akit, PAN *sakit
keret cut UAN *kIgIt, PAN *kéRet
nangke jackfruit UAN *na®ka’
kuling skin UAN *kulit, PAN *kulit/kúlit
21
*l is retained. Examples:
lime five UAN *lima’, PAN *lima/líma„
lumut moss UAN *limut, PAN *límut/lúmut
uleng caterpillar UAN *ulag’, PAN *qulej (?)
dilah tongue UAN *dilah, PAN *dilaq
*â becomes /r/. Examples:
rimbe forest UAN *[â]imba’
tukor buy UAN *tuka[â]
rimo tiger UAN *haâimav, PAN *harimaw
gelar name UAN *gIla[â]
*m is retained. Examples are:
mate eye UAN *mata’, PAN *mata/maCá„]
inum drink UAN *inum, PAN *inum
jarum needle UAN *d’agum, PAN *Z2áR123um
*n is retained. Examples:
bulan moon UAN *bulan, PAN *búlaLe
nangke jackfruit UAN *na®ka’
manuk chicken UAN *manuk, PAN *manuk
22
*® is retained: Examples:
bunge flower UAN *bu®a’, PAN *bu®a[h„]
pangan eat UAN *pa®an
mange mango UAN *ma®ga’
kambing goat UAN *kambi®
see however kuan “pandanus” < UAN *kuva®.
*n’ is retained, but instances in our corpus are scanty. For
example:
nyanyi sing UAN *n’an’i’, PAN *ñañi
*k’ becomes /c/. Examples are:
cicak gecko UAN *k’Ik’ak
cincin ring UAN *k’i®k’i®
*t’ becomes /s/
besi iron UAN *bIt’i’, PAN *besi/basi
beras rice UAN *bIgat’, PAN *beRas
sakit ill UAN *t’akit, PAN *sakit
susu milk UAN *t’ut’u’, PAN *súsu„]
mis sweet UAN *ma[mn]it’, PAN *tamqis
23
*t is retained. Examples:
batu stone UAN *batu’, PAN *batu/baøú„e
berat heavy UAN *bIgat, PAN *beR2qat
tande sign UAN *ta(ç)Ña’, PAN *tanDa/taDá„
tòh know UAN *tahu’, PAN *taquh
*ô no items were available.
*p is retained. Examples:
panah arrow UAN *panah, PAN *panaq
api fire UAN *’apuj, PAN *apuy
pige how many UAN *pig’a’, PAN *pija
pitu seven UAN *pitu’, PAN *pitu/pitú„
*v word initial becomes /w/, while medially possibly
disappears. For final position see the diphthongs. Examples
are:
wari day UAN *vagi’, PAN *waR12i„
waluh eight UAN *valu’, PAN *walu/w2alú„]
due two UAN *duva’, PAN *DewS3a„
*a in final position becomes /I/, otherwise it is retained:
bunge flower UAN *bu®a’, PAN *bú®a[„h]
api fire UAN *’apuj, PAN *apuy
24
*i is retained:
pitu seven UAN épitu’, PAN *pitu/pitú„
wari day UAN *vagi’, PAN *waR12i„
igung nose UAN *ig’u®, PAN *ijuN/q2íjú®
*u is retained:
susu milk UAN *t’ut’u’, PAN *súsu„]
urang person UAN *uga®, PAN *uRa®
*I shows a somewhat complicated problem, as it may be
retained as in e.g.:
beras rice UAN *bIgat’, PAN *beRas
medem sleep UAN absent, PAN *peZem
(but cp. TB modom and Ml. padam)
keret cut UAN *kIgIt, PAN *kéRet
but in most cases it becomes /o/, particularly:
1) whenever we have */IR(C/#)/. E.g.:
mbòrsih clean UAN absent, but cp. Ml. bersih
gòrtak bridge cp. KB gertak, Gy. getek “a raft”
pòrkis ant cp. KB perkis
kòrbòu buffalo UAN *kIbav,
but also in Dempwolff 1925 *kaâabav
25
2) in the case of */Ik#/:
geròk move cp. Ml. gerak (< *gIgIk/ gIgak ?)
landòk dance cp. KB landek
Alas shows however a tendency to vowel harmony (as other IN
languages) which makes assimilation possible in a number of
cases to explain inconsistencies. Borrowings from Ml. (or
influences for cognates) may also be responsible for cases of
retention of */I/ (*/I/ > /o/ > /I/).
*aj becomes /é/:
awé face cp. Blust 1971 *(q)away
beré give UAN *bIgaj, PAN *beRey
*uj becomes /i/:
api fire UAN *’apuj, PAN *apuy
babi pig UAN * babuj
*av becomes /ò/:
rimò tiger UAN *haâimav, PAN *harimaw
pulò island UAN *pulav
26
3.1. MORPHOPHONOLOGY
Morphophonological changes in Alas are rather simple. The
main phenomenon is the process of nasalization of verbal roots,
which we shall deal with from a morphological standpoint later
on.
Morphophonological rules may be reduced to the following
five ones:
1) N- prefix plus verbal root, where N stands for a generic
nasal. The verbal root may generally be considered as having a
passive meaning turning active with such prefix. The rules may
be summarized in the following scheme:
N- + V > /ng-/: atòu > ngatòu see
N- + /p/ > /m/: pangan > mangan eat
N- + /b/ > /mb/: balik > mbalik return
N- + /t/ > /n/: tukor > nukor buy
N- + /d/ > /nd/: duruk > nduruk push
N- + /k/ > /ng/: kérét > ngérét cut
N- +/g/ > /ngg/: garam > nggaram look for
N- + /c/ > /n/: cangkul > nangkul hoe
N- + /j/ > /nj/: jenguk > njenguk visit
N- + /l/ > /ngel/: letunken > ngeletunken let flee
N- + /r/ > /nger/: rokok > ngerokok smoke
N- + /h/ > /ngeh/: harap > ngeharap hope
N- + /s/ > /n/: séwe > néwe hire
27
We shall notice, however, the possibility of oscillations in the
case of voiced stops word initially. So e.g. we find:
bace > mace “read”, instead of *mbace as we could expect.
The allomorph /nge-/ which is found in front of /h/ and liquids
(/r/ and /l/) may be occasionally encountered with other
monosyllabic stems. Thus:
tòh > ngetòhi “know”.
Occasionally the /nge-/ prefix may also be found with other
stems as is the case of tihang “pole” > ngetihang “drive a
pole into the ground” with no apparent reason. The case may
also be with borrowings which are not felt as completely
assimilated.
The above rule may be working also in such cases when a
prefix of some other kind is present, though it ought to be used
without a change of the stem. The example is pedem “sleep”
which is found as memedem in the sense of “spend the night”,
with a prefix me- which should be used without a change of the
root (*mepedem).
See also possible variations in words like:
bayar pay > mayar/manyar
which cannot be accounted for within the given rules.
28
The above rules in general agree with similar rules in other
Western Indonesian languages. E. g. Javanese shows only
minor differences (Herrfurth, pp. 49-50):
N- + /l, r/ > /ml, ngr/
N- + /c/ > /ny/
N- + /w/ > /m/
For the last case we found no examples for Alas.
In Standard Malay, as is well known, prenasalization occurs
only when a /pe-/ or /me-/ prefix is present too, and we have
the following divergencies:
N- + /c/ > /nc/ (mencari look for)
N- + /l/ > /l/ (melarikan run away)
N- + /r/ > /r/ (merokok smoke)
though in forms of dialectal Malay some such differences may
disappear as is the case also of colloquial Indonesian where
Javanese influences are present (as well as Betawi Malay, or
the dialect of Jakarta).
2) /e/ word final becomes /a/ whenever followed by /-i/:
tande sign > tandai make a sign
Notice that /-i/ is not occurring in cases of /i/ ending roots:
isi contents + /-i/ > ngisi (*ngisi + i) fill
29
3) /-en/ becomes /-an/ when added to a word ending in /e/. As
a matter of fact the rule is a consequence of the preceding ones
and could as well be considered as: /e/ > /a/ if followed by /-i/
and /-en/. In any case:
jumpe meet > jumpan meeting, encounter
4) /te-/ becomes /ter-/ when followed by a vowel:
idah see > teridah seen
5) reduplication of the first syllable of a word occurs with
centralization of any vowel:
bòn > bebòn afternoon
*lawah > lelawah spider
manuk chicken > memanuk birds
cut > cecut little, small
This is not, however, a productive rule.
30
3.2. SYSTEMS OF AFFIXATION
3.2.1. Verbal affixes
The verbal system is built starting from the affixes which are
given below which may be conveniently subdiveded into
prefixes, suffixes, infixes and discontinuous affixes (or
confixes). These are justified by the fact that verbal stems may
be simple or complex, changing their functions. We may
further notice the possibility of such complexes as prefix +
verbal root + suffix, but not all prefixes are compatible with all
suffixes, nor the meaning of such complexes may be
considered as being the “sum” of the two affixes as far as
meaning is concerned. Only in one case, as we shall see, there
is a possibility that two prefixes occur together. Some Authors
as Osra M. Akbar use the term confix for discontinuous affixes.
3.2.2. Prefixes
Prefixes which are present in Alas are the following: N-, me-,
ni-, pe-, te- and ce-. A particular case is represented by seN-.
We shall now examine in detail each of them.
N- is a kind of prefix which we have observed from a
morphophonemic point of view in 3.1. It occurs in a series of
allomorphs and focuses the verb on the subject of the sentence.
Comparatively it has the same function as in Javanese or in
Malay meN-. In a way it may be considered a kind of an active
voice of the verb, being the simple root of the verb its
31
“passive” counterpart. For a full treatment of the matter see
also Soravia 1988. True passive is treated, however, under the
heading ni-.
Examples of its use are:
bace kami mace buku we are reading a book
pinjam aku minjam motor èdi I am borrowing that car
atòu aku ngatòu guru I see the teacher
me- is a prefix corresponding to Malay ber-, Aceh meu-,
Toba mar- etc. It has an allomorph mer- which is used in front
of vowels. We find it frequently with verbs meaning “say”, but
usually it confers a meaning of “having”, or “pertaining to”.
Examples are:
mèje èdi mekiding telu
that table has three legs (= is legged three)
kadang-kadang iye pòten medalan kiding telanjang
sometimes he prefers to go barefooted
In some cases the prefix seems to have no special meaning:
lélo play > melélo id.
In this case it may be useful to remind also Ml. main/bermain
shows the same phenomenon.
ni- is a true passive focusing the verb on the object. The agent
is either absent or a third person (as in Classical Malay), but we
32
cannot exclude the possibility of other persons. In 3.2.3 and
3.2.5. we shall observe cases of first and second person agents.
Examples of its use are:
due nitambah lime njadi pitu two plus (added) five is seven
susu ènde niminum Siti this milk has been drunk by Siti
bòne kalak èdi nibunuh yesterday that man was killed
This prefix is found in other IN languages and it may be useful
to observe it in Karo Batak, as the two languages are very
similar. In Karo, however, we notice the presence of a ipassive
marker versus ni- which represents rather the focusing
on a (grammatical) object of third person. This is important
because it would seem that the two different functions are in
Alas summed up by ni- (as is the case of Gayo i- or Malay di-).
But we may also think of a different possibility, e.g. ni- as a
third person prefix and 0- (zero) as a prefix for passive. In any
case the distinction, semantically, seems of no relevance.
te- represents a different passive form (cp. Ml. ter- ) showing
also the function of a perfective aspect (completed action). It
may be viewed as a sort of past passive participle of a verb.
The allomorph ter- before vowels is used. Examples are:
iye tetandok mesile he is seated cross-legged
gambar èdi made teridah that image is not visible
In the latter case we find the same meaning which is found in
similar contructions in Malay. With a negative particle the
form shows intrinsic impossibility (Ml. tidak terlihat “not
visible”). See also the following sentences:
33
Alas: made teratòu aku nange awene
I cannot see his face any more
Malay: tidak terlihat saya lagi wajahnya
Alas: made tetegu uan kayu e
father cannot drag that tree
Malay: tidak terseret ayah kayu itu
In some cases it seems that the prefix has no meaning (but
again comparison with Ml. may suggest a somehow different
possibility):
tetawe cirem ame ngidah kami
mother smiled while looking at us
Cp. Ml. tertawa/ketawa “laugh”.
pe- forms verbs from adjectives giving an inchoative or
causative meaning (cp. Ml. per-). Examples are:
pependòk sitòk tihang ènde shorten this pole a bit!
pebelin nari bilèk èdi enlargen this room more
Verbs formed with pe- are made passive by adding ni-:
ulang nipependòk tali ènde this rope is not to be shortened!
Pe- is also used with numerals having again a causative
meaning:
sade one > pesade unite
34
Example:
ulang kau pebue kesalahenmu don’t multiply your errors.
ce- is found to form verbs having to do with atmospheric
phenomena only:
udan rain > cerudan to rain
angin wind > cerangin to blow (of wind)
wari day > cewari to become day
The allomorph cer- is clearly used before vowels in the above
examples.
seN- represents a kind of subordination of the verb. In a way
what results may be considered as a participial, rather than
verbal form. The meaning is “the one doing...” Obviously Nstands
for a nasalized form subject to the already given rules.
Examples are:
ame senukor uwis èdi it was mother that bought this cloth
isé sendahi kan ndage? who picked you up right now?
isé sengatòu aku ndaé? who has just seen me?
Etymologically the form may be compared with a “relative”
construction with si (corresponding to Ml. yang). However in
Alas the si relative is also used and so it must be considered
synchronically a quite different form. It is also interesting in
that it works with a nasalization which is a feature found in a
very random way all over Indonesian languages (from Nias to
35
Pilipino at least). Such features of IN languages still await to be
studied comparatively, which could be more rewarding than
the study of reconstructed forms. Suggestions that N- should be
considered as a participial form can be put forth.
We shall now observe the possibility of cooccurrence of the
above prefixes starting from a type of the root. Though this will
be better dealt with in 3.3. the following chart summarizes the
various compatibilities:
prefix nouns verbs adjectives numbers
N- + + +
me- + +
ni- + + +
(ni- + pe-) (ni- + pe-)
pe- + +
te- + +
seN- +
ce- +
In relation to this we may observe that Osra M. Akbar (1980-
81, pp. 102-103) makes a mistake in confusing the causative
prefix pe- with the agentive prefix peN- (which we shall deal
within 3.2.2.). The difference is the same occurring in Ml. perversus
peN- and in any case in Alas pe- is found only with
adjectival stems.
A further list of examples showing the use of prefixes with
verbs is the following:
36
aku ngapak seban ni dapur I make firewood in the kitchen
mame njale ikan ni kulam uncle is casting a net to catch fish
in the pool
tahun de kami mejume we cultivate a ricefield this year
kami mebungki ngepar we go across with a boat
tepagar kane empusku at last my garden has been fenced
uan ngerokok ni hanjung father is smoking in the back
room
kake nayur udeng my elder sister is cooking a soup
of prawn
abang ngetep memanuk my elder brother is shooting birds
with a blowpipe
abang mesiwel ni rambih my brother is whistling in the
verandah
guru melereng be pekan the teacher is cycling towards the
market
ame teriluh kidah mother seems to be crying
pepudal sitok pisòu ènde this knife became somehow blunt
ulang nipepinger ni hande do not make a fuss here
3.2.1.2. Suffixes
Suffixes in Alas are: -ken, -i, -en and -me.
-ken is a suffix giving a transitive meaning to the verb and
focusing on the indirect object or the instrument (as in Ml. -kan
or Javanese -aken). It is added to a verbal root often in
association with a prefix (see 3.2.1.4.). Examples are:
37
mòtòr èdi aku pinjamken I lent that car
èndeme buku si lupe kuulihken this is the book which I
forgot to give back
-ken may be added also to adjectives to form a verb meaning
“to cause to become”:
tuksòu kau bòrsihken you have to clean it (= to
make it become clean)
-i is a suffix forming transitive verbs, focusing on place
(locative) (cp. Ml. -i). It is usually found in association with a
prefix (see 3.2.1.4.). Examples:
rumah ènde kuinyani in this house I live
Aminah si kau cintai it is Aminah that you love
-en is a transitive verb forming suffix the funcion of which is
not entirely clear. Examples are the following:
kaé kin tukòren ame be pekan? what did mother buy in
the market?
tegun kade kin batangé? what is the use of
dragging that tree?
kaé kin aton ni pekan? what has been seen in the
market?
-me is an emphasizer. As such it could be found after any
word (like Ml. -lah) theoretically, even in presence of other
suffixes. However, there seems to be no cases in our corpus of
its presence after verb suffixes and in any case its use seems to
38
be limited to emphasis on focused items of the sentence. See
however 3.2.3. Of course, instances of its use after non verbal
roots do exist. Examples:
jala ènde muak sayangme! this net is torn,
unfortunately!
dahime lebé parang be rumah take first the cutlass
home!
Suffixes may be found with roots belonging to the following
word classes:
suffix nouns verbs adjectives numerals
-ken + + + +
-i + + + +
-en +
-me + + + (+)
Further examples of suffix uses are the following:
laus atòuken enggimu segijap go and look after your
younger sibling a little
tegui mame ketang e datas ari uncle dragged that rattan
from above
kurikme gedung sennan de scratch away that shelter (?)
39
lawéi jemu tende pagi give water to our ricefield
tomorrow
sayurken tor ikan make a soup of this fish
cangkulme jume tende labé hoe this field of ours
mòhken sitok nakan uan te boil over a little our
father’s rice
pudali abang rembasne my brother made the blade
of the adze dull
tambahi kapurne kene add chalk
mentarme cétne to whiten the paint
dueken kambing é buah kepuk let goat enter the stable by
twos
huraki isi keben tende lessen what is inside our
rice barn
3.2.1.3. Infixes
There are only two of them: -em- and -en-.
-em- is added to verb root after the first consonant (or at the
beginning of a word vowel initial). Etymologically it is a well
known AN affix (*-um-) which is found in several other IN
languages. Properly it forms active verbs, possibly with subject
focus, but in Alas the -em- infix is no more productive and it
seems to have lost much of its meaning, becoming a part of
some verbs, modifying some of the initial meaning. Examples
are:
gale lay down > gemale lay relaxing
gane produce > gemane ask oneself
40
-en- is a fully productive infix, which etymologically goes
back to AN *-in- and it forms nouns from verbs with a passive
meaning (past passive participle), being infixed after the first
consonant of the root or directly at the beginning of vowel
initial roots. Examples:
tukor buy > tenukor what has been bought
jerang cook rice > jenerang cooked rice
garam look for > genaran what has been looked for
3.2.1.4. Discontinuous morphemes (confixes)
We already noticed that we have under this heading a sort of a
prefix plus a suffix not different from what we have already
examined, but the combination of which gives rise to a
different action on the verb root as to meaning.
These morphemes, moreover, are never fully productive and in
some cases the result shows clearly the two different functions
of the prefix and the suffix. For example we may observe that
N- -ken focuses the verb on the subject (N-), forming a
transitive verb “leaning” on an instrument or an indirect object
(-ken), whilst N- -i will “lean” on a locative object, and so on.
In these cases it seems doubtful that we may speak of confixes
or of single complex morphemes. We shall observe a series of
examples, noting that the root word must be compatible with
both the affixes in order that they may be attached to it.
41
iye mbalik ngatòuken sencui uan he came back to keep his
father’s illness under
control
abang menyari utangne the elder brother paid for
his crime
aku pendahiken abang gat I picked up my brother
bajuku ni teguken abang my shirt attracted my
brother
kalak di nggou segaramen those men do not look for
each other
made tegaramken abang my brother does not try
nange soel e to solve that problem any
more
made tepangani nange hakan e that rice is no more
eatable
ulang kau pehalusi nange do not slip down that
tangge edi ladder
nipemohken lebé kuang soften that pandanus
edi kane nibayu before weaving it
nepepondoki uan pinsilku my father shortened my
pensil
kane sekalak ni antarane then one of them told
mesukuten tebe si lainne a different story
kalak di sendalamen ndekah they walked together long
From the above examples we can easily infer that:
N- -ken and N- -i are combinations hardly to be considered
true confixes; the passive forms corresponding to these are
respectively ni- -ken and ni- -i;
42
peN- -ken shows the way of doing something;
se- -en shows a reciprocal or a “together” form;
te- -ken and te- -i are a sort of past participle (state) differently
focused on objects which are respectively instruments or
places;
pe- -ken and pe- -i are found only with adjective roots ( and
may have a passive forme nipe-);
me- -en has been found only in the case of mesukuten “tell
stories”.
One phenomenon deserves attention and it is the high
productivity of numeral derived verbs. From sade “one” or due
“two” we shall observe the following derived forms:
N- -ken: nadeken unite
N- -i: nduai to repeat
pe- -ken: pesadeken unite something
pe- -i: pesadai to unite (places)
ni- -ken: nisadeken be united
ni- -i: nisadaibe united in one place
nipe- -ken: nipesadeken become united
nipe- -i: nipesadai become united in a place
Pe- shows here probably an incoming action, whilst a zero
morpheme would show a sort of perfective aspect of the verb.
43
3.2.1.5. The verbal root
The verbal root used by itself has two main functions:
a) it may be an imperative of N- verbs, having ulang as a
negative adverb if necessary;
b) it is the neutral (i.e. non focused) form of (stative or motion)
verbs. In this case it is necessary to distinguish between a verb
focusing the object (with ku-, kau- and ni-, cp. 3.2.1. ) and a
true prefixless verb (cp. 3.2.3. ). These are not to be confused
with “passive” verbs as they are used only in their root form.
Instances of such verbs are:
laus go
ròh come
tading stay
lòt be (in a place), etc.
Some of the above mentioned verbs may be found with affixes,
but in this case the change in meaning clearly shows that
affixes are used to form a derived verbs, thus not having a pure
morphological function, but forming different lexemes.
Reduplication of the verb root is found serving various
(semantic) purposes:
a) attenuation of meaning;
b) intensification of meaning;
c) repetitivity;
d) graduation or progression.
44
3.2.2 Noun affixes
The nominal system of affixation is much simpler than the
verbal one. Affixes occurring in Alas are the following:
peN-, se-, ke- as prefixes;
-en as only suffix;
pe- -en and ke- -en as discontinuous morphemes (confixes).
peN- is a noun forming prefix added to verb roots according to
the N- morphophonemic rules as given in 3.1. The resulting
noun means the way or the instrument for the verb action.
Examples are:
atòu see > pengatòu the way of looking, an
instrument to look at with
tepak kick > penepak the kicking,
way of kicking
dahi take > pendahi way of taking
kurik scratch, dig > pengurik a spade
garam look for > penggaram searching, the way of
looking for
Examples of their use in sentences are:
mbiar iye begèdi pengatòumu he is afraid of your way of
looking at him
ulang begèdi penepakmu do not kick like that!
ulang cangkul ènde ken pengurik do not use that hoe as a
spade to dig that hole
45
We can also find the prefix occurring in borrowings from
Malay, where the meaning is of “actor”: pelajar “student”, or
even as a verb prefix (Malay per-) in pecaye “believe”.
Obviously in these cases we cannot consider the single words
but as borrowings as a whole (not prefix borrowings)
se- is a prefix found in quantitative expressions, meaning
“one”, “unity, togetherness”, exactly as it happens in Malay.
Examples are:
sepuluh ten
sebelas eleven
seratus one hundred
seribu one thousand
sekali once, etc.
ke- is used to form ordinals from numbers:
kedue second
ketelu third, etc.
-en is a suffix used to form abstract nouns mainly from verbs
(as in Malay -an). Examples are:
pikiren thought
harapen hope
pilihen choice
geròken movement
46
pe- -en and ke- -en are also used to form abstract nouns from
verbs. They are not fully productive (as is the case for -en also,
which is used alone only in a small number of cases) and the
difference between the two lies possibly in that ke- -en shows a
somehow static meaning, whilst pe- -en is more dynamic
(abstract action). The existence of a peN- -en confix is very
doubtful as we found it only in one instance and it seems to be
a phonetically adapted borrowing from Malay (pengalihen
“changement”). Examples of the two confixes are:
pejanjin a promise, a pact
pehubungen a connection
pemulan beginning
petulungen help
kepecayan faith, belief
kelahéren birth
Morphophonemic rules are dealt with in 3.1.
47
3.2.3. Personal pronouns
There are three series of personal pronouns: a free form, a
suffixed one and a prefixed one. They are as follows:
I aku -ku kuthou
kau -mu kauhe/
she/it iye -ne (ni-)
we (excl.) kami
we (incl.) kite -te
you kendin
they kalak é
There exists also a “courtesy you” (kandu) and a “courtesy
he/she” (side) for which only the free form exists.
Missing bound forms are substituted by free forms which are
then considered inseparable from the stem they are attached to.
Free forms are used as emphatic pronouns, as subjects in
equations (true equations are with a noun predicate, as
adjective predicate behaves like a verb); suffixed forms are
used as possessives (after nouns), objects (after verbs) and after
48
prepositions; prefixed forms are used with verb stems in the
“passive” form.
3.2.4. Adjectives
Adjectives are used attributively and follow the noun they refer
to. Predicatively they are used as verbs (e.g. the negation is
made). Two adjectives referring to the same noun may be
linked by rut, nengen, serte, lagi and often they are preceded
by si:
rumah si mbelang nengen mparas a house (which is) wide
and fine
The comparative form (which we find also e.g. in KB) is
formed by adding the suffix -en to the adjective. In this case
the nasalized prefix of certain adjectives disappears:
mbelang wide > belangen wider
The suffix with an identical function is found with some verbs
too. Examples of such forms in sentences are:
aku datangen kau ari I am taller than you
iye taring ni hande dekahen Ali he remained here longer
than Ali
aku pòten ènde I prefer this
Modifiers of adjectives are:
49
su (postponed) too
kalihen (postponed) very
A particular use of se- with adjectives is found as an equative
comparison in such sentences as:
agakku iye made segagah èdi I think he was not so
brave
kucing made sesetia biang the cat is not so faithful as
the dog
3.2.5. Numbers
The system of cardinal numbers is based on a decimal count.
Basic forms are:
1. sade/buah
2. due
3. telu
4. mpat
5. lime
6. nem
7. pitu
8. waluh
9. siwah
10. sepuluh
11. sebelas
20. duepuluh
100. seratus
50
1000. seribu
Excluding minor phonetic differences and some different AN
roots, it is identical in system to the Malay one.
Ordinal numbers are formed with a ke- prefix, but “first” is
petame or memule. “Half” is setengah.
Other forms using numbers are the following:
lòt due telu kalak ni mpus there were two or three persons in
the field
harus mengke be buah (we) have to get in one by one
duene delaki they are both male
aku jumpe rut iye sekali pelin I met him only once
due nitambah lime njadi pitu two plus five are seven
51
3.3. CLASSES OF WORDS
Classes of words do not seem to form a system for Alas
differentfrom the one of other Western Indonesian languages.
For this it may be useful to compare the Gayo system in
Soravia (1984, p. 51 ff.). Just to summarize what is there stated
in length, classes of words are listed as follows:
a) nouns, which may be monomorphemic or dimorphemic (see
3.2.2.) or reduplicated; in Alas we have cases of fully
reduplicated words and partially reduplicated ones (e.g.
memanuk < manuk). Compound nouns are also found and they
are typically constructed with the specified-specifier formula;
b) personal pronouns
c) verbs, which may be further subdivided into transitive verbs,
intransitive verbs and stative verbs (including what we
generally call adjectives). For this class see 3.2.1.;
d) auxiliaries (see 3.4.2.);
e) quantifiers (see 3.4.1.);
f) deictics (see 3.4.1.);
g) interrogatives such as:
who isé
what kaé
52
why kunekane
where dape
when ndigan
how much pige
how sekaé
which apahen
Though this class may appear dishomogeneous, having some
of the items somewhat different functions in the sentence, they
appear to have the same syntactic treatment (in WH- sentences)
and their differences are rather to be considered from a
semantically ruled point of view;
h) adverbs (time and place);
i) prepositions;
j) conjunctions;
k) clitics (such as -me, which is however a bound form).
53
3.4. SYNTAGMATIC PHRASES
There are basically two types of syntagms: noun phrases (NP)
and verb phrases (VP). We shall examine the two types
separately.
3.4.1. Noun phrases
We shall examine first simple syntagmatich phrases, then we
shall observe compound phrases resulting from the fusion of
two or more simple phrases and lastly some complex phrases
giving the whole formula embodying all kinds of noun phrases.
A typical phrase is the deictic one, the structure of which is:
± n ± de
that is to say: a slot filled by a noun followed by a slot filled by
a deictic; both are optional but obviously we cannot find a zero
in both. There is a case of inversion of the formula, with the
deictic si which always precedes the noun. Examples:
kute èdi that village
kayu ènde this tree
bòn nahan tonight
pagi ndagé last morning
54
There seems to be some restriction to the using of the last two
(temporal) deictics by themselves.
With si we have proper nouns as: si Hakim.
The possessive phrase is characterized by a structure formula
of the kind:
+ n + n/NP/pr
that is: an obligatory noun slot followed by an obligatory slot
filled by a noun, or a noun phrase or a pronoun. Examples:
rumah-ku my house (this is a limit case as the
pronoun is represented by a bound
shortened form, but theoretically rumah
aku is also possible)
kalak delaki a male person, a man
kucing Hakim Hakim’s cat
hukum Islam the law of Islam
tanduk badak the rhinoceros horn
imbang si Hakim a friend of Hakim’s
sekolah kami our school
The quantity phrase follows the pattern:
+ num + n
with a possible alternative:
+ (num + coeff.) + n
55
In the first case we have a numerative followed by a noun,
while in the second the numerative is followed by a numeral
coefficient (which in itself is a noun having a particular
function), both preceding the noun.
As a numerative we mean both a true number and a word
showing a (indefinite) quantity.
We may observe the possibility of fusion of the numeral “one”
with the numeral coefficient. In this case sade “one” may be
found as se-. A coefficient (a common feature to other IN
languages) is a class marking noun (e.g. kalak for human
beings, buah for abstract and big things, etc.). Examples are:
dua kalak budak two slaves
sebuah sapòu one hut
pige kali? how many times?
mbué kayu many trees
kerine kude all the horses
pepige petani some farmers.
A particular case of what we may consider a complex phrase is
the following in which the number is followed by the
possessive suffix -ne:
duene delaki both (are) males
A negative noun phrase is made with the help of hòye “not”,
which is followed by a noun or a noun phrase. For example:
hòye kalak matue (he is) not an old man
56
In this case the phrase may as well be considered as an
independent sentence.
A limitative phrase is the one formed by a NP followed by
kane “also” or pelin “only”, hambin “only”:
sekali pelin only once
sebuah lembu hambin only one ox
due kalak delaki kane two men too.
In this category probably is included the “phrase” formed with
the enclitic -pé “also”.
A plural noun phrase is the one formed with a total
reduplication of the noun, which is never obligatory and
absolutely absent in case the context gives the idea of plurality
(e.g. in quantitative phrases). Example:
guru-guru teachers (of various sort)
A qualificative phrase is understood under the general formula:
+ n ± si + adj. ± kalihen / su
which may be further extended thus:
+ n ±si + adj. ± kalihen/su + nengen/serte + adj. ± kalihen/su
Examples are:
57
geleng si ndatas kalihen a very high mountain
tenduk si tejem serte mebahaye a sharp and dangerous horn
sekalak si ndatas nengen megegòh a man who is tall and
strong
A complexification of this structure is given when adjectives
are followed by até or such words, as e.g. mejilé aténe “kind
(in heart)”. See however below.
A distributive phrase is formed with the help of meradu
“each”:
sebatang rokok meradu one cigarette each
Complex phrases may be of the type:
+ n + si (adj. + -ne) + det.
where det. stands for a particular noun or adjective referring to
colour or measure. Examples are:
gòrtak si gedangne seratus métér a bridge 100 metres long
uwis si còrakne hijòu a cloth green in colour
Another kind of complex phrase may be given by the formula:
+ n + si me-verb + num.
where a mu-verb is intended to be a verb formed by the prefix
me- which has been dealt with above. Examples are:
58
méje si mekiding telu a table with three legs
sekalak memate sade a man with one eye only
A third type of complex phrase is the following:
+ n + si (n + adj. + -ne)
Examples:
jème si mberòng kulingne a man with a dark skin
bujang si mparas matene a girl with beautiful eyes
A variant of this type of phrase is the following:
jème si mejilé aténe a kind hearted man
sekalak si punguren aténe a man who is angry in his heart.
All these complex cases show us that a whole clause may
follow a noun if introduced by the deictic si. An example is:
abangku nintai bujang si tading ndòhòr rumahmu
my brother fell in love with a girl living near your house
Other examples of sentences showing the compounding of
simple phrases are the following:
guru sekolah kami si mbaru the new teacher of our school
tukang njait ènde that tailor
jème memule èdi this first man
imbang kami èdi this friend of ours
mbué batang kayu si mebulung many shadowy trees
59
sebuah kucing beru a female cat
We must remember here that every noun phrase may be
preceded by a preposition thus forming a prepositional phrase
of the kind:
+ prep. + NP ± (+ prep. + NP) ± conj. ± PP
Examples:
ni jume ndage in the aforesaid ricefield
be sekalak petani ni antarene to a farmer (standing)
between them
be sekalak guru rut sekalak peburu to a teacher and a hunter
The formula summing up all the shown structures could be
shaped as follows:
60
3.4.2. Verbal phrases
We find simpler structures in verb phrases, which show the
following patterns:
- modal phrases. The verb (active prenasalized stem or passive
root, other verbal stems) is preceded by a modal modifier. A
list of such modals is:
tusò, tuksò must, have to
mbise like
tebahan may
mulai begin, start
uròk can, be able
pul finish
Examples are:
aku mulai telajar bahasa Inggeris I began to study English
aku mbise buet keterangen I like to get up late
- temporal/aspectual phrases. The verb is preceded by such
forms as:
enggòu already
sikel will/ “future”
sedang while, be ... ing
senaren always
penah ever
61
mapenah never
raket often
These various forms seem to be not absolutely homogeneous.
In any case in our corpus one only of the above item was to be
found in single sentences Examples are:
imbangku raket medem mbagas bòngi
my friend often goes to bed late
aku senaren medem jam siwah
I always go to bed at nine
lawé èdi enggòu niminum
that water has already been drunk
- negative phrases. There are three kinds according to the
following scheme:
aku made laus be Kabanjahé
I do not go to Kabanjahe
aku mde nenge laus be Kabanjahé
I have not yet gone to Kabanjahe
ulang laus be Kabanjahé!
do not go to Kabanjahe!
Made may be found before modal phrases, or even temporalaspectual
phrases. It is however impossible to have *made
enggòu, as mde (made) nenge is found instead. Ulang is found
only with simple stems, though it is possible that inflected
passive may be found with it as happens in Ml. (jangan
diminum! “let it not be drunk!”). Obviously in cases in which
the negative happens to be with a passive verb, we must
62
remember that the subject cannot be separated by the verb even
if the subject is not a prefix. In these cases made precedes the
subject.
Compound phrases may be the result of the adjunction of two
verbs as in the following type (v + v):
aku laus medem I go to sleep
or ( v + seran + v ):
Bibi medalan-dalan seran mangan ngete
Bibi walks and (contemporarily) she eats mangosteens
Adverbial phrases are of the kind:
+ v ± adv.
Examples:
aku buet pepagi I get up early
kalak èdi nibunuh bone that man has been killed yesterday
This kind of sentences, anyhow, are of a kind where only time
adverbs were found. There seems as a matter of fact to be no
other class of adverbs in Alas and therefore this phrase could
be considered a subclass of temporal phrases.
As an example of problems arising in the interpretation of
verbal phrases, let us consider the following case:
63
aku laus lebé be pekan, kane be rumah Mat
I go first to the market, then to Mat’s
which can be interpreted as:
F
NP VP PP
V ADV P NP
aku laus lebé be pekan
associated to this other structure:
F
NP VP PP
V ADV P NP
aku laus kane be rumah Mat
This patterning accounts for the inclusion of such a structure
into the preceding subcategory of verbal phrases.
64
It may be observed that for our purposes we do not consider, as
it ought to be in strict Chomskyan terms, the NP as rewritten V
+ NP. As a matter of fact this is somewhat implicit as our cases
of VP (or if we want to introduce an intermediate category of
verb group) could be always considered as completed by a NP
of the type we saw in the preceding paragraph. In any case
possible combinations or more complex structures will be dealt
with below. Practically VP according to Chomskyan orthodoxy
is the result of one or more verb groups (VG) followed by one
or more NP which may be eventually coordinated. Of course
all this matter must follow rules of subcategorization of verbs.
Complex verbal phrases are the result of the fusion of two or
more of the above cases, according to a formula of all possible
cases such as:
(made) (asp) (time) (mod)
(made nenge) v (adv) ((seran+ v) (adv))
(ulang)
3.5. Clauses
3.5.1. Types of clauses
Basically we may discern three fundamental types of clauses in
Alas, viz. statements, equations and commands. Statements are
subdivided into two subtypes: transitive and intransitive
65
statements. They may be affected by a transformation due to
different focusing, active-passive, negative and interrogative.
Transitive statements may be represented by a structure
formula of the kind:
tS = ± S: n/pr/N + P: tv/tV + O: n/pr/N
to be read: a transitive statement is formed by an optional
subject slot filled by a noun or a pronoun or a noun phrase, plus
an obligatory predicate slot filled by a transitive verb or a
transitive verb phrase plus an obligatory object slot filled by a
noun or a pronoun or a noun phrase.
In terms of generative transformational rules this may be
summarized as follows:
S ® (NO) - VP
NP ® (see 3.4.1.)
pr
VP ® tv - NP
Examples of such sentences are:
aku minjam mòtòr èdi I borrow that car
aku sedang ngatòu guru I am looking at the teacher
penangkòu èdi nitangkap pelisi the thief has been caught
by the police
aku made mangan mangga èdi I did not eat that mango
aku ngèpari lawé I crossed the river
66
lawé niképari rut rakit the river was crossed by a raft
isékin si kau atòu? who are you looking at?
We must add that tv may be represented by a verbal phrase
with a transitive verb as nucleus (see 3.4.2.). Moreover the
sentence may be expanded with optional slots of time, place or
manner and marked by a particular intonation.
In transformational terms we can build a phrase marker of the
kind:
S
COMP NP VP PP
V NP
V ought to be seen as a Ñ, as it may be further analyzed in
subsequent Ñ’s plus a final V, according to such structures as
shown in 3.4.2.; as follows:
67
Ñ
NEG Ñ
ASP Ñ
TI Ñ
MO V
Intransitive statements may be considered as shorthened
sentences having no NP following the verb. Of course the VP
will be represented by an intransitive verb with the same
considerations we made for the VP in transitive statements. In
any case the intransitive statement is never affected by an
active-passive transformation, while there are cases of focusing
by means of a simple x-movement rule.
Examples of intransitive statements are:
bòne kite tibe we arrived yesterday
aku mbise buet pepagi I like to get up early
68
aku enggòu pul mangan I just finished to eat
iye senaren pakaskas he is always very busy
aku raket medem jam siwah I often go to bed at nine
Equations are represented by a very simple structure which
may be affected by focusing, negation and interrogation.
The formula is:
S ® NP - NP
The first NP is the one in focus. Focusing of the second NP is
possible by inverting the order and marking with an
emphasizer (such as -me) the first NP. An interrogative is
possibly already marked as focused by itself. Examples of
equations are:
aku petani I am a peasant
deleng ari be laut dalanne due batu
from the mountain to the sea the road is two miles
rumah cut ènde hòye rumahku
this small house is not mine
lembu mbòrguhku benatang simbalin kalihen
my ox is a very big animal
Basic command sentences are formed by a simple VP. Of
course they may be negative:
ulang turun do not get down!
69
3.5.2. Complex sentences
We have two possibilities of complex sentences, viz. what we
may call sentences formed by two or more coordinate clauses
and sentences formed by subordinate clauses. The only
difference between the two types lies in the conjunction
binding the clauses.
Subordination may be had also without linking particles.
Starting from:
kutòh (ènde) I know this
we may have such complex sentences as:
kutòh iye njadi kepale penjabat
I know (that) he became head of the office
In the first case we will have:
S
NP VP
V NP
zero kutòh ènde
70
In the second:
S
NP VP
_
V N
NP VP
V NP
zero kutòh iye njadi kepale penjabat
71
4. THE POSITION OF ALAS
4.1. It clearly appears that Alas is not an isolated language in
its geographical context. Karo Batak is surely the closest
language both from a geographical standpoint and
comparatistically and we may assume that there exists mutual
intelligibility between the two languages. Gayo, northwards,
shares many lexical and structural traits with it too.
A more “measurable” evaluation of this affinity may be offered
by a lexicostatistical computation. From this it appears that
Alas shares with Karo Batak 80.43% of non cultural items in
exam, whilst the comparison with Gayo offers a good 55%.
These figures are very high, as is clear to any student having
familiarity with such a method. On the other hand even
languages not so close geographically show a high degree of
lexical affinity, as is the case for Toba Batak with 56%, giving
us a clue for the inclusion of Alas within the group of Batak
languages/dialects. Besides these Aceh also gives a high
percentage of cognates with 40.81%.
We are striken by the resemblance of Alas with the
reconstructed lexicon of Proto-Austronesian as worked out by
Dempwolff. As a matter of fact, by taking into consideration
the percentage of shared cognates with the Proto-language, we
reach a good 51.54%, which is not so high as to be compared
with the percentage existing between e.g. UAN and Malay
(83.15%), but it is higher than the figures we have for Karo
(47.19%) and Toba (44.92%).
72
It is necessary however that we express here our position as
regards such methods of comparison and/or classification,
which we have also expressed in Soravia 1987-88.
Lexicostatistical methods, in fact, are based on a not always
ascertainable assertion: identity of reflexes in modern
languages from a common proto-form do not take into account
“qualitative” differences. Aceh, e.g., shows 69.47% of UAN
lexicon, but with remarkable differences in phonetic variation
from it. In other words cognates are accountable for in the light
of regular phonetic laws, but Malay words are almost identical
to UAN, whilst Aceh ones vary considerably. Moreover Aceh
shows a degree of divergency from Malay and other related
languages in morphology and syntax. The Neo-grammarian
prejudice works in this case too, in asserting the origin of
language change in phonetics!
Again, UAN-Alas comparison percentage of 51.54% would
insist on a greater diversity of Alas from UAN than is the case
for Aceh, but both phonetic reality and possibly all the
structure of the language points to a greater affinity of Alas to
UAN.
Percentages based only on lexical sharings ought therefore to
be corrected and integrated in the light of the complexity of
phonetic laws and other parametres, not to speak of a serious
bias on the universality of the wordlist used for the
comparisons.
On the other hand we are quite aware of the fact that
Dempwolff’s proto-forms are far from being untouchable and
73
phonetically reliable, both for internal reason (and for the same
reason the more so can be stated for Dyen’s PAN forms) and
for external causes. In the first case we are never certain of the
phonetic values of the symbols used for proto-forms, in the
second case we actually avoid considering sociolinguistic
dynamics in the change).
Lexicostatistics pretend also to give an evaluation of the tree in
terms of absolute time depth. Glottochronological formulae are
in fact a matter of faith, based on a “postulate” that is far from
being demonstrable and shows scanty ground if any for its
postulation. We avoided here to apply glottochronological
methods to our tree, but consider it as a first attempt to give an
order to the complex situation of Sumatran dialectology, which
of necessity must be further considered on the basis of
researches taking into account the real linguistic map of the
territory, rather than its idelization showing well-defined areas
each of them relating to one and one alone language.
Lexicostatistics, as a last criticism, uses a standardized list of
non-cultural items. We have strong objections to this, both
from the point of view of considering as non cultural some of
the items, and in terms of universality. Our list, in fact is a
revised list based on Swadesh 100 items list. But again this is
far from being perfectly desirable. Each family of languages, as
a matter of facts, shows peculiarities which favour the
inclusion or the exclusion of particular items. Just to give one
example the word for “eye” is scarcely probatory in AN
languages as in the great majority of cases it remains
unchanged from UAN *mata’ (even phonetically!).
Divergencies from it are only due to the use of a substitute term
74
whose origin is in language taboo or etiquette, whereas the
word *mata’ may equally be present in substandard forms or in
particular registers, or with a specialized meaning.
Anyhow, just to avoid useless polemics and justifying the use
we made of part of such methods, we shall state that we
consider the results of this computation merely capable to give
us a first reference frame for the classification of the languages
taken into account. The frame to obtain the best from it must be
integrated by results of morphostatistic comparisons,
complexity of phonetic laws, syntactical data, sociolinguistical
data etc.
The following summaries therefore are not given in the form of
a tree but as analytical tables showing:
A - percentages of cognates between Alas and other eight
Sumatran languages, plus Malagasy as a test language,
showing some interesting features which may be comparable
with Sumatran languages. In this case the results would
indicate that Malagasy has little to do with Sumatra (Dahl’s
Maanjan hypothesis still holds?);
B - percentages showing divergencies between UAN lexicon
and the ten languages;
C - analytic data, couple by couple of languages, showing in
percentage the cognates and in absolute figures the number of
couples of lexemes taken into consideration.
75
As a further control of the used material (in some cases
collected by the present writer and integrated by published
materials) we shall give the full list of the 100 items with a
short commentary to each of them. The reason for collecting
words by the present writer has been to obtain the word in
actual use, as dictionaries may list synonyms without stating
the actual frequency of use of each.
The list will help, more than general notes, to understand the
overall criteria, especially in the doubtful cases where the
decision to be made was particularly difficult.
76
Table A - Percentages of cognates shared by nine Sumatran
languages (plus Malagasy as a test)
Ml. Al. Gy. KB Sim. Ac. TB Ni. Me.
My. 32.00 33.00 26.00 31.00 25.00 29.29 24.00 21.34 12.50
Me. 20.83 21.87 19.79 21.87 16.09 18.94 17.70 23.07
Ni. 31.52 34.78 33.69 36.95 25.30 29.34 25.00
TB 39.00 56.00 42.00 54.00 36.45 38.38
Ac. 63.63 40.81 43.43 36.36 31.57
Sim. 36.45 37.50 35.41 35.41
KB 40.00 81.00 48.00
Gy. 41.00 55.00
Al. 41.00
77
Table B - Percentages of UAN lexemes present in nine
Sumatran languages (plus Malagasy) from a 100 item list of
non cultural terms:
UAN
20%
24.73% Mentawei
30%
39.77% Nias
40%
44.92% Toba
45.65% Simalur
45.83% Malagasy
47.91% Karo
50%
51.54% Alas
54.16% Gayo
60%
69.47% Aceh
70%
80%
83.15% Malay
78
Table C - Cognate percentages two-by-two of nine Sumatran
languages (plus Malagasy) and UAN, and absolute figures of
couples of lexemes taken into consideration in each case.
UAN-Malay 83.15% 79 on 95
UAN-Alas 51.54% 50 on 97
UAN-Gayo 54.16% 52 on 96
UAN-Karo 47.91% 46 on 96
UAN-Simalur 45.65% 42 on 92
UAN-Aceh 69.47% 66 on 95
UAN-Toba 44.92% 43 on 97
UAN-Nias 39.77% 35 on 88
UAN-Mentawei 24.73% 23 on 93
UAN-Malagasy 45.83% 44 on 96
Malay-Alas 41.00% 41 on 100
Malay-Gayo 41.00% 41 on 100
Malay-Karo 40.00% 40 on 100
Malay-Simalur 36.45% 35 on 96
Malay-Aceh 63.63% 63 on 99
Malay-Toba 39.00% 39 on 100
Malay-Nias 31.52% 29 on 92
Malay-Mentawei 20.83% 20 on 96
Malay-Malagasy 32.00% 32 on 100
Alas-Gayo 55.00% 55 on 100
Alas-Karo 81.00% 81 on 100
Alas-Simalur 37.50% 36 on 96
Alas-Aceh 40.81% 40 on 98
79
Alas-Toba 56.00% 56 on 100
Alas.Nias 34.78% 32 on 92
Alas-Mentawei 21.87% 21 on 96
Alas-Malagasy 33.00% 33 on 100
Gayo-Karo 48.00% 48 on 100
Gayo-Simalur 35.41% 34 on 96
Gayo-Aceh 43.43% 43 on 99
Gayo-Toba 42.00% 42 on 100
Gayo-Nias 33.69% 31 on 92
Gayo-Mentawei 19.79% 19 on 96
Gayo-Malagasy 26.00% 26 on 100
Karo-Simalur 35.41% 34 on 96
Karo-Aceh 36.36% 36 on 99
Karo-Toba 54.00% 54 on 100
Karo-Nias 36.95% 34 on 92
Karo-Mentawei 21.87% 21 on 96
Karo-Malagasy 31.00% 31 on 100
Simalur-Aceh 31.57% 30 on 95
Simalur-Toba 36.45% 35 on 96
Simalur-Nias 25.30% 21 on 83
Simalur-Mentawei 16.09% 14 on 97
Simalur-Malagasy 25.00% 24 on 96
Aceh-Toba 38.38% 38 on 99
80
Aceh-Nias 29.34% 27 on 92
Aceh-Mentawei 18.94% 18 on 95
Aceh-Malagasy 29.29% 29 on 99
Toba-Nias 25.00% 23 on 92
Toba-Mentawei 17-70% 17 on 96
Toba-Malagasy 24.00% 24 on 100
Nias-Mentawei 23.07% 21 on 91
Nias-Malagasy 21.34% 19 on 89
Mentawei-Malagasy 12.50% 12 on 96
81
4.2. ANALYSIS OF THE 100 ITEMS COMPARATIVE LIST
1. “I” - Ml. Gy. Al. KB Me. aku, Sim. a’u, Ac. kèe, TB
a(h)u, Ni. ya’odo, My. aho, UAN *’aku’
All the forms refer to UAN except Ni.
2. “thou” - Ml. engkau, Al. KB kau, Gy. ko, Ac. kah, TB
ho, Me. akeu, Sim. dio, Ni. ya’ugö, My. hianao, UAN *kav
Divergencies are found in Sim. Ni. and My.; all other
forms may be more or less explainable through normal
phonetic laws (Ac. included)
3. “we” (incl.) - Ml. KB kita, Al. Gy. kite, Sim. dita, TB
hita, Me. sita, Ni. ya’ita, Ac. geutanyoe, My. isika, UAN
*kita’.
We have a difference only for My. (?) while Ac. is
explainable through phonetic laws and the use, also with other
pronouns, of deictics (nyoe “this”). The standard list does not
take into consideration the exclusive form for “we”, which is
a commonly widespread feature among AN languages. The
proto-form for UAN seems to be biased by the Ml. form
(which is really very common) but the existence of so many
different word initial phonemes rather tend to give a
reconstruction of the type *ita.
4. “this” - Ml. Gy. ini, Al. ènde, KB ènda, Sim. ede, Ac.
nyoe, TB nion, Ni, da’e, andre, Me. nene, My. ity, io, UAN
*’ini’/*i[t]u’
82
The whole of deictics in AN languages ought to be
studied much better, there existing many other forms with
different nuances in meaning in the various languages.
5. “that” - Ml. itu, Al. édi, KB éna, Gy, oya, so, Sim. a’i,
Ac. nyan, TB nian, Ni. da’o, andrö, Me. nenda, My. iry, iny,
UAN *’ijan
See also No. 4.
6. “who” - Ml. siapa, Al. KB isé, TB ise, Gy. sa(hen),
Sim. anea, Ac. soe, Ni. hata, Me. kasei, My. iza, UAN
*[t’]a[j]i[’]
7. “what” - Ml. Me. apa, Al. kaé, KB kai, Gy. sana, Sim.
ara, Ac. peue, TB aha, Ni. hadia, My. izai, inona, UAN
*’apa’
In this case UAN seems to occur only in a couple of
cases and “who” sometimes may be connected and so it woul
be lexicostatistically redundant. Such reflexes seem to be
doubtful in all cases.
8. “all” - Ml. semua, segala, Al. kerine, KB kerina, Gy.
benné, Sim. masare’, sado, Ac. bandum, TB sude, Ni. fufu,
dozi, Me. sangamberi, My. ny, rehetra, UAN *[’]abih
The variety of forms is total, UAN based on Jv. None
of the forms seems therefore to be UAN. Ni. has different
forms for human ~ non human. Doubtful is also the affinity
between Sim. and TB.
83
9. “many” - Ml. banyak, Al. mbuwe, Gy. delé, KB
melala, Sim. afIl, Ac. le, TB godang, Ni. oya, ato, Me.
makope, My be(tsaka).
We find again a great variety of forms, lacking a UAN
term (cp. *Ña’at “Menge”). The two forms of Ni. are again
human ~ non human.
10. “one” - Ml. satu, Al. sade, Gy. Sim. Ni. Me. sara, KB
TB sada, Ac. sa, My. isa, iray, UAN *’it’a’, ‘It’a’
Except Ac. most forms are compounds of the kind of
Ml. satu < sa + batu, Jv. siji < sa biji etc.
11. “two” - Ml. KB TB Ac. Ni. dua, Al. due, Gy. rowa,
Sim. Me. rua, My roa, UAN *Ñuva’
12. “big” - Ml. besar, Al. belin, Gy. kuul, Kb galang,
Sim. afofo, Ac. rayeuk, TB balga, Ni. ebua, Me. abeu, My.
lehibe, UAN *gaja’/laba[’]
Only Ac. seems to continue one UAN form, while the
other languages are innovative. There seems in fact to be no
UAN form at all! The connection between Ni. and Me. is
doubtful, whilst there may be with Al. mbué “many”
13. “long” - Ml. panjang, Al. KB gedang, Ac. manyang,
TB ganjang, Gy. naru, Ni. enau, Sim. starix’, Me. manauta,
My. lava, UAN *[’/p]an’d’a®
The UAN form, so artificially built up, accounts by
itself for the variety of forms, where a connection between Ml.,
Al., KB, Ac. and TB is evident if we accept such theories as
Brandstetter’s of a monosyllabic root (*-d’a® ) having
84
different prefixes. Possible a connection between Ni. and Gy.
through a form *naRu
14. “small” - Ml. kecil, Al. Ac. cut, Gy. kucak, KB kitik,
Sim. (s)ito’, TB gelleng, Ni. ide’ide, Me. magoiso, My. kely,
UAN *[’]itik/Ñikih
Here again we have a great variety of possible reflexes
of a monosyllabic root *tik/cit. We accept that phonosymbolism
may play also a role in the shaping of subsequent
prefixed forms, which need no particular commentary
15. “woman” - Ml. perempuan, Al. deberu, KB diberu,
TB boruboru, Gy. banan, Sim. silafae, Ac. inong, Ni. alawe,
Me, sinanalep, My. vehivavy, UAN *binaj
The UAN recontruction is controversial in that it
accounts for some regional forms which are found especially in
Eastern IN. Forms are very different here, including a possible
pre-AN Gy. form and a common Batak *bIru
16. “man” - Ml. lakilaki, Al. delaki, KB dilaki, Sim. silai,
My. lehilahy, Gy. rawan, Ac. agam, TB doli, Ni. matua, Me.
simanteu, UAN *laki’
Though many reflexes of UAN are present, we may
easily notice some important divergencies in such languages as
Ac. Gy. TB Me. and Ni. In some cases they seem to have
preserved pre-AN forms (Soravia 1986).
17. “person” - Ml. orang, Ac. ureueng, My. olona, Al.
jème, Gy. jema, KB kalak, TB halak, Sim. (h)ata, Ni. niha,
Me. sirimanua, UAN *’uga®/’ulun/[t]avu[’]
85
Again we must observe how UAN forms are rather
limited as in Oceanic languages as well as in Eastern Indonesia
other forms are found too. Moreover we do not understand the
form *’ulun, which seems to be due only to My. Some more
forms are clearly a Skr loan (<jalma) which is found also in
e.g. Jv. and Balinese, or in My. (menjelmakan “to become
person, incarnate”). *kalak is found in Al. too, as a synonym,
and is typical of Batak dialects. We lack to see - or this could
be conversely a good example of - the intricacy of forms due to
phenomena of borrowing, from adjacent languages, superstata
(Sanskrit) and other possible sociolinguistic phenomena causing
lexicostatistical count to fail. Cp. also Sim. which may be
the same of Ni. for “who”.
18. “fish” - Ml. Al. KB ikan, Ni. i’a, Gy. gulé, Sim. Inae,
Ac. eungkôt, TB dengke, Me. iba, My. hazandrano, UAN
*’ikan
The UAN form is clearly widespread (up to Polynesia),
but some forms account for the sociolinguistic point of view, in
that the form *’ikan is not necessarily unknown, but has
become a rarer synonim. This is the case of Gy. which uses the
form pointing to a “cooked fish” (cp. Ml. gulai “k.o. soup”)
and TB with a form which is Gy. for “meat” etc. My. moreover
uses a compound form meaning “prey in water”. Cp. also Me.
with Balinese bé
19. “bird” - Ml. burung, Sim. boru®, My. vorona, Al.
memanuk, Gy. manuk, KB perik, Ac. cicém, TB pidong, Ni.
fofo, Me. umma, UAN *buâu®/*manuk
Both UAN forms are reflected , as well as unrelated
forms (Ni. KB TB Ac. Me.)
86
20. “dog” - Ml. anjing, Al. KB TB biang, Gy. Sim. Ni.
asu, Ac. asèe, Me. jokjok, My. alika, UAN *’at’u’
UAN is present but other very different non-AN forms
as well
21. “to fall” - Ml. jatuh, Al. (n)dabuh, KB dabuh, TB
(ma)dabu, Gy. tauh, Sim. foeo®, Ac. rhôt, Ni. alau, Me. bele,
My. zera, UAN *Ñabuh/*d’a[ô]uh
Again the tentative reconstruction of UAN shows that
the various forms, though clearly correlated in most cases,
are not connected by regular phonetic laws. A unique
reconstruction would be of the kind *[d’Ñ]a[bô]u(h), which
cannot be accepted but as a synthesis of various compresent
forms being different from the origin. Or, according to
Brandstetter’s hypotheses, the protoform could be *[td]uh with
different prefixes which in some cases are metathesized
(dabuh < *baduh).
22. “leaf” - Ml. daun, Al. KB TB bulung, Sim bolu®, Gy.
ulung, Ac. ôn, My ravina, Ni. lailai, Me. muoi (?), UAN
*da’un
The UAN form, as a matter of fact, accounts only for
Ml. and Ac., whilst the form *bulu® seems as widespread also
in other areas, but not considered UAN by Dempwolff
23. “skin” - Ml. Gy. Me. kulit, Al. KB kuling, Ac. kulét,
TB huling-huling, Ni. uli, My. hoditra, Sim. bebi’, UAN *kulit
This is a good example of a totality of UAN reflexes
(except Sim.) but showing diverse degrees of divergency
87
from the original form. Batak languages show a passage *t > ®
which is not systematical
24. “meat” - Ml. daging, Al. KB jukut, Gy. dengké, Sim.
bantae, Ac. sie, TB jagal, Ni. nagole, Me. akkula, My. nofo,
hena, UAN *dagi®
Only Ml. shows a UAN form. We could not decide to
consider cognates TB and Ni. or Ni. and Me. The word may
have been subjected to taboo restrictions and changed
considerably, so further proof if necessary of the unlinearity of
the method, if not considering different rates of cultural pushes
even in what is considered a non-cultural vocabulary
25. “blood” - Ml. Ac. darah, Al. daròh, KB dareh, Sim.
dala, Ni. do, My ra, Gy. rayòh, TB bontar, Me. logau, UAN
*[dÑ]agah. UAN is common.
26. “bone” - Ml. tulang, Al. KB tulan, Gy. tulen, Ac.
tuleueng, Ni. tola, My. taolana, Me. tolat, TB holi, Sim. sod,
UAN *[t]ula®
UAN is dominating.
27. “horn” - Ml. Al. KB TB Gy. tanduk, Ac. tandôk, Sim.
tadu’, Ml. tandroka, Me. ban, UAN *ta[n]duk
The one exception shows again that non cultural terms
are not always stable and must be untouched by cultural taboo.
But which is the criterion?
28. “tail” - Ml. ekor, Gy. uki, KB ikur, Ac. iku, TB ihur,
Sim. iu’, Ni. i’o, Al. lawi, Me. paipai, My. rambo, UAN * ikug
Al. is not UAN together with My. and Me. only.
88
29. “to bathe” - Ml. mandi, Ac. manòe, Ni. mondri, My.
mandro, Me. murai, Al. KB ridi, TB (ma)ridi, Gy. muniri,
Sim. ariri, UAN *[’]an[d]uj
The reconstruction is intriguing though it is easy to
recognize the common origin of most forms, with the presence
of a m- prefix. If we were to reconstruct it, we would like better
to think of a double original form (dialect difference from the
start), viz. *Ridi (<*[Rn]idi?) and *(m)andi. Me. remains
uncovered. But can really “to bathe” be considered uncultural?
Or we must reconsider the whole, given the stability of such a
word?
30. “hair” - Ml. rambut, bulu, Al. KB buk, Gy. wuk, Sim.
bu’, Ac. ôk, Ni. bu, TB obut, Me. buluk, My. volo, UAN
*bu’uk/d’[aI](m)but
Actually the question seems to be quite different the
response that UAN suggests. The doublet in Ml. is also
interesting, showing again what happens elsewhere, sometimes
with no trace left, of one (UAN) form. We would suggest
anyhow a reconstruction of the kind *buluk.
31. “head” - Ml. kepala, Al. KB takal, Gy. Sim. ulu, Ac.
ulèe, TB simajujung, Ni. högö, Me. ute, My. loha, UAN *’ulu’
UAN is widespread, but the term may have undergone
taboo (as is the case shown by TB where ulu exists too). Ml.
is a borrowing from Skt. and may be a similar case; as a matter
of fact such changes may explain the rising of courtesy
languages as well
89
32. “ear” - Ml. telinga, Me. talinga, piu, Al. KB cuping,
Gy. kemiring, Sim. koeu’, TB pinggol, My. sofina, UAN
*tali®a
The UAN form does not account for the widely
distributed form *kupi®
33. “eye” - Ml. Gy. KB Sim. Ac. Me. mata, Al. mate, TB
simalolong, Ni. hörö, My. maso, UAN *mata’
Form of little interest as almost general everywhere. TB
knows too the UAN form but uses a tabooized word
34. “nose” - Ml. hidung, Al. KB TB igung, Gy. iyung,
Sim. ix’u®, Ac. idông, Ni. ikhu, My. orona, Me. asak, UAN
*ig’u®
UAN everywhere with one exception and yet one of the
very few forms which compelled Dempwolff to create a */g’/
to justify a variety of reflexes which on the other hand are
clearly related, but not in a regular way
35. “mouth” - Ml. Ac. mulut, TB pamangan, Me. ngungu,
Al. KB babah, Gy. awah, Sim. baba, Ni. bawa, My. vava, UAN
*mulut/babah
How is the couplet of UAN justified? TB shows a form
deriving clearly from “eat”, but the different forms point to a
dialectal difference in UAN
36. “tooth” - Ml. gigi, Ac. gigòe, Al. KB ipen, TB Gy.
ipon, Sim. ehen, Ni. ifö, My. nify, Me. son, UAN *ipIn/gigi’
Here again a couplet in UAN, similar divergency
between Ml. Ac. versus others, Al. is grouped with KB and Gy.
90
with TB. There is enough to build a theoretical map to be
checked in other cases. And again, does the theory of Proto-
Malays and Deutero-Malays hold from this point of view? The
two waves had different dialects, and so... this is a possible
reply
37. “tongue” - Ml. lidah, Al. KB Ac. dilah, Gy. délah, Sim.
TB dila, Ni. My. lela, Me. lila, UAN *dilah
Total agreement with minor changes (metathesis,
assimilation)
38. “foot” - Ml. kaki, Ac. gaki, Al. Gy. kiding KB nahé, Ni.
ahe, Sim. kaI, TB pat, Me. dere, My. tongotra, UAN kaki’
Again the UAN form does not account for other
“regional” forms such as *kidi® and (n)ahe. Ac. is anomalous
in that according to regular phonetic laws it should have been
gakòe. Contradictory the correspondences between Gy. and Al.
and KB and Ni.
39. “hand” - Ml. Al. TB tangan, Ni. tanga, My. tanana,
KB tÊn, Gy. pumu, Sim. kao’, Ac. jaròe, Me. kabei, UAN
*ta®an/lima’
Curiously enough the first UAN form is well
represented in the area, whilst the second form, which is more
common elsewhere, is lacking. Ac. is connected with Ml. jari
“finger” and Gy. could be pre-AN
40. “belly” - Ml. perut, Ac. pruet, Al. Gy. tuke, KB beltuk,
Sim. besil, TB butuha, Me. baga, My. kibo, UAN *[t]ijan
The UAN form is not represented here. Possible but
unproved a connexion between Gy. Al. and KB. In Me. the
91
word (maybe connected with forms in other languages meaning
“inside”) indicates the emotion seat (possibly elsewhere *’ataj
“liver”): can it be considered non-cultural?
41. “neck” - Ml. leher, Ac. lihie, kudék, TB rudok, Gy.
ròndòk, Al. kaharung, KB keharung, Sim. le®gDl, Me. lolokat,
My. vozona, UAN *lihig
Curiously again the UAN form seems to be present only
for Ml. while a root *dok seems widespread, but not apparently
found elsewhere. Al. and KB recall Ml. tenggorokan “throat”?
42. “milk” - Ml. Gy. Al. TB Ni. susu, KB dadih, Sim.
(totu’), Ac. (ie) mon, Me. tottot, My. (ro)nono, UAN
*t’ut’u’
The UAN form is firmly established in the zone, but we
must remember the frequent interchange “breast” and “milk”.
Dubious reflexes are Sim. and Me. while Ac. and My. prefix a
word for “water” which is a common classifier for liquids
43. “to go” - Ml. pergi, Al. laus, KB lawes, TB lahu, lau,
My. leha, Ac. jak, Gy. beluh, Ni. möi, Me. mei, UAN *pa[n]av
Absolutely absent the UAN form, there seems to be
irregular reflexes of *laku dominant, but this interpretation is
not at all so clear. *laku on the other hand as a verb of motion
is present in Ml. as well as in Fijan and Eastern AN languages.
If it is so Gy. could be a reflex of it with a be- prefix (found
also in betih “to know”, TB boto, but Ml. tahu). It is evident
that there is a necessity to go far deeper in evaluating these
forms than contenting onself with exceptionless rules!
92
44. “heart” - Ml. hati, Al. KB Ac. até, Gy. ati, Sim. TB Ni.
ate, Ni. also tödö, Me [atei], My. fo, UAN *’ataj
As a matter of fact the word means rather “liver” and it
is considered the seat of emotions, but not everywhere so: this
explains why the dubious inclusion of Me. where such a seat is
rather the “belly” (baga). Anyhow the UAN root is present
everywhere and not only in this area
45. “to drink” - Ml. TB minum, Gy. (m)inum, Al. inum,
KB Sim. inem, Ac. jèb, Ni. badu, Me. mu-lo, My. sotro, UAN
*’inum
Remarking differences for an otherwise very common
UAN root in Ac. Ni. Me. and My.
46. “to eat” - Ml. makan, Al. pangan, Gy. TB mangan, KB
man, Sim. ’an, Ni. a, manga, Me. mu-kom, Ac. pajòh, My.
hinana, UAN *ka’(In) / pa®an
Remarking differences from UAN paralleling the ones
for “to drink”
47. “to bite” - Ml. gigit, Al. KB karat, Gy. kèt, Sim. alad ,
TB harat, Ac. kab, Ni. dou, usu, Me. sod (?), My. kaikitra,
UAN *kagat
UAN forms may be found (Ml. is obviously from gigi
“teeth”) in Al. KB Gy. Sim. TB and possibly My.
48. “to see” - Ml. lihat, KB idah, Al. idah, atòu, Gy. èngòn,
Sim. ena’, Ac. kalon, TB mereng, Ni. ila, mamaigi, Me. ico,
My. hita, UAN *kita’
Only UAN reflex is My. and dubious Sim. Ml. is a
metathesis of KB or vice versa. Once a word is not UAN in this
93
group of languages the forms are often very different from each
other. On the contrary in some cases there is a remarkable
stability
49. “to hear” - Ml. dengar, Ac. deungo, Ni. rongo, Al.
(be)gé, KB begi, Gy. pengé, TB bege, Sim. e®gIl, Me. arep,
My. mandre, haino, UAN *dI®Ig
The UAN form, which is rather common in Western
Indonesia, is hardly present. Again in the “Batak” group we
have some monosyllabic forms (*geg) with a fossil (sometimes
*be-) prefix
50. “to know” - Ml. tahu, Al. tòh, KB teh, Ac. thèe, Gy.
betih, TB boto, Sim. alofil, Ni. ila, Me. agai, My. hay, UAN
*tahu’
UAN rather common, with a *be- prefix. Dubious if
Sim. and Ni. are cognates, and same doubt for Me. and My.
51. “to sleep” - Ml. tidur, My. tury, Al. KB medem, TB
modom, Ni. mörö, Me. merep, Sim. mIrI’, Gy. nomé, Ac. éh,
UAN *tidug
Noteworthy intricacy. Apparently UAN is only in Ml.
and in My. though tentatively. But are there connexions with a
*merep/medem form? and are *merem and *medem connected?
52. “to die” - Ml. mati, Al. Gy. KB Ac. maté, KB Ni. mate,
Sim. matae, Me. matei, tataenga, My. maty, UAN *mataj
UAN everywhere but one asks oneself why taboo has
not worked here if not partially (euphemisms are however
widespread besides the given *mataj)
94
53. “to fly” - Ml. terbang, Ac. teurbang, Al. (ng)kabang,
KB kabang, TB habang, Sim. aba®, Ni. hunongo (?), Me.
tuburut, My. sisina
The convergency towards a common root *ba® is
striking. Brandstetter’s theories here hold good, but why not a
UAN root? PAN gives only a *lImbay which is here totally
absent
54. “to come” - Ml. datang, My. tany, avy, Al. ròh, KB reh,
TB ro, Ml. gèh, Sim. bIsI®, Ac. teuka, Me. moi, Ni. möröi,
aene, UAN *daôa®
The UAN form in fact is scarcely present, whilst a *re
root (or rather *gI) offers matter to think, appearing irregularly,
sometimes with a *me- prefix. The key to full
comprehension is possibly in Eastern Indonesian languages
55. “to sit” - Ml. duduk, Ac. duek, Al. tandòk, KB Gy.
kundul, TB hundul, Me. ma-kuddu, Sim. ta’I® , Ni. dao (?),
My. petraka, UAN *ÑukÑuk
UAN is interesting showing a reduplication of a root
*duk appearing with different prefixes and metathesized
perhaps in *kundul and similar forms (*prefix + duk > kVn-duC
with further assimilation of the vowel). Naturally the word
means also “to dwell, inhabit” as elsewhere also outside
Indonesia
95
56. “to give” - Ml. beri, Al. KB beré, Ac. bri, Ni. be’e, Gy.
òsah, Sim. Iba, TB lehon, Me. ake, kau, My. ome, UAN
*bIgIj
UAN is common but is *be- again an old prefix?
57. “to say” - Ml. kata, Al. kate, TB hata, Gy. peri, KB
nina, Sim. li®, Ni. li, Ac. kheun, Me. kau, nganga, My. laza,
UAN *(kunu’)
The variety of forms are strictly connected with the
inexistence of a UAN form
58. “day” - Ml. hari, Al. KB wari, TB ari, Ac. uròe, My.
andro, Gy. lo, Ni. luo, Sim. balal, Me. tago, sulu, UAN
*’a(n)dav / vagi’
The two forms of UAN are both represented in the area,
but they are unsatisfactory. A further *laR could be added or,
rather, a variety of related forms could be conceived, if
comparing the lexeme in a wider way through AN languages.
See e.g. Kei leran or Hawaii lÊ, etc.
59. “moon” - Ml. Al. KB TB bulan, Gy. ulen, Ac. buleuen,
My, volana, Sim. bawa, Ni. bawha, Me. leggo, UAN *bulan
The UAN form dominates, but Si. and Ni. point to
another root
60. “star” - Ml. Al. Gy. KB TB bintang, Sim. binta®, Ac.
binteueng, Ml. kintana, Ni. döfi, Me. panyanyan, UAN *binta®
The wide correspondence is marred by two facts: kinitial
in Nias and b- initial in Gy. where, according to its
phonetic reflexes it ought to be *intang. Is this the real proto96
form? In this case My. would have found a different prefix
and Gy. could have re-constructed its word on the analogy with
Ml. etc.
61. “water” - Ml. air, Ac. ie, Sim. oi’, TB aek, Gy. wéh,
weih, Al. lawé, KB lau, Ni. idanö, Me. oinan, My. rano, UAN
*vaiIg
Ac. and Sim. are not sure cognates of UAN. On the
other hand UAN is not fully satisfactory. Other IN languages
give a quite different and widespread root (see e.g. Tagalog
tubig, but also elsewhere in Eastern languages danum)
62. “rain” - Ml. hujan, Ac. ujuen, Al. KB TB udan, Gy.
uren, Me. urat, My. orana, Sim. olol, Ni. teu, UAN *’uÑan /
hud’an
No particular forms but the doublet in UAN is a further
example of inconsistency of univoque proto-forms
63. “stone” - Ml. Al. KB TB Sim. batu, Ac. batèe, Gy. atu,
My. vato, Ni. kara, Me. lelek, bukku, UAN *batu’
The most interesting is Ni. obviously connected with
Ml. karang “cliff, coral”
64. “sand” - Ml. TB pasir, Al. pasér, Ac. pasi, My. fasika,
fasina, Gy. KB kersik, Sim. basla, Me. ngai, UAN *pat’ig
UAN is common, though My. gives rise to some
conjecture, in that Sumatran (and elsewhere?) languages seem
to have frequent passages from *-® to -k (and vice versa?) with
a possible -k > -t, too. The doublet with *pasai is also possible.
97
65. “earth” - Ml. tanah, Al. Gy. Ac. tanoh, TB tano, Ni.
tanö, My. tany, KB taneh, Sim. atob, Me. polak, UAN *tanah /
tanIh
Again the UAN form cannot account for the variability
of the second vowel. On the other hand the form with *I is
more probable as it accounts for I > o as a common change,
and Ml. may be explained as a case of assimilation. But still
Ni. and My. raise some perplexity. On the other hand one asks
why the variability in this case is in the second syllable which
is generally more stable.
66. “cloud” - Ml. Sim. Ac. awan, Al. Gy. KB embun, TB
ombun, Me. tanairusa, My. rahona, UAN *[’I(m)bun]
Here we have a dubious case (embun in Ml. is “dew”),
where the protoform has been reconstructed on a weak basis,
though well represented in this area
67. “smoke” - Ml. Gy. asap, Ac. asab, Al. KB cimber, TB
timpul, Sim. tIbal, , Ni. simbo, Me. kujuk, My. setroka, UAN
*’a[t’]u’
UAN seems not representative of a variety of very
different forms. Only cognates seem to be Ml. Gy. and Ac. on
the one hand and Sim. and TB on the other with possible, not
considered, cognates also in Al. KB and Ni. (*t/c/si-mb/pV(l) ?)
68. “fire” - Ml. Al. KB TB api, Me. obengan, api, Ac.
apui, My. afo, Sim. ahoe, Gy. rara, Ni. alitö, UAN *’apuj
The UAN form is very common everywhere in AN
languages. Gy. comes from “blood” (UAN *dagah) via “red”
(see No. 70)
98
69. “ash” - Ml. KB Me. abu, Al. habu, Gy. wau, Ac. abèe,
Ni. awu, Sim. Ilal, TB abap, My. lavenona, UAN *’abu’
UAN very common.
70. “red” - Ml. merah, Ac. mirah, Al. megare, KB megara,
My. mena, Gy. ilang, Sim. afala, TB rara, Ni. oyo, Me.
mabo(gat), UAN *’igah
The UAN form is present with an obvious m- prefix,
but with numerous inconsistencies (may My. Al. KB be
considered cognates? and Gy.?). Especially for Al. and KB *g
seems to have given origin to both *g and *r if we accept the
forms as cognates
71. “green” - Ml. hijau, Al. hijou, KB hijo, Gy. Ac. TB ijo,
Sim. id’ao, My. maitso, Me. malimun, UAN *hid’av
There is a good concordance though possibly the
semantic spectrum of the word must range from “green” to
“blue”. My. has a ma- prefix. As for Me. the colour seems to
be exactly “(green) lemon” with a loan (?) from Ml. and a maprefix.
We have however some doubts about colours being non
cultural...
72. “yellow” - Ml. kuning, Sim. kuni®, Ac. kunéng, Me.
ma-kiniu, Al. (ng)gorsing, Gy. using, KB gersing, TB gorsing,
Ni. a’usö My. vony, UAN *kuni®
UAN cannot account for the (Batak-Al.-Gy.) *gI(R)si®
and it is doubtful whether Me. is also a cognate
99
73. “white” - Ml. Gy. putih, Ac. putéh, Ni. afusi, My. fotsy,
Al. mentar, KB mbentar, TB bontar, Sim. aodi®, Me. mebulau,
UAN *putih/ bulaj
Again there is a group tending to justify a *bIntaR form
also. See also Me. related possibly to UAN *bulaj
74. “black” - Ml. hitam, Ac. itam, Gy. item, Sim. etIm, Ni.
aitö, My. mainty, Al. (m)béròng, TB birong, KB ndiring Me.
mapusu, UAN *’i(n)tIm
Again the suggestion of a possible different origin for
(some) Proto-Malay and Deutero-Malay forms
75. “night” - Ml. Ac. malam, Gy. kelam, Al. bòngi, KB
berngi, TB borngin, Sim. bI®i, Ni. (si)bongi, Me. soibo, My.
alina, UAN *malIm / bI®[i’]
Both UAN forms are present with a clear dicotomy. Gy.
is interesting as it points towards a *lam root in common with
Ml. and Ac.
76. “hot” - Mal. panas, My. hafanana, Al. hangat, Gy.
pesam, Ac. peusam, KB melas, Sim. manae, TB banggor, Ni.
auchu, Me. maoloi, UAN *panat’
Here again UAN is quite unsatisfactory. Sociolinguistic
variants are clearly expressed by the presence of Al. hangat
which in Ml. is a synonym of panas. Gy. also may be a loan
from Ac.
100
77. “cold” - Ml. dingin, Al. (m)bòrgòh, KB mbergeh, Gy.
sejuk, Ac. sijuek, Sim. maufux, TB ngali, Ni. okafu, Me.
maloppot, My. hatsiaka, UAN *di®in
No comment on the variety again. Ac. and Gy. (a loan
form?) are represented also in Ml. sejuk “fresh”. Compare also
with “warm” (No. 76)
78. “full” - Ml. penuh, Ac. peunòh, Ni. afönu, Sim. Ino, Al.
dòm, KB dem, Gy. engkip, TB gok, Me. masun, UAN *pInuh
Again many non-UAN forms. Ni. and Si. are almost
surely cognates.
79. “new” - Ml. KB TB baru, Al. (m)baru, Ac. barô, Gy.
ayu, Sim. afalu, Ni. bohou, Me. sibau, My. vao, lemano, UAN
bagu’
No doubt as Gy. Ni. My. and Sim. being cognates as
well as Me. (with a si- prefix). See particularly Gy. where *b
word initial disappears systematically and *g is reduced to a
simple hiatus
80. “good” - Ml. baik, Al. mendé, mejile, KB mejilé, Gy.
jeròh, Sim. di’in, Ac. gèt, TB denggan, Ni. söchi, Me. maeru,
My. tsara
The inexistence of a UAN form corresponds to the
variety of forms also elsewhere in Indonesia. On the other hand
one may think it odd to include this word in the 100 items list.
Is it again non cultural?
101
81. “dry” - Ml. Gy. kering, Al. KB kerah, My. haraka,
maina, Sim. mala’ad, Ac. khueng, TB hiang, Ni. otufo, Me.
magarak, UAN *kaga® / kIgi®
The tentative doublet in UAN again acconts for the
impossibility to find a common origin (compare Al. and KB
e.g. as well as Me.)
82. “not” - Ml. tidak, Me. ta, My. tsy, KB la, Ni. lö, Al.
made, Gy. gere, Sim. ba’, Ac. hana, TB daong
No UAN again and it is clear why: how is a word to be
chosen for the list? The whole matter of negation is a thorny
problem in linguistics and gives origin to different typologies.
On the other hand in most IN languages the negation is
different according to different functions (e.g. Ml. tidak for
verbs, bukan for nouns, belum for “not yet” sentences, jangan
for prohibitions). Some common forms *ta and *hana are
found elsewhere
83. “to kill” - Ml. Al. KB bunuh, Gy. unuh, Sim. funu, TB
Ni. bunu, My. vono, Ac. pumaté, Me. masitataake, UAN
*bunuh
It is somehow sad to discover such a uniformity for the
word “to kill”. Ac. and Me. are simply causatives of “to die”,
possibly as euphemisms
84. “to burn” - Ml. bakar, Al. KB TB tutung, Ac. tutong,
Gy. Ni. tunu, Sim. afasax, Me. malabo, My. oro, UAN
*baka[â] / tunu’ / [t]u[t]u®
The three UAN forms show the complete defeat of its
theory. One asks oneself if *tunu and *tutu® may be cognates
102
related to one single forms with variants. In some cases in the
various languages we find synonymic forms
85. “way” - Ml. jalan, Al. KB Sim. Ac. TB dalan, Gy.
ralan, Ni. lala, My. lalana, Me. enungan, sila, UAN
*[dd’]alan
Only exception is Me. whilst My. and Ni. are obvious
cases of assimilation. Again, however, the divergency is in the
first syllable (also Gy.). But again UAN has difficulties in
giving a univoque form. Interesting also the convergence
between Ni. and My. The two languages have been long
separated, but were there strict connexions in the past? As we
see again the whole matters of a tree are most complicated and
clearly not so linear as a Schleicher or Neogrammarians would
pose
86. “mountain” - Ml. gunung, Ac. gunong, Al. KB deleng,
TB dolok, Sim. dIlog, Gy. bur, Ni. hili, Me. leleu, My.
tendrombohitra, UAN *gunu®
The Batak group shows homogeneity and a *dIlI® form
is widespread. Gy. has an interesting form which is found
elsewhere in AN languages (a substratum word?). As for Ni.
the word is connected with Ml. hilir “upstream, interior of a
country”), whilst in My. we find -bohitra clearly relating to Ml.
bukit “hill”. Different settings originate the choosing of a
synonym according to the physical features of the land
87. “name” - Ml. nama, Ac. nam, Me. oni, Al. KB gelar,
Gy. geral, TB goar, Sim. kaxan, Ni. töi, My. anarana, UAN
*[’]ag’a®
103
UAN is in crisis. As a matter of fact only My. seems to
recall a widely spread form *®aran (compare Javanese e.g.),
whilst Ml. (and Ac. indipendently?) have Skt. borrowings.
*gIlaR is common and is found also in Ml. as “title, epithet”
88. “where” - Ml. mana, Al. dape, Gy. sihen, KB ija, Sim.
omae, Ac. pat, TB dia, Ni. heza, Me. kaipa, My. aiza
No UAN again. As a matter of fact AN languages seem
to have had a common interrogative word which is differently
“deictified” to mean “which”, “where”, “whence” etc. Thus
mana in Ml. is “where” with a preposition (di “in”, ke “to” or
dari “from” etc.), otherwise it may mean “which” but is
found also in bagai-mana “how” etc. The word is therefore
useless for comparison, unless we accept the view to
compare non one word but a “way” of forming concepts.
Again nothing to do with Neogrammarian theory
89. “to be (in a place)” - Ml. ada, Gy. ara, TB adong, Al.
lòt, KB lit, Sim. nga (?), Ac. na, Ni. so, Me. ai, My. misy,
UAN *vaÑa’
One asks oneself how the UAN has been obtained. The
variety is striking and again it is more interesting that these
language share the lexeme for “being in a place” but have no
other “be” verb
90. “wood” - Ml. Al. Gy. KB kayu, Sim. aeu-aeu, Ac.
kayèe, TB hao, My. hazo, Ni. eu, Me. loina, UAN *kaju’
Only Me. diverges, but Sim. and Ni. are dubious, on the
other hand they are clear reflexes of one variant. Semantically
the word may mean “wood(land)”, “timber”, “firewood”,
“tree”
104
91. “forest” - Ml. hutan, Gy. uten, Sim. dotan, Ac. uteuen,
Al. rimbe, KB kerangen, TB harangan, Ni. atua, Me. leleu,
My. ala, UAN *hutan / alat’
Again it is impossible for UAN to give one form.
Interesting the different first syllable in Sim. As for Al. the
word is common elsewhere (cp. Ml. rimba “(primary) forest”)
92. “high” - Ml. tinggi, Gy. Sim. atas, Al. (n)datas, KB
ganjang, Ac. manyang, TB timbo, Ni. alawha, Me. mabuak,
My. avo, UAN *ti®gi’ / ’a(n)tat’
Interesting connection between Ni. and My. even if not
certain (see, however, No. 85). Atas is also found in Ml. e.g. as
“on, over, above”. A group of languages seem to share a
common *-jang root with different prefixes (KB Ac.) which is
found alsewhere with a similar meanings (cp. Ml. panjang
“long”)
93. “breast” - Ml. Ac. dada, Al. KB tenten, Gy. dede, My.
tratra, Sim. arob, TB andora, UAN *ÑaÑa’
The UAN form is well represented but with variants
unaccountable for on the basis of regular phonetic laws. TB is a
dubious form (connected also with Sim.?)
94. “snake” - Ml. ular, Ac. uleue, TB ulok, Ni. ulö, Me.
ulou, Al. Gy. KB nipé, Sim. sawa, My. bibilava, UAN *’ulag
UAN is common but also nipé which is not found
elsewhere. TB shows a -g > -k which we already found for
“water” but does not seem to be regular. In Gy. we find also
lipé. Sim. uses a word meaning in Ml. “python”. Is it real
generalization or a mistake of the collector of words?
105
95. “wind” - Ml. Al. Gy. KB angin, Sim. a®en, Ac. angén,
Ni. angi, TB alogo, Me. rusa, My. rivotra, UAN *’a®in
UAN is widely present. My. uses a word which is
connected with Ml. ribut “tempest”
96. “long (of time)” - Ml. lama, Al. (n)dekah, KB ndekah,
Gy. mòkòt, Ac. lawét, tréb, TB leleng, Ni. arà, Me. mauju, My.
ela, UAN *lavat’
The variety does not account for the interest of a word
meaning “long of time” and “old of things” in all IN languages
97. “fruit” - Ml. Al. KB buah, Gy. wah, Sim. fo, Ac. bòh,
TB Ni. Me bua, My. vua, UAN *bu’ah
UAN everywhere, but in some languages the word is
generic and it may be specified to mean both “fruit” and other
meanings (cp. Ac. bòh kayèe “fruit”, but bòh also “egg,
testicle”, etc.
98. “flower” - Ml. TB KB bunga, Al. Gy. bunge, Ac.
bungong, Ni. bowo, Me. boco. My. voninkazo, UAN *bu®a’
Interesting the deviating forms for Ni. and possibly Me.
which are quite “irregular”. My. is < *bu’ah ni kaju’
99. “to stay” - Ml. TB tinggal, Ac. tinggai, Al. KB tading,
Gy. taring, Ni. toröi, Sim. idI’, Me. murio, My. tsangana,
UAN *d’I®d’I®
UAN again shortcoming. As a matter of fact we have
here both *ti®gal and *taÑi® which are common (the last also
for Sim.?)
106
100. “fat” - Ml. gemuk, Al. Gy. tembun, Ac. teumbon, KB
mbur, TB mokmok, Ni. esolo, Me. mamomo, My. matavy,
UAN *gImuk / [t]abI[h]
Both roots are represented, though the second very
tentatively. The variety is great and TB is interesting showing a
reduplicated second syllable *muk
107
5. ALAS-ENGLISH-INDONESIAN WORDLIST
5.1. FOREWORD
The present list of Alas lexemes is far from being exhaustive
and represents only a specimen of the language so far elicited
by the present researcher. Alas, moreover, shares a great
number of lexemes with both Karo and Gayo (besides Malay
borrowings).
Entries are given in alphabetical order from Alas in the first
register, with English and Indonesian glosses. They are given
as root forms, as is usual for Indonesian languages, with
subentries inside the article giving derivatives (both with
prefixes and suffixes, if found). In some cases we gave
examples of phrases.
Etymologies are given for sake of comparison though not
systematically.
The following register gives only English entries and Alas
glosses without fuller references as are found in the first
register. In case a grammatical or full reference is required this
must be looked for in the first register.
The list of abbreviations given at the head of the volume is
valid for this section too.
108
109
5.2. Alas-English-Indonesian
A
abang elder brother/ abang, kakak laki-laki; cp. Ml. abang
abis in: pengabisan, last/terakhir; cp. Ml. habis “finish”; jema
pengabisan (or pengabisen) made kutandai, I do not know the
last man (e.g. in a row)/ orang terakhir tidak saya kenal
abu-abu grey/kelabu; cp. habu
adepen in front of, before/hadapan
aduk to stir, mix, meddle/campur, ngaduk; cp. Gy. aduk
agak to think; to hope (?)/ kira, anggap; harap (?); cp. Ac.
agak “to think”; agakku, I think/saya kira; agakku iye made
segagah èdi, I do not think he is so brave/saya rasa dia tidak
segagah itu
agar-agar in order that, so that/supaya, agar
ajang to have, possess, own/mempunyai; v. mpung
ajar to study/belajar; belajar, telajar, to study/belajar; ngajar,
to teach/mengajar; pelajar, student/pelajar, murid
akér to finish, end/akhir; from Ar. ...
akibat consequence/akibat; from Ar. .....
aku I/aku, saya; UAN *’aku’
amak a mat/tikar; UAN *’amak; KB id.
aman peaceful, quiet/aman; cp. Ml. Gy. id. from Ar. ...
amé mother/ibu; amé sentue mother-in-law/mertua perempuan;
cp. KB id., but cp. also UAN *’ama’ father
ampuh to flood/banjir; cp. UAN *‘ampu’ “hochheben” (?)
110
anak son, daughter, child, boy, girl/anak; anak rumah
wife/isteri; anak kute inhabitants (of town)/penghuni kota;
UAN *’anak
ané-ané ) white ants, termites/anai-anai; 2) sickle/ani-ani
anggun to rock, sway/ayun; cp. UAN *’ajun “schauckeln”;
Ml. ayun TB aun and Jv. yun, all of which point to a rahter
different reconstruction (cp. also PAN with -y-)
angin 1) wind, breeze, air/angin, hawa; cerangin to blow (of
wind)/berangin; 2) climate, weather/udara, cuaca, iklim; UAN
*’a®in
angkat to raise, lift/angkat; merangkat; merangkat to
leave/berangkat; UAN *’a®kat
antare between, amid/antara; from Skt.
antat to send/hantar, kirim; cp. Ac. euntat to bring,
accompany
anun to cross/seberang
apahen which (interr.)/yang mana; KB apai; apahen kunci si
kaubenéken? which key have you lost?/yang mana kunci
kauhilangkan?
api fire/api; UAN *’apuj; deleng merapi volcano/gunung
berapi
apus to wipe (out)/hapus
ari 1) to serve/layan; 2) (postponed) from/dari; kau ròh
Kutacane ari you came from K./engkau datang dari K.; cp. KB
nari; Gy. ari
arit scythe/arit
asal origin/asal; from Ar. ...
asar nest/sarang; UAN *t’a[â]a®; TB KB id.
asin v. masin
até heart (seat of emotions)/ hati; UAN *’ataj “Leber, Gemüt”
111
atòu to see/lihat; v. idah; active: ngatòu
awé face/muka; cp. Blust 1971 *(q)away
B
babah mouth/ mulut; UAN *babah; KB id.; Gy. awah
babe to bring/ bawa; act. mbabe; tebabe, brought/terbawa;
UAN *baba’, PAN *bábá[„h]; KB baba
babi pig/ babi; UAN *babuj
babò shallow/ dangkal; lawé ni paye made mbagas, babòne
pepiga séntiméter, the water in the swamp is not deep, it is a
few centimetres deep/ air di rawa tidak dalam, dangkalnya
beberapa senti
bace to read/ baca; act. mace
badak rhynoceros/ badak
bagas 1) inside/ (di) dalam; 2) at, in, on/ di, dalam, pada; 3)
(m)bagas, deep, profound/ dalam; UAN *bag’at’, “Inneres”;
cp. KB bÊs; TB bagas; Me. baga, “belly, seat of emotions”
bagé as, like/ seperti; mepale bagé, various, different/
bermacam-macam; cp. Gy. berbagé-bagé
bagi to divide, part/ ba(ha)gi; act. magi; aku pangan sebagi
mpat kuwéh sesade, I am eating a fourth of the cake by myself/
saya makan seperempat kue sendirian
bahan 1) to work, make/ buat, kerja; cp. KB id.; TB bahen,
“for” (Ml. buat also “for”); 2) (?) to put/ letakkan, taruh; cp.
Ac. béh, “to put”; bahanen, a work/ pekerjaan; mebahan, to
work/ bekerja; pebahanen, to make feast/berpesta
bahasa (also basa) language/ bahasa
112
bahaye danger/ bahaya; mebahaye, dangerous/ berbahaya;
tanduk èdi tajem serte mebahaye, the horn is sharp and
dangerous/ tanduk itu tajam serta berbahaya
baju shirt, jacket, coat/ baju; baju jas, jacket/ jas; baju
kebaya,k.o. blouse/ kebaya
bal ball/ bola
balang locust, grasshopper/ belalang; UAN *bala®; KB
labang; cp. alsoTB (am)balang, “sling, something thrown”
(m)balik to come, go back, to return/ pulang, balik;
kebalikenne, on the contrary/ sebaliknya; malikken, to return
sthg. / mengembalikkan; anak di nakal su, kekene kebalikenne
rajin kelihen ni sekòlah, that boy is very naughty, but his elder
brother is very diligent at school/ anak itu terlalu nakal,
kakaknya sebaliknya rajin sekali di sekolah
balòk carpenter/ tukang kayu
bambang v. tali
bamu to you/ kepadamu; v. bang
bane 1) to him, to her, to it, to them/ kepadanya, kepada
mereka; v. bang; KB bana; 2) bane kampil (?) sirih-box, betel
container/ tempat sirih
bang to, for/ untuk, bagi, kepada, (v. bangku, bamu, bane,
bante); cp. Ac. ban, “way, as”
bangké carcass, corpse/ bangkai
bangku to me/ kepadaku; KB id.; v. bang
bangsi a flute/ sj. suling; Ac. Gy. id.
baning (? giant sea) turtle/ sj. penyu; UAN *bani® “fresh
water turtle”; TB KB id.
bante to us (incl.)/ kepada kita; v. bang
bare shoulders/ bahu; UAN *baga’; Ac. bahé, TB abara, KB
bara
113
(m)baru just, recently /baru saja; kami mbaru sòh penjare ari,
we have just arrived from the jail/ kami baru tiba dari penjara;
aku mbaru nginum t éh tòk, I have just drunk a tea without
sugar/ aku baru minum teh tawar
(m)barue new/ baru
batang tree, trunk, stem/ pohon, batang; batang kayu, tree/
pohon; batang ruang, room space/ ruang, kamar; iye luar
batang ruangne ari, he came out from his room/ dia keluar dari
kamarnya
batas compartment, partition/ bagian; Ml. TB KB batas,
“border”
batu 1) stone/ batu; 2) mile, kilometre/ batu, kilo; UAN *batu’
bau smell, odour/ bau(-bauan)
bayak rich/ kaya; KB id.
bayar to pay/ bayar; act. mayar (also manyar)
baye crocodile/ buaya; cp. Ac. buya; Gy. buye
be to, towards/ ke, menuju; aku laus be Blangkejerèn, I am
going to B./ saya pergi ke B.; cp. Nias ba, “in, at”; Kei ba “to
go”
bébas free/ bebas
beberé nephew, niece/ kemenakan; TB bere
bebòn afternoon/ sore, petang; v. bebongi
bebongi by night/ pada malam; v. bongi
bécak trishaw/ becak
bèdi to visit/ kunjungi (from *bèd?); v. also ròh; pulòu èdi
nggòu aku bèdi, I already visited that island/ pulau itu sudah
saya kunjungi
bèdih v. hadih
bégang to boil/ rebus; KB belgang
begèdi so, that way/ begitu
114
begènde so, this way/ begini; cp. Gy. begu ini; aku suke
rumah si begènde, I like such a house/ saya suka rumah sejenis
ini
bekas to lie, be lying/ (e.g. on the floor)/ terletak, berbaring
békih deer/ rusa; KB belkih
belande Holland(er)/ Belanda; urang belande, a European, a
Dutchman/ orang Eropah (Belanda)
(m)belang wide/ lebar; KB id.; cp. Ac. blang “field”; Gy.
belang “a square”
belantare v. rimbe
-belas -teen (suff. for numbers from 11 to 19)/ -belas
(m)belin big, large, great, huge/ besar, raya; mbelin tuke,
pregnant/ bunting; KB id.
belòu betel/ sirih; Tae’ baulu; KB belo; Gy. belo “betel leaf”
belus track/ bekas; cp. Gy. beluh “to go”; also Ac. bléh; aku
ngikut belus-belusne ni dalan, I am following his tracks on the
road/ saya mengikut bekas-bekasnya di jalan
benar right, correct/ benar, betul
benatang animal/ binatang
benci to hate/ benci
bènde lost/ hilang; cp. KB Gy. bené
bengket v. keneng
beras (husked) uncooked rice/ beras; UAN *bIgat’
(m)berat heavy/ berat; cp. also Gy. beret
beré to give/ beri; UAN *bIgaj, PAN *beRey
(m)béròng black/ hitam; cp. TB birong; kb mbiring
beru 1) female (of animals)/ betina; 2) wife/ isteri; cp. TB boru
“daughter, maid”
besekep cinema/ bioskop; < Dutch
besi iron / besi; UAN * bIt’i
115
besur satisfied/ puas, kenyang; cp. TB basur
(m)biah frightened, to be afraid/ takut; cp. TB KB biar “fear”;
v. also (m)biar
biang dog/ anjing; TB KB id.
(m)biar tired, weary/ capai, lelah
biase common, ordinary, accustomed/ biasa
bibèr lips/ bibir; UAN *bibig
bibi aunt/ bibi
bijaksane wise/ bijaksana
(me)bije different/ berbeda
biji seed, grain, bead/ biji, butir
bilik room/ kamar, bilek
binsin petrol/ bensin
bintang star/ bintang; UAN *binta®
(m)bise 1) to like/ suka; 2) (?) can, to be able/ bisa; maybe an
interference from Indonesian, but cp. Gy. bise “poisonous (=
powerful)” and the same in Indonesian (berbisa); iye mbise
keneng ni lawé, he likes to swim in the river/dia suka berenang
di sungai
bisul tumour/ bisul
(m)bogoh cold, cool/ dingin; v. (m)bòrgòh
bòn afternoon/ sore; v. bebòn
boné yesterday/ kemarin
bòngi evening, night/ malam; UAN *bI®[i’]; cp. KB berngi,
Gy. bengi; mbagas bòngi, late in the night/jauh malam
(m)bòrgòh cold / dingin; v. ((m)bogoh; cp. KB mbergeh; TB
borgo
(m)bòrguh male (of animals)/ jantan; cp. KB bugan (of birds);
lembu mbòrguhku benatang si mbelin kalihen, my ox is a very
big animal /sapi jantan saya adalah binatang yang sangat besar
bòrsi oar/ dayung
116
(m)bòrsih clean/ bersih; cp. Gy. bersih
bòtòl bottle /botol
buah 1) fruit/ buah(-buahan); 2) one/ satu; UAN *bu’ah;
bebuah, one by one/ satu per satu; lòt mbué si metanduk sebuah
ni hande, there are many one-horned rhynos here/ ada banyak
badak yang bertanduk satu di sini
bual a lie/ bohong, dusta; KB id.
buang to throw (away), discard/ buang
budak child / kanak-kanak; Ml. budak “child, slave”
budaye culture/ budaya
(m)bué v. (m)buwé
buet 1) to rise, get up/ bangun; cp. Ac. bìt; 2) to take, pluck,
pick up /ambil, jemput; KB id.; cp. Gy. uwet; buetken, to
take/ambilkan; bueti, to take for/ ambilkan untuk
bujang girl /gadis
buk hair (except (pubic hair)/ rambut, bulu; cp. Gy. wuk;
Simalur bu’; Nias bu; Ac. ôk; UAN *bu’uk; bukbuk, bodily hair
/bulu
buke to open/ buka; cp. Gy. uke
bukit hill/ bukit
buku book/ buku
bulan moon, month/ bulan; UAN *bulan
bule (?) round/ bundar, bulat; cp. KB bolat
buluh bamboo/ buluh, bambu
bulung leaf/ daun; TB, KB id.; cp. Gy. ulung; Simalur bolung;
UAN *bulu® ‘Belaubung’, *bulu’ ‘Flaum, Haar, Feder’; lòt
mbué batang kayu mebulung, there are many leafy trees/ ada
banyak pohon berdaun
bumi earth, world/ bumi; from Skrt.
bunge flower/ bunga; UAN *bu®a’
bungki boat, ship/ perahu
117
bungkusen parcel/ bungkusan (<*bungkus)
bunuh 1) to kill/ bunuh; 2) to disinfect / basmi
buru to hunt / berburu; meburu, to hunt/ berburu; peburu,
hunter/ pemburu
bus bus/ bis
(m)buwé many/ banyak; also bué; cp. TB bue, ‘rich,
abundant’; KB mbuah; pebué to multiply/ memperbanyak; lòt
mbué batang kayu, there are mnany trees / ada banyak pohon
C
cabang branch/ cabang; v. dahen
cabin blanket/ selimut; KB id.
caér 1) dissolved, diluted, destroyed/ hancur; 2) liquid/ cair
calus loose, free/ lepas
cangkér cup/ cawan, cangkir
cangkul hoe/ cangkul; cangkuli, to hoe/ cangkuli
cebuni to hide/ sembunyi; UAN *buni’; cp. Gy. temuni
(<*tuni?); KB buni
cecuk late/ terlambat
cecut little, small/ kecil; v. cut
cehaye light/ cahaya, sinar
celake disgraceful/ celaka
celam to hurry (up), haste/ tergesa-gesa, terburu-buru; celamcelam,
one after another in quick succession/ susul-menyusul
dengan cepatnya
celandung rainbow/ pelangi; cp. Gy. kelamun
celigen to protect/ lindung; iye celigen ni teruhen batang kayu,
he protects himself under the trees/ dia melindung dirinya di
bawah pohon-pohon
118
cemak dirty, soiled/ kotor; cp. Ac. ceuma; Ml. cemar
cemburu jealous, envious/ cemburu
cengis cruel /bengis; UAN *bI®it’ ; cp. Ac. beungèh
cengkah lame/ pincang; cp. KB éngkah
ceras plough/ bajak; cp. Ac. ceurah; Ml. celah ‘a gap’ (?)
cereme submerged/ terselam; cp. KB celep
cerite tale/ ceritera; mecerite, to tell tales/ berceritera
ceròk to speak/ bicara; meceròk to speak/ berbicara; cp. Gy.
cerak
cét paint, dye/ cat
cibal to put/ taruh; cibalken to put/taruh, letakkan
cibit to pinch/ jemput; cp. TB sibit
cicak gecko lizard/ cecak
ciduh to show/ tunjukkan; also ciluk; cp. KB cidah
(me)cihòu clear, pure/ jernih, suci; cp. KB meciho
cimber smoke/ asap; KB id.
cimun cucumber/ entimun; UAN *timun; KB cimen; cimun
ndike, watermelon/ semangka
cincin ring/cincin
cinder 1) to erect, build, put upright/ bangunkan, dirikan; 2) to
stand up/ berdiri; cp. cimuni, id.; cinderken, to erect/ dirikan;
cp. KB cinder ‘to stand’
cinta to love/ cinta; act. ninta(i); cp. Gy. cinte
cirem to smile/ senyum; KB id.
ciris big, large, great/ besar; v. (m)belin
còlòk a match/ korek api
corak colour /warna; v. curak; uwis èdi corakné hijou, the
colour of that cloth is green/ kain itu warnanya hijau
cuah west/ barat; nunting kiri kencuah, northwest/ barat daya;
nunting kemuhun kencuah, southwest/ barat laut
cucuk hairpin/ cucuk rambut; cucuk layam, id.
119
cuping ear/ telinga; KB id.; cp. Jv. kuping
curak colour/ warna; Gy. id.; cp. KB kula
cut small, little/ kecil; Ac. id.; anak cut, baby, infant/ bayi
cuti a leave/ cuti
D
(n)dabuh to fall/ jatuh; cp. TB dabu; KB ndabuh; ndabuhen,
to drop/ menjatuhkan
dagu chin/ dagu
dahen branch /dahan, cabang
dahi to take/ ambil, jemput; tedahi, taken/ terjemput
dakan to cook/ masak; KB. id.; cp. TB dahan; medakan, to
cook/ bermasak
dalan road, street, path, way/ jalan; UAN *[dd’]alan; KB id.;
cp. Gy. ralan, sendalamen, to go (all) together/ berjalan samasama;
medalan kiding, to go on foot/ berjalan kaki; medalandalan,
to stroll, go for a walk/ berjalan-jalan
damar the damar tree (Agathis alba) and its resin/ damar
damé peace/ damai; pedamén, id.
dapari v. dape
dape where/ (di) mana; cp. KB apai; dape ari, dapari,
whence/ dari mana; ndape, where to/ ke mana; ni dape, where/
di mana; daparikin?, whence?/ dari manakah?
dapet 1) to find, meet/ temu, mendapat; 2) can, be able/ dapat,
bisa
daram to look for/ cari; KB id.
daròh blood/ darah; medaròh, to bleed/ berdarah
(n)datas 1) above, on, over/ atas; 2) high, tall/ tinggi; cp. KB
datas, ‘on, above’; Gy. Simalur atas; ndatas-atas, to become
120
high/ jadi tinggi; aku datasen kau ari, I am taller than you/ saya
lebih tinggi daripadamu
datuk ancestors/ nenek moyang, leluhur
(n)dauh far/ jauh; UAN *d’a’uh; KB id.
daun medicine, remedy/ obat; cp. Ml. daun, ‘leaf’
dawak a sarong/ sarung; medawak, to wear a sarong/
bersarung, memakai sarung
dawan mushroom/ jamur; KB id., cp. TB dan
daye to sell/ jual; KB daya
de v. nenge; ulang turun de manenge nadi bus, don’t get down
until the bus stops/ jangan turun hingga bis berhenti
deawe accusation, charge/ dakwa; cp. Gy. dawe; Ac. dawa;
from Ar. ....
deberu female, wife, woman/ perempuan, wanita, isteri;
deberu semude, second wife/ isteri kedua; KB diberu
(n)dekah old (of things), long (of time)/ lama; KB id.; made
nangé ndekah, in a short time/ tidak lama lagi; iye njait
sedekah telu jam, he sewed for three hours/ dia menjahit tiga
jam lamanya
delaki male, man, husband/ laki-laki, lelaki, suami; KB dilaki
deldel stupid, silly /bodoh
deleng mountain/ gunung; KB id.; cp. TB dolok
(n)deras pregnant/ bunting; v. (m)mbelin tuke
di v. édi
dilah tongue/ lidah; KB id.; cp. Gy. délah; UAN *dilah
dinding wall, partition/ dinding
(n)dòhòr near, close/ dekat; cp. TB dohor; KB ndeher;
imbangmu merumah ni ndòhòr kute, your friend lives near the
village/ kawanmu bertempat tinggal dekat kampung
dòm full, filled up/ penuh; KB dem; cp. Gy. dum ‘quantity’
dose sin/ dosa
121
(n)dubé old (time)/ lama; ni mase ndubé, in old times/ pada
masa lampau
due two/ dua; UAN *Ñuva’; nduai, to repeat/ berulang; duene
delaki, both are male/ kedua-duanya lelaki
dukuk to push, urge/ dorong
dukut grass/rumput; KB id.; TB duhut
dunia world/ dunia; from Ar. ....
duruk to slide, push/ sorong
durung k.o. net/ sj. jaring; TB KB id.
E
è v. édi
éde sister-in-law/ ipar perempuan; KB éda
èdi that, those/ itu; also é, di; èdime, that is it!/ itulah!; cp. Ac.
déh; KB é, ada(h)
élmu science, knowledge/ ilmu; from Ar. ... (through Tamil,
according to. van Ronkel 1902-and 1903)
embun v. mbun
empat v. mpat
empus v. mpus
ènde this, these/ ini; KB énda
enem v. nem
enggang v. nggang
enggi v. nggi
enggòu v. nggòu
enome this, these/ ini(lah); v. ènde, -me
erat strong/kuat; Ml. ‘tight, close’
étep (?) chopsticks/ sumpit
122
G
gadung potato, edible root/ ubi, gadung; Gy. id.; gadung
njulur, potato/ kentang; gadung kayu, batata/ ubi kayu
gagah bold, brave/ gagah
gajah elephant/ gajah; from Skt
galang to lie, be lying/ berbaring; KB id.; megalang, id.;
tegalang, lying/ tergolek
gale to lay down/ berbaring; gemale, to lay relaxing
/beristirahat
(me)gale expensive/ mahal, berharga
galib to shout, scream/ seru, teriak
galuh banana /pisang; KB id.; cp. Nias gae; TB gaol
gambar a picture/ gambar
gampang easy/ gampang, mudah; from Jv.
gan to think, guess/ kira, bilang; kugan iye made nenge roh, I
think he did not yet come/ saya rasa dia belum datang
gancih to change/ ganti; act. nggancihi; cp. KB pegancih
gandum wheat/ gandum; from Persian
gane to produce /menghasil; gemane, to ask oneself/ tanya diri;
garam to look for/ cari; segaramen, to look for one another/
mencari saling
(me)gare red/ merah; KB megara
garu to scratch, scrape/ gores, cakar
gawer to throw, cast/ lempar; gawerken, gaweri, id.
gé to hear, listen/ dengar; géi, to listen to/ dengarkan; act.
megé; kugé, I am listening/ kudengar; cp. Gy. pengé
(ng)edang long, tall/ panjang, tinggi; KB gedang;
mpegedangi, to prolongate, lengthen/ memperpanjangkan; aku
123
gedangen kau ari, I am taller than you/ saya lebih tinggi
daripadamu; aku kurang nggedang Ali ari, I am less tall than
Ali/ saya kurang tinggi daripada Ali
(me)gegòh strong/ kuat; Ml. gagah; KB megegeh
gelap dark/ gelap
gelar name/ nama; UAN *gIla[Ý] ‘Titel’; cp. Ml. gelar ‘title’;
Gy. geral ‘name’; KB id.
gelas (drinking) glass/ gelas
gelem to hold, touch/ pegang; KB id.; cp. TB golom
gelong v. kacip
(ng)eluh alive; to live/ hidup; KB geluh; cp. also Ml. keluh,
‘sigh’
(me)gembas to swim/ berenang; cp. TB eas (?)
gembire happy/ gembira
gembiri 1) testicles/ buah pelir; 2) candlenut tree /kemiri
gendang drum/ gendang
geniling hot pepper (paste); a receipt with hot pepper/ sambal;
iye sedang mangan rut geniling ikan, he is eating rice with hot
pepper fish/ dia sedang makan nasi sama sambal ikan
geréje church/ gereja; from Portuguese
geréte cart/ kereta
geròk to move/ gerak; megeròk, to move/ bergerak; geròken,
movement/ gerakan; cp. Ml. Gy. gerak
gigih active/ giat
gijap a moment/ (se)bentar; segijap, one moment/ sebentar;
segijap ari, in a moment/ sebentar lagi; cp. Gy. sekejep
gile mad, crazy/ gila
gong (?) set, pair/ pasang
gòrbak lorry/ prahoto; mòtòr gòrbak, id.; cp. Gy. gerbak ‘a
cart’
goréng to fry/ goreng
124
gòrpu fork/ garpu; from Portuguese
(ng)gòrsing yellow/kuning; KB gersing; TB gorsing
gòrtak bridge/ jembatan; cp. KB gertak; Gy getek ‘a raft’
gudang warehouse/ gudang
gugung east/ timur; kenggungung, id.
gugur to boil/ didih; KB nggerger
guhe cave, cavern, grotto/ gua; cp. Gy. gue
gule sugar/ gula
gumis moustache/ kumis
gundik concubine, second wife/ gundik
gune use/ guna; niguneken, to be used/ digunakan, dipakai
gunting scissors/ gunting
gumpuh to follow, pursue, go after, run after/ ikut, kejar
guru teacher, expert/ guru, dukun
gusuk to rub, wipe/ gosok
H
habu ashes/ abu; UAN *’abu’
hadi(h) there/ situ, sana; ni hadih, there/ di situ, di sana; hadih
ari, dari situ, dari sana; bèdih, there to/ ke situ, ke sana; cp. KB
jadah
hal state, condition, situation/ hal; from Ar. ...
halamen yard, courtyard/ halaman
halus polite, refined, smooth/ halus
hambin only/ hanya, sahaja; pelin hamin, id.; v. hamin; aku lòt
kumiliki sebuah lembu hambin, I own only one cow/ saya
mempunyai seekor sapi saja
125
hamin v. hambin; kalak di pelin hamin metòh, only that man
knows/ hanya orang itu saja tahu
hande here/ sini; ni hande, here/ di sini; hande ari, hence/
from here; bènde, here to/ ke sini; cp. KB jènda
hangat warm, hot/ panas; hangaten, thirsty/ haus; UAN
*ha®It; cp. Ml. hangat, ‘hot’; Nias aukhu (?)
hanjar slow, soft (voice)/ lambat, merdu; KB anjar
hanjung the back room of a traditional house/ kamar ujung
harap to hope/ harap; act. ngeharap; harapen, hope/ harapan
harih slow/ lambat; cp. hanjar
harimòu tiger/ harimau, macan
harus must, oght/ harus, mesti; harus mengke bebuah, (we)
must enter one by one/harus masuk satu per satu
hébat violent/ hebat; from Ar. .... respect, fear'
hemòk wet/ basah
héran amazed, astonished/ heran; from Ar. .....
hidang to serve/ layan, hidang
hijòu green, blue/ hijau, biru
hòrmat honour/ hormat; ngehòrmati; to honour/ menghormati;
from Ar. ....
hòye not (followed by nouns/ bukan; rumah cut ènde hòye
rumahku, this small house is not mine/ rumah kecil ini bukan
rumah saya
hubung to contact/ hubung; act. ngehubungken; pehubungen,
contact/penghubungan
hokum law, sentence/ hukum; from Ar.
hurak few, little, not too much, less/ sedikit, kurang
126
I
idah to see, look at/ lihat; act. ngidah; cp. UAN *kiôa’, PAN
*kita; but cp. also Ml. lihat < * [l]ihad < *idah (?); KB Gy. id.;
kidah, to be visible/ kelihatan; made teridah, invisible/ tidak
terlihat
igung nose/ hidung; UAN *’ig’u®; KB id.; Gy. iyung
ikan fish/ ikan; ikan yu, shark/ ikan yu
ikut to follow/ ikut
ilat-ilat dishonest, deceitful/ palsu, tidak jujur; cp. Ac. ilat
‘false’
iluh tears/ air mata; teriluh, to cry/ menangis
imbang friend, companion/ kawan; ngimbangi, to accompany/
menamani; TB imbang ‘second wife’
indung mother (of animals)/ induk
inget to remember/ ingat; ngingeti, to wake/ membangunkan
inum to drink/ minum; Gy. énum; aku mbaru nginum téh tòk, I
have just drunk tea without sugar/ saya baru minum teh
tawar
inyam to stay, keep silent/ diam
ipen tooth/ gigi; KB id.; UAN *[’]ipIn
isé who/ siapa; isékin, who?/ siapakah; cp. TB ise; isé
gelarmu?, what is your name?/ siapa namamu?; isé jéme di?,
who is that person? /siapa orang itu?
isi 1) contents/ isi; 2) to load/ muat
isteri wife/ isteri
itik duck/ itik
iye he, she, it/ ia, dia; cp. UAN *’ija’
J
127
(n)jadi to become/ jadi; iye njadi kepale penjabat, he became
chief of the office/ dia menjadi kepala pejabat
jage to watch/ jaga
jagung maize, corn/ jagung; buah jagung, maize cob/ buah
jagung
jahé south/ selatan; kenjahé, id. in: nunting kiri kenjahé,
southeast/ tenggara; v. jahén, julu
jahèn to the south/ sebelah selatan; ni jahèn negeri ènde,
south of this country/ di sebelah selatan negeri ini
(n)jait to sew/ jahit; v. jarum
jale casting net/ jala; Gy. jele; njale, to cast nets/ menjala
jam hour/ jam; jam pige sendah?, what time is it?/ jam berapa
sekarang?
jaman time, epoch/ zaman; cp. Gy. jemen; from Ar. ...
jambu k. o. fruit (Eugenia)/ jambu
janggut beard/ janggut
janji promise/ janji; mejanji, to promise/ berjanji; pejanjin, a
promise/ perjanjian
(me)jare slim, slender/ kurus
jari finger, toe/ jari
jaring net/ jaring
jarum needle/ jarum; njarum, to sew/ menjahit; tejarum, sewn/
terjahit
jas v. baju
jatuh to fall/ jatuh
jawab to reply, answer/ jawab; from Ar. ....
jawé strange, foreign/ asing, aneh; cp. TB jau ‘non-Batak,
foreigner’
128
(n)jawén other/ lain; si njawén, another/ yang lain; cp. jawé; si
njawén maké kampuh si megale, the other one wore an
expensive sarong/ yang lain memakai sarung yang berharga
jème person, human being, mankind/ orang, manusia; v. kalak,
urang; cp. TB jolma; Gy. jema; Ml. jelma ‘incarnation’, all
from Skt; jème deberu, woman/ orang wanita; jème delaki,
man/ orang laki-laki
jengang careless, indifferent/ sembrono
jengjeng to stand, be upright/ berdiri; KB id.; cp. TB jongjong
jenguk to visit/ kunjungi; act. njenguk; kami laus njenguk iye
jintou lèrèng, we went to visit him by bicycle/ kami pergi
mengunjunginya naik sepeda
jeningkes pack, wrapping/ bungkusan
jep every, each/ tiap-tiap, setiap; Gy. id.; KB teptep
jerang to boil, cook/ tanak, masak; Gy. id.; jerangken, to cook
for/masakkan; jenerang, cooked rice/nasi
(me) jile fine, good/ cantik, bagus, baik; KB. id.; cp. Gy. jeròh
(?); jilén, id.; jilènen kami pe ròh, it is better we come too/
lebih baik kamipun datang; iye jème si mejilé aténe, he is a
good man/ dia orang yang baik hati
jilén v. (me)jilé
(n)jinak tame/ jinak
jintòu to ride, go by a means/ naik (kendaraan, kapal dsb.);
jintòu lèrèng, to go by bicycle/ naik sepeda; kalakè sikel jintòu
kapal sòh be Mentawé, they are going to the Mentawei Islands
by ship/ mereka akan naik kapal sampai ke Pulau-pulau
Mentawei
joriak 1) post, pole/ tiang; 2) lattice works/ kilang karet
jujur honest/ jujur
jukut meat, flesh/ daging; KB id.
129
julu north/ utara; kenjulu id.; nunting kemuhun kenjulu,
northwest/ timur laut; cp. UAN *’ulu’ ‘Haupt, Kopf’; KB
kenjahé; v. jahé
jume ricefield/ sawah; mejume, to cultivate, till/ bersawah;
pejume, peasant/ petani; cp. KB juma; Gy. ume; Ml. huma, ‘dry
ricefield’
jumpe to meet, find/ jumpa, temu; njumpai, to meet/ menemui;
njumpeken, to find/ menemukan; jumpan, encounter/ temuan
K
(ng)kabang to fly/ terbang; KB kabang; TB habang
kabar news, information/ khabar; from Ar. ...
kabeng wing/ sayap; KB id.; cp. (ng)kabang
kacemate spectacles/ kacamata
kacip scorpion/ kala; kecip gelong, scorpion/ kala jengking;
KB kacip gelang
kadang in kadang-kadang, sometimes/ kadang-kadang;
kadangken, perhaps/ barangkali; Gy: kadang, ‘perhaps’
kaé what/ apa; KB kaé; v. sekai; kaé hal kakemu?, how is your
sister?/ apa hal kakakmu?
kaékane why/ mengapa; v. kunekane; kaékane kau made pòt
ròh be besekep?, why don’t you want to come to the cinema?/
kenapa kamu tidak mau datang ke bioskop?
kaharung neck/ leher; KB keharung
kake elder sister/ kakak perempuan; TB haha
kalak person, human being/ orang, manusia; v. jéme; kalak
(di), kalalè, they/ mereka; KB id.; TB halak
kale formerly/ dahulu, dulu
130
kali (a) time/ kali; sekali, once/ sekali; iye ròh bènde due kali,
he came here twice/ dia datang ke sini dua kali; pige kali kau
laus be rumahne? how often did you go to his house?/ berapa
kali kamu pergi ke rumahnya?
kalih to change/ ubah; mekalih, to change/ berubah;
pengalihen, change/ perubahan; KB salih
kalihen 1) right, correct, good/ benar, betul, sungguh; 2) very/
sangat, amat
kambing goat/ kambing
kami we (excl.)/ kami
kampuh v. uwis
kane 1) then/ lalu, kemudian; 2) just/ baru saja; 3) also, too/
juga; 4) so that, in order that/ supaya, agar; ni jume ndagé lòt
kane sebuah sapòu cecut, in the ricefield there is also a small
hut/ di sawah tadi ada juga sebuah pondok kecil
kantur office/ kantor, pejabat; from Dutch
kapak axe/ kapak; ngapak, to cut with an axe/ mengapak
kapal 1) ship/ kapal; 2) thick, dense/ kental; KB id.
karat to bite/ gigit; UAN *kagat; KB id.; Gy kèt; TB harat
kas place/ tempat; ni sebuah kas, in a place/ dalam sebuah
tempat; KB bekas
kasar rude, rough/ kasar
katak frog/kodok; katak kòngkòng, frog/kodok; KB id.
kate to say/ kata; mekate, to say/ berkata; pekatan, a word/
perkataan; ngateken, to tell/ mengatakan
katup sack, bag/ karung; v. ketup; Gy. katup ‘to shut’
kau thou, you/ engkau, kamu; cp. KB Gy. ko; TB ho; UAN
*kav
kawil fishhook/ kail; UAN *kawit, PAN *kahit/ kaqwit
kawin to marry/ kawin; ngawini, to marry so./ mengawini,
menikah; pekawinen, marriage/ perkawinan
131
kayu wood, tree/ kayu, pohon; UAN *kaju’
kebaye v. baju
kedé shop, selling stand/ warung, toko; Gy. id.
kedih monkey/ monyet; Gy kedih ‘siamang’ (or according to
Hazeu Ac. reungkah)
kekampi fin/ sirip
kekelong among/ antara, di tengah-tengah; KB kelang-kelang
kelak to accuse/ tuduh
kèle son-in-law/ menantu laki-laki; Cp. TB hela; KB kéla
keliru to make a mistake/ keliru
kelu mute/ bisu; Gy. mukelo
keluarge family/ keluarga
kembang to develop/ kembang; mekembang, to develop,
flourish, bloom/ berkembang, maju; pekembangen, development,
blooming/ perkembangan
kemin you (all?)/ kamu, kalian
kempu grandchild/ cucu; KB id.; cp. TB (h)ompu ‘grandparent’
kemuhun right (hand)/ kanan; v. julu, cuah; KB ukum; cp. also
tuhu (?)
ken for/ untuk, bagi; Gy. kén; Ac. keu; cp. also KB -ken
kencuah v. cuah
kendin brother or sister/ saudara
keneng to stay, be immersed/ tercelup, terbenam; iye keneng
bengket lawé, he dives into the water/ dia terjun ke dalam air;
iye mbise keneng ni lawé, he swims in the river/ dia berenang
di sungai
kenggugung v. gugung
kenjahé v. jahé
kenjulu v. julu
132
kepale chief/ kepala; kepale penjabat, head of office/ kepala
kantor
kèpar beyond/ seberang
kepé kepéne, it is visible, one can see/ kelihatan, rupanya;
bujang si memule èdi mude su kepéne, the first girl looks too
young/ gadis yang pertama itu terlalu muda rupanya
kerah dry/ kering; KB id.
kerane because/ karena; also kerne; from Skt
keras hard, strong, stiff/ keras, kaku
kere k.o. monkey/ kera; TB hora; KB kera
keret to cut/ potong; act. ngeret; KB id.; cp. TB horot; Ml.
Gy. kerat; tekeret, cut, severed/ terpotong, putus
keri to finish/ habis; KB id.
kerine all/ semua, segala; KB kerina
keris kriss, dagger/ keris
kerje to make/ buat; ngerjeken, to make/ membuat
kerne v. kerane
keròh v. ròh
kese in pul kese mangan, after eating/ sesudah makan
ketang rattan/ rotang; KB id.; cp. TB hotang
ketep blowpipe/ sumpitan; abang ngetep memanuk, the
brother kills birds with a blowpipe/ abang itu memburu burung
pakai sumpitan
ketile papaya/ pepaya
kètup sack/ karung; v. katup
kidah v. idah
kiding foot, leg/ kaki; Gy. id.; mèje èdi mekiding telu, that
table has three legs/ meja itu berkaki tiga
kilat lightening/ kilat
kin interrogative particle/ -kah
kipas fan/ kipas
133
kiri left (hand)/ kiri; v. jahé, cuah
kirim to send/ kirim
kisat lazy/ malas; KB id.; Gy. kiset
kite we (incl.)/ kita
kol cabbage/ kol; from Dutch
kòlam pool/kolam; also kulam; cp. Gy. kulem
kòngkòng v. katak
kopi coffee/ kopi
korbòu buffalo/ kerbau; ngorbòu, to plough/ membajak;
pengorbòu, plougher/ pembajak
koré (?) to give/ beri
kòrsi chair/ kursi; from Ar. ....
kòrtas paper/ kertas
kòta city, town/ kota; v. kute
-ku my/ -ku
kuan pandanus/ pandan; cp. Ml. mengkuang; KB bengkuang
kubak to peel/ kupas
kubang mud/ lumpur; KB id.; cp. TB hubang ‘ashes used as
manure’
kucing cat/ kucing
kude horse/ kuda
kudun pot/ periuk; TB hudon; KB kudin
kuling skin, hide, shell, bark/ kulit; KB id.; TB huling-huling
kuman germ/ hama
kunci key/ kunci
kune how/ bagaimana; Gy. id.; kune còrakne ènde?, what is
this colour?/ apa warna ini?; kune kau sòh ni hande?, how did
you arrive here?/bagaimana kamu tiba di sini?
kunekane why/ mengapa; v. kaékane
134
kurang less/ kurang; kurangi, minus/ (di)kurangi; lime
nikurangi due tading telu, five minus two is three/ lima
dikurangi dua jadi tiga
kurik 1) a match/ korek api; 2) to pierce, dig/ melubangi,
menggali
kurum cheek/ pipi; KB id.; TB hurum
kutang brassiere/ kutang, beha
kute village/ kampung, desa; v. kòta; sekaé dauh kutemu kòta
ari?, how far is your village from the town?/ berapa jauh
kampungmu dari kota?
kuwéh cake/ kue
labang nail, spike/ paku; labang payung, umbrella rib/ bingkai
payung; KB TB Gy.id.
labuh in pelabuhan, port, harbour/ pelabuhan
lade pepper/ lada; lade situ, red pepper/ lada merah
lage a well/ sumur
lagi and/ dan, lagi; bujang èdi mejilé lagi uròk, that girl is
pretty and clever/ gadis itu cantik dan pandai
lahér to be born/ lahir; kelahéren, birth/ kelahiran;
ngelahérken, to bear (child)/ melahirkan; from Ar. ....
lain other/ lain
laki husband/ suami, lelaki; KB dilaki
landòk to dance/ tari; KB landek
langit sky/ langit; UAN *la®git
lanté floor/ lantai
latih to train/ latih; ngelatih, to train/ berlatih; latihen, exercise/
latihan
(me)laun slow/ lambat; cp. Ml. laun
laus to go/ pergi; cp. KB lawes; TB laho
laut sea/ laut; UAN *la’ud
lawang in bunge lawang, clove/ cengkeh; KB id.
135
lawé water, river/ air, sungai; lawé matang, fresh water/ air
tawar; lawéi, to water, mengairkan; KB lau
lawi tail/ ekor; cp. TB lai ‘tailfeathers’; KB layuk ‘tail of birds’
layer sail/ layar; melayar, to sail/ berlayar
lebé formerly/ dahulu; cp. Ml. lebih ‘more’; TB lobi, also
‘what is left’
lébou tortoise/ kura-kura; TB labi; KB lébo
lelawah spider/ labah-labah; Gy. id.; KB lawah-lawah
lelo to play/ main; Gy. lélon; pelélon, show, match/
pertunjukan; sedang iye mecerite Ali melelo-lelo pelin, while
he was telling a tale, Ali only played/ sedang dia berceritera,
Ali bermain-main saja
lemah weak, soft/ lemah
lemari cupboard/ lemari; from Portuguese
lembab wet, damp/ lembab
lembah valley/ lembah
lembaru fiancé/ pengantin
lembu ox, cow/ sapi, lembu
lengkaber bat/ kelelawar; TB ringkabor; KB lingkaber; Gy.
rengkebel
lengkap complete/ lengkap
lèrèng bicycle/ sepeda; cp. Ml. léréng-léréng, ‘(small) wheels’
letun to run/ berlari; ngeletunken, to let flee/ memperlarikan
léwat to pass, go by/ lewat, lalu; ngeléwati, to traverse, go
through/ melalui
(me)liar wild/ liar; KB id.
lime five/ lima
limòu lemon, orange/ jeruk; cp. Ml. limau
linglung confused, puzzled/ bingung
lintah bloodsucker/ lintah
lipan centipede/ lipan; Gy. lipen, ‘scorpion’
136
lisung mortar/ lesung
(me)lòhé hungry/ lapar; KB melehé
lòmpat to jump/ lompat
lònggang empty/ kosong; cp. TB lumang; KB lumé, lambang
lòt to be (in a place), to have/ ada; cp. KB lit; iye lòt due
rumahne, he owns two houses/ dia punya dua buah rumah;
setuhune lòt rahasie bagas keròhen kalak èdi, there is surely a
mystery in the visit of that man/ sesungguhnya ada rahasia
dalam kunjungan orang itu; kaé si lòt ni datas kayu èdi?, what
is there on that tree?/ apa ada di atas pohon itu?
luar 1) to come, go out/ keluar; 2) out, outside/ luar; iye luar
teruhen bulung galuh ari, he came out from under the leaves of
the banana tree/ dia keluar dari bawah daun-daun pisang
luas wide, open/ luas
luke wound/ luka
lumut (?) mud; moss/ lumut, lumpur
lupe to forget/ lupa
lutut knee/ lutut
M
macem sour, acid/ masam; KB id.
made not/ tidak, tiada; made nenge, not yet/ belum
maju to progress/ maju
makanen food/ makanan; from Indonesian, v. pangan
mame uncle/ paman; cp. Minang. mamak, ‘mother’s brother’;
KB mama
memelias bad, wicked/ jahat, jelek; (< *melias(?))
mangan v. pangan
mangge mango/ mangga
137
manis in kayu manis, cinnamon/ kayu manis, kulit manis
manuk chicken/ ayam; UAN *manuk ‘Huhn, Vogel’
mapenah never/ tidak pernah; v. penah
mas gold/ emas
mase time, epoch, period/ masa, waktu; bagas mase nde, in
this time, nowadays/ pada masa ini, dewasa ini
masin salty/ asin; KB id.
mate eye/ mata; UAN *mata’
maté to die, mati/ mati; UAN *pataj
matewari sun/ matahari; KB matawari; TB mataniari
mawas orang utan/ mawas; cp. also Ac. mawaih
mbué v. (m)buwé
mbun cloud /awan; Ac. mbén ‘dew’; KB embun; TB ombun
mde in mde nenge, not yet/ belum; cp. Gy. miye
-me emphasizer/ -lah
medem to sleep/ tidur; KB id.; cp. TB modom; Nias mörö;
Simalur mIrI’; v. pedem
mégap to appear/ timbul; KB mulgap
méje table/ meja; from Portuguese
mekesud intention/ maksud; memekesud, to have an intention/
bermaksud; from Ar. .....
méket thick, dense/ kental
mekòng hard, strong/ keras
méle ashamed, bashful/ malu; TB mela; KB méla
memanuk bird/ burung; UAN *manuk, v. manuk
mémpéh flat (of nose)/ pesek
menarik interesting/ menarik
menci rat, maouse/ tikus; KB id.
mencung long (of nose)/ mancung
mendé good, fine/ baik, bagus
138
mengket to enter, to come, go in(to)/ masuk; (< bengket?); cp.
TB bongot; KB bengket
mentagi forehead/ dahi
mentar white/ putih; cp. KB mbentar; TB bontar
menurut according to/ menurut; menurut hukum islam
penangkou-penangkou nikeret tangan kemuhun, according to
Islamic law thieves are cut off the right hand/ menurut hukum
Islam pencuri-pencuri dipotong tangan kanan
meradu 1) each/ masing-masing; 2) (?) each other, one
another/ saling; possibly (me)radu; kami niberéken sebatang
ròkòk meradu; we were given one cigarette each/ kami
diberikan sebatang rokok masing-masing
merak seldom/ jarang; cp. KB merakrak; kami merak medalan
segedang lawé, we seldom stroll along the river/ kami jarang
berjalan sepanjang sungai
merangkat v. angkat
merieng curly/ keriting
mesekin poor/ miskin; from Ar. .....
mesgit mosque/ mesjid; from Ar. ....
mesmes pliant, flexible/ lunak, lemas
meter metre/ meter
miliki to have, possess/ punyai; aku lòt kumiliki mbué lembu, I
have many cows/ saya mempunyai banyak sapi; from Ar. ...
minggu week/ minggu; from Portuguese
minum v. inum
mis sweet/ manis; UAN *manit’
misal example/ misal, umpama; misalne, for example/
misalnya; from Ar. ...
mòh soft, weak/ lembut, lembek
mònò ugly, bad/ buruk
139
mòtòr car/ mobil
mpat four/ empat
mpung to have/ punya; v. ajang, miliki; aku mpung sepatu si
mbaru ènde, I have this new pair of shoes/ saya mempunyai
sepatu yang baru ini; sepatu ènde aku mpung, I own these
shoes/ sepatu ini saya punya; sepatu ènde si Habibah mpung,
these shoes are Habibah’s/ sepatu ini yang dipunyai Habibah
mpurah parent-in-law/ mertua
mpus garden, plantation/ kebun; perempus, peasant/ petani;
cp. Gy. empus
-mu your/ -mu
muak torn/ robek
mude young/ muda
mule to begin/ mula; mulai, to begin, start/ mulai; pemulen,
beginning/ permulaan; memule, first/ pertama; kalak èdi mulai
telajar bahasa Inggeris, that person began learning English/
orang itu mulai belajar bahasa Inggeris; bujang si memule èdi
mude su kepene, the first girl looks too young/ gadis yang
pertama itu terlalu muda rupanya; jème memule guruku, the
first man is my teacher/ orang yang pertama ialah guru saya
murah cheap/ murah
murid pupil/ murid, pelajar
mutah to vomit/ muntah; Ac. KB id.
mutiare pearl/ mutiara
N
nadi to stop/ henti; penadin, a stop/ perhentian; cp. KB
pengadin ‘a stop’
naé more, still/ lagi; cp. TB nai; KB nari
140
nahan in a short time, next/ nanti; bòn nahan, this afternoon/
nanti sore
nahang light (weight)/ ringan; KB menahang
nakal nasty, naughty/ nakal
nakan (cooked) rice/ nasi; KB id.; nakan mòh, a kind of
glutinous rice/ nasi lembek
naktak fallen/ terjatuh
naleng (a) fly/ lalat; UAN *laleg’, *la®av; PAN *la®aw; KB
laneng; TB lanok
nali string, rope/ tali
namuk mosquito/ nyamuk; UAN *n’amuk; cp. also Gy.
mamuk
nangé more, still/ lagi; v. naé; made nangé ndekah, in a short
time/ tidak lama lagi
nangke jackfruit/ nangka
nangkih to ascend, climb/ naik, daki; v. nangkuh; KB id.
nangkuh(i) to climb/ daki; TB nangkok, tangkok
nas pineapple/ nenas
naséhat advice/ nasihat; naséhatken, to advise/ menasihatkan;
from Ar. .....
nawe soul/ nyawa
ndaé last/ tadi; tahun ndaé, last year/ tahun yang lalu; v.
ndage; KB ndai, nai
ndage mentioned, last, past/ tadi; pagi ndage, this (past)
morning/ tadi pagi; v. nahan; ni bagas sapou ndage petanipetani
mbise pulung bebòngi, in the afore mentioned hut the
peasants like to gather by night/dalam pondok tadi para petani
suka berkumpul malam
ndigan when/ kapan; KB id.; ndigan kau sikel ngatò
pepulungen perangkoku?, when do you want to see my stamp
collection?/ kapan kamu ingin melihat kumpulan perangko
141
saya?; ndigan kau sikel ngulihken cangkulne?, when are you
going to return his hoe?/ kapan kamu akan mengembalikan
cangkulnya?
-ne his, her, its/ -nya
negeri v. nenggeri
nem six/ enam
nemu can, to be able/ bisa
nenge v. mde, de; made nenge aku laus, before I go/ sebelum
saya pergi
nengen and, with/ dan, dengan; nengen seketike, suddenly/tibatiba;
cp. Ml. dengan; Ac. (deu)ngòn, ‘with’; KB ningen; lawé
suci nengen mecihòu harus nipaké, clear and fresh water must
be used/ air yang suci dan jernih harus dipakai
nenggeri country, state/ negeri, negara
nasal disappointed/ kecewa
ngakap to feel/ merasa; KB id.
nge interrogative particle/ -kah, -tah; kune nge iye?, how is
he?/ bagaimanakah dia?
ngèluk to bend/ belok; KB ngéluk
nggang hornbill/enggang; KB id.
nggete mangosteen/ manggis
nggi younger sibling/ adik; TB anggi; KB agi
nggòu already/ sudah, telah; KB nggo; kami nggòu ngeròhi
kute èdi, we have already visited that village/ kami sudah
mengunjungi kampung itu
nggusi (tooth)gum/ gusi
ngugahi to paint/ melukis; cp. KB nggergai; (< *kugah?)
ni in, at, on/ di
nini grandparent/ kakek, nenek; KB id.
nipé snake/ ular; KB Gy. id.
nipis thin/ tipis
142
niwer coconut/ kelapa; batang niwer, coconut palm/ pohon
kelapa; UAN *n’ug
nunting v. julu, jahé, gugung, cuah
nuri parrot/ burung nuri
nyanyi to sing/ nyanyi
O
òrti meaning/ arti; ngòrti, to mean/ mengertikan
P
padang field/ padang
pade at/ pada; pade sewari, one day/ pada suatu hari
padel silly, stupid, foolish/ bodoh
pagar fence/ pagar
pagé paddy, rice (in field)/ padi
pagi tomorrow/ besok; v. pepagi; cp. Ml. pagi, ‘morning’;
surat sikel terime kalak è pagi, the letter will be received
tomorrow/ surat ini akan mereka terima besok
pagit bitter/ pahit
pahat chisel/ pahat
pahe thigh/ paha
(m)pahé careful/ cermat
pais mousedeer/ pelanduk, kancil; KB sipais
pajar dawn/ fajar; v. metak; from Ar. jV¯
paké to use, wear/ pakai; pakén, clothes/ pakaian
pakse to compel/ paksa; tepakse, compelled/ terpaksa;
makseken, to compel/ memaksakan
143
pale nutmeg/ pala; v. also bagé
palu to strike, beat, hit/ pukul; act. malu; cp. Ml. palu,
’hammer’
panah bow/ panah
panas sweat/ keringat; KB id.; cp. Ml. panas, ‘hot, warm’
pandé expert, skilled/ pandai, tukang; pandé besi, blacksmith/
tukang besi; pandé mas, goldsmith/ tukang emas
pangan to eat/ makan; act. mangan; pemangan, food/ makanan
pangur dagger/ pisau belati
pantas quick, swift/ cepat, laju; KB id.
pantat bottom, anus/ pantat
panté shore, beach, coast/ pantai
papan board/papan
parang cutlass/ parang
(m)paras fine, nice, beautiful/ indah, bagus
parik ditch/ parit
pasak peg, axis/ pasak; pasak lisung, mortar pole, pestle/ alu,
penumbuk lesung
pasér sand, beach, shore/ pasir
payah weary, tired/ payah, capai, lelah; cp. Ml. payah,
‘troublesome’
paye swamp/ rawa; Gy. id.; Ac. paya; KB paya-paya
payung umbrella/ payung
pé also/ -pun, juga; seliwenne cemak su, ipenne pé cemak, his
nails are dirty, his teeth are dirty too/ kukunya terlalu kotor,
giginyapun kotor pula
pecah broken, in pieces/ pecah
pecaya to believe/ percaya; kepecayan, belief/ kepercayaan
pedang sword/ pedang
pedem to sleep/ tidur; act. medem (v.); tepedem, asleep/
tertidur
144
pekan market/ pasar
pekaskas busy/ sibuk; cp. KB kuskas dahîn
pelin only/ sahaja, hanya; Gy. id.; aku jumpe rut iye sekali
pelin, I met him only once/ saya jumpa dengannya sekali saja
pelisi police/ polisi
pelite lamp/ lampu; cp. KB pelite, ‘a small lamp’
pelpel dull, blunt/ tumpul; cp. KB tultul
pemain daughter-in-law/ menantu perempuan; cp. KB permain
pemama host, guest/ tamu
penah ever/ pernah; made penah, never/ tidak pernah; made
penah lòt pedamén ni dunia, there is never peace in the world/
tidak pernah ada perdamaian di dunia
pendahen spear/ tombak
pendòk short/ pendek; TB pendek, pondok; KB gendek; Gy.
kònèt, dènak
pengedep to receive/ menerima; < kedep (?)
penjabat office/ pejabat, kantor
penjare prison, jail/ penjara
penter straight/ lurus; KB pinter; cp. Indonesian pintar, ‘able,
capable’
penting important/ penting; tepenting, the most important/
terpenting
pepagi early/ pagi-pagi; v. pagi
pepangi morning/ pagi; KB pagi-pagi
pepige v. pige
perang war/ perang
perangko (post)stamp/ perangko
perantas bed/ ranjang, tempat tidur; KB id.
perintah in pemerintah, government/ pemerintah, from
Indonesian
perire k.o. vegetables/ petai
145
pesti sure, fixed/ pasti; mestiken, to fix/ memastikan
pétak to rise (sun), appear/ terbit; matewari pétak, sunrise/
matahari terbit; act. métak; métak pajar, sunrise/ fajar; KB
pultak
petame first/ pertama
petani peasant, farmer/ petani; from Indonesian
pétep severed, cut/ putus, terpotong
pèti box/ peti
pidòu to ask for, beg/ minta; KB pindo
pige how much, how many/ berapa; pepige, some/ beberapa;
cp. KB piga, ‘how many’; UAN *pig’a’; imbangku èdi enggòu
ròh bénde pepige kali, my friend has already come here various
times/ kawan saya itu sudah datang ke sini beberapa kali; jam
pige sendah?, what time is it now?/ jam berapa sekarang?
pikèr in mepikèr, to think/ pikir, berpikir; pikèren, idea,
thought/ pikiran; from Ar. ...
pilas in nipilasi, mended, repaired/ diperbaiki
pilih to choose/ memilih; pilihen, choice/ pilihan
pilit different, other/ berbeda; TB id.
pilpil 1) to carry on shoulders/ pikul; 2) (?) to break/ pecah
pinang areca nut/ pinang
pindah to change, move/ pindah
pinger (to make) noise, be noisy/ ribut; pepinger, to make a
fuss/ ribut-ribut, riuh- rendah
pinggan plate, dish/ piring, pinggan
pinjam to lend/ pinjam
pintu door/ pintu
piròk silver/ perak; KB pirak
pisòu knife/ pisau; also piso, pisau
pitu seven/ tujuh
pitung blind/ buta; TB KB id.
146
piye onion/ bawang; KB pia
pòkpòk to strike, hit/ pukul; act. mòkpòk
pòrkis ant/ semut; TB porhis; KB perkis
porle (?) for/ bagi, untuk
pòrlu necessary/ perlu
pòt to want, will/ mau, hendak, ingin; pòten, to prefer/ lebih
suka; cp. Ac. pèt, pòt, ‘to pick, gather’
puas satisfied/ puas
puase fast/ puasa
pudal dull, blunt/ tumpul; cp. Ml. pudar, ‘weak, sallow’
pudi back/ belakang; pudi rumahmu ari, from the back of your
house/ dari belakang rumahmu; KB id.
pul to complete/ selesai; TB pul ‘to begin’ (sic!)
pulo island/ pulau
puluh (a) ten/ puluh; sepuluh, ten/ sepuluh
pulung to gather/ kumpul; TB KB id.
puné k.o. dove/ burung punai
pung v. mpung
punguren angry/ marah
puseng navel/ pusat; KB pusung
puter to turn/ putar
putòk snapped, broken/ patah
R
rabun smoke, haze/ rabun
rage basket/ keranjang; TB KB Ac. raga
rahasie secret/ rahasia
rajin diligent/ rajin
147
rak 1) lungs/ paru-paru; KB TB id.; 2) dike, dam/ bendungan,
tanggul, pematang
raket often/ sering, kerapkali
rakit raft/ rakit
rakut to tie, to bind/ ikat; TB rahut
rambih porch, verandah/ serambi
rami crowded, busy/ ramai
rang in rang tue, parents/ orang tua; from Indonesian
ranté chain/ rantai
rapan raft/ rakit
rapet close, intimate, tight, dense/ rapat
ratus (a) hundred/ ratus; seratus, one hundred/ seratus
ré v. beré
rege price/ harga
regeng a collar/ kalong; cp. KB kerahung
rekat work/ kerja
remang 1) mist, fog/ kabut; 2) cloudy, dusk, dawn/ suram
kabur; KB id.
rembas small adze/ rimbas; merembas, to cut with an adze/
merimbas
rembun dew/ embun; KB embun
rempah spice/ rempah-rempah
remrem to drown, sink/ tenggelam
rengep out of order, broken/ rusak
ribu (a) thousand/ ribu; seribu, one thousand/ seribu
ridi to bathe/ mandi; KB id.; TB maridi
rimbe forest/ hutan; rimbe belantare, virgin forest, primary
forest/ hutan rimba
rimò tiger/ harimau, macan; v. harimòu
rode wheel/ roda; from Portuguese
148
ròh to come/ datang; ngeròhi, to visit/ mengunjungi; keròhen,
visit/ kunjungan; KB reh; TB ro; aku sikel ngeròhi negerinegeri
si lain, I want to visit different countries/ saya mau
mengunjungi daerah-daerah yang lain; kòta-kòta si aku ròhi
mbué kalihen, many are the towns I visited/ kota-kota yang
saya kunjungi banyak sekali; setuhune lòt rahasie bagas
keròhen kalak èdi, surely there is a mystery in the visit of that
man/ sesungguhnya ada rahasia dalam kunjungan orang itu
ròkòk cigarette/ rokok, sigaret
ruang room/ kamar; cp. Ml. ruang, ‘space, room, hall’
rumah house, home/ rumah; merumah, to live, inhabit/
berdiam, bertempat tinggal; imbangmu merumah ni ndòhòr
kute, your friend lives near the village/ kawanmu bertempat
tinggal dekat kampung
rupe aspect/ rupa; merupeken, to represent/ merupakan
rut 1) and, with/ dan, dengan; 2) same, identical/ sama; KB
ras, rut
rutung k.o. fruit, durian/ durian; TB KB tarutung, ‘durian tree’
S
sade one/ satu; sesade, by oneself/ sendiri(an); also se-;
segedang, along/sepanjang; pesade, to unite/mempersatu;
sadeken, id.; TB KB sada; Gy. sara; kalè iye temanku
sekantur, formerly he was my colleague in the office/ dulu dia
temanku sekantor
sagi corner, angle/ sudut; mpat sagi, quadrangular/ persegi
sahung roof/ atap
sahut to reply, answer/ jawab, sahut
149
sakit ill, sick/ sakit; penakit, illness, disease/ penyakit
saku pocket/ saku, kantong
salah erroneous/ salah
salak k.o. fruit, Zalacca/ salak
sampan small boat/ sampan
sapòu hut/ pondok; TB saro (?); KB sapo
sare sound, noise/ bunyi
sastere literature/ sastra
sauh k.o. fruit/ sawo; KB id.
sayang in sayangme, unfortunately/ sayanglah; jale ènde
muah, sayangme, this net is torn, unfortunately/ jala ini robek
sayanglah
sayur vegetables/ sayur(-sayuran); kake nayur udeng, the
elder sister is preparing a soup of shrimps/ kakak menyediakan
gulai udang
se- v. sade
se v. si
seban firewood/ kayu bakar; TB soban
sedang while/ sedang
sedekah during/ selama; v. (n)dekah
sedie ready/ sedia, siap
sedih sad/ sedih
segarét cigarette/ sigaret, rokok; segarét kréték, a kretek
cigarette/ kretek
segere soon, at once/ (dengan) segera
séhat healthy/ sehat; from Ar. ...
sehingge so that/ sehingga
sejarah history/ sejarah; from Ar. .... ‘tree’
sekai how/ berapa; also sekaé; sekaé bué, how many/ berapa
banyak; v. kai; KB asakai, ‘how much’; sekai bué kalak ròh
150
bènde?, how many people came here?/ berapa banyak orang
datang ke sini?; sekaé rege ranté èdi?, what is the price of this
chain?/ berapa harga rantai ini?; sekaé gedangne nali ènde?,
how long is this rope?/ berapa panjangnya tali ini?; sekaé dauh
kutemu kòta ari?, how far is your village from town?/ berapa
jauh kampungmu dari kota?; sekaé umurmu?, how old are
you?/ berapa umurmu?; sekaé dekah sikelmu kau tading ni
hande?, how long do you plan to stay here?/ berapa lama
engkau bermaksud tinggal di sini?
sekolah school/ sekolah
selamat safe/ selamat
seliwen (finger)nail/ kuku; cp. TB sisilon; KB silu-silu
selòp slippers/ selop
seluar trousers, pants/ celana; Ml. seluar; from Ar. .....
semangat soul, spirit, energy/ semangat
sembéang to pray/ sembahyang
sembelih to harvest/ panen
sempit tight, narrow/ sempit
sempurne perfect/ sempurna
sén money/ uang, duit; Gy. id.; meresén, to have
money/mempunyai (banyak) uang
senang glad, happy/ senang
senapan gun/ senapang
senaren always/ selalu
sencui disease/ penyakit
sendah now/ sekarang, kini; KB id.
senduk spoon/ sendok
senine brothers or sisters (of same sex)/ kakak beradik (sama
jenisnya); v. turang; cp. KB senina; Gy. serine
sepatu shoes/ sepatu; from Portuguese
seran contemporarily, at the same time/ sambil, sekaligus
151
serlem to set (of sun)/ terbenam (matahari); matewari serlem,
sunset/ matahari tenggelam
serte and/ dan, serta; tanduk èdi tajem serte mabahaye, horns
are sharp and dangerous/ tanduk itu tajam serta berhaya
sesari midday/ siang
setie faithful, loyal/ setia; kucing made sesetie biang, cats are
not so faithful as dogs/ kucing tidak sesetia anjing
setuju to agree/ setuju
séwe to hire/ sewa; act. néwe; néwaken, to let/ sewakan
si 1) who, which/ siapa, yang mana; 2) that, who, which/ yang;
v. also se; lòt batang niwer si ndatas, lòt batang niwer si
teteruh, there are high coconut trees and there are short ones/
ada pohon kelapa yang tinggi, ada yang rendah
sidung to call/ panggil
sikel 1) will, to want, wish/ mau, ingin, hendak; 2) future tense
marker/ akan; cp. TB sihol, ‘to ask’; aku sikel laus, I want to
go, I will go/ saya mau pergi, saya akan pergi
siku elbow/ siku
silesimban pretty, fine/ cantik
simpan to keep/ simpan
sisér comb/ sisir
sisi side/ sisi, samping; ni sisi rumah lòt mbué batang suluh,
beside the house there are lots of casuarina trees/ di samping
rumah ada banyak pohon cemara
sisik scale/ sisik
sitòk a little/ sedikit; TB saotik; KB sitik
siwel to whistle/bersiul
sukut tale, story/ ceritera
sumpit bag, sack/ karung, tas; TB id.
sumur spring, fountain/ sumber, mata air; sumur lawé, id.
sungguh true, real/ sungguh
152
sungkun to ask/ tanya; KB TB id.
surat letter/ surat; from Ar. ....
suruh to order, command/ suruh
susah difficult, painful/ susah, sukar
susu milk/ susu
susun to compile, compose/ susun
suwan in senuwan, cultivation/ tanaman; nuwan, to till,
cultivate/ menaman; cp. TB suan; Gy. suen
T
tabe at/ pada
(n)tabòh tasty, delicious, comfortbale/ enak, sedap; cp. KB
ntabeh; TB tabo
tading 1) to stay, dwell, remain/ tinggal; KB id.; Gy. taring;
TB also ‘ to be forgotten’; 2) (in math) equal to/ sama dengan;
nadingken, to die/ meninggal (dunia); uanne nggou
nadingkemn, his father has died/ bapaknya sudah meninggal
tahun year/ tahun
tajem sharp / tajam
takal head/ kepala; KB id.
tali in tali bambang, butterfly/ kupu-kupu
tamat to end/ tamat; from Ar. ( . )
tambah to add, take more/ tambah
tande sign, mark/ tanda; tandai, to know (persons)/ kenal
tandòk to sit (down), be seated, to stay, dwell/ duduk, tinggal;
KB tandek
tanduk horn/ tanduk
tangan arm, hand/ tangan
153
tangge ladder, stairs/ tangga
tangkap to catch/ tangkap
tangki tank/ tank
tangkòu to steal/ curi; penangkòu, thief/ pencuri; KB TB
tangko
tanjung cape, promontory/ tanjung
tanòh earth, land/ tanah; Gy. Ac. id.; cp. KB taneh; UAN
*tanah
tanting 1) to swing, dangle/ anting; 2) swingling device,
swing/ anting; tantingne bené bagas kòlam, his swing was lost
into the pool/ anting-antingnya hilang dalam kolam
tapi but/ tetapi
tapung to (over)crowd/ menyemut; nitapungi, overcrowded/
dibanjiri oleh manusia, ramai orang-orang
tas bag/ tas
tawa to laugh/ tertawa; tetawa, id.; v. tetawe
-te our (incl.)/ kita (akhiran)
tebahan may/ boleh; KB terbahan
tebe towards/ menuju; kerine kude tuksò nibabe tebe pulo
lain, all the horses had to be moved to another island/ segala
kuda harus dipindah ke pulau lain
tebu sugarcane/ tebu
tegu to draw, pull/ tarik; Gy. id.; TB togu, ‘strong, fastened’;
manogu ‘to lead an animal, to draw a cart’; v. teguh
teguh strong/ teguh, kuat
tèh tea/ teh
telanjang naked/ telanjang
telap courageous, brave/ berani
telu three/ tiga; KB id.; TB tolo; UAN *tIlu’
teluk bay, gulf/ teluk
telur egg/ telur
154
teman friend, companion, colleague/ teman
tembun fat/ gemuk; Gy. KB id.; cp. Ac. teumbén
tempulak civet cat/ musang
tenage force, energy/ tenaga
tengah half, middle, mid/ tengah
tenggòu to call/ panggil
tenten chest, breast/ dada; KB id.; Gy. dede; cp. UAN *ÑaÑa’
tentere army/ tentara; sekalak tentere, a soldier/ prajurit,
serdadu
tentu sure, fixed/ tentu
(me)tentu special, particular/ khusus; cp. tentu
tepak to kick/ sepak, tendang
tepe (?) iron/ besi; v. besi, tukang; cp. KB sinepa ‘smith’
teram to kick, attack/ sepak, menyerang
terang 1) midday/ siang; 2) clear, light/ terang; v. also sesari;
keterangen, midday, noon/ siang
terem many (persons)/ banyak (orang)
terime to receive/ terima; iye nggòu nerime surat Pèsal ari, he
has received a letter from Feisal/ dia sudah menerima surat
dari Feisal
teruh below, under/ bawah; ni teruhen batu èdi, under that
stone/ di bawah batu itu; KB id.; cp. TB toru; Gy. tuguh
terus to continue/ terus; nerusken, to continue/ meneruskan
tesepak to stumble/ tersepak
tetap fixed, continuous/ tetap
tetawe to laugh/ tertawa, ketawa; v. tawa
teteruh low/ rendah; cp. teruh
tetukul hammer/ palu
tetunduh sleepy/ mengantuk
tibe to arrive / tiba
tihang pole, post/ tiang
155
time to wait/ tunggu; timai, to wait for/ menunggu; cp. TB ima;
KB tima
tingkap window/ jendela; cp. Gy. tingkep; Ml. tingkap,
‘peephole’
tòh to know/ tahu; metòhi, to know/ mengetahui; cp. KB teh;
Gy. betih; Ac. thèe; TB boto
tòk tasteless, innocuous/ tawar; v. also sitòk
toktok betel mortar/ lumpang kecil untuk sirih; cp. TB toktok,
‘to chop wood’
tòng still /masih; cp. Ac. han tòm, ‘not yet’; TB antong, ‘also,
really’; kòpi ènde tòng hangat su, this coffee is still too hot/
kopi masih terlalu panas; ni deleng tòng lòt rimò meliar, in the
mountains there are still wild tigers/ di pegunungan masih ada
harimau yang liar
tòpi hat/ topi
tuan lord, master/ tuan
tubuh body/ tubuh, badan
tuduh to show/ menunjuk; muduhken, to show/ menunjukkan;
aku muduhken rumahku be Hakim, I am showing Hakim my
house/ saya menunjukkan rumah saya kepada Hakim
(me)tue ld/ tua; kalak metue, parents/ orang tua; KB id.; UAN
*tuva’;
tuhu true, certain/ sungguh, betul; setuhune, actually/
sesungguhnya; KB TB id.; v. kemuhun
tuju in tujun, aim, goal/tujuan; iye made tòhne ndape tujunmu,
he does not know skilled) labourer/ tukang; tukang njarum,
tailor/ tukang jahit; tukang njerang, cook/ juru masak; tukang
dakan, cook/ juru masak; tukang tepe, blacksmith/ tukang besi
tuke belly/ perut; Gy. id.
tukar to exchange/ tukar; metukar, to exchange/ bertukar;
tukaren, exchange/ tukaran
156
tukòr to buy, purchase/ beli; act. nukòr; TB tuhor; KB tukur;
tetukòr, bought/ terbeli
tuksò must, ought to/ harus, mesti; also tuksòu; cp. KB
terpaksa
tulak to push/ dorong; KB TB id.
tulan bone/ tulang; KB id.
tule still /lagi
tulis to write/ tulis; act. nulis
tulung to help, aid/ tolong; act. nulung; petulungen, help/
pertolongan
tumpel to fall/ jatuh; v. (n)dabuh; cp. KB dumpang
tunang in tunangen, fiancé(e)/ tunangan
tunggal alone, unique, single, strange/ tunggal, aneh
tungkik deaf/ tuli; TB tungkik, ‘an ulcer in the ear’
turang brothers and sisters/ kakak beradik; v. senine
turun to descend/ turun; nturun, down/ ke bawah
tusò v. tuksò; made tusò, it is not necessary/ tidak usah
tutung to burn/ bakar; TB KB id.
tutup to close, shut/ tutup
U
udan rain/ hujan; KB TB id.; cp. UAN *’uÑan; cerudan, to
rain/ berhujan
udeng shrimp, lobster/ udang
ugah wound/ luka; UAN *lu(®)kah; cp. TB lura; Ac. luka; KB
luka, ugah
ujung end, tip, extremity/ ujung
ulang do not (prohibition)/ jangan; TB id.
uleng caterpillar/ ulat; UAN *uleg’
157
ulih to return/ balik; ngulihken, to return/ mengembalikkan; cp.
KB mulih
umum common, general/ umum
umur age/ umur, usia; sekaé umurmu?, what is you age?/
berapa umurmu?; from Ar. ...
untung fortunate, lucky/ untung; untungme, luckily/ untunglah
urang people, uman being/ orang, manusia; v. jème, kalak;
UAN *’uga®
urat 1) vein, sinew/ urat; 2) root/ akar
uròk 1) capable, able, skilled/ pintar, pandai; 2) can, be able/
bisa, dapat; cp. KB dorek (?); kalak ènde uròk ceròk perancis
rut jawe, that man is able to speak French and Javanese/ orang
itu bisa berbicara Perancis dan Jawa; tukang njai ènde uròk
kalihen nggunai jarum, the tailor can use the needle skillfully/
tukang jahit itu pintar sekali menggunakan jarum
usòu k.o. fruit / rambutan
utòk brains, marrow/ otak; TB Gy. id.; KB utuk
uwan father/ ayah, bapak; uwan sentue, father-in-law/ mertua
laki-laki; v. mpurah
uwis cloth/ kain; uwis kampuh, sarong/ kain sarung; KB wis
W
waluh eight/ delapan; UAN *valu[’]; KB Gy. id.
walòpé though, although/ walaupun, meskipun; walòpé iye
metue bukne tòng mbéròng, though he is old, his hair is still
black/ walaupun ia tua, rambutnya masih hitam
wan v. uwan
wangkah (?) pork/ daging babi; cp. KB bengkau, ‘meat’
158
wari day/ hari; matewari, sun/ matahari; wari ènde, warinde,
today/ hari ini; cewari, to be(come) day/ jadi siang; KB id.; TB
ari; UAN *vagi’
wis v. uwis
159
ENGLISH-ALAS
REGISTER
able uròk; be able, mbise
accompany ngimbangi
accustomed biase
according menurut
accuse kelak
active gigih
actually setuhune
add tambah
advice naséhat
advise naséhatken
afraid (m)biah
after v. kese
afternoon bòn, bebòn
age umur
agree setuju
aim tujun
air angin
alive (ng)geluh
all kerine
alone tunggal
along segedang
already nggòu
also pé, kane
always senaren
among kekelong
ancestors datuk
and rut, nengen, lagi, serte
angry punguren
animal benatang
answer sahut, jawab
ant pòrkis; white ants, anéané
anus pantat
appear mégap, pétak
areca nut pinang
arm tangan
army tentere
arrive sòh, tibe
as bagé
ascend nangkih
ash habu
ashamed méle
ask sungkun, pidòu
asleep tepedem
aspect rupe
astonished héran
at ni, pade, tabe
attack teram
aunt bibi
awake ngingeti
axe kapak
back pudi
bad mamelias, mònò
bag tas, sumpit, katup
160
ball bal
bamboo buluh
banana galuh
bandage kuman
bark kuling
basket rage
bat lengkaber
batata gadung kayu
bathe ridi
bay teluk
be (in a place) lòt
beach panté, pasér
bead biji
bear (child) ngelahérken
beard janggut
beat palu
beautiful (m)paras
because kerane, kerne
become (n)jadi
bed perantas
before v. nenge
beg pidòu
begin mulai
beginning pemulan
belief kepecayan
belly tuke
below teruh
bend ngèluk
betel v. sirih
between antare
beyond kèpar
bicycle lèrèng
big (m)belin, ciris
bind rakut
bird memanuk
birth kelahéren
bite karat
bitter pagit
black (m)béròng
blanket cabin
bleed medaròh
blind pitung
blood daròh
bloodsucker lintah
blowpipe ketep
blue hijòu
blunt pudal, pelpel
board papan
boat bungki; small b.,
sampan
body tubuh
boil gugur, bégang, jerang
bold gagah
bone tulan
book buku
born lahér
bottle bòtòl
bow panah
box peti
boy anak
161
brains utòk
branch cabang, dahen
brassiere kutang
brave telap
break pilpil
breast tenten
bridge gòrtak
brief péndòk
bring babe
broken pecah, putòk,
muak, pétep, rengep
brother, elder abang
brother, younger nggi
(delaki)
brother, indiffirent kendin
brothers and sisters v.
senine, turang
brother-in-law silih
buffalo korbòu
build cinderi
burn tutung
bus bus
busy pekaskas, rami
but tapi
butterfly tali bambang
buy tukòr
cabbage kol
cake kuwéh
call sidung, tenggòu
can uròk, nemu, dapet,
(m)bise
cancel apus
cape tanjung
car mòtòr
careful (m)pahé
careless jengang
carpenter balòk
carry (on shoulders) pilpil
(?)
cart geréte
casuarina suluh
cat kucing
catch tangkap
caterpillar uleng
cave guhe
centipede lipan
chain ranté
chair kòrsi
change gancih, kalih,
pindah
charge deawe
cheap murah
cheek kurum
chest tenten
chicken manuk
chief kepale
child budak
chin dagu
chisel pahat
162
choice pilihen
chopsticks étep (?)
choose pilih
church geréje
cigarette segarét, ròkòk
cinema besekep
cinnamon kayu manis
city kòta
civet-cat tempulak
clean (adj.) (m)bòrsih
clean (verb) gusuk
clear mecihòu, terang
climate angin
climb nangkuh
close (adj.) rapet
close (verb) tutup
cloth uwis
clothes pakén
cloud mbun
cloudy remang
clove bunge lawang
coconut niwer
coffee kòpi
cold (m)bòrgòh, (m)bogoh
collar regeng
colleague teman
colour curak, corak
comb sisér
come ròh
comfortable (n)tabòh
command suruh
common biase, umum
companion imbang, teman
compel pakse
compelled tepakse
compile susun
complete lengkap, pul
concubine gundik
confused linglung
consequence akibat
contact hubung
contemporarily seran
contents isi
continue terus
continuous tetap
contrary, on the
kebalikenne
cook (noun) tukang
njerang, tukang dakan
cook (verb) jerang, dakan
corn jagung
corner sagi
corpse bangké
correct kalihen
country nenggeri, negeri
courageous telap, gagah
courtyard halamen
cow lembu
crazy gile
crocodile baye
163
cross anun
crowded rami
cruel cengis
cucumber cimun
cultivation semuwan
culture budaye
cup cangkér
cupboard lemari
curly merieng
cut keret
cutlass parang
dagger pangur, keris
dam rak
damar (tree and gum)
damar
damp lembab
dance landòk
danger bahaye
dangerous mebahaye
dangle tanting
dark gelap
daughter anak deberu
daughter-in-law pemain
dawn pajar
day wari
dead maté
deaf tungkik
deceitful ilat-ilat
deep (m)bagas
deer békih
delicious (n)tabòh
descend turun
develop kembang
development
pekembangen
dew rembun
die maté, nadingken
different pilit, mebije
difficult susah
dike rak
diligent rajin
diluted caér
dirty cemak
disappopinted nesal
disease penakit, sencui
disgraceful celake
dish pinggan
dishonest ilat-ilat
disinfect bunuh
ditch parik
dive v. keneng
divide bagi
dog biang
don’t ulang
door pintu
dove puné
draw tegu
drink inum
drop (verb) ndabuhken
164
drown remrem
drum gendang
dry kerah
duck itik
dull pudal, pelpel
durian rutung
during sedekah
dusk remang
Dutch urang Belande
dwell tading, tandòk
each jep
each other meradu
ear cuping
early pepagi
earth tanòh, bumi
east gugung
easy gambang
eat pangan
egg telur
eight waluh
elbow siku
elephant gajah
emphasis -me
empty lònggang
encounter jumpen
end akér, tamat, ujung
energy tenage, semangat
enter mengket
envious cemburu
epoch mase
equal to tading
European v. Dutch
evening bòngi
ever penah
every jep
example misal
exchange (noun) tukaren
eschange (verb) tukar
exercise latihen
expensive megale
expert pandé, guru
extremity ujung
eye mate
face awé
faithful setie
fall (n)dabuh, tumpel,
jatuh
fallen naktak
family keluarge
fan kipas
far (n)dauh
fast puase
fat tembun
father uwan, uan
father-in-law uwan sentue
fear (m)biah
feast, to make pebahanen
feel ngakap
165
female deberu
female (of animals) beru
fence pagar
few hurak
fiancé(e) tunangen,
lembaru
field mpus, padang
fin kekampi
find jumpe, dapet
fine mejile, mendé,
(m)paras, mesimban
finger jari
finish keri, akér
fire api
firewood seban
first petame, memule
fish ikan
fishhook kawil
five lime
fix mestiken
fixed tentu, tetap
flat (nose) mémpéh
flexible mesmes
flood ampuh
floor lanté
flute bangsi
fly (noun) naleng
fly (verb) (ng)kabang
fog remang
follow ikut, gupuh; v.
celam-celum
food makanen, penangen
fool padel, deldel
foot kiding; to go on f. v.
dalan
for bang, ken, porle (?)
force tenage
forehead mentagi
foreign jawé
forest rimbe
forget lupe
fork gòrpu
formerly kale, lebé
fortunate untung
fountain sumur (lawé)
four mpat
free calus, bébas
fresh tòk; fresh water,
lawé matang
friend imbang, teman
frog katak, kòngkòng
from (postponed) ari
front, in adepen
fruit buah
fry goréng
full dòm
garden mpus
gather pulung
166
gecko cicak
general umum
germ kuman
get up buet
girl bujang, anak deberu
give beré, koré (?)
glad senang
glass gelas
go laus
go (vehicle) jintòu
go on foot medalan kiding
goal tujun
goat kambing
gold mas
goldsmith pandé mas
good mejile, mendé, jilén,
kalihen
government pemerintah
grandchild kempu
grandparent nini
grass dukut
great (m)belin, ciris
green hijòu
grey abu-abu
guest pemama
gulf teluk
gum (teeth) nggusi
gun senapan
hair buk, bukbuk
half tengah
hammer tetukul
hand tangan
handle sukul
happy senang
hard keras, mekòng
harvest sembelih
hat tòpi
hate benci
have miliki, mpung, ajang
haze rabun
he iye
head takal
healthy séhat
hear gé
heart até
heavy (m)berat
help (noun) petulungen
help (verb) tulung
her -ne
here hande
hide (noun) kuling
hide (verb) cebuni
high (n)datas
hill bukit
hire séwe
his -ne
history sejarah
hit palu
hoe (noun) cangkul
167
hoe (verb) cangkuli
hold gelem
Holland Belande
honest jujur
honour hormat
hope (noun) harapen
hope (verb) harap, agak (?)
horn tanduk
hornbill nggang
horse kude
host pemama
hot hangat
hour jam
house rumah
how sekai, sekaé, kune
how much pige
how many sekaé buwé
hundred (se)ratus
hungry melòhé
hunt buru
hunter peburu
hurry celam
husband laki, delaki,
suami
hut sapòu
I aku
idea pikèren
ill sakit
immersed keneng
important penting
in ni, bagas
infant anak cut
information kabar
inhabit merumah
inhabitants (of a town)
anak kute
inside bagas
intention mekesud
interesting menarik
interrogation v. kin, nge
invisible made teridah
iron besi, tepe (?)
island pulo
it iye
its -ne
jacket baju jas
jackfruit nangke
jail penjare
jambu jambu
jealous cemburu
jump lòmpat
just kane
keep simpan
key kunci
kick tepak, teram
kill bunuh
knee lutut
168
knife pisòu
know tòh, metòhi, tandai
kriss keris
ladder tangge
lame cengkah
lamp pelite
land tanòh
language bahasa
large (m)belin, ciris
last pengabisen, ndaé,
nfagé
late cecuk; (by night)
mbagas bòngi
laugh tetawe
law hukum
lazy kisat
leaf bulung
leave (a) cuti
leave (verb) merangkat
left kiri
leg kiding
lemon limòu
lend pinjam
lengthen mpegedangi
less kurang, hurak
let néwaken
letter surat
lie (noun) bual
lie (verb) bekas, gulang
lift angkat
light (adj.) nahang
light (noun) cahaye, terang
lightening kilat
like bagé
like (verb) (m)bise, suke
lips bibèr
listen gé
literature sastere
little cut, cecut; a little
sitòk
live (ng)geluh, tading
load isi
lobster udeng
locust balang
long (ng)gedang, (n)dekah;
(nose) mancung
look for daram, garam
loose calus
lord tuan
lorry gòrbak
lost bené
love cinta
low teteruh
luckily untungme
lungs rak
lying tegalang
maize jagung
make bahan, kerje
169
male delaki; (animals)
(m)bòrguh
man jème, urang, kalak;
(male) delaki
mango mangge
mangosteen nggete
mankind jème, kalak
many (m)buwé, terem
mark tande
market pekan
marriage pekawinen
marrow utòk
marry kawin
master tuan
mat amak
match còlòk, kurik; pelelòn
may tebahan
mean ngòrti
meaning òrti
meat jukut
medicine daun
meet jumpe, dapet
mentioned ndagé
merchant sudagar
metre métér
mid(dle) tengah
midday terang, sesari
mile batu
milk susu
minus kurangi
mist remang
mistake keliru
mix ngaduk
moment (se)gijap
money sén; to have m.,
meresén
monkey kedih, kere
month bulan
moon bulan
more naé, nangé
morning pepagi
mortar lisung; (sirih)
tòktòk
mortar pestle pasak lisung
mosque mesgit
mosquito namuk
moss lumut
mother amé
mother-in-law amé sentue
mountain deleng
mouse menci
mousedeer pais
moustache gumis
mouth babah
move geròk
movement geròken
mud kubang, lumut (?)
mushroom dawan
must harus, tuksò (tusò,
tuksòu)
170
mute kelu
my -ku
nail labang; (finger)
seliwen
naked telanjang
name gelar
narrow sempit
nasty nakal
navel pusang
near (n)dòhòr
necessary pòrlu; not n.,
made pòrlu
neck kaharung
needle jarum
nephew beberé
nest asar
net jale, jaring, durung
never mepenah, made
penah
new (m)barue
news kabar
next nahan
nice (m)paras
niece beberé
night bòngi; by n., bebòngi
nine siwah
noise sare
noisy pinger
north julu
northeast v. julu
northwest v. cuah
nose igung
not made; (with nouns)
hòye
not yet made nenge, mde
nenge
now sendah
nowadays bagas made nde
nutmeg pale
oar bòrsi
office kantur, penjabat
often raket
old metue, (n)dekah; v.
(n)dubé
on ndatas, bagas
once sekali; at once, segere
one sade, buah; one by one
bebuah
oneself, by sesade
onion piye
only hambin, pelin
open (adj.) luas
open (verb) buke
orange limòu
orang utan mawas
order suruh
order, out of rengep;
171
order that, in kane, agaragar
origin asal
other pilit, lain, (n)jawén
our (incl.) -te
out luar
overcrowded tapung
ox lembu
paint cét, ngugahi
pair gong (?)
pandanus kuan
papaya ketile
paper kertas
parcel bunguksen
parents, kalak metue, rang
tue
parents-in-law mpurah
parrot nuri
part batas
particular metentu
pass léwat
past ndagé
pay bayar
peace damai
peaceful aman
pearl mutiare
peasant pejume, perempus,
petani
peel kubak
peg pasak
people urang, jème, kalak
pepper, red lade situ; v.
sambal
perfect sempurne
perhaps kadangken
period mase
person jème, kalak, urang
petai perire
petrol binsin
picture gambar
pig babi
pin cucuk layam
pinch cibit
pineapple nas
place kas
plantation mpus
plate pinggan
play lelo
plough (noun) ceras
plough (verb) ngorbòu
plougher pengorbòu
pocket saku
pole tihang, joriak
polite halus
pool kolam
poor mesekin
porch rambih
pork wangkah (?)
post joriak
172
pot kudun
potato gadung (njulur)
pray sembéang
prefer pòten
pregnant (m)belin tuke,
(n)deras
pretty mesimban
price rege
prison penjare
progress maju
promise janji
promontory tanjung
protect celigen
pull tegu
pupil murid
pure suci, mecihòu
push tulak, dukuk, duruk
put cibalken, bahan (?)
quadrangular mpat sagi
quick pantas
quiet aman
raft rakit, rapan
rain udan
rainbow celandung
raise angkat
rambutan usòu
rat menci
rattan ketang
rayfish ikan pari
reached nisòhken
read bace
ready sedie
receive pengedep, terime
red megare
refined halus
remain tading
remember inget
repaired nipilasi
reply sahut, jawab
represent merupeken
return ngulihken, (m)balik
return somthng malikken
rhynoceros badak
rice (paddy) pagé
rice (husked) beras
rice (cooked) nakan
ricefield jume
rich bayak
ride jintòu
right benar, kalihen
right hand kemuhun
ring cincin
rise pétak, buet
river lawé
road dalan
roof sahung
room ruang, batang ruang,
bilik; v. hanjung
173
root urat
root (edible) gadung
rope nali
rough kasar
round bule
rub apus, gusuk
rude kasar
run letun
sack katup, kètup, sumpit
sad sedih
safe selamat
sail layar
salak salak
salty masin
sambal geniling
same rut (?)
sand pasér
sarong uwis, kampuh,
dawak
satisfied puas, ngateken
scale sisik
school sekolah
science élmu
scissors gunting
scorpion kacip gelong
scratch gar
scream galib
scythe v. sickle
sea laut
secret rahasie
see idah, atòu
seed biji
seem kepe
seldom merak
sell daye
send antat, kirim
sentence hukum
serve ari, hidang
set (sun) serlem
seven pitu
sew jarum, (n)jait
severed pétep
shallow babò
shark ikan yu
sharp tajem
she iye
shell kuling
ship kapal
shirt baju
shoes sepatu
shop kedé
shore panté
short pendòk
shoulders bare
shout galib
show nuduhken, ciluk,
ciduh; v. pelelòn
shrimp udeng
shut tutup
174
sick sakit
sickle arit, ané-ané
side sisi
sign tande
silent v. inyan
silver piròk
sin dose
sinew urat
sing nyanyi
sirih belòu
sirih box bane kampil
sister (elder) kake
sister (younger) nggi;
sisters and brothers
senine, turang
sister-in-law éde
sit tandòk; (squat) mesile
situation hal
six nem
skilled uròk
skin kuling
sky langit
sleep pedem (medem)
sleepy tetunduh
slender mejare
slim mejare
slippers selòp
slow hanjar, harih, melaun
small cut, cecut
smell bau
smile cirem
smith pandé besi, tukang
tepe
smoke rabun, cimber
smooth halus
snake nipé
snapped putòk
so begèdi, begènde
so that sehingge
socks kaus
soft mòh
soldier (se)kalak tentere
some pepige
sometimes kadang-kadang
son anak
son-in-law kèle
soon segere
soul nawe
sound sare
sour macem
south jahé
southeast v. jahé
southwest v. cuah
speak ceròk
spear pendahen
special metentu
spectacles kacemate
spice rempah
spider lelawah
spike labang
175
spirit semangat
spoon senduk
spring sumur
squat mesile
stairs tangge
stamp perangko
stand jengjeng, cinderi
star bintang
state hal
station stasiun
stay tading, tandòk
steal tangkòu
stem batang
stiff keras
still naé, nangé, tòng, tule
stir aduk
stone batu
stop (noun) penadin
stop (verb) nadi
straight penter
strange jawé, tunggal
strike palu, pòkpòk
string nali
stroll medalan
strong erat, teguh,
megegòh, mekòng, keras
student pelajar
study belajar, telajar
stumble tesepak
stupid padel
submerged cereme
suddenly nengen seketike
sugar gule
sugarcane tebu
sun matewari
sunrise matewari pétak,
métak pajar
sunset matewari serlem
sure pesti, tentu
swamp paye
sway anggun
sweat panas
sweet mis
swift pantas
swim megembas
swing tanting, anggun
sword pedang
table méje
tail lawi
tailor tukang njarum
take buet, dahi (?)
take more tambah
tale cerite, sukut
tame (n)jinak
tank tangki
tasty (n)tabòh
tea téh
teach ngajar
teacher guru
176
tears iluh
-teen -belas
tell mecerite
tell tales mesukuten
ten (se)puluh
testicles gembiri
that (adj. pron.) èdi, è, di
that (relat.) si
their -ne
then kane
there hadi(h)
they kalak (di)
thick kapal, méket
thief penangkòu
thigh pahe
thin nipis
think agak, gan, mepikér
thirsty hangaten
this ènde, eno(me)
thou kau
though walòpé
thought pikèren
thousand (se)ribu
three telu
through meléwati
throw gawer
throw away buang
tie rakut
tiger harimòu, rimò
tight rapet
till v. de
till (verb) nuwan
time jaman, mase
time (turn) kali
tip ujung
tired (m)biar, payah
to be, bang
today wari ènde
toe jari
tomorrow pagi
tongue dilah
too (much) su
tooth ipen
torn muak
tortoise lébòu
touch gelem
towards be, tebe
town kòta
track belus
train (verb) ngelatih
tree kayu, batang kayu
tree sp. v. gembiri, damar
trishaw bécak
trousers seluar
true sungguh, benar
tumour bisul
turn puter
turtle (sea) baning
two due
177
ugly mònò
umbrella payung
uncle mame
under teruh
unfortunately sayangme
unique tunggal
use gune, paké
used v. gune
valley lembah
various mepale bagé
vegetables sayur
vegetables sp. perire
vein urat
very kalihen
village kute
violent hébat
visible kidah
visit (n)jenguk, ngeròhi,
bèdi
voice v. hanjar
volcano deleng merapi
vomit mutah
wait timai
wake ngingeti
wall dinding
want sikel, pòt
war perang
warehouse gudang
wash ridi
watch jage
water lawé
watermelon cimun ndike
way dalan
we (exclus.) kami
we (incl.) kite
weak mòh, lemah
wear paké
weather angin
week minggu
well lage
west cuah
wet hemòk, lembab
what kaé
wheat gandum
wheel rode
when ndigan
where v. dape
which apahen, si
while sedang
whistle siwel
white mentar
who isé, isékin, si
why kunekane, kaékane
wicked mamelias
wide (m)belang, luas
wife beru, anak rumah,
isteri, deberu
wild (me)liar
178
will sikel, pòt
wind angin
window tingkap
wing kabeng
wise bijaksane
with rut
wizard guru
woman jème deberu,
deberu, urang deberu, kalak
deberu
wood kayu
word pekaten
work (noun) bahanen
work (verb) bahan, rekat
worker tukang
world bumi, dunia
wound luke, ugah
wrapping jeningkes
write tulis
year tahun
yellow (ng)òrsing
yesterday boné
you kau, kemin (?)
young mude
your -mu
179
APPENDIX - Alas kinship terms
nikakik (nini delaki) nikeru (nini deberu)
+-----------------------+
bibi _____ uan ame _____ mame
+----+
¦
abang __________ EGO ________ enggi
kake
¦ ¦ ¦
bebere anak bebere
¦
kempu
uan sentue (mpurah) ame sentue (mpurah)
+----------------+
EGO __________ beru _________ silih
¦ ède
+--------------+
kèle _____ anak deberu anak delaki _____ pemain
180
181
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