Word shortening is a consequence of contraction and of suppression

 mo’empehi ‘cover something e.g. a chair with something that functions as an underlay’, Impo mo’apasi meaning uncertain, Loinan ampas ‘mat’ In all these case h must be considered to have arisen from earlier s. The h in mongkuahako ‘address someone, converse about something’ and kuaho ‘to feel unwell, with symptoms from which it appears that one has been ‘addressed’ namely, by a spirit’, however, has been secondarily inserted, as appears from Tontemboan kua. In prehistory final b must have become w, compare the examples montutuwi and kolowi earlier in this section. Final d probably became r, compare paura dialectally ‘the bamboo slat in a piece of roofing thatch’, Sangirese paud ĕ, while final g, like in Pamona, became k, compare laika ‘hut’, Loinan, Balantak laigan, stem laig, Mongondow ḷaig. Word lengthening. 30. In addition to the cases where a paragogic -i occurs, one can also speak of lengthening in words which have become fused with an honorific prefix tu- or an old article e suffix. In the vetitive particle osii or osi’i ‘Don’t’, Malay Jangan, one probably has to do with a prosthetic o; placed before a verb or adjective, only si is used. The stem sii is probably cognate with the stem jii ‘still, quiet’ in Pamona, etc., and with that of Sangirese kadi’ ‘be quiet’. Some single syllable particles were at one time lengthened to two syllables, which lengthening as a rule was accompanied by glottal epenthesis, e.g. strengthening particle da’a next to da ‘still, yet’, [p. 27] nde’e next to nde see § 183, sii or si’i = osii, osi’i next to si compare § 80. 35 See also § 17. Word shortening and vowel merger.

31. Word shortening is a consequence of contraction and of suppression

36 or falling off of sounds. An example of the later is the disappearance of the instrumental prefix i-; of the Pamona words which contain this dead prefix, the great majority of forms are found back in Mori without any i-. 37 When the first syllable of a word is i, and is unaccented, it very easily elides. This occurs very commonly at the beginning of a sentence with words such as isua ‘where?’, indi’ai ‘here’, itu’ai ‘there’, etc., e.g.:  sua-ke sala? where- INTERROG way ‘where is the path?’ Also the i- of dual and plural imperatives often remains unarticulated, e.g.:  i-me-’inu-o-mo 2 PL - PL -drink-3 SG - PERF ‘drink it up’ Other examples of prosiopesis the non-articulation of one or more syllables at the beginning of a sentence are regarding the constructions kanandio andio and anu isua, see respectively §§ 177 and 203:  Te’ipia u-pedolo? — Andio andio. for: Kanandio andio when. FUT 2 SG -bathe this this like.this this ‘When are you going to bathe? Now’ 35 [Postscript, p. 27] If the derivation of si, etc. from jii, njii is correct, then sii, si’i are not to be treated as examples of lengthening. 36 [footnote 1, p. 27] Sound suppression need not always be accompanied by shortening of the quantity of the word under consideration. 37 [Postscript, p. 27] Whether a prefix i- has indeed been lost in the respective Mori words is not certain; see § 363.  isua lalu-mu, andio ke andio? for: anu isua… where surpass-2 SG . POS this INTERROG this REL where ‘Which would you rather, this or this?’  ku-buku ngkuda for: nahi ku-buku ngkuda 1 SG -want 1 SG . ADD NEG 1 SG -want 1 SG . ADD ‘I also will not.’ Regarding the merger of a + u as o, and a + i as e, see §§ 45 and 39. The merger of i + a is likewise e, while the merger of i + u or u + i in both cases is i; see §§ 39 and 41. Examples of o from u + a are unknown to me; tuama ‘male’ such as the Pamona say has become tama in Mori probably via twama. In a number of words suppression of the last syllable occurs with which as compensation the preceding vowel is lengthened at any rate it remains the stressed vowel. Thus in Watu mongkii ‘see’ for Tinompo mongkita; Watu laa, next to lako ‘go’, the former used when another verb follows, e.g. laa mo-wala bangka go PART : TRI -chop boat ‘go chop a boat’; Molongkuni waa next to wawo ‘upper surface’, the former used when a substantive follows, e.g. a waa wute at upper.surface ground ‘on the ground’ the forms laa and waa are also encountered in Tinompo. 38 Whether Upper Mori owaa, for Tinompo owowa ‘short, low’ is to be explained in this way is not certain, as next to owaa and owowa also stands the Bungku form owoa they are all probably to be brought into connection with Malay bawah. Where the vowels of the two syllables correspond, one could say instead that the consonant has elided; an example of this is the Upper Mori form tuu ‘upper part’ Tinompo tuwu. The third person singular pronominal prefix i- has been assimilated into the i of nahi ‘not’, kasi ‘lest, so that… …not’, and the vetitive particle si, 39 [p. 28] for example: 40  nahi pon-sue NEG :3 SG TRI -see ‘he does not, cannot see’  si m-po-hohoi NEG . IMPV :2 PL PL - TRI -make.noise ‘don’t make such a racket’  ku-’aiwa pau-akomiu kasi aiwa mo-hohoi indi’ai 1 SG -come PART :say- APPL :2 PL lest:2 PL come PART : TRI -make.noise here ‘I have come to tell you that you must not make noise here’ So also the article i has been assimilated into the preposition ndi e.g. ndi Ama ‘to, at, with Father’ and in omami see § 159, but here one cannot speak of word shortening. Elision of o regularly takes place preceding the article or the preposition i, both when this o is the third person singular pronominal enclitic and when it constitutes a part of the possessive pronouns -no or -do, for example:  karu-ni Lagiwa for: karu-no i Lagiwa foot-3 SG . POS : PN Deer ‘Deer’s foot’ 38 [Postscript, p. 27] Sometimes two syllables have been reduced in this way, compare Tinompo ndiindio, raarau, loolou and taatahu, which originate from ndiomo ndio, etc. see § 184. 39 [footnote 1, p. 28] The reverse is naturally also possible. 40 [footnote 2, p. 28] In actuality these should be spelled as a single word, e.g. nahiponsue, simpohohoi, kasi’aiwa, but the spelling as two words has been chosen for practical reasons.  inso-ni ra’ai for: inso-no ira’ai be.from-3 SG . POS :at over.there ‘from then on, after that’  papo-papo-di Ue for: papo-papo-do i Ue lime.box-3 PL . POS : PN Grandparent ‘Grandmother’s lime box’  i-’ala-i Elu-’elu pasapu-no for: i-’ala-o i Elu-’elu… 3 SG -get-3 SG : PN Orphan head.cloth-3 SG . POS ‘Orphan took his head cloth’ The vowel o elides preceding an i in other cases as well, for example: 41  l[um]aki olu for: l[um]ako i olu PART :go:to market ‘go to market’  rau-mi ra’ai for: rau-mo ira’ai be.over.there over.there ‘over there’ see § 184 This happens regularly in napo ‘not yet’ and namo ‘no longer’ when followed by the pronominal prefix i- third person singular and second person plural for example napi hawe na + po + i + hawe ‘he has not yet come’, nami pekule na + mo + i + pekule ‘he no longer went back’. This has even had the consequence that napi and nami have come to be used with forms which do not contain the prefix i- i.e. which contain some other pronoun, e.g.:  na-mi do-mongura NEG - PERF :3 SG 3 PL -young ‘they are no longer young’ It could have contributed to this expansion that nahi ‘not’ always has i, except when lost before the second person singular pronominal prefix u-, e.g.:  nah-u pande NEG :2 SG clever ‘you are not clever’ Examples of elision of e preceding i are hawi from hawe i ‘come to’, and ontai Anu from ontae i Anu ‘we and What’s-his-name’. In general one can say that superfluous syllables are lost. Especially in Upper Mori very many shortenings are employed, see § 241, etc. Some other examples here are:  ka-lo komba tekosi, maka da poko-peleluako NEG - FUT by.any.means good if still POTENT -move.oneself ‘it shall not be good, as long as you can move yourself’ [Impo] for ka nolo komba tekosi, maka da upokopeleluako. That in Molio’a the pronoun ro- is omitted when followed by the future particle lo probably hangs together with the sound rule mentioned in the final paragraph of § 32; compare here: 41 [footnote 3, p. 28] These should likewise be written as a single word; see footnote 2, p. 28.  ka-lo leko NEG - FUT go ‘they shall not go’ [Molio’a]  ka-lo m-pong-kaa NEG - FUT PL - TRI -eat ‘they shall not eat’ [Molio’a] Other cases of word shortening come up for discussion as appropriate elsewhere in the grammar. See particularly the treatment of pronouns in Chapter 4, and the treatment of the prefixes mepe-, mompepe- and the suffix -ako in Chapter 12. Concerning the loss of various consonants, see under “Sound Change” § 34 ff.; concerning the loss of prenasalization, see under § 28. In actuality, sound suppression takes place on a much larger scale in the spoken language than may be presumed from the given examples, because the Mori usually speak very rapidly. In general it deserves no recommendation to bring the spelling into conformity with the usual pronunciation, because there are also villages where the people do not speak as rapidly namely in the Malili area, and because of the danger of unclarity arising thereby. For example, the word kupauakono ‘I told him it’ is regularly pronounced as kupaakono, but the stem is pau, and everyone hears “pau” in it, and it could do nothing other than create confusion to omit the u from the spelling. If one speaks slowly, then of its own accord the u reemerges. Still greater is the objection against a spelling mengngisi, such as the word mengingisi ‘laugh’ runs when spoken fast, because this would erroneously create the impression [p. 29] that the language is not vocalic. On the other hand, in answer to the question isua ulako? ‘where are you going?’ the usual response would be to say laki Dale ‘to Dale’, and only lako i Dale when speaking slowly, thus the former is adopted in spelling. As one can see, drawing a border is not easy poetry can be a standard, but this is not always applicable, but also not necessary. In practice, of most importance is the omission of the initial m of prefixes 42 and the omission of the particle mo; in the case of mo, the stressed vowel of the preceding syllable is compensatingly lengthened see above this section. Thus for example in place of kita lako medolo 1 PLN . FUT go part:bathe ‘we are going to bathe’ people will say kita lako ‿edolo or— with prosiopesis—talako ‿edolo here the tie bar ‿ serves to indicate that no glottal stop is inserted, likewise taa lako‿edolo in place of ta-mo lako medolo 3 SG . FUT - PERF go PART :bathe ‘he shall go bathe now’; koo’ala in place of ko mo-’ala 2 SG . FUT PART : TRI -get ‘you shall get, fetch’; kita ‿o’angga in place of kita mo-’angga 1 PLN . FUT PART : TRI -work ‘we are going to work’ especially: work away at, get rid of; kitao ‿o’angga, less commonly kitaa‿o’angga, in place of kita-mo mo-’angga 1 PLN . FUT - PERF PART : TRI -work ‘we go now to work away’; akuo ‿o’ala, also akuu‿o’ala, 43 in place of aku-mo mo-’ala 1 SG . FUT - PERF PART : TRI -get ‘I go now to get, fetch’; akuo ‿ongkaa, also akuu‿onggaa, in place of aku-mo mong-kaa 1 SG . FUT - PERF PART : TRI -eat ‘I go now to eat’; mentorotoro ‿ota’u in place of mentorotoro mota’u PART :sit.around old ‘sit like an adult’ in other words, still, calm; nahi ‿doewe’aku in place of nahi do-me-wee-’aku NEG 3 PL - PL -give-1 SG ‘they have not given me it’ wee ‘give’ is often shortened to we when followed by a suffix of two or more syllables. Another case which is of considerable importance in practice is the omission of m from the infix -um-, especially in Molongkuni, for example Tinompo luako, Molongkuni lueko shortenings respectively of lumako and lumeko ‘go’, uehe ‘want’ shortening of umehe, etc. Shortening of proper names. 32. With the shortening of proper names people go to work somewhat randomly. Sometimes it is the first part of the word which is omitted, other times the second part. Thus Baruga is shortened to Ruga, Labonde to Bonde, We’oma to Oma, 42 [footnote 1, p. 29] This phenomenon is well-known in other languages, among others Old Javanese, Makasarese and Bugis. 43 [footnote 3, p. 29] In fast speech there is very little difference between akuu ‿o’ala and aku‿o’ala the latter from aku mo-’ala 1 SG . FUT PART : TRI -get ‘I will fetch’. We’oluna to We’o, Weholina to Weho, etc. Wemapada is shortened to Wema, but Wemasusa to Susa. 44 Not only can syllables be omitted, but also single consonants, e.g. Onde for Ngkonde. In practice, every name of three or more syllables is shortened. Sometimes two people of the same sex who are friends will chose a single name by which they will both be known to each other. Often this name—in Mori called the pesike-sikeno—consists of two syllables which in themselves have no meaning, but which are the shortening of an existing word. Thus the name Pina can be amplified as Pinatambo ‘abandoned, left behind’, though it could well be amplified as something else. 45 Metathesis.

33. Some examples of metathesis are: