This rule does not apply with respect to proclitics. These words are always written separate from the word with which they belong, e.g. aku lumako 1
SG
.
FUT PART
:go ‘I shall go’, likewise ta lumako 3
SG
.
FUT PART
:go ‘he shall go’, etc.
2
In some cases one may waiver over whether one has to do with one or two words, as for example in isema ‘who?’, which properly consists of the article i and the stem sema, and in isua ‘where?’, which is compounded from
the preposition i and the stem sua. Practically speaking, this question is of very little importance.
Pronunciation.
13. Diphthongs are not encountered in Mori. The pronunciation of ai, au, ei, etc. is thus: an a followed by an i,
an a followed by an u, an e followed by an i, etc. This is evident, among other places, in poetry
3
and from stress placement; compare § 17.
The sounds aa, ee, ii, oo and uu stand in proportion to a, e, i, o and u as respectively “long” and “short” vowels in the true sense of these words, that is to say the sequence aa etc. is twice as long as a etc.. The first-mentioned
five sounds must be considered to each contain two syllables. That this is the correct interpretation emerges clearly from poetry see J.
Kruyt 1924:174 ff., 209–210, from stress placement §
17, and from two-syllable reduplication, where for example in memee-meene ‘don’t go to sleep, stay up until the day meene dawns’, mee
counts for two syllables.
4
Likewise [p. 12]
there are long sounds which constitute three syllables, e.g. kuwooo ‘I smell it’, stem woo + o, kunaaakono ‘I set it in it’, stem naa + ako.
5
Mori is a vocalic language, that is to say, closed syllables are not encountered. One can rightly speak of ‘half-closed’ syllables, namely when the onset consonant of the following syllable is prenasalized.
14. V
OWELS
. The sound of Mori a corresponds to that of Malay a in dada. In half-closed syllables and in certain other cases it sounds somewhat more muted than is the case in general with open syllables. It has then the
sound of the a in Malay lanjut, rambut, compare Mori lambu ‘jacket’, tampi ‘sheath’, versus rada ‘chest’, kau Upper Mori ‘wood’. As a rule, a also has this enunciation in the sequence ai when the a and the i do not constitute
the sole vowels of the stem thus when the stem consists of more than two syllables. So for example in indi’ai ‘here’, aiwa ‘come, proceed on the way in a hither direction’, ramai ‘it approaches’, versus molai ‘go at a run’, etc.
6
In the first case ai sounds about like Dutch ai, in the second case like Dutch aai. If, however, the secondary stem contains the suffix -i, immediately following a, then the latter pronunciation is regular, as in for example
mompetondai ‘follow’, mo’ewai ‘oppose, resist’.
2
[Postscript, p. 11] What is stated here concerning proclitics is not entirely correct, since when the future personal pronouns aku first person singular and iko second person singular occur in their shorter forms respectively ku and ko, they are
INDEED
written together with the word which follows, even though they nevertheless line up entirely with ta see §§ 142 and 150. It would deserve merit to allow this inconsistency in the spelling to lapse.
3
[footnote 1, p. 11] See for example the verses and songs given by J. Kruyt in De Moriërs van Tinompo 1924:174 ff, 209– 210.
4
[footnote 2, p. 11] It is perhaps not entirely superfluous to mention that this theory does not take into account the practice of the spoken language. In daily speech molaa ‘seldom’ is pronounced as mol
ā, thus with a long syllable lā at the end. The syllable is characterized by a Gipfel, a high point in the Schallfülle, thus in the force with which the sound is produced Jespersen
1920:192–193. In poetry molaa is trisyllablic, because between the two a’s there is to be heard a Tal, a moment in which the sound is less forceful.
5
[footnote 1, p. 12] For the sake of clarity, it merits commendation to spell these words with three vowels in succession, even if in practice no more than two are heard. Likewise ‘he has given me it’ is spelled iwee aku, not iwe’aku, etc.; compare
§ 31.
6
[Postscript, p. 12] The muted pronunciation of a is also encountered in the Upper Mori word mai, synonym of Tinompo aiwa. Followed by the suffix -to this word then is also usually máito; see § 18.
The usual sound of Mori e can best be described as corresponding with that of a protracted Dutch i as in Dutch pit. The same sound is encountered in Malay memang and elok. When e occurs in a half-closed syllable preceding
the stressed syllable, the sound is usually the same as that of the just-mentioned Dutch i, as in for example mentia ‘pregnant’. Otherwise, e in a half-closed syllable and in certain other cases sounds the same as the e in Dutch rem,
eng, etc., as in for example tembi ‘carry strap’ also the name of the tree from which it is made, kendo ‘tired’, versus mongkeke ‘dig’, lewe ‘leaf’. When e is immediately followed by another vowel except e, then it sounds like
the first e in Dutch zeven, as in for example eu ‘substitute, replacement’.
Mori i always has the sound of Dutch ie in zien and of Malay i in kira. The usual pronunciation of Mori o is the same as Malay o in lobang. Sometimes the o sounds somewhat more
muted especially in half-closed syllables, as in for example songka ‘order, command’, londa ‘bald’, versus olo ‘between space’, lobo ‘temple’. Sometimes the pronunciation is similar to that of o in Dutch boven, as in for
example modoa ‘count’. This is the case when it is followed by a, e, i or u, but [p. 13]
in the sequence oi usually only when the stem consists only of two syllables. Otherwise as a rule oi sounds roughly the same as Dutch oi, as in
for example uwoi ‘water’, mohohoi ‘make noise’, mo’onsoi ‘block the way of’ as in this last example, even when the secondary stem contains the suffix -i, versus monsoi ‘fold’ in the manner one folds a leaf to make a drinking
cup, etc. in which oi sounds roughly like Dutch ooi. An exception is koroi ‘body’, in which oi has the same enunciation as in soi ‘fold’.
The pronunciation of Mori u is the same as that of Dutch oe and Malay u.
15. G
