A Manual of the Malay language - Sir Maxwell William Edward (best english novels to read TXT) 📗

Bunoh diri, to kill oneself.

Meng-ajar diri, to take oneself to task.

Hamba sendiri handak pergi, I shall go myself.

Baik tuan sendiri suroh, you had better order it yourself.

Kemdian turun-lah raja sendiri, afterwards the king himself descended.

Dia lari masok hutan membawa diri-nia, she escaped to the jungle with her life (lit. taking herself with her).

Biar-lah hamba sa-orang diri me-lawan dia, let me fight him myself alone.

Verbs are either primitive or derivative; the former are those which in their original signification are verbs; the latter are formed from primitive verbs, or from substantives, adjectives, or adverbs, by the application of particles.

Examples of primitive verbs are pukul, to strike; makan, to eat; lari, to run; of derivative verbs, ber-kaki, to have feet, from kaki, a foot; panjang-kan, to lengthen or make long, from panjang, long.

The primitive verb, which is generally a dissyllable, is either transitive, as tangkap, to seize, or intransitive, as tidor, to sleep; but a transitive sense may be given to an intransitive verb by the addition of the particle -kan, as lari, me-lari, to run; me-lari-kan, to carry off.

Though the examples of primitive verbs given above are translated for the sake of convenience by our infinitive, their signification is not necessarily rendered by that mood. Favre translates them by the past participle (as ambil, taken, buang, thrown2), but this is rather fanciful than accurate. The fact is, that the meaning of the radical or primitive is indefinite, and depends for its precise signification on its position (with respect to other words) in the sentence, or on the particles which may be added before or after it. Thus lari means simply run, though syntax will show that it may mean to run, I run, he runs, run thou, &c., according to its position in the sentence.

Marsden distinguishes the following moods—the imperative, the indicative or assertive, the conditional, and the infinitive or indefinite—“which admit, for the most part, of being expressed in the present, the past, and the future tenses or times.”

It is not proposed, in an elementary work like the present, to go deeply into a scientific arrangement, which, however well suited to the Latin and Greek languages, is adapted with less propriety to uncultivated languages like Malay. It is believed that an explanation of the use of auxiliaries and particles, and a paradigm showing the most common changes of which the verb is susceptible, will be sufficient, and that the student may be left to gain further knowledge as to the mode of expressing variations of mood and tense as he advances in the study of the language.3

The inseparable affix -kan always denotes a verb used in a transitive sense; as men-jalan-kan, to cause to walk. It is an abbreviation of the preposition akan. Thus buat-kan (to do) means to do something to (akan) something or somebody.

The inseparable affix -i also denotes the transitive sense; as kras-i, to oppress (from kras, hard); halus-i, to treat carefully (from halus, fine, close).

The inseparable prefix ber- (bel-, be-) is the mark of a verb which expresses a state or condition of being; as ber-jalan, to walk, or to be in the act of walking; ber-wang, to have money; ber-misei, to wear moustaches; ber-pukul, to strike, i.e., to be in the act or condition of striking (not to strike another, transitive, which would be expressed by pukul- or me-mukul-kan).

The inseparable prefix me- (in all its various forms, mem, meng, men, and meny) is the mark of a verb which expresses an action; as men-jalan-kan, to cause to walk, mem-buat, to make; menyakit-kan, to afflict (from sakit); meng-ambil, to take.

According as the primitive verb has a transitive or intransitive sense, the derivative verbs formed from it will take ber- or me- as the case may be. Thus from adu, to sleep, is formed ber-adu, not meng-adu; while from adu, to complain, is formed meng-adu, not ber-adu.

Often both particles may be used, and both transitive and intransitive derivative verbs may be formed from the same primitive. Thus from taroh, to put, are formed menaroh, to put (the act of a person who puts), and ber-taroh, to bet (the condition of a person who stakes). From tidor, to sleep, are formed menidor-kan, to put to sleep, and ber-tidor, to be sleeping or lying down; and from ajar, instruct, meng-ajar, to teach (impart instruction), and bel-ajar, to learn (get instruction).

Mem-bawa, to bring, mem-bunoh, to kill, and me-makan, to eat, are formed from bawa, bunoh, and makan respectively, which, as they express actions, not states, do not take the prefix ber-. Ber-gantong is to hang (intransitive), that is, to be in a state or condition of hanging; meng-gantong-kan is to hang (transitive), that is, to perform the action of hanging something.

The particle per- (Sansk. pra), a prefix used with transitive verbs, does not seem always to effect a change in the sense. It is used more generally in literature than in the colloquial dialects, and seems to be introduced frequently for the sake of euphony only. The difference, for instance, between meng-himpun-kan, to assemble, to collect persons together, and mem-per-himpun-kan, to cause persons to collect together, is not very marked. No general rule applicable to all transitive verbs can be laid down for the use of this form with mem-per-; practice and experience must form the only guide.

The auxiliary verbs and adverbs are—