VOCABULARY OF THE DUSUX LAXGUAGE. 3 



(Kadasan) language contains some very old forms of words, 

 I may be permitted to give at least one example : 



The word for egg is : antdhloJc, which may be compared 

 with Bajaii v/)//e/M (^better ?/»/6'/o/.-) and B<uiton ontolo. The 

 Southern Dayak form t-anteloh is augmented by a peculiar prefix 

 not uncommon in Bornean languages.* Here we see in 

 Dusun the fullest form with the strongly sounded h before 

 the 1, which all other Malayan languages have discarded at an 

 early period. Remains of it may yet be recognized i?i a pecu- 

 liar combination of sounds in some of the languages of the 

 Sula-Amboyna group, expressed by Mr. A. R. Wallace by the 

 letters rh. All these languages have not only preserved the 

 first syllable, but have added a common prefix m. Siila: metelo, 

 Liang nmntiro, Morella muntirkui, Batu-merah (Amboyna) nmri' 

 telod, Lariki momatiro (According to A. R. Wallace.) 



On the other hand the Philippine group preserved the first 

 syllable less carefully. Tagallo and Bisaya both have itloq, 

 Sulu Ihlog. The final g corresponds to the final /.' of antah/ok, 

 while Sulu k represents only a local variation of the original t, 

 as in lubik = lubit, string, rope. In the Philippine languages 

 the word can be traced back to a primitive form *{telo//. An 

 explanation of the change in the first syllable may seem desir- 

 able. The an- being short and unaccentuated gradually 

 changed into en- which would be represented in Indo-European 

 comparative philology asn=vowel-n. This sound always 



c 



changed into a short vowel, mostly a, but it became i in a 

 good many instances. I need but to allude to Greek and Latin 



* This prefix seems to have had tlie character of an article. It is ali«o 

 found in that dialect of the Dusun language of which Mr. W. H. Treacher 

 has given a list of words : tidun (uhlun) man, tandoh (onduk) woman, 

 female, tinan (inan) body, tulu (ulu) head, tuntulo (antahlok) egg, tu.naH 

 (omau) oil, tddau (adau) sun, day, tdpoi (apoe) fire; etc. 



