Hypotheses on the affixation processes of me(N)- and menge- of Standard Malay

(Hipotesis Pengimbuhan me(N)- dan menge- dalam Bahasa Melayu Standard)

Abstract

This study focuses on the intricacies of the collisions of prefixes me(N)- and pe(N)- with root words in standard Malay. Some scholars use the idea of "available existing choice", while others from the generative stream use the idea of "generative rules" with fixing the forms meng- {məN-} and peng- {pəN-} as basic morphemes. Both ideas in fact do not deviate from the rules of assimilation of articulation area at the boundary of two morphemes. However, the intricacies of the collisions of two morphemes have not been clarified physiologically. The phenomenon of the collisions of two morphemes has been observed since the 19th century but the details of the collision process have not been studied scientifically. Evidently, the generative rules in use now are not correct based on the physical experiment. We begin by presenting a hypothesis on the forming processes of the variations of prefixes concerned in terms of physiology and computer-aided acoustic phonetics (ANALYSIS [I] - [VI]). In the second stage, another similar form of affixes, i.e. the prefixes menge-, penge- or the confixes menge-/-kan, penge-/-an are hypothesized as new forms in Malay, influenced by the Sundanese prefix nge(N)- (ANALYSIS [VII]).

Keywords: assimilation of the articulation area, Sundanese, the collision of two morphemes, available existing options, generative rules, pseudo-vowel characteristics