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PENAN PHONOLOGY AND ORTHOGRAPHY

Penan has a phonemic inventory similar to that of Malay, and the orthography devised for it by missionaries in the 1970's is similar to that of Malay. The spelling system devised at that time is adequate in principle, but has been applied in a flawed manner in Bible translations. More on this presently.

The consonants are as follows:

There are also the glides y and w.

Most of these letters are sounded as they are in IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet). For those not familiar with the latter system, they may safely give these letters the value they have in Malay or Indonesian orthography. " v " is a voiced bilabial fricative (the upper lip is pressed against the lower lip, rather than, as in English, against the lower teeth). " ' " is a glottal stop. " ng " is a velar nasal, and " ny " is a palatal nasal -- both having the same value as in Malay. " r " is flapped, as in Malay, Spanish, or Italian. " j " is as in English or Malay.

All consonants may occur word initially. (But note that when the glottal stop is word initial, it is never phonemic (= significant or meaning bearing), so it is never written in that position. The situation here is very much like in English, where, in careful or emphatic speech, we often insert a glottal stop before a word-initial vowel.) Only seven consonants may occur word finally, viz. /p/, /t/, /k/, /h/, /'/, /n/ and /ng/.

Penan has six vowels, represented by the letters u, i, o, a, é, and e. The first four of these letters have the same value as they have in Malay, Spanish or Italian. é is sounded as in French. e represents a schwa (the neutral vowel, present in many languages including English - the second vowel in each of the words bucket, malice, pigeon is a schwa). In Penan the schwa has a high functional load (= is used a great deal and often distinguishes meaning), and, unlike in English, a schwa can occur as the vowel of a stressed syllable.

Any of the vowels /a/, /é/, /i/, /o/, /u/, if occurring in a word-final syllable, can be either long or short. The vowel is pronounced long if the word-final syllable is open, that is if the vowel forms the last sound of the word - e.g. pala, bé, kari, mero, ngelepu. The vowel is short if the syllable is closed, i.e. if any consonant, including the glottal stop, is the last sound of the word - e.g. tana', bé', suhat, térék, murip. (Note that final long vowels are often pronounced with a glottal creak (i.e. a glottal semi-closure), which is never to be confused with the abrupt phonemic glottal stop /'/ which can only follow a short vowel.)

The schwa may not appear in a word-final open syllable – i.e. it must always be followed by a consonant. (e.g. merem, pet, ke', but never *ke, *te, *me, etc. ).

The following diphthongs occur: /ai/, /au/, /éu/, /oi/, /eu/, /ei/. These only occur word finally, and in open syllables (e.g. barei, pesikeu, malai. They are often terminated with a glottal closure, but this is by definition never phonemic -- to repeat, diphthongs are never followed by a consonant except across word boundaries. (And consequently diphthongs -- and the schwa for that matter -- do not participate in the aforementioned long-short vowel contrast).

Note that the letter combinations ia, ie, iu and io do not denote true diphthongs, even though they are written as such in words like iah 'he, she, it', ieng 'there is none', keviu 'whistle' and tio 'directly'. These represent, phonetically, /iyah/, /iyeng/, /keviyu/, and /tiyo/. Similarly, the letter combinations ua, ue, ui and uo-- in e.g. lua', ueng, uit, and keruong, -- also do not denote diphthongs. In fact they represent /uwa/, /uwe/, /uwi/, and /uwo/ respectively. However, since in both sets of cases, y and w are phonetic, not phonemic ( = they are predictable in their occurence, and not meaning-differentiating) we refrain from writing them. In those cases where y and w are written – e.g. awah, liwen, ayah, oyoi – they are full-fledged phonemes, and serve to distinguish meaning (cf. liwen vs. lisen, ayah vs. anah).

The only possible syllabic structures are V, CV, CVC, CVCV, CVCVC, etc. ("V" means 'vowel' and "C" means 'consonant'.) (VC may be a possible structure, but we know of no word forms possessing it.) In other words, there are no consonant clusters in Penan, not even combinations of a nasal and following homorganic stop. For example, when Malay words like sendiri or belanja are borrowed into Penan, they become sediri and belaja. Consonant clusters can only occur across word boundaries, e.g. kang kaput 'a species of bird', jalan tekelet 'shortcut', sakit kenin 'to feel emotionally hurt'.

All syllables are equally stressed.

The spelling used in the Penan Bible is deficient in respect of word-final syllables. The most frequently occurring defect of this orthography is its marking of a phonemic (=distinctive) glottal stop where it does not occur - e.g. *palaa' instead of pala, *leboo' instead of lebo, *avéé' for avé, *akeu' for akeu, *iteu' for iteu. The second most important defect is the arbitrary way in which final vowels in open syllables are represented. Most are written with a double vowel letter, but some are not. Although any given word is spelled in a consistent way throughout the text, there is no logic as to which words are spelled how - thus although pané is always written correctly, beté, a word having the same long final vowel sound, is always spelled *betéé'. Similarly, while bé is always rendered correctly, sé is written *séé'.

With the agreement and encouragement of our principal linguistic informant, Jokim, we have chosen to correct these deficiencies and inconsistencies. Therefore all double vowel graphemes have been suppressed, and /'/ only marks glottal stops that are phonemic.

PENAN GRAMMAR – A SKETCH

What follows is a brief and very provisional outline of Penan grammar. Some areas of grammar are dealt with in much more detail than others; some important areas are left out entirely. I have decided to include it despite its obvious deficiencies, since it will be of considerable interest to those interested in learning the basics of the language.

Nouns, adjectives, and intransitive verbs lack any form of inflection. In general, Penan lexemes do not undergo morphological changes which signify case, number, sex, gender, or tense. Transitive verbs have three voices, namely active, passive, and reciprocal, and these are reflected in their morphology.

II. WORD ORDER AND THE BASIC SENTENCE

The word order of a sentence containing a transitive verb is Subject - Verb - Object.

Labang na'at lamin. Labang see house 'Labang sees a house.'

Thus word order determines semantic relationship --

Aseu nga'at anak dog bite child 'The dog bites the child.'

Anak nga'at aseu child bite dog 'The child bites the dog.'

In Penan sentences it is quite normal for the object or other complements to be omitted, as well as the grammatical subject. This can result in a sentence that is quite ambiguous unless used in context.

Bé' kelo. no want 'We don't want it' or perhaps 'They don't want it' or perhaps 'I don't want to do it.' etc.

There is no verb "to be", so a complete sentence can be formed without an element that is obviously a verb.

Lakei merek, redo besau. man angry, woman sad. 'The man is angry, the woman is sad.'

However, note that a string such as

can constitute either a sentence, as in the preceding example, or a noun phrase, as it appears in the following sentence.

Lakei merek bé' moko siteu. man angry not stay here. 'The angry man is not staying here.'

Noun phrases may be constructed using the relativizing particle "éh", meaning 'that, which, who'.

Lakei éh merek moko siteu. man who angry stay here 'The man who is angry is staying here.'

Lamin éh lepah potong. house that already get-burned 'The house that has burned down.'

The normal order of nouns and their modifiers is noun first - modifier following.

Lamin maréng. house new 'a new house'

Kerita peritah car government 'a government car'

Redo iteu woman this 'this woman'

However, sometimes adjectives are used in front of nouns – compare the two following examples.

Lakei inah merek. man that angry 'That man is angry.'

Merek lakei inah. angry man that 'That man is ANGRY.'

It is more accurate to speak of the preposing of predicates rather than the preposing of adjectives. Consider the following pair, in which the second example contains a preposed verb:

Akeu lakau. I leave 'I am leaving.'

Lakau akeu. leave I 'I am LEAVING.'

Such preposing of a predicate serves to present it as the most important element in the sentence, one that denotes, for example, new or vital information.

The above cases should be distinguished from that of complex adjectives, which are phrases consisting of a noun and a preposed adjective. Some of these are idiomatic. For example,

jian adet 'well behaved'

Anak iteu jian adet. child this well behaved. 'This child is well-behaved.'

Jian adet anak iteu. 'This child is WELL behaved.'

sa'at akam 'in bad health'

Iah sa'at akam. he bad health 'He is in ill health.'

besau kenin 'sad, sorrowful'

Redo éh besau kenin. woman who sad hearted 'A woman who is sad.'

Besau kenin redo inah. sad hearted woman that 'That woman is SAD.'

III. DEMONSTRATIVES, DEFINITE VS INDEFINITE

The demonstrative adjectives are iteu 'this, these' and inah 'that, those', and itai 'yon (= far from both the speaker and the hearer)'. The first two of these are often abbreviated to teu and nah, respectively. They always follow the noun they modify.

Lakei iteu 'this man <these men>'

Lamin inah 'that house <those houses>'

iteu, inah and itai can also be pronouns, 'this one <these ones>' and 'that one <those ones>' respectively.

There is no indefinite article; nor is there an obligatory definite article. Thus,

Babui kuman bua. pig eat fruit

is vague, and would most likely mean 'pigs eat fruit'. To give a definite referent to either of the two nouns, we can use demonstrative adjectives, such as iteu or teu ('this'), or inah or nah ('that'), which thus often play the role of definite article. Also commonly used is the element ri' -- X ri' means 'the X just mentioned'. Thus,

Babui nah kuman bua. 'That pig eats fruit.'

Babui nah kuman bua ri'. 'That pig ate the fruit.'

Babui kuman bua ri'. 'A pig (or pigs) ate the fruit.'

Penan verbs do not change in form or add affixes to denote number, mood, aspect, or tense. For example,

Akeu suai alut. I make boat

could be glossed as 'I made a boat <boats> or I am making a boat <boats> or I make boats.

Vague sentences like the above are not a problem as long as the context indicates when the action denoted by the verb occurs. However, one may add certain elements to the sentence to clearly indicate whether the past, the present or the future is meant, as outlined in the following section.

1. TENSE MARKERS

There is no obligatory tense; that is, it is possible, even normal, to use verbs without reference to the timeframe of the event they denote. However, both the past and the future can be denoted by the preposed auxilliary verbs juk 'will', lepah 'already', and maréng 'just'.

(a) juk 'shall, will' (denotes any future time)

Akeu juk lakau. I will travel

Kitong juk tai beté sagam. Kitong will go hunting tomorrow.

(b) lepah 'already' (denotes any past time)

Akeu lepah tai Marudi. I already go Marudi. 'I went to Marudi.'

Lakei inah maréng ala babui. Man that just get pig. 'That man just caught a pig.'

Note that adverbs of time can often be used instead of these tense markers, and in some cases can be used along with them. Unlike the tense markers, when an adverb of time occurs immediately next to a verb, it must follow the latter, rather than precede it. Some examples:

(d) malem 'yesterday', dau iteu 'today', sagam 'tomorrow', hun iteu 'now', sahau 'before, long ago, in the old days'

Iah peleka malem. he leave yesterday 'He left yesterday'

Lejeng lakau sagam. or Lejeng juk lakau sagam. Lejeng (will) travel tomorrow 'Lejeng travels tomorrow.'

Akeu suai alut hun iteu. I make boat now. 'At present I am making a boat.'

Sahau iah moko tong tana'. In the old day she stay on land 'She used to live in the forest.'

2. THE IMPERATIVE AND HORTATIVE

Penan verbs have two moods: indicative and imperative. Commands and exhortations are denoted by the normal active verb, and/or by certain lexical elements.

(a) An imperative can consist of an active verb without subject.

Moko sitai! 'Stay there!'

(b) A pronoun acting as subject can be used for additional clarity or emphasis.

Lakau ketenah ke'. travel forward_direction thou(CLASS_2) 'You go straight ahead.'

Tai ka'au. go you 'you go.'

Jian ke' mihin tinen ko'. good thou(CLASS_2) bring mother thy 'Bring your mother.'

Jian ka'au teu éh moko uban sagam pina kelunan juk tuai miting. good thou(CLASS_1) this RELATIVIZER remain because tomorrow many person will come meeting 'It would be best if it were you who stayed because tomorrow many people will come to the meeting.'

Hun néh kenat, jian lu' moko, amé pané. if it thus, good we_many_INCLUSIVE remain, we_many_EXCLUSIVE speak 'If such is the case, let us stay, we will speak.'

Boh lakei inah seruh, "Hun mé' la'au ri' jian ku' put ka'an iteu na' péh éh bu'un néh malui." so man that think, "If we_many_EXCLUSIVE hungry QUASI-DETERMINER good I(CLASS_1) shoot_with_blowpipe animal this although (two words) it(CLASS_1) beginning it(CLASS_3) transform 'And the man thought, "Since we are hungry, let me just shoot this animal, even though it has started to transform.'

Jian tuah petat. good we_two(CLASS_1) move_apart' Let us go separate ways.'

"Jian pa' éh avé da' mai awah ke' kelap. Menyun awah ke'," ha' lakei néh ri' ngan néh. good even_though it(CLASS_1) arrive IMPERATIVE_PARTICLE do_not only thou(CLASS_2) flee '"Even if he comes right up to you, do not run away. Just stay sitting there," her husband said to her.'

(d) The lexemes kejera or turut, both meaning 'let', can be used :

Kejera jak redo lemanai inah moko ngan amé ngio avé jah-polo dau. allow now woman unmarried that remain with we_many_EXCLUSIVE approximately until ten day 'Let that unmarried woman stay with us for about ten days.'

Turut ke' tuah tai kuman jak. 'Let's go [and] eat now.'

(e) An extremely common way of expressing an imperative meaning is by means of the particle da'. Da' occurs at the end of a clause. (It sometimes co-occurs with jian, as in the final example under section 3 above.) A speaker appends da' to a clause in order to signal that the action or state denoted by that clause is prescribed, desirable, or necessary. As such it has a broad meaning, or perhaps a number of meanings, only one of which can be described as imperative. Here are some examples of its use in an imperative sense:

Hun inah da' tuai keteleu. when that IMPERATIVE_PARTICLE come you_three 'Kindly come at that time.'

Kivu jalan iteu ke’ da’. follow path this thou(CLASS_2) IMPERATIVE_PARTICLE 'Follow this path here.'

Jam jam ke' lakau da'. be_good_at be_good_at thou(CLASS_2) travel IMPERATIVE_PARTICLE '>Be careful while travelling.' (lit., 'be very good at travelling')

(f) Negative commands are denoted by the anteposing of mai 'do not'.

Mai kon! 'Do not eat [it]!

Mai pemung ngan kelunan éh sa'at. do_not associate with person RELATIVIZER bad 'Do not associate with bad people.'

Mai pekerek medok inah, dai néh nga'at ka'au. do_not anger pig_tailed_macaque that, lest it(CLASS_3) bite thee(CLASS_1) 'Do not make that monkey angry or it will bite you.'

3. SERIALIZATION OF VERBS

In Penan the same subject can govern two, three or even four verbs in series.

Irah ngelangan nyelapang paka'. they aim-at shoot-at branch 'They aimed and shot at the branch.'

Irah pekelawan ngelangan nejau pakai inan tobo. they mutually-fight aim-at throw-in-spear-fashion use stalk ginger. 'They fought each other by hurling stalks of ginger at each other.' (presumably in fun!)

Ka'au nekedéng petem nerokon maneu réh. thou stand be-immobile dig-in-heels assault them 'You stand immobile with your feet dug in the ground and fight them.'

A clause containing serialized verbs refers to a single circumstance or activity which is characterized by a series of events or states. The order of the verbs corresponds to the chronological or logical order of those events or states.

Note that passive verbs can also be serialized:

Ba Buto napit kelapah néh malem rai. 'Tutoh River was-crossed was-passed-over by her last night.'

(Note: Since the following was written, I have been convinced that most Penan transitive verbs are best analysed as having not four voices, but rather three voices and one inchoative form. The inchoative form is in fact the root form, both morphologically and semantically, and should be the first thing listed in an entry. Most transitive verbs are in fact causatives, formed from the inchoative form. I have not changed the following discussion, for the simple reason that I have not yet changed the dictionary proper to reflect my new analysis. In the old analysis, given below, the inchoative form of a verb is described as the non-volitional passive. The next edition of the dictionary will reflect and explain the new analysis.)

Transitive verbs have four voices: active, passive, non-volitional passive, and reciprocal.

(a) Active Voice

The verb is used in the active voice in sentences of the form X V Y, where X is the subject and denotes the first semantic actant of verb V, and Y is the direct object and denotes the second semantic actant of V. For example,

Lakei put tahat. 'man shoot blowdart' (A man shoots a blowdart).

(b) Passive Voice

Verbs use the passive about as frequently as the active voice. Almost every transitive verb has a passive form.

(i) Syntax of the Passive

The passive form of the verb can simply be interchanged with the active form, and the only syntactic difference between an active construction and the corresponding passive construction is the reversal of the position of the nouns or pronouns that label the first and second actants of the verb. For example,

Labang suai alut. 'Labang built a boat.'

Alut senuai Labang. 'The boat was built by Labang.'

(ii) Function of the Passive

As in English, the passive is used to topicalize an element in the sentence by promoting it from direct object to grammatical subject. For example, note the subtle difference in meaning rendered by the translations of the above examples. In the first sentence you are being told something about Labang, and in the second you are being told something about the boat. It is unlikely that you will want to topicalize "alut" unless you have a particular boat in mind, and that is why we choose to say "the boat" in the second translation rather than "a boat". Since Penan has no obligatory definite article, one of the uses of the passive is therefore to add the element of determinacy to the meaning of a noun or noun phrase by promoting it to subject.

(iii) Morphological Form of the Passive.

A passive verb is formed from an active verb by the addition of a prefix, or an infix to the initial syllable, along with certain concomitant morphophonological rules. These rules are almost exceptionless, that is, it is almost always possible to predict the passive form of a verb simply by looking at its active form. Below is a list of initial sounds of active verbs followed by the initial sounds of the corresponding passive verbs, and then examples of each. (V denotes any given vowel)

menyat --> nenyat. Amé menyat penolong jin peritah. 'We ask for help from the government.' Penolong éh nenyat mé' jin peritah. 'The help that is asked by us from the government.'

mukap --> nukap. Akeu mukap tapé. 'I open the door.' Tapé nukap ké'. 'The door is opened by me.'

suai --> senuai. Labang suai lamin. 'Labang builds a house.' Lamin senuai Labang. 'The house is built by Labang.'

seva' --> seneva'. Anak tekep seva' tinen. 'A child should respect a mother.' Tinen tekep seneva' anak. 'A mother should be respected by a child.'

salin --> senalin. Guru salin surat. 'The teacher translates the book.' Surat senalin guru. 'The book is translated by the teacher.'

3.i. nyV --> senV

nyurung --> senurung. Ayau nyurung lebo mé'. 'The enemy attacks our land.' Lebo mé' senurung ayau. 'Our land is attacked by the enemy.'

nyatek --> senatek. Akeu nyatek wai. 'I cut through the rattan.' Wai senatek ké'. 'The rattan is cut through by me.'

3.ii. nyV --> sV NOTE: This rule applies only in the case of verbs derived from nouns that begin with /s/. A number of verbs are formed from such nouns by the expedient of replacing the initial /s/ with /ny/. For example, "surat" 'letter, book' has a corresponding verb, "nyurat", meaning 'create a letter or a book', i.e. 'write'. Similarly, "selapang" means 'shotgun', and "nyelapang" 'shoot with a shotgun.'

nyurat --> surat. Iah nyurat surat iteu. 'He wrote this letter.' Surat iteu surat néh. 'This letter was written by him.'

nyelapang --> selapang. Lakei inah nyelapang babui. 'That man shot a pig.' Babui selapang lakei inah. 'A pig was shot by that man.'

neranying --> teranying. Iah neranying kayeu. 'He sharpened the wood to a point.' Kayeu teranying néh. 'The wood was sharpened to a point by him.'

nanem --> tanem. Iah nanem patai. 'She buried the corpse.' Patai éh tanem néh. 'The corpse was buried by her.'

taket --> tenaket. Redo taket lamin. 'The woman steps into the house.' Lamin tenaket redo. 'The house is stepped into by the woman.'

tutup --> tenutup. Akeu tutup usit tapé. 'I have closed the door.' Usit tapé tenutup [ké']. 'The door has been closed [by me].'

ngasau --> kenasau. Buang éh ngasau lamin. 'A bear that makes a mess of a house.' Lamin éh kenasau buang. 'A house that is messed up by a bear.'

ngaléng --> kenaléng. Anak ngaléng bateu. 'The child threw a rock.' Bateu kenaléng anak. 'A rock was thrown by a child.'

ngejeku --> kejeku. Redo ngejeku kerayung. 'The woman folded the shirt.' Kerayung inah kejeku redo. 'That shirt was folded by the woman.'

ngelepik --> kelepik. Iah ngelepik kayeu maneu bo viheu. 'He bent the stick to make a spring trap.' Kayeu iteu kelepik néh. 'This stick was bent by him.'

kahang --> kenahang. Kahang luten létrik. 'light an electric lamp.' Luten éh kenahang. 'a fire that has been lit.'

kivu --> kenivu. Labang kivu jalan iteu. 'Labang followed this trail.' Jalan éh kenivu Labang tai sitai. 'The trail followed by Labang goes there.'

9. memV --> penV

memata' --> penata' Memata' titui létrik. 'Turn off an electric light.' Titui létrik penata'. 'An electric light is turned off.'

memutui --> penutui. Memutui tulang. 'break a bone.' Tulang éh penutui. 'A bone that has been broken.'

purung --> penurung. Anak purung surat. 'The child reads the book.' Surat penurung anak. 'The book is read by the child.'

pitah --> penitah. Pitah ka'an ngan ké'. 'Look for food for me'. Ka'an éh penitah. 'Food that was looked for.'

11. peC --> peC (C denotes any given consonant)

As can be seen, passive verbs of this type have exactly the same morphological form as their active counterparts.

peposot --> peposot. Akeu peposot anak. 'I put the child to rest.' Anak peposot ké'. 'The child is put to rest by me.'

pepesep --> pepesep. Iah pepesep anak. 'She fed liquid to the child. Anak pepesep néh. 'The child was fed liquid by her.'

pekelap --> pekelap. Iah pekelap ka'an. 'He frightened the animals away.' Bé' pina ka'an éh pekelap néh. 'The animals frightened away by him were not many in number.'

It must be noted that passive verbs of this type are problematic when ambiguity with the active forms would result. For example, although "Sara' pepesep Balang." could logically mean either 'Sarah fed liquid to Balang' or 'Sarah was fed liquid to by Balang', it would be interpreted as the former. Only by using the Class 3 pronouns ké' 'me', ko' 'thee', néh 'her, him, it', which are used to identify the agent of a passive verb, can these passive verbs be disambiguated from the homophonous active forms. Refer to the section on pronouns.

12. A few passives are formed in an irregular fashion.

For example, we would expect the passive of "nga'at" 'bite' to be '*kena'at". In fact, it is "ga'at".

nga'at --> ga'at. Aseu nga'at lakei. 'The dog bit a man.' Lakei ga'at aseu. 'The man was bitten by a dog.'

na'at --> ta'an. Sara' na'at lakei inah. 'Sarah saw that man.' Lakei inah ta'an Sara'. 'That man was seen by Sarah.'

jam --> kejam. Akeu jam ha' Penan. 'I know the Penan language.' Kekat ha' éh kejam ké'. 'All the languages known by me.'

papit --> napit. Iah papit ba. 'He crossed the river.' Ba napit néh. 'The river is crossed by him.'

(iv) Omission of the Agent in a Passive Sentence

As in English, the agent of a passive sentence does not need to be expressed. Thus,

Alut éh lepah senuai Mutang. 'The boat that has been built by Mutang.'

Alut éh lepah senuai. 'The boat that has been built.'

(c ) Non-volitional Passive Voice

In addition to the active and the passive, many transitive verbs present a third voice, which I have chosen to call the non-volitional passive. While the normal passive, described above, preserves the propositional meaning of the active form, the non-volitional passive alters the meaning in a particular way. It is used to denote changes of state that are viewed as accidental, for example acts of nature, and therefore not brought about as a result of anyone's will or volition. I will explain by way of example.

Take the active verb nasa' and its passive form tenasa'. Akeu nasa' lipan = 'I destroyed the bulldozer' vs. Lipan tenasa' ké' = 'The bulldozer was destroyed by me.' But this verb also has a non-volitional passive: tasa'. Thus, Lipan tasa' neu keloho bateu = 'The bulldozer was destroyed by a falling rock.'

The active verb meseng and its passive form neseng mean 'prevent from moving'. Thus, Seradu meseng kerita means 'The soldiers prevented the car from travelling onwards.' The passive form would be Kerita neseng seradu. Peseng is the non-volitional passive of this verb, and allows such strings as Ayau peseng neu jawin wai 'The enemy was immobilized by the brambles (i.e. because he got caught up in them).'

As we see from these examples, the element neu (sometimes naneu) links the non-volitional passive to the instrument of the action. However, in most cases the instrument is not mentioned; this should not be surprising, since the whole point of this verb form is to emphasize the fortuitous nature of the event, and in many cases the cause may not even be known.

Here are some more examples containing non-volitional passives, followed by the active and passive forms of the relevant verbs in parentheses.

Lamin néh potong. 'His house got burned.' (motong / notong 'burn')

Kekat ujung kayeu purat [neu kepu]. 'All the leaves got scattered [by the wind].' (murat / nurat 'scatter')

Utang putui. 'The staff got broken.' (memutui / penutui 'break')

Tajau bila'. 'The urn got shattered.' (memila' / benila' 'shatter')

Note that sometimes either the regular passive or the non-volitional passive can be used, even where one and the same event is being described. However, there is an important difference in meaning between the two forms. For example, you could say both Lipan tenasa' néh and Lipan tasa' neu néh -- but while the first means simply 'The bulldozer was destroyed by him', the second means 'The bulldozer got destroyed on account of him', that is, the event in question is viewed as the accidental result of his action. Similarly, Lem pasa vam, ka'au adang juk senopé ké' uses the regular passive, senopé, of the verb nyopé, 'defeat'; it means 'In the coming race you will surely be defeated by me.' However, Kayan sitai sopé neu ayau réh, which uses the non-volitional form senopé, means 'The Kayan there got defeated by their enemies' -- in other words, in the latter case the defeat is depicted as an accident or misfortune, and their adversaries the mere instruments of this misfortune, rather than its conscious agents.

Here are some more examples of non-volitional passives:

mujek / nujek 'spill' --> pujek 'get spilled'

mavut / navut 'pull out' --> pavut 'get pulled out'

mikah / nikah 'scatter' --> pikah 'get scattered'

migu' / nigu' --> pigu' 'get banged against'

mohé / nohé 'clean' --> pohé 'get cleaned'

mejé / nejé 'tear' --> pejé 'get torn'

melen / nelen 'roll up' --> pelen 'get rolled up'

mepa' / nepa' 'squash' --> pepa' 'get squashed'

meseng / neseng 'plug up' --> peseng 'get plugged up'

ngelepu / kelepu 'set free' --> pelepu 'get free, escape'

ngaténg / kenaténg 'tighten' --> pekaténg 'get taut'

nanem / tenanem 'bury' --> tanem 'get buried'

(d) Reciprocal Voice

Many transitive verbs accept a prefix pe- (often accompanied by a change of the initial phoneme) and thereby denote a mutual or reciprocal action. This is best shown by example:

tosok 'talk' --> petosok 'talk to each other' Irah petosok. 'They talk to each other.'