Malayic active voice meN-: One prefix or two?
Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine and Carly J. Sommerlot

Malayic languages (Austronesian) have an active/passivevoice alternation. Verbs in Standard Indonesian and Malay(SI/SM) bear a meN- active prefix or a di- passive prefix:

tulis
pukul
kirim
sewa

‘write’‘beat’‘send’‘rent’

activepassiveme-nulisme-mukul
me-ngirim
me-nyewa

di-tulis
di-pukul
di-kirim
di-sewa‘see’

me-lihatdi-lihat

Evidence from A’-extraction in Desa

Nominalizations in SI/SM may use peN- or pe-, corresponding to
the use of meN- vs ber- (middle):

Active verbs in (Suak Mansi) Desa may bear either N- or meN-,
but only N- allows non-subject A’-movement across it:(1) a. men-ulis ‘write’ ~ pen-ulis ‘writer’b. ber-jalan ‘walk’ ~ pe-jalan ‘walker’“coalescing” N(replacing verb’s steminitial consonant)

beli
‘buy’
mem-belidi-belicari‘look for’ men-caridi-caridengar ‘hear’
men-dengar di-dengar
ajar‘teach’ meng-ajar di-ajar
lihat

Evidence from peN- nominalizations

non-coalescing N—no N(Sneddon 1996: 27ﬀ)

More generally, peN- nominalizations are agent-oriented:(2) a. peng-[k]asih ‘one who is loving’
b. pe-kasih ‘one who is loved’(Hassan 1974)

N- reflects agent-introducing v, explaining N- in both active
verbs with meN- and agent-oriented peN- nominalizations.

Evidence from verbal reduplication
In Riau Indonesian, the active prefix is coalescing N-, or else me-.
Reduplication of active verbs includes N- but not me-:

Malayic active meN- is best analyzed as the combinationof two prefixes — the syllabic me(N)- and coalescing N— which realize different functional heads.

DPagsubj(3) a. pinjam ‘borrow’ > minjam-minjam ‘borrow repeatedly’(cf. *minjam-pinjam)b. lempar ‘throw’ > melempar-lempar ‘throw repeatedly’(cf. *melempar-melempar)(Gil 2002: 258-259)

VoicePIn Riau Indo., v ↔ N- and Voice ↔ ∅ if N- coalesces; v ↔ ∅and Voice ↔ me- otherwise. Reduplication targets v+V.

VoicevPIn SI/SM, reduplication includes the nasal N- when it undergoes
coalescence with the stem-initial consonant, but does notinclude me- or non-coalescing N- (see e.g. Lapoliwa 1981).

v ACT(4) tulis ‘write’ > active menulis-nulis ‘write repeatedly’(cf *menulis-tulis, *menulis-menulis)t• V head-moves to v.
Voice lowers to v+V at PF.

VPVDPth• vACT introduces the agent. vACT realizes the coalescing N-,
replacing the stem-initial consonant.
• Under local adjacency with vACT, Voice realizes me-, plus N
where vACT does not realize N with coalescence.

(6) Buku to yang opa’-ku {boli / moli / *me-moli}.
book DEM C
father-1SG buy N.buy ME-N.buy‘This is the book that my father bought.’(Sommerlot 2020)

In SI/SM, coalescing N- is in v while me- + non-coalescing
N- is in Voice. Reduplication targets v+V.
In colloquial Johor Malay, non-coalescing N- is optionally
included in reduplication:(Onn 1976: 178)(5) gali ‘dig’ > menggali-(ng)gali ‘dig continuously’
In Johor Malay, non-coalescing N- can also be pronounced
in v, within the domain of reduplication (v+V).

The agent (opa’ku) in such sentences is in Spec,vP,
interrupting Voice and v. Voice cannot be pronounced me-,as it would then have to prefix to the verb.

Evidence from co-occurring di- and NIn certain regional Malayic languages, di- and N- can co-occur:(7) a. potong ‘cut’ > di-motong-nya
b. pinjam ‘borrow’ > di-minjam

Riau Indonesian(8) a. bunuh ‘kill’ > di-munuh
b. rumput ‘weed’ > di-nga-rumput

Salako Kendayan(Gil 2002: 265)
(Adelaar 2005: 218-219)

Di- is in Voice, like me-. Although di- and N- never co-occur inSI/SM (due to their allomorphy rules), co-occurring di- + Ncan be easily derived in the two-head theory.
Salako Kendayan also shows “di agent (N-)V” patterns:(9) Aŋkoà-lah tuàkŋ kaleŋ di=kau matàh-matàh aŋkoà.
DIST-EMPH bone catfish DI=2SG N-break-red DIST
‘That’s the catfish bone you’ve broken into many pieces.’(Adelaar 2005: 218)

Although Voice (me-/di-) must prefix to the verb in SI/SM,
if di- becomes a proclitic, it may then attach to the agent.

References: Adelaar 2005. “Structural diversity in the Malayic subgroup.” •Denis.a 2020. Quan'ta've studies on the Indonesian preﬁxes pe- and peN- • Gil
2002. “The preﬁxes di- and N- in Malay/Indonesian dialects” • Hassan 1974. Themorphology of Malay • Lapoliwa 1981. A genera've approach to the phonologyof bahasa Indonesia • Onn 1976. Aspects of Malay phonology and morphology: agenera've approach • Sommerlot 2020. “A reanalysis of the Austronesian nasal
preﬁx: Evidence from Desa, a Malayic language of West Kalimantan”