Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/21

 they contain, just as a sentence of Welsh or Irish can be con- structed without the help of Latin, although of this language they contain, at least, as large a proportion of words as the Maori or Tahitian do of Malayan. The Maori and Tahitian are, therefore, essentially the same language, and their Malayan ingredient is extrinsic.

In an inquiry into languages in order to show their affini- ties, it must be obvious that the examination of a limited number of words can lead to no certain or useful conclusion, and this is very satisfactorily shown by the vocabularies exhibited by such careful and indefatigable scholars as Mr. Marsden and Baron Humboldt. Mr. Marsden's English words amount to thirty-four; and of these, as far as his collections admitted, he has given the synonymes in eighty Malayan and Polynesian languages; and it is from this meagre vocabulary that my valued friend would prove the unity of the languages of all the brown-complexioned races from Sumatra to Easter Island. Ten words out of the thirty-four are numerals, three are adjec- tives, and all the rest are nouns,—every other part of speech being omitted. In the very first columu of assumed native words, viz., the Malay, five of the synonymes are Sanskrit words,—a fact which touches on the history, but not on the unity, of the languages. Baron Humboldt's vocabulary of German words amounts to 134, and he has given their syno- nymes, as far as his materials allowed, in nine languages, or more strictly in six only, since four out of the number are Polynesian dialects. His words are all nouns, adjectives, or verbs, to the exclusion of every other part of speech. Favoured with ampler materials than were possessed by my predecessors in the inquiry, I have come to opposite conclusions.

After as careful an examination as I have been able to make of the many languages involved in the present inquiry, and duly considering the physical and geographical character of the wide field over which they are spoken, with the social condition of its various inhabitants, I have come to the conclusion that the words which are common to so many tongues have been chiefly derived from the languages of the two most civilised and adventurous nations of