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/300

 termed provincial differences arising chiefly from pronuncia- tion, but hardly a dialect in the sense in which we apply it to Scotch and English, to Welsh and Armorican, or to Irish and Gaelic. The languages of the Archipelago might, indeed, be classed in groups, according to their phonetic character and grammatical structure, but this would, by no means, make even all the languages of one group, the same tongue, as long as their elementary words and the body of each language are known to be different.

As far as my enquiry goes, the languages of the Negro races differ among themselves as much as those of the brown-com- plexioned;—to appearance, indeed, even more, since no common languages to any material degree connect them as is the case with the languages of the brown-complexioned races. Within the field of our enquiry there is just one example, and it is a remarkable one, of a wide-spread language split into true dialects. This is the Polynesian. Its dialects agree in phonetic character, in grammatical structure, in elementary words, and in the great majority of all their words;—in short, the unity of language is in this case unquestionable.

As to the manner in which the Malayan languages have been diffused, I presume to think that the nearest analogy to it will be found in the diffusion of Greek over the ancient vernacular languages of Italy and Asia Minor. The locality of the people with whom the Greek language originated bears no incon- siderable resemblance, in its leading features, to that of the Malayan nations. The early Greeks were as notorious for roving and piracy as the Malays themselves; like the Malayan nations, too, they were a rude people when they disseminated their language, and the history of the dissemination is almost as obscure. The Greek language, indeed, was not so far spread as the Malayan tongues, but this, assuredly, was not owing to inferior enterprise, but to obstacles insurmountable by a rude people; for, instead of being favoured by periodical winds and tranquil seas, after quitting the Mediterranean, the Greeks had to encounter the variable storms and winds of the Euxine on one side, and of the Ocean on the other, while to the north and south, instead of a continuity of islands, they were hemmed in