Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/36

 5;XV1 IK^THOBUCTIOK.

have noticed in the course of my reading, but I believe there are many other words in these islands which are of the same origin as our Australian word wakul.* 1 pray you to remember that, with the exception of Samoa and New Zealand, these words all come from Papuan regions and afford indirect evidence that our Australians are allied to the Papuans.

As to the Maori and Samoan congeners that I have quoted, it is commonly alleged that these races are Malayo-Polyuesians, on the theory that their languages are of Malay origin f; but let us look at this theory in the light of our present inquiry. It is said that the Polynesians are Malays. WeJl, let us see. If the Samoans are Malays, then the Duke of York Islanders are Malays; for the word mu a, which is essential to the Samoan language, is the same word as the Tukiok muka ; therefore the Papuans of that island also are jNIalays ! But the corresponding Malay word is mu la, 'in front,' ' foremost,' 'at first,' and it is certain that muka can never be formed from mula ; for, while Tc may become Z, the letter Z, when once established in a word, cannot revert to h. Thus the Malay language might be said to have come from the Duke of York Island, as least so lar as the evidence of this word goes ! But I acknowledge that they may both be taken from one common source, and this, I believe, is the true solution of the question. Where shall we find that common source? The root-form of mula, muka, mua, and of all the others, is ma, mu, and if we can find that root, it will be easy to understand how all these words have been formed independently from that original root ; and it will then be unnecessary to say that the Samoan language is of Malay origin, or that the Papuans of the New Britain isles are using a Malay language. I now take you to Southern India, to a group of languages called the Dravidian, occupying the mountains of the Dekkan, and the coasts both to the east and the west of that. Some of these Dravidian tribes are considered by the best authorities to be certainly negroid, and, in England, Prof. Plower, from an exami- nation of their crania, has classed them r.s kinsmen of the Australians. One of the most cultivated languages of the group is the Tamil, and the Tamilians are known to have class-marriage laws similar to those in Fiji and Australia. Now for ' first' the Tamil says mudal, and this mudal is a verbal noun meaning 'a beginning,' ' priority ' in time or place. The root is mu, and dal is a formative syllable. The m u is, without doubt, our Australian

Islands I quote from manuscript dictionaries of these languages, prepared by the missionaries there.
 * These anJ all other words from the New Britain ami Duke of York

t The name and authority of K. Wilhelm von Humboldt first gave this theory a standing ; but we have now miach fuller materials on which to form an independent judgment.

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