Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/7

Rh line of succession of the Dutch school; and his monographis, of which four have been selected for translation into English, represent something like a new departure and are an important step towards the attainment of the ultimate aim. They deal in a comparative and synoptic manner with some of the leading branches of the subject, and are couched in a form which facihtates their use by students. The four Essays contained in this volume have been selected with an eye to the importance of the several matters discussed therein respectively, and that from the different points of view of three classes of students. I mean, in the first place, those who are interested in comparative philology in general (to whom the author's occasional comparisons of Indonesian with Indo-European phenomena will be of special interest and value) ; secondly, those whose desire it is to make a particular study of the comparative philology of the Indonesian languages, as an end in itself; and, thirdly, the considerable number of persons who are occupied primarily with some individual member of the family, but would like to see it in its proper perspective in relation to the cognate tongues, and are therefore impelled to give some attention to the family as a whole. By far the greater number of such special students are primarily interested in Malay, the best known and for practical purposes the most important of the Indonesian languages. But this very fact makes it the more desirable to present to them the results of the comparative work that has been done. For Malay is in many ways not a very typical member of the family: its grammar has been much worn down and simplified, and for various other reasons it is unfortunate that so many people are tempted to survey the-whole Indonesian field, with its luxuriant diversity, through the rather distorting lens of a knowledge of Malay alone. There has been a very widespread tendency among Malay scholars to regard Malay as the standard or norm of the Indonesian family and to attempt to explain the differences which they noticed in the other languages as deviations from that standard ; and that is very far from being the true view.

Further, even for those whose only object it is to master a