Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/8

viii single language, there is some profit in devoting a part of their energies to an acquaintance with the results of comparative research. In every language there are words, phrases, and idioms, which are obscure and cannot be adequately explained, or indeed even thoroughly understood, by the mere light of the language itself, whereas the comparative method often helps to make them intelligible. And the moment a person who has confined his attention to a single language attempts to explain such things, he is liable to fall into all manner of errors, unless he checks his theories by the results of linguistic science. It is to be regretted that the excellent work done by Dutch scholars (and some others) in the field of Indonesian comparative philology has been neglected by most English students of Malay, for the consequences have often been decidedly unfortunate. Thus a comparatively recent English work, of some importance in its own line, quotes extracts from writings by Crawfurd printed in 1848 as if they represented the latest light on the subject, though in fact hardly a single word in them has stood the test of modern research and almost every one of the theses they contain has been definitely and completely disproved. Similarly, another book, somewhat earlier in date, an admirable piece of scholarship in almost every respect, is disfigured by an appendix on Malay etymology that entirely ignores the' work of the Dutch school and pro-pounds various hypotheses which were plainly untenable at the time they were published, having regard to the facts then already made known to the world. And such instances could easily be multiplied, if it were worth while. It is to be hoped and expected, as a result of the publication of Dr. Brandstetter's Essays in English, that in future such errors will be avoided.

It is a great merit of Dr. Brandstetter that he incidentally does much to teach his readers the scientific mode of procedure in linguistics. His grasp of the subject is equalled by the soundness of his method and the perspicuity of his exposition. Though strictly scientific, his work is cast into a form that renders it intelligible to the average reader as well as to the specialist, and while the advanced student will find