Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/105

 POLYNESIAN LAKGUAGES* 87 abbreviation in the derivative tongue ; and, 4th, The figurative use of words in the same, when they can be distinctly traced to a literal one in the primitive language. I shall at present consider the three first tests only, reserving my account of the third for the discussion respecting the influ- ence of the minor and neighbouring languages on each other. Tried by these tests, the lan- guage of Java comes the nearest to the pure source of the Great Polynesian language, and thence arises the presumption, that Java was the country of the nation who spoke it. The most usual examples of commutation of consonants are, w into b, d into j, r into J, y into J, and ch into 5, ov p. In the more bar- barous languages, we find / corrupted into r, p into f, and b into p. TVatu, a stone in Ja- vanese, becomes in Malay batjc. War^ak, a rhi- noceros, in Malay, becomes badak^ the same word affording two instances of commutation. Corrup- tions analogous to these are what are made on Sanskrit words introduced into the vernacular languages of India ; and it is a striking corrobora- tion of the argument in favour of the antiquity of of the Javanese, that, in other languages, the Ma* lay for example, the very same corruptions are made upon Sanskrit words, while, in Javanese, they are preserved unaltered. It may be worth while giving a few examples : Wichaksana in Sanskrit is in Malay Ujaksana ; mchara be-