Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/74

 60 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE The languages and literature of Celebes, though in many features of resemblance partaking of the character of those of the more western countries, differ very essentially from them. The alphabet, in the first place, takes a new character ; the letters of which it consists taking a new form, as little like that of the Javanese as the latter is to the Arabic or Roman. The alphabet of Celebes consists of eighteen consonants and five vowels, to which are added, sometimes, four supplemental consonants, being merely four of the first eighteen aspirat- ed, and an additional vowel. It is singular that the peculiar and technical classification of the Sanskrit alphabet should have been adopted in the alphabet of Celebes, though rejected in that of Java. Besides the dialects of some abject savages and of some tribes more improved, two great languages prevail in Celebes, the language of the Bugis and Macassars, as they are denominated by the people of the western portion of the Archipelago, and from them by us ; or Wugi and Mangkasara, as they call themselves. The Bugis is the language of the more powerful and numerous nation, and the most cultivated and copious. The Macassar is more simple in structure, abounds less in syno- nyms, and its literature is more scanty. Both partake of the common simplicity in structure of