Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/66

 M MAYO-POLYNESIAN RACES AND LANGUAGES 58 relationship, nncl the following table of the first ten cardinal numbers in the most im- portant of the Malayo-Polynesian languages shows at once the close connection existing among them, and their isolation from other families : InB P.KST TEX OARD, SA, NUMBEE9 l THE HXLATO-FOLTNESL.K IANOOAOES. _____ lUUy.

Javan..

Sundanete. Mankaaru Dyak. Tagala. BUaya. Ilocana.

(-ituor sa Bft Ba or sidi 8l ijaja isa ilahui usa duha meysa dua Two duva rd dua or duva ruva tolo tal Uga tigl tilu tallu upat FoDB impat papat opat appa apat lima FIVE lima lima lima lima gu IBM iK-iK-m genap annon d,ahaven pito pit6 BETEX tudoh pltu tud,uh tud,u udu UQU ualo oalo E[01IT delApan rulu dalapan sagantugu haga JflHB scmbilan sanl salapah salapan d,alatien T* Mpftloh sapuluh sapuluh sampulo sapulu MArimneM. MmUgiuy. Samoa. Tongfc Maori. Rarotonga. Tahitian. Hawaiian. Feejee. Oit ynkha isa or iray tasi taha lahi tai tahi tahi dua Two vu-'ua roa lua ua rua rua rua lua THREE tulo telo tola tola toru torn toru kolu FOCE .... fafat 6fatra fa fa va a ha ha Fiv lima dimy lima nima rima rima rima lima BIX punun enina ono ono ono ono ono ono BEVEJC fit! fito fltu fltu vitu itu hitu hiku vitu EIGHT piialo valo valu valu valu varu varu varu valu NIKE. Bium sivy iva hiva iva iva iva iva civa TEH manot folo sefula honofulu nahura nauru ahuru unii tini We shall state only the principal features of the two groups. The Polynesian languages possess the consonantal sounds fc, n, A, ',, n, , I, r, p, ro,/, w, v, and the vowels a, e, i, o, u, both short and long. In several of the lan- guages some of these consonants are absent, and diphthongs are entirely unknown. Sylla- bles may begin with a consonant, but must end with a vowel; accumulations of consonantal sounds are carefully avoided. The accent rests generally on the penult, and seldom on the antepenult or the ultimate. Roots, like those of the Aryan and Turanian families, are not found ; there are only a sort of verbal stems, which in their external verbal movement re- semble those of the Semitic languages, but con- sist throughout of two syllables. The various derivatives are formed from these either by means of reduplication, or by prefixes or suf- fixes. Distinctions of number like those in the inflected languages are wanting. Nouns designate thoughts or objects in a peculiar vague manner, implying rather plurality than pinirK-ness, and require the introduction of cer- tain .-lenients into the sentence to render more definite their use in the singular number. Some of these elements represent the numeral one, and others have the force of demonstration. When it is .U-irc-d to render the plural number more distinct and definite, the noun is coupled t-itlu-r with a mnnTir;il expre^ion or with some iii'l'-tinite pronominul stnn. A number of par- are used to designate nominative, geni tiv. dative, accusative. instnuiK-ntal, locative social, abessive, and ablative cases. As nouns do not possess grammatical gender and do not admit of inflection, adjectives also remain en- tirely unchanged, and are used attributively by placing them behind, and predicatively by pla- cing them before their nouns. The dual and plu- ral of pronouns are indicated by composition with the numbers two and three, and possess an exclusive and inclusive form, according as the person addressed is excluded or included. The Polynesian verb is extremely indefinite. Ex- ternally indistinguishable from the noun, it is recognized as a verb only by its position in the sentence and its connection with the pronoun. The essentials of time and voice remain vague ; even whether an action or a state of being is designated must be inferred from the introduc- tion of certain affirmative particles. The Ma- layan languages employ the consonants k, g, ii, h, b & & V, *, d, n , *' I, r, p, 6, i, /, , and the vowel sounds a, <?, a,, , e, e, o, , *, w, e, o (see WRITING) ; genuine dipththongs are un- known. This system of sounds does not in- clude the foreign elements found in Malay and Javanese. The Tagala languages have no pal- atals; Javanese makes use also of cerebrals, and Bughis of nasals. Malayan syllables al- ways open with a single consonant, and the pe- nult is always accented, causing a lengthening of the vowel. Instead of roots, the Malayan languages possess only stems or variations of roots, which were originally dissyllabic, though probably after having passed through trisyl- labic forms developed from monosyllables. Words of a single syllable now used are un- mistakably contractions of dissyllables. Re-