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Rh and Cheribon, the natural or vernacular language in like manner contains a considerable number of words in common with the Malayan, and the general principles of construction are found to have a striking accordance. We thus find strong proofs in support of one common origin of the prevailing languages of the Archipelago, notwithstanding that a large portion of the Malayan words now used in Java may be ascertained to have been received at a comparatively recent date, and in the course of long and continued intercourse with the neighbouring countries.

The Javanese language, properly so called, is distinguished by division between what may be considered as the vernacular language of the country, used by the common people among themselves, and which is adopted when addressing an inferior, and what may be considered as a second or court language, adopted by all inferiors when addressing a superior. The same construction, as well as the idiom of the language, is, I believe, pretty generally preserved in both the languages; the latter, however, consists of a more extensive class of foreign words which would appear to have been picked and culled for the purpose. Where different words have not been found from the common language of the country, an arbitrary variation in the sound of the word belonging to the common language is adopted, as in changing the word progo into pragi, dadi into dados, Jawa into Jawi, &c. and, the more effectually to render the polite language distinct, not only are the affirmatives and negatives, as well the pronouns and prepositions varied, but the auxiliary verbs and particles are in general different.

So effectually, indeed, does this arbitrary distinction prevail, that in the most common occurrences and expressions, the language that would be used by a superior bears not the slightest resemblance to what, with the same object, would be used by an inferior. Thus when a superior would say to an inferior "You have been sick a very long time," he would in the common or vernacular language use the words "Lawas teman goni loro," while an inferior, using the court language, would to the same purport say, "Lamí leras genipun sakit." If the former would ask the question "is your child a boy or a girl?" he would use the words, "Anak kiro wadon opo lanang?" but the latter would express himself, "Putro hijang' an diko, estrí punopo?" Again, would the former observe "That the people of Java, both men and women, like to preserve the hair of the head," he would say "Wongpulu Jawa lanang wadon podo ng' ing' u rambut;" while the latter would use the words, "Tetíang heng nusa Jawi estrí jalar sami ng ing a remo, &c."

It is not, however, to be supposed that these languages are so separated that the one is studied and attained exclusively of the other; for, while one is the language of address, the other must be that of