Preserving the Languages spoken by Uncivilized Nations. 33 



(PEgypte, has paid considerable attention to the Jaloff lan- 

 guage and has composed a grammar, and I believe a dic- 

 tionary of the same. Hannah Kilham, a minister in my own 

 society, whose zeal led her to make three voyages to Africa, 

 reduced as many as five or six African languages, besides 

 the Jaloff, to a written form. A laborious article has been 

 written on the Birbir language. The missionaries in Southern 

 Africa have paid some attention to the languages spoken in 

 that quarter, and the languages of the Copts and Abyssinians 

 have not been neglected. 



The widely scattered inhabitants of the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago and Pacific Ocean compose twenty-four groups, 

 which seem to be referrible to two or three principal divisions. 

 In many instances the languages spoken by these groups are 

 confessedly allied. They are by most admitted to have more 

 or less affinity to the Malay, properly so called. In some in- 

 stances the languages are unknown, and in others they are 

 said, but upon what authority I know not, to be quite pecu- 

 liar. The similarity between the languages spoken in several 

 of these groups was noticed by Captain Cook, and has been 

 confirmed by many voyagers since his time. The subject of 

 these languages has been scientifically taken up by Marsden 

 and Crawford, by some German philologists, and by mission- 

 aries employed by this country. Articles on this subject have 

 lately appeared in the Quarterly Review, and I have re- 

 cently been informed that Baron W. Humboldt is at present 

 engaged in a work on these languages*. I must not attempt 

 to enter into any of the views of these authors, but I cannot 

 omit to notice the work and views of another author which 

 appear to me to deserve considerable attention. I allude to 

 the Essay of Dr. Lang on the origin and migration of the 

 Polynesian 'nation. One of the objects of the Doctor's work 

 is to show that the several dialects spoken in the islands of the 

 Pacific Ocean are branches of the Malay stock ; and again, 

 that the Malay language, with its ramifications, is of Asiatic 

 origin, and if not derived from the Chinese, is at least related to 

 it. He meets the objection which might be raised from the 

 fact that the Polynesian and other branches of the Malay stock 

 are not so monosyllabic as the Chinese language, by observing 

 that the former are often lengthened by prefixed or suffixed 

 particles, which seem to be added in order to increase the 



* Since this paper was read to the Philological Society, this excellent 

 man and profound philologist has paid the debt of nature. Of the state in 

 which he has left the paper here referred to we can give no information. 

 Baron W. Humboldt's Posthumous Works, including the memoir in ques- 

 tion, have recently been announced and preparing for publication. — Edit. 

 Third Series. Vol. 7. No. 37. July 1835. F 



