1898-99.] DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 211 
“Turning now from America, where can the philologist discover a 
language or group of languages that will satisfy the grammatical 
conditions of the prepositional American family in comparison? Such 
language or languages must be soft, abounding in vowel sounds, must 
employ prepositions, must set the temporal index before the verbal 
root, and, if we take the Quiche and Mbaya as typical, must also make 
it precede the pronoun before the root, must postpone the accusative to 
the verb, and probably the genitive to its governing word, and the 
adjective to its noun. These conditions are numerous enough to satisfy 
the most exacting critic. I do not profess an exhaustive acquaintance 
with the grammatical systems of the Old World ; but after a survey of 
the most important of these, I find one that does fulfil all the conditions 
and only one. It is that of the Malay-Polynesian languages, which 
cover the vast area from Malacca to New Zealand, and from Mada- 
gascar to the Sandwich and Easter Islands. Every one who has ever 
heard of these languages knows that they carry the palm for soft liquid 
sounds over all other tongues. They use prepositions, and prepositions 
exclusively. Their verb is identical in structure with that of the Quiche 
and Mbaya. Take, for instance, the verb “to make,” in the language 
of the Tonga or Friendly Islands, which is gvahz, and compare it with 
the corresponding Mbaya verb yoenz ; the Tongan xe-00-gnahi, | made, 
and ¢e-00-gnahi, | shall make, are not simply analogous to, but identical 
with, the Mbaya xe-ya-yoenz, de-ya-yoent. In the case of the accusative 
na-ta-gnahti he togt, “he made axes,” is a Tongan sentence exhibiting 
its position after the verb in the Malay-Polynesian languages, thus 
furnishing a fourth point of agreement between these languages and the 
prepositional American forms of speech. The nominative was found to 
precede the genitive in the Maya-Quiche, and this is its position in the 
Tongan, asin ¢ama he mataboole, “the child of the chief.” Finally, in 
Mbaya the adjective follows the noun; and the Tongan he tangata Lille, 
a man good,” shews that it is thus in accordance with Malay-Polynesian 
order.’ * 
The agreement between Malay-Polynesian and Maya-Quiche grammar 
would be unconvincing in regard to the relationship of the peoples 
speaking these languages, without the support of their respective 
vocabularies. The comparison of these exhibits certain peculiar 
tendencies of the Maya, which, for the sake of unity, is alone compared 
in the list furnished in the Appendix, with the Malay-Polynesian 
dialects, such as its replacement of the insular t by c, and its addition of 
final | to the roots of verbs in many cases. As a literary language, 
however, it is more likely to have retained the ancient forms of the 
