164 Mr Crawfui'd on the 



this is effected by prefixes or affixes, or both together. Time 

 and mode are expressed by modals prefixed. 



It is to be observed that the adjectives expressing gender 

 and number, the prepositions expressing relation, the pre- 

 fixes and affixes applied to verbal roots, and the modals ex- 

 pressing time and mode are, for the most part, different in 

 the two languages, although there be so general an agree- 

 ment in their grammatical structure. 



In these characters, phonetic and grammatical, the other 

 languages of Sumatra, of Java, of Madura, of Bali, of Lom- 

 boc, and of Borneo agree, but the similarity goes no farther 

 than these. 



I proceed to compare some of the other languages in which 

 Malay and Javanese words are found with those character- 

 istics of the Malay and Javanese languages, and begin with 

 that of Madagascar. Instead of six vowels, this has only 

 four, — a, e, /, and ii. Instead of nineteen consonants, it has 

 but fourteen, viz., b, d, f,g, k, I, m, n, h, p, v, s, z, zd. It wants 

 the c, the palatal 'd, and 't, j, n, rv, and y, of the Malay and 

 Javanese, but it has /, v, z, and zd, which are unknown to 

 these. Like these it has an aspirate ; but instead of follow- 

 ing the vowel as in them, it always precedes it. 



In Malay and Javanese, words may end in a vowel, a con- 

 sonant, or an aspirate indifferently. In Malagasi, they can 

 end in a vowel only. 



In Malay and Javanese, the liquids I, r, iv, and y, are the 

 only consonants that coalesce with other consonants ; but, 

 with the exception of r in a few instances, they never do so 

 in Malagasi. On the other hand, we have in this language 

 combinations of consonants unpronounceable by a IMalay or 

 Javanese, as mp, nt, nzd, and ts, and these, even beginning 

 words and syllables. If the natives of Madagascar had in- 

 vented an alphabet, which, like other Negro xVfricans, they 

 have not done, each of these harsh sounds would, probably, 

 have been considered a distinct consonant, and have had its 

 proper character. 



But the grammatical structure of the Malagasi has been 

 adduced as proof that it is a member of what has been called 

 the Polynesian family of languages, in itself a mere hypo- 



