Ma'ayan and Polynesian Languages and Races. 1C5 



thesis, and the form of the verb has been especially referred 

 to as evidence. 



One form of the Malay, but not of the Javanese transitive 

 verb, is made by prefixing to the root the inseparable par- 

 ticle md, the nasals m, n, ii, and h, being substituted for the 

 initial letter of the root as the euphony of the language may 

 demand. 



There exists also in the Malagasi a verbal prefix begin- 

 ning with the letter m ; but beyond this there is no analogy. 

 The Malagasi prefix, instead of being one, expressing one 

 meaning, .amounts to thirteen, expressing as many meanings. 

 We have mi, man, mana, maha, mampi, mampan, mampampan, 

 mi/an, mifampi, mifampan, mampampan, and mampifampan. 

 Eac*h of the Malagasi verbs formed by these prefixes has an 

 indicative, an imperative, and an infinitive mood. The indi- 

 cative has, throughout, a present, a preterite, and a future 

 tense expressed by an inflexion. In four kinds of verbs, the 

 imperative has two forms ; and in nine, it has four. In all, 

 the root undergoes 180 changes. 



There is nothing analogous to this in the simplicity of the 

 Malay or Javanese verbs. To the copious and elaborate 

 Dictionary of Messrs Freeman and Johns, a most meritorious 

 work, there is prefixed the paradigm of a Malagasi verb, from 

 which I have borrowed my representation of it* The root 

 in this case, is sulu, a substitute which, I have no doubt, is 

 the Javanese word sulur, meaning the same thing, or " a re- 

 presentative," or " agent," witli the loss of its final consonant, 

 indispensable to the genius of Malagasi pronunciation. 



The greatest number of changes which any root can be 

 made to undergo in Malay, or Javanese, does not exceed 

 twelve ; and sulur, the root in question, could not be sub- 

 jected even to one half this number, not one of which would 

 correspond in sound or sense with any one of the Malagasi 

 compounds. 



The very length of these Malagasi compounds appears to 

 me to be good evidence against the allegation that the Mala- 

 gasi is of Malayan origin. The great majority of Malay and 



* A r>i<'tioiiiiry of the Malagasi Language, by J. J. Freeman. London, 1835. 



