Malayan and Polynesian Languages and Races. 187 



the Malayan word is generally placed first in order, whence I 

 infer that it is probably the most current and acceptable ; and 

 this, I have no doubt, it owes to its more agreeable and facile 

 pronunciation. Thus, in the Malagasi, it is not difficult to 

 understand how vatu, for a stone, should be preferred, even 

 by a native, to hodiboamkazo. 



That agreeableness of sound and facility of pronunciation 

 have had a considerable share in the spread of Malayan 

 words, I think highly probable. Thus, the Malay word laki, 

 a man or male human being, is one of very easy pronuncia- 

 tion, and has extended to nearly every language of the Ai'chipe- 

 lago, while its correlative, pdrdmpuan^ woman, a primitive of 

 four syllables, and not very euphonious — rare in any of the 

 Malayan languages — is found in one other language only, 

 that of the Bima of Sumbawa, which abounds in Malay 

 words. 



Of Sanscrit words expressing simple ideas, that have 

 either superseded, or are more popular than native ones, the 

 examples are numerous ; as in Malay, kapala, the head ; in 

 Javanese, sira, for the head ; muka, the face, bahu, the shoul- 

 der, and anguta, a member, in several languages ; dlna, a 

 day, in Javanese and Bali ; hasta, the arm, in several lan- 

 guages ; dasa, for the numeral ten, and surya, for the sun, 

 in Bali. The elephant is unquestionably a native of Suma- 

 tra and the Malay Peninsula, but tlie popular name for it in 

 at least eight languages of these countries is the Sanscrit 

 word gaja. There is, indeed, another, biram, in Malay, but 

 it is obsolete, or little known. 



Instead of the elementary woi'ds of language being those 

 most widely spread, the reverse is the case. Such words 

 are the rarest to bo found in many languages, and some of 

 the most essential have not been disseminated at all, but are 

 found to be distinct in each separate language. In fact, the 

 class of words most widely diffused, are in a great measure 

 extrinsic, and the offspring of a considerable advancement in 

 civilization ; such, for example, as the names of cultivated, 

 useful, or familiar plants ; those of domesticated, useful, or 

 familiar animals ; terms connected with numeration, fishing. 



