PHILOLOGY 163 



different in race, falls linguistically into the Melanesian section. Also it ultimately 

 became plain that of these three subdivisions Indonesian best represented the archaic 

 family type, while Polynesian at the other extreme had gone furthest in the direction 

 of simplification and decay. 1 Thus was established, by the strictest scientific proof, the 

 existence of the Oceanic or Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, extending from Mad- 

 agascar in the west to Easter Island in the east, and from Formosa and Hawaii in the 

 north to New Zealand in the south. 



Meanwhile further exploration and research had revealed the existence in New 

 Guinea and some of the neighbouring islands of a number of languages which could not 

 be'fitted into this scheme of classification, and did not even apparently form any family 

 of their own, but only a number of distinct groups between which no ultimate relation- 

 ship could be safely asserted. 2 These so-called Papuan languages (which have since 

 been found in portions of Dutch and German as well as British New Guinea) are there- 

 fore to be regarded as a purely provisional group, the time for their systematic classifica- 

 tion not having as yet arrived. But it is quite certain that they have nothing whatever 

 to do with the Oceanic family, though some of the neighbouring members of the latter 

 have undoubtedly been influenced and to some extent modified by Papuan languages, 

 and also vice versa, particularly in the matter of syntax. 3 Moreover there exists in an 

 outlying corner of Eastern Indonesia a small enclave comprising a number of closely 

 related and very curious languages which differ profoundly from their neighbours of the 

 Oceanic stock. These are the languages of the northern peninsula of Halmahera (or 

 Jilolo), together with Ternate, Tidore, and a few other small adjacent islands. In spite 

 of some attempts that have been made to show theirultimate connection with the Oceanic 

 family, 4 it cannot be said that the thesis has been proved or even rendered very probable. 

 It is at least as likely that they are remnants of some archaic Papuan group, though the 

 tribes that speak them are not Papuan in physical type. 5 



The Oceanic languages having thus been delimited, 6 there remained the further 

 question of their source of origin. By an ingenious comparison of purely linguistic data 

 Kern had shown 7 that the common mother-tongue from which they were derived must 

 have been spoken on some long coastline in the Tropics, the east coast of Indo-China 

 seeming on the whole to be the most likely one. Here there were actually languages, 

 such as Cham and its immediate neighbours, which were plainly in some way connected 

 with the Indonesian branch of the Oceanic family. But no really satisfactory attempt 

 could be made to connect the Oceanic with any of the different groups of Indo-Chinese 

 languages until the latter had been properly classified. This was done in part by 

 Forbes 8 and carried further by Kuhn, 9 but the final achievement was the work of W. 

 Schmidt. In a series of admirable monographs 10 he succeeded in proving the intimate 



1 S. H. Ray, The Common Origin of the Oceanic Languages, "Hellas" Revue Polyglotte 

 Internationale, Vie Annee. Thalheimer, Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Pronomina der Sprachen 

 Mikronesiens (Stuttgart, 1908); reviewed by Ray in Man (1908), 85. 



2 Ray, The Languages of British New Guinea, J. Anthr. Inst. XXIV, pp. 15-39; ibid. 

 XXVI, pp. 204-5; Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, 

 Vol. Ill, Linguistics (1907). 



3 W. Schmidt, Man (1907) 106; Ray, J. Anthr. Inst. XXX (Anthr. Rev. and Misc. 50). 



4 Kern, Bijdr. tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch- Indie (1891), Deel 

 XL, pp. 493-530. See also A. Hueting, lets over de Ternataansch-Halmaherasche Taalgroep, 

 ibid. (1908), LX, pp. 369-411. 



5 Schmidt, Die sprachlichen Verhdltnisse von Deutsch-Neuguinea, Zeitschr. f. Afrik. u. 

 Ozean. Sprachen, Jahrg. V & VI, espec. VI, pp. 74-99. 



6 It is hardly necessary to add that the languages of Australia and the now extinct dialects 

 of Tasmania lie entirely outside this sphere. 



7 Taalkundige der Maleisch-Polynesische volken, Versl. en Med. Kon. Akad. v. Wet. 

 (Amsterdam, 1889) Afd. Letterk., Hie R., Deel 6. 



8 Comparative Grammar of the Languages of Further India. 



9 Beitrdge zur Sprachenkunde Hinterindiens, Sitzungsb. d. K. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., Phil.- 

 hist. Kl. (1889). 



10 Die Sprachen der Sakei und Semang auf Malakka und ihr Verhaltnis zu den Mon-Khmer- 

 Sprachen, Bijdr. tot de T. L. en V. v. Ned. -Indie, 1901, Deel LII, pp. 399-583; Grundzuge 

 einer Lautlehre der M on- Khmer- Sprachen, Denkschr. d. Kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien, 1905, 



