164 PHILOLOGY 



connection of the aboriginal languages (Sakai and Semang) of the Malay Peninsula, 

 the Mon-Khmer group, the Palaung-Wa-Riang group of the Shan states, Khasi in 

 Assam, Nicobarese, and finally the Munda languages of India proper. All these are 

 characterised by a structure based ultimately on monosyllabic roots from which more 

 complex words are formed by means of prefixes and infixes (in the case of Munda and 

 Nicobarese, suffixes as well). Both in structure and vocabulary they are altogether 

 different from the large family, or agglomeration, of languages to which Tibetan, 

 Burmese, Siamese and Chinese belong. 



On the other hand a considerable amount of work had been done, mainly by Dutch 

 scholars such as Van der Tuuk, Kern, and Brandes, to analyse the structure of tlie 

 Oceanic languages; they succeeded in showing that the superficial dissyllabism charac- 

 teristic of the family was really the result of an ancient agglutinative system building 

 upon originally monosyllabic roots. 1 This left the way open to Schmidt to show 2 that 

 his newly formed synthesis of languages, which he proposed to call Austroasiatic, was 

 ultimately related to the Oceanic (or as he would style it Austronesian) family, so that 

 the two could be conveniently grouped under the generic name " Austric." Schmidts 

 arguments were based both on similarity of structure and numerous cases of identity 

 between the very roots of the two families; and so far as they, were confined to linguistic 

 classification his conclusions have met with general acceptance at the hands of those best 

 qualified to judge. But his attempt to establish a corresponding anthropological unity 

 of the very diverse races speaking all these different tongues was not so successful and 

 must be regarded as altogether premature. Most of these populations are blends, and 

 though conceivably there may be some thin strain of common blood running through ail 

 of them, it is impossible as yet to define it or correlate it with the common element of 

 their speech. Nor is any such assumption a necessary conclusion from the linguistic 

 data. The synthesis of the languages has established a purely linguistic unity, implying 

 no identity of race and admitting the existence here and there (e.g. among the Negritos 

 of the Malay Peninsula, in Melanesia and even in parts of Polynesia) 3 of traces of older 

 aboriginal languages embedded, like flies in amber, in the prevailing type of speech. 



Eliminating all such doubtful matters, the establishment of the " Austric " family of 

 languages may well be considered the most important achievement in comparative 

 philology during the last decade. It finally clinches the arguments in support of the 

 Asiatic origin of the Oceanic languages, and thus sets at rest a question which had been' 

 long under discussion. 



Supplementary Bibliography. Brandstetter, Tagalen und Madagassen (1902); Ein 

 Prodromus zu einem vergleichenden Worterbuch der Malaiopolynesischeu Sprachen (1906); 

 Gemcinindonesisch und Urindonesisch (1911); Das Verbum . . .in vierundzwanzig 

 Indonesischen Sprachen (1912). Ferrand, Essai de plioni'tique comparee du malais et des 

 dialectes malgaches (1909). Kern, Taalvergelijkende Verhandeling over het Aneityumsch, met 

 een Aanhangsel over het Klankstelsel van liet Eromanga, Verhand. Kon. Akad. v. Wet. (Amster- 

 dam, 1906), N. R., D. VIII, No. 2. Schmidt, Ueber das Verhdltnis der Melanesischen Sprachen 

 zu den Polynesischen und untereinander, Sitznngsb. d. Kais. Akad, d. Wiss. in Wien, Phil.- 

 hist. Kl., Bd. CXLI, No. VI; Die Jabim-Sprache (Deutsch-Neu-Guinea), Jbid., Bd. CXLHI, 

 No. IX. Meyer, Die Papuasprache in Niederldndisch-Neu-Guinea, Globus, XCIV, pp. 189- 

 92. Finot, Les etudes indochinoises, Bull, de I'E. F. d' Extreme-Orient, VlII, pp. 221-33. 

 Cabaton, Dix dialectes indochinoises, Journal Asiatique, Mars-Avril, 1905, pp. 265-344. 

 Aymonier & Cabaton. Dictionnaire cam-frangais (1906). 



(C. O. BLAGDEN.) 



Phil. -hist. Kl., Bd. Ill; Grundzilge einer Lautlehre der Khasi-Sprache in ihren Beziehungen zu 

 denjenigen der Mon-Khmer-Sprachen, Abhandl. d. Konigl. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., 1905, I Kl., 

 Bd. XXII, Abt. Ill, and op. cit. inf. 



1 Conveniently summed up in Brandstetter's Wurzel und Wort in den Indonesischen 

 Sprachen (1910). 



2 Die M on- Khmer- Volker, Archiv f. Anthr., XXXIII, pp. 59-109; and in French, Les 

 peuples Mon-Khmer, Bulletin de l'cole Franchise d'Extreme-Orient, VII, pp. 213-63, 

 VIII, pp. 1-35. 



3 Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, Vol. II, Language; Ray, The 

 Common Origin of the Oceanic Languages, loc. cit., and J. Anthr. Inst., XXVl, pp. 204-5. 



