OCEANIA. 



711 



attempted by the lute Dr Leyden, by Mr Crawf'urd 

 in his History of the Indian Archipelago, and more 

 fully and carefully by Mr Marsden, in his work on 

 the Polynesian or East Insular languages. 



There is not to be found throughout the whole 

 of the Oceanic languages, one of complex struc- 

 ture, like the Sanscrit, the Greek, the Latin, and 

 the German, in which the genders, numbers and 

 relations of names, and the tenses and modes of 

 verbs are formed by indexions or varying the ter- 

 minations of words ; and, most probably, there 

 never existed such a language. Still, preserving a 

 close affinity, however, there are some of which the 

 grammatical structure is a good deal more complex 

 than that of others. In the language of the Phil- 

 ippine islands there is a dual number, and the 

 verb is of considerable complexity in its form. 

 The same observation applies in both respects 

 to the languages of the rudest people of all, those 

 of the continent of Australia. The construction 

 and the rules of syntax of the languages of the 

 South Sea Islands also differ very materially 

 from those of the great tribes of the eastern 

 islands. 



In the languages of the Malayan or yellow com- 

 plexioned race, there exist a great many words, 

 which, in a greater or lesser degree, are common to 

 almost all, and considering the state of society 

 which belongs to even the most civilized of these 

 nations, it is truly remarkable to what an extent 

 this identity of particular words and terms per- 

 vades. It has been discovered to exist, in a man- 

 ner which leaves it quite unequivocal, in the lan- 

 guage of the people of Madagascar, not above two 

 hundred and fifty miles from the coast of Africa, 

 and in that of the people of Easter Island, not 

 above fifteen hundred miles from the coast of South 

 America. The distance of these two points can- 

 not be less in any way than ten thousand miles. 

 The degree in which identity of words can be 

 traced is greatest among the more civilized nations, 

 and, excluding Madagascar, which will be after- 

 wards considered, decreases as we proceed east- 

 ward from Sumatra and Java. It wholly excludes 

 many of the Negrito tribes, but not all, as will after- 

 wards be shown. To account for this striking and 

 interesting fact in the history of man and language, 

 it has been argued that all the languages from 

 Madagascar to Easter Island inclusive, the Negrito 

 dialects excepted, were originally one language, and 

 that the difference in them now discovered is 

 simply the result of the dispersion of those who 

 spoke it. But we are disposed to consider this 

 theory as untenable. It appears to us to be con- 

 trary to all our knowledge and experience of the 

 history of languages. Languages are many when 

 people are savage and rude, or semibarbarous : in 

 proportion as men become civilized, and communi- 

 ties become extensive, they become few in number, 

 the smaller and ruder dialects being gradually ab- 

 sorbed or violently exterminated by the prevalence 

 of the more polite, improved, and consequently 

 more useful. We are unaware of the existence, in 

 ancient or modern times, of any one language 

 widely disseminated and extensively spoken by 

 many rude tribes, disconnected by locality and with- 

 out the knowledge of letters.* The whole world 



* The Celtic language is said to have been universally spoken 

 ia Spain, Gaul, and the British islands, and the German lan- 

 guage equally so from the Rhine to the Baltic; but of this there 

 is no proof, and we are disposed to dispute a fact which is con- j 

 trary to all authentic analogy in other parts of the world. I 



seems to us to abound with illustrations of the 

 opposite truth. In China, as Du Halde observes, 

 "every province, every great city, nay, every 

 town, and for that matter, every large village, has 

 its peculiar dialect, which is the reigning language, 

 for every body speaks it, the learned as well as the 

 common people and women. But then the women 

 and the common people can talk no other." This 

 arises from the obstacle already alluded to. Not- 

 withstanding this, the Mandarin or common lan- 

 guage is the general vernacular language of the 

 inhabitants of the province of Kyang-nan, a popu- 

 lation amounting to no less than 72,000,000 of 

 people, a greater amount than that of the United 

 Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland, and the Pen- 

 insula put together.* In the Hindoo-Chinese 

 countries, there exist at least twenty different 

 languages, yet the great bulk of the people speak 

 but six only. In Hindostan there are probably 

 not less than forty distinct languages, yet the 

 great mass of 120,000,000 of people use but eight, 

 the remaining inhabitants, (a mere fraction, and 

 consisting of the rudest of the whole,) having more 

 than thirty languages amongst them. In Europe 

 we see the most civilized and numerous communi- 

 ties speaking one language, as the German, the 

 Italian, the French, the English, and the Spanish, 

 while many tongues become numerous as we enter 

 the barbarous parts of it, Russia and Turkey. In 

 France, and in the British islands, the rude Celtic, 

 to the great benefit of society, is in gradual pro- 

 gress of extinction, and even the Anglo-Saxon 

 dialect of the Scotch is rapidly giving way to the 

 English. In America, before the Spanish con- 

 quest, there existed but two or three tolerably 

 polished languages, each of them spoken by a 

 pretty numerous population. In that continent, 

 although several have disappeared, it is known 

 that there are still spoken upwards of 400 distinct 

 languages, with not less than 2,000 dialects, by 

 the indigenous population, who, at the utmost are 

 not reckoned above 10,000,000 in number, whilst 

 the Anglo-Americans, who speak but one language, 

 are themselves alone more numerous. 



On the principle that each Oceanic language is 

 of separate and distinct origin, and that the peo- 

 ple by whom they were spoken communicated 

 words to each other exactly in proportion to the 

 closeness of neighbourhood, or extent of intercourse 

 between them, the ruder and weaker tribes com- 

 monly borrowing from the most improved and 

 powerful, the different languages may be divided 

 into several classes or groups, and named after the 

 nation which seems to have exercised the greatest 

 influence in its propagation. The first or Malayan 

 group, includes Sumatra, the peninsula of Malacca, 

 and the east and west coasts of Borneo, over 

 which the Malayan language exercised such influ- 

 ence. The second or Javenese group, includes 

 the island of Java and the neighbouring islands of 

 Madura, Bali, and Lombox; in these the Javanese, 

 a language bearing considerable resemblance (o the 

 Malayan, prevailed. The third or Bugis group, 

 from the name of the principal nation and language 

 of Celebes, extended itself over the islands of Bou- 

 ton, Salayer, and Sumbawa, and part of the south 

 coast of Borneo, where the Bugis settled and 

 founded slates. The Bugis language differs very 

 materially from the two preceding. The fourth 

 or Philippine group, in which the Tagala language 



* Companion to the Chinese Kalendnr. Canton, 1832. 



