Wake.] 82 [Ap ril 18> 



The Malay numeral ampat, four, is probably derived from the Kolarian, 

 but some of the others are evidently of Dravidian origin. This is true 

 doubtless of satu, one, which appears to be connected with Brahui asit, 

 one, in Dravidian or-u, the r and s being interchangeable. The Malay 

 numerals dalapan, eight, sambilan, nine, and sapula, ten, are certainly 

 connected with the Dravidian. Dr. Caldwell remarks* that the classical 

 Tamil grammars teach that pattu, ten, may in certain connections be 

 written pahdu, from pag-u, to divide, which corresponds to pagudi, classi- 

 cal Tamil pal, a division. Thus the ancient Tamil orupukadu is oru 

 patidii, one ten. We have here the explanation of the Malay sapula, 

 which likewise means "one ten," the word pula being evidently con- 

 nected with the Dravidian numeral. The Malay word sambilan, nine, 

 has a similar explanation. Dr. Caldwell explains the Tamil oribadu, nine, 

 in Malayalam ombadu, as compounded of the ordinary Dravidian or, one, 

 and padu, ten, and as having the meaning of " one from ten." The Malay 

 sambilan has the same sense, and is compounded of sa(m), one, and pula 

 (bilan), ten. Dr. Caldwell applies to the Dravidian numerals the rule 

 "characteristic of the Scythian languages," that they " use for eight and 

 nine compounds which signify ten minus two and ten minus one." This 

 rule applies, as we have seen, to the Malay numeral nine, and it does so 

 also to eight. Thus dalapan is compounded of dua, two, and pula, ten ; 

 as in Telugu enimidi, ten, meaning "two from ten," is formed of eni, 

 two, and midi, which is really identical with padi, ten. 



Prof. Keane refers to the Indo-Pacific numerals as common elements in 

 the Malay and Polynesian languages ; he points out that in the Samoan 

 sefalu, ten, we have a reduplication of the " enunciative particle," "the 

 expression being really equivalent to sa-a-falu, 'a one-ten.' ' He says 

 further that "the needless repetition shows that the original sense has long 

 been lost : a further proof of .the vast antiquity and independence of the 

 Sawaiori [Polynesian] tongues." Prof. Keane adds that as the "com- 

 mon elements in the Indo-Pacific languages are organic and not bor- 

 rowed," these languages "form a linguistic family in the same sense that 

 the Aryan or Semitic are linguistic families." The evident connection 

 between the Malay and the Dravidian numerals throws doubt, however, 

 on that conclusion. Prof. Keane refers also to the Polynesian word for 

 five, lima, which he supposes to have originally meant hand, as it still 

 usually does, and he states that " this meaning is lost in Malay, Javanese, 

 Malagasy, etc., where lima, retained as a numeral, has been replaced in 

 the sense of hand by tanghan^ iahan, etc." So far, however, from the 

 Malay having exchanged lima for tanghan, the probability is that it never 

 used the former word in the sense of "hand j" as tanghan or an allied 

 form is thus used by the Asiatic peoples to whom the Malays are most 

 closely related. This view is not inconsistent with the remarks on the 

 numeral "five" in the Dravidian languages made by Dr. Caldwell, who 

 suggests that it might be derived from kei, in Tamil a hand. Probably 



* Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, p. 248,. 1875. 



