1S90.J [Wake. 



the Dravidian word for hand, in Gond kaik, as well as the numeral five, 

 saighan in Gond, and the Malay tanghan are derived from a common root 

 meaning "hand." It is noticeable that in Samoan the word lima is not 

 used in speaking of a chiefs hand. This is 'a c ao, in other Polynesian dia- 

 lects kakao, which is the original form, and is evidently allied to the words 

 just referred to. The origin of the word lima is probably to be sought in 

 the languages of Cochin China, in which the numeral five is naru or laru, 

 unless it is derived from the Shan dialects, which have the word mu OTmi 

 for " hand." The Malay would seem to have taken its numerals " two " 

 and "three " from the same source as that to which it was indebted for 

 the word tanghan. In the Tungus languages " five " is tonga, or a slightly 

 differing form of this word, and in the same languages we have dzur, 

 dzhoua, dyul, dyur for "two," and ela, gilang, ilan for "three," answer- 

 ing to the Malay dua and tiga, which in Polynesian become lua and 

 tolu. 



The consideration of the numeral systems of the Malay and Cambodian 

 does not support the conclusion that these languages are of the same fam- 

 ily. Prof. Keane refers, however, to a feature possessed by both of them, 

 which he considers so peculiarly distinctive as of itself alone almost to be 

 sufficient to establish their common origin. This is the use of identical 

 infixes.* It should be noted, however, that this important feature is not 

 met with in the Polynesian dialects, which employ a prefixf instead, al- 

 though it is found in all the true Malayan dialects, and is especially fre- 

 quent in those of the Philippine islands. Prof. Keane does not give the 

 origin of this "Malayan feature," as it is termed by the Rev. L. Dahle, 

 who first pointed out its presence in Malagasy. It is somewhat difficult 

 to understand how the use of infixes can be universal in Malay, but not 

 be met with in Polynesian, if, as Prof Keane supposes, those languages 

 form one family with the "polysyllabic untoned languages of Indo- 

 China," which the Malays are said to have acquired. If the Polynesian 

 and Cambodian languages belong to the same family, that feature must 

 either have been developed after their separation or have been acquired 

 by the latter from a foreign source. When we consider that the use of 

 infixes is essentially Malayan, we are tempted to believe that it has been 

 taken by the Cambodian from the Malay or an allied language, such as 

 the Cham. The latter opinion is supported by certain other characters of 

 the Khmer tongue. This is classed by Mr. Keane with the "polysyllabic 

 untoned languages'," and rightly so inasmuch. as the Khmer is pronounced 

 recto-tono ; although the same word has several significations, the sense of 

 the phrase alone giving the true signification. According to M. Moura, 

 however, the Cambodian language is really monosyllabic. He says ex- 

 pressly, "like all the languages and idioms spoken in our days by the 

 peoples of the extreme East, the Cambodian is a monosyllabic language." 



* Prof. Keane says that the infix is always the liquid m or n or mn, with or without the 

 vowels a, o with TO, or a, I with n. 

 t The Samoan prefix is mo. 



