298 LANGUAGE OF NEW ZEALAND. [PART II. 



fertile source from which they have all originally 

 sprung. The Malayan can, perhaps, only claim the 

 relation of a sister dialect to the other Polynesian 

 languages : in consequence of the commercial inter- 

 course of the people speaking it with many other 

 nations, with the Chinese, the Hindoos, and the 

 Arabians, they have adopted many foreign elements 

 into their language, which has obtained in that 

 manner quite a mixed character. It is evident that 

 the nations speaking these languages, which are the 

 same as regards their root, must have been sepa- 

 rated in very ancient times ; but where their true 

 birth-place was, and where the true cradle of their 

 dialects is to be found, we do not as yet know. 



The idioms in the languages of the islanders 

 whom I have called the true Polynesians, and to 

 whom the New Zealanders belong, have a closer 

 connection with each other than the general one 

 just mentioned; and this closer connection more 

 than anything else proves them to be one grand 

 subdivision of the Oceanic race. This is especially 

 the case between the Tahitian, the Sandwich Islands, 

 and the New Zealand languages, with which we 

 are most intimately acquainted. Although living 

 at such an immense distance from each other, there 

 is certainly not more difference between their dia- 

 lects .than between the Dutch and the German. 

 The language of the Friendly Islands, of which 

 Mariner has given such an excellent account, pos- 

 sesses more foreign elements, as do the people them- 



