Jan. 20, 1 881] 



NA TURE 



271 



THE INDO-CHINESE AND OCEANIC RACES- 

 TYPES AND AFFINITIES^ 

 IV. 



HERE are the Raja of Gorontalo, N. Celebes (Fig. 22), 

 the chief of Sendegeassi, S. Nias, West Coast Sumatra 

 (Fig. 23), and two natives of Jilolo (Fig. 24), all sup- 

 posed to be more or less typical Malays whom it will be 

 profitable to compare with Figs. 19,20, 21, representing 

 the Caucasian pre-Malay or Indonesian element in the 

 Archipelago. In Fig. 25 we have Mohamed-Vamalal- 

 Alam, Sultan of the Sulu Archipelago, who was compelled 

 to accept Spanish supremacy in 1876. He is a pure 

 Malay about thirty-four years old, like most of his sub- 

 jects presenting a fine type far superior to that of the 

 Malays of Malacca. Yet the Mongoloid element is un- 

 mistakably betrayed, especially in the high cheek-bones, 

 presenting such a striking contrast to the regular European 

 features of the Indonesians (see Figs. 19, 20, and 21). The 

 portrait is from a photograph forwarded to France by 

 MM. Montano and Rey, and originally published in La 

 Natiiit, April 3, 1880. 



But if we must speak with great hesitation and much re- 

 serve of a common Malay type, we can speak all the more 

 confidently not only of a common Malay speech, but of a 

 common " Malayo-Polynesian," and even of a common 

 Indo-Pacific speech. Indeed the chief objection to the 

 linguistic expression Malayo-Polynesian is that it is no 

 longer sufficiently comprehensive. In the alternative 

 Indo-Pacific, which, on the analogy of Indo-European, I 

 have proposed as a substitute, the first component must 

 be taken in two senses, so as to include botli the Indian 

 Ocean and a portion of Further India. When Fr. Miiller 

 wrote : " So much remains certain, and will never by the 

 most brilliant and cogent reasonings be disproved : the 

 Malayo-Polynesians are connected with no .Asiatic people," 

 he had in his mind not so much the " Malayo-Polynesian 

 race" as the Malayo-Polynesi.an language. In this sense 

 the statement was true enough according to his lights. In 

 common with other eminent philologists he entirely over- 

 looked Cambojan, or from insufficient data probably 

 regarded it as a monosyllabic-toned language allied to the 

 Indo-Chinese family. He consequently considered it as 

 fundamentally distinct from the Malayo-Polynesian group, 

 which is admittedly polysyllabic and untoned. But we 

 have already seen in Section I\^. that Cambojan or 

 Khmer is not a member of the Indo-Chinese family, and 

 that it is polysyllabic and untoned, like all other known 

 forms of speech. In the above-quoted paper "fjnthe 

 Indo-Chinese and Intcr-Oceanic Races and Languages" 

 (pp. 15-22) I further show that the true affinities of Khmer 

 are with the Malayo-Polynesian tongues, the whole 

 forming a vast linguistic family stretching from Mada- 

 gascar to Easter Island, west and east, from Hawaii to 

 New Zealand, north and south, and with its basis still 

 resting on the Indo-Chinese peninsula, where it originated, 

 and whence it has been diffused throughout the Oceanic 

 area with the migrations of the Mongolo- Caucasian races. 

 Here it has long reigned supreme, continually encroaching 

 upon and surrounding, as in so many detached enclaves, 

 the diverse Negrito and Papuan tongues, but itself now 

 threatened with extinction by the advancing Siamese and 

 Annamese on the mainland, and by the still more 

 aggressive English in Polynesia. 



All the arguments establishing the intimate connection 

 of the Cambojan and Malayan languages need not be 

 repeated ; but that based on the principle of modifying 

 infixes has attracted so much attention, and is in itself so 

 interesting, that the readers of N.^TURE will perhaps be 

 glad to have it here resumed : — 



" Common to the Khmer and Malaysian tongues is 

 one feature so peculiarly distinctive as of itself alone 

 almost sufficient to establish their common origin. This 

 is the use of identical infixes, which, though forming a 



^ Continued from p. 251. 



marked characteristic of Khmer, Malay, Javanese, Tagala, 

 Malagasy, and other members of this group, has not yet 

 been generally recognised. . . . The infixes in question 

 are alwajs the same, the liquids in and «, and even ;««, 

 with or without the connecting vowels a, o with m; a, i 

 with n. Thus : — 



In KhmIiR : III, a»i, O'li, mn, n. 

 Slap, dead ; samlap, to kill. 

 Sruoch, pointed ; samruocb, to point. 

 Thleak, to fall ; tomleak, to throw down. 

 Rolom, to fall ; romlom, to knock down. 

 Chereap, to know; chumreap, to show, teach, make known. 

 Kur, to draw ; Komnur, a design. 

 Srek, to cry ; samrek, a shout. 

 Che'(, to share ; chauinek, a part or portion. 

 Sauk, to corrupt ; samnauk, a bribe. 

 Pram, to pulilish ; bamram, a notice. 

 Pang, to H ish ; bamnang, a wish. 

 Rep, to confiscate ; romhep, seizure, thing seized. 

 Ar, to saw ; Anar, a saw. 



In Malagasy : in, am. 



Hanina, food ; homana, to eat. 



Tady, twis'ed, a rope ; toiiiady, strong. 



Taratra, glaring ; toujaratra, transparent. ; 



Safotra, overflown ; sotnafotra, brimful. 



Sany, likeness ; somany, lil<e. 



Safy, spying : somafy, ^ight of distant object. 



Vidy and vniidy, bou.;h''. 



Vaky and vinal^y, broken. 



In" Malaysian : nm, am, in. 

 Javanese. 

 Rayah, to bereave ; rinaya, to be bereft. 

 Hurub, flame ; humurub, to flame. 

 Balinbin, a small fruit ; binalinbin, a round gem. 



Tagala. 

 Basa, to read ; bumasa, to make use of reading. \ 



Kapatir, brother ; kjnapatir, brotherly. 

 Tapay, to knead ; tinapay, bread. 

 Guntin, shears ; gnrauntin, to cut with shears. 



Malay. 

 Palu, to beat ; pamalu, a club. 

 Pukul, to strike ; paaiukul, a hammer. 

 Sipit, to grasp ; sinipit, an anchor. 

 Padam, to extinguish ; pamadam, an extinguisher. 

 Pilih, to choose ; pamilihan, choice" (pp. 20-1). 



This characteristic, of which nothing but the faintest 

 echoes occur in any other linguistic system, is obviously 

 one that is incapable of being borrowed, as prefi.xes and 

 suffixes may occasionally be borrowed. Hence it must 

 be regarded as an organic principle developed in the 

 primitive speech before its differentiation into the various 

 Oceanic branches, whose common origin seems thus to 

 be established beyond question. The theory of such a 

 remarkable feature being evolved independently at several 

 points in this linguistic area and in no other cannot be 

 seriously entertained. 



Here therefore we have one type of speech everywhere 

 common to two racial types, and the question arises, how 

 all the Malayan peoples have come to speak exclusively 

 polysyllabic untoned tongues, while their nearest kindred, 

 the Mongoloid peoples of Indo-China, still speak exclusively 

 monosyllabic toned languages. To explain this pheno- 

 menon we must remember that, as already pointed out, 

 the polysyllabic-speaking Caucasians preceded the mono- 

 syllabic-speaking Mongols both in Farther India and in 

 the .Archipelago. Hence when the Mongols quitted the 

 mainland they found the islands occupied by the Cau- 

 casians, with whom they amalgamated, and whose speech 

 they adopted. Similar instances, though perhaps not on 

 such a large scale, have occurred often enough elsewhere, 

 even in historic times. Thus the Mongolo-Tatar Aimaks 

 and Hazaras of North Afghanistan all now speak 



