OF THE INDO-CHINESE NATIONS. ' 1/3 



compositions at all, nor in any of the Indo-Chinese 

 languages of the continent. 



But after assigning the Arabic and Sanscrit voca- 

 bles to their proper sources, a large proportion of 

 words in the language will still remain unaccounted 

 for; and tliese words too, expressive of the most 

 simple class of our ideas, and the most remarkable 

 objects in nature. This part of the language, which 

 in comparison of the rest, may be termed native br 

 original, Marsden attributes to what he reckons 

 the original insular language of the South Seas ; and 

 this original language, again Sir W. Jones pronounces 

 a derivative from the Sanscrit. That it is not Sanscril, 

 a very slender knowledge of the two languages is 

 sufficient to evince : and if this original part should 

 itself turn out to be derived, as 1 apprehend, from 

 different sources, the idea of an original insular lan- 

 guage will fall to the ground. Now there are a 

 variety of reasons for supposing that this part of the 

 iJ/rt/r/j/zf language, which might be imagined the nvost 

 simple and original, is in reality, more corrupted and 

 mixed, than those parts which are confessedly de- 

 rived from a foreign source. Several of the Malayii 

 terms, which express the most simple and remarkable 

 objects in nature, appear to be only gross auricular 

 corruptions of true regular terms in the more ancient 

 eastern languages, 2isJawa, Bagis, Tliay, and Banna: 

 and many of the simplest objects are not distinguished 

 in Malayu by simple words, but by compound meta- 

 phorical and significant terms. The omission of 

 the first syllable, in words derived from a foreign 

 language, whether ancient or modern, is a frequent 

 practice in the Malayu language : thus the Samcrit 

 Avatara becomes Bitara, and thus rumbiiliun, the 

 moon, in Javanese, becomes Bulufi in Malayu — and 

 Mopiitij which signifies a'/i?Vc, in Bugis, becomes pu/l 



