SECT. V.] LANGUAGES. 249 



tribes, that affinity of language proves nothing in favour of 

 unity of origin, since, as is the case with the Jews, a frequent 

 exchange of language takes place. There are certainly examples 

 of this kind, but they present the important peculiarity that, 

 without exception, the people which loses its language and 

 exchanges it for another, has ceased to live as a people, has 

 been absorbed by the other, whether conqueror or conquered, 

 and forms with it an amalgam, from which the adherents to 

 the doctrine of the permanence of physical types are less able 

 to extract the composing elements, if the linguists fail to do 

 so. We are ready to admit that though the proportion of an 

 intermixture of different nations may be manifested to the 

 linguist by the comparative number of foreign elements in- 

 troduced in a language, as for instance, the Malay, which 

 possesses 5 per cent. Arab and 16 per cent. Sanscrit words; 

 still the quantity of linguistic elements does not always cor- 

 respond to the quantity of foreign blood, so that philology 

 cannot give a decided opinion as to the genealogy of peoples 

 strongly intermixed, any more than natural history is able 

 to do. 



When small remnants of a scattered people lose their lan- 

 guage among nations of different stocks, such instances can- 

 not be adduced as a proof that exchanges of languages are 

 of frequent occurrence, and that language offers no certain in- 

 dication as to the affinity of nations. Thus, the few hundred 

 Bosnian soldiers who, in 1420, were sent by Sultan Selim 

 into lower Nubia, where they settled, have not preserved their 

 language. The scattered Hottentots in the Cape Colony, 

 which are of mixed blood, speak only Dutch. 1 Many Chinese 

 born in Manilla speak only Tagal; 2 the Chinese in Banjer- 

 massing, and many other parts of Borneo, speak only Malay. 3 

 The small tribe of the Brothertons (Algonquin-Indians) have 

 adopted the English as their language, 4 which may be ex- 

 plained by the circumstance that they are composed of the 



1 Napier, " Excursions in South Africa," i, p. 181, 1850. 



2 Virgin, " Erdumsegl. der F. Eugenie ubers. v. Etzel," ii, p. 195, 1856. 



3 " Kheinische Missionsber.," p. 67, 1853. 



4 Schoolcraffc, " Algic Researches, New York," i, p. 27, 1839. 



