216 R. N. Cust — Languages of the Indo-Chinese [Nov. 



study of the language to a certain extent easy, and independent of the 

 acquisition of the native alphabet, which is composed of a selection of 

 Chinese characters, used phonetically as a syllabary, with ujDwards of nine 

 hundred varieties. So clumsy is this arrangement, that the highest literati 

 set it aside, and use the Chinese ideographic signs, thus entailing upon 

 themselves the labour of learning that character. In such a language the 

 meaning has to be gathered from the position of the words and the context. 

 The idea of past, present, and future is expressed by particles, or omitted ; 

 three-fourths of the names are formed by addition of particles to the verb ; 

 there is no passive voice ; all animate objects have one determinate prejBx, 

 and inanimate another, and as an instance of the redundancy of vocables, it 

 may be stated that there are nine different words for ' carrying,' with refer- 

 ence to the hand, head, etc. The word ' Army' is a portion of seventy-five 

 compounds, and the word 'to do,' imj^lying a sense of action, appears in 

 one hundred and thirty-five compounds. There is an abundant literature. 

 The nation is civilized in the Chinese type, thriving, and until the French 

 occupation, was warlike, and ambitious. Within the memory of man the 

 sovereigns were too proud to give a personal audience to the ambassadors 

 of the rulers of India. The dialect of the three provinces varies to a cer- 

 tain extent. The famous dictionary of De Rhodes was published at Rome 

 in 1654 A. D. with a short grammar. The standard dictionary is that of 

 Tabred and Pigneaux in Latin. Aubaret has published a satisfactory 

 grammar and vocabulary at Paris, 1867, for the sjDecial use of students and 

 the French officials. The language is included in the course of the Ecole 

 des Langues Orientales at Paris ; and the Professor Aymonier has written 

 treatises on Cochin- Chinese, as has also M. De Gramont. W. Schott has 

 written on the language and character, so have Dr. Bastian and M. de 

 Rosny. We may pass over numerous vocabularies of different dates and 

 degrees of excellence. Des Michels has published at Paris, in 1869, dia- 

 logues and text-books. Our knowledge of this language is ample, but of 

 its rude congeners, and its past history, and its actual linguistic relation to 

 the Mon on one side, and Chinese on the other, we have still to look for 

 information based upon scientific procedure. With this language we have 

 completed the survey of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, with the exception of 

 the Malay Peninsula, which must, linguistically, be treated as an island of 

 the Indian Archipelago. 



" And before we enter on this new world we must sweep up five clus- 

 ters of islands in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, so as to complete 

 this great subject, viz., the Andamans, the Nicobars, the Maldives, the 

 Laccadives, and the Mergui Archipelago, all of which are included within 

 the limits of British India. 



" The Andamans contain the famous convict settlement, which in 1872 



