Origin and Migrations offlie Polynesian Nation. 87 



nations" published in the tenth volume of the " Asiatic Re- 

 searches," and of the late John Crawford, Esq., in his very valu- 

 able " History of the Indian Archipelago." It was also the 

 opinion of that eminent German scholar, the late Baron "William 

 Humboldt, whose great posthumous work in three quarto volumes 

 in German, published under the auspices of the Royal Academy 

 of Berlin, by his illustrious brother, Baron Alexander Humboldt, 

 and entitled TJeber die Kaivi Sprache in inseln Java (on the Kawi 

 language of the island of Java) is a perfect mine of wealth in all 

 questions relating to the languages of the east and of Polynesia. 

 I may be permitted to add, that at my suggestion a copy of that 

 valuable work has recently been procured for our Parliamentary 

 Library. 



Nay, in allusion to the common origin of the South Sea Islands 

 and Malay nations, and their original derivation from the Indo- 

 Chinese nations of Eastern Asia, that eminent orientalist has a 

 long dissertation in the work I have just mentioned, showing how 

 a dissyllabic or poly-syllabic language is developed out of a 

 monosyllabic, which it is well known is the general character of 

 the languages of the Indo-Chinese nations. 



There is one remarkable peculiarity in the habitudes of thinking 

 among the Indo-Chinese nations, which is also observable among 

 the Malayan and Polynesian tribes, but which, as far as my own 

 knowledge extends, is altogether unknown among the nations — 

 whether Asiatic or European — to the westward of the Ganges. 

 That remarkable peculiarity consists in their having a language 

 of ceremony or deference distinct from the language of common 

 life. '"In addition to these simple pronouns," says Dr. Leyden, 

 in the essay referred to above, " there are various others which 

 indicate rank and situation, as in Malayu, Chinese, and the 

 monosyllabic languages in general, which have all of them paid 

 peculiar attention to the language ' of ceremony, in addressing 

 superiors, inferiors, and equals." "The distinction of an ordi- 

 nary language and one of ceremony," observes Mr. Marsden, 

 " exists, to a certain degree, among the Malays in practice, 

 although not systematically or compulsorily as we find it to be 

 the usage among the Javanese. "f " Among the latter," observes 

 Sir Stamford Raffles, in a passage quoted by Mr. Marsden, " nearly 

 one-half of the words in the vernacular language have their cor- 

 responding term in the polite language, without a knowledge of 

 which no one dare address a superior." " This distinction," 

 observes Mr. Crawford, in a passage quoted by Mr. Marsden, 

 " by no means implies a court or polished language, opposed to a 

 vulgar or popular one ; for both are equally polite and cultivated, 

 and all depends on the relations in which the speakers stand to 



f Miscellaneous Works, page 21. 



