The Sakai and Semang Languages in 
the Malay Peninsula and their rela- 
tion to the Mon-Khmer 
Languages. 
BYeE. WSC HMID Ess. V2 ps 
REVIEWED BY W. D. BARNES. 
In the third and fourth numbers of the eighth part of the 
sixth series of the Bijdragen tot Taal-Land-en Volkenkunde 
van Nederlandsche-Indié, published in 1901, is a: paper by 
P. W. Schmidt, S.v.D., written in German with the title “ Dir 
Sprachen der Sakei und Semang auf Malacca und ihr Ver- 
hiltniss zuden Mon-Khmer-Sprachen.” The following abstract 
of it will I think, have great interest for readers of the Journal. 
The author begins his introduction as follows :— 
“«More important than these connections with the An- 
‘“namite language are the undeniable relations of our mono- 
““ syllabic Khasi-Mon-K hmer root-stock with the Kohl language 
‘with that of Nancowry and with the dialects of the abori- 
‘‘ gines of. the Malay Peninsula. We should not however be justi- 
‘fied in deducing therefrom an ancestral connection with these 
“partly polysyllabic languages.’ So wrote E. Kuhn towards the 
“end of his ‘Articles on the languages of Further India’ Beit- 
‘“riige zur Sprachenkunde Hinterindiens. Sitzgsb: d.k. bayer. ac. 
“d, w. phil-hist. LL 18991. p. 219 f.f.) Thus he leaves open the 
“question whether there exists between the Khasi-Mon-Khmer 
“group and the Khol languages, that of Nancowry and the 
‘dialects of the aborigines of the Malay Peninsula, an intimate 
“actual relationship, or whether the evident identities are due 
‘merely to external influences. neni 
“Some years later--1834—E. (sic.) Otto Blagden in the 
‘* Journal of the Straits Branch 27 pages 21-46, without appar- 
‘ently knowing anything of Kubn’s work put forward a more 
Jour. Straits Branch 
