58 THE SAKAI AND SEMANG DIALECTS. 
‘ment. Similarly one of the chief differences between the Sénoi 
and the Témbe’ groups is that the latter has more in common 
with Semang than the former. The purest Sémang appears to 
be spoken in Central and Northern Kédah and the adjoiniag 
States of Raman and Ligeh, and the purest* Sakai in South- 
eastern Perak, between Sungei Raya and Ulu Slim, and in the 
adjoining valleys of Ulu Pahang. Between these centres there 
is a debatable country in which are to be found more or less 
mixed tribes speaking mixed dialects partly Sémang, partly 
Sakai. 
The author’s classification appears to be defective in one 
point, namely in ignoring the Jakun group of the South of the 
Peninsula: this group, whatever its origin, is now hopelessly 
broken down and almost swamped with Malay, but itis of some 
interest and apparently originally quite distinct from Sakai. 
llere we have, however, the first attempt at a systematic 
grouping of these dialects, and for this the author deserves 
every credit. He also brings out a most important fact, viz: 
that, underlymg the common Mon-Annam element. which 
apparently runs through practically all these dialects, though in 
varying strength, and the comparative uniformity of which has 
led some former writers into the erroneous Pan-Negrito theory,’ 
there is in the Sémang dialects an alien element, neither Mon- 
Annam nor Malayan, which may reasonably be assumed to be 
the remnant of the original speech of the Negritos. 
It is a mistake to assert that there are but few words com- 
mon to Sakai and Sémang: the contrary is the case, such words 
being fairly numerous. But, apart from these, there is a body 
of words apparently peculiar to Sémang and not derived from 
Sakai or any other known language. It is in these words that 
the original affinities of the Sémang dialects will have to be 
~ sought (if indeed it isany longer possible to detect them) and 
not i in the words which Sémang has in common with. Sakai and 
y. i mean pure with reference to Sémang and Sakai intermixture 
only, leaving Malay influence out of the question. 
-z. By this I mean the notion (of Maclay and others) that the 
whole of fhe aborigines are of Negrito origin and that the differences 
amongst them depend merely, on the percentage of crossing with 
Malays. 
Jour, Straits Branch 
