LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA. 7 



respects clearly more archaic than that of Malay and could 

 not, therefore, have been derived from it. In fact, even if these 

 words were all that we knew of the dialects in question, we 

 should be justified in saying that they constituted a distinct 

 subgroup of languages, not directly derived from any existing 

 Malayan group. The forms for one, two, four, jive and sice run 

 practically through the whole Malayo-Polynesian family almost 

 unchanged. In four the mainland dialects approximate most 

 closely, perhaps, to the Bugis apak and Madurese empale, unless 

 indeed the -k, which appears to be unpronounced in these two 

 languages, is to be regarded merely as a device of writing, not 

 as the remnant of a real -k ; Selung agrees with the Javanese 

 and Dayak pat. In sir they all agree with the Javanese nem in 

 the absence of the first syllable of the word (Malay anam) but 

 retain the a of the second syllable like the Malay (also the 

 Madurese anam) ; the Achinese and Kayan Dayak form 

 nam is identical. 



The forms for three agree substantially amongst themselves 

 and (except that some have a guttural for the initial t- ) with the 

 great majority of the Malayo-Polynesian family which retains 

 the old form tolu or tela; but differ from Malay, which has 

 another word, tiga. The nearest approximation to the Cham 

 Cancho and Chreai forms appears to be the Bisaya (Philippines), 

 tlo: compare also the Sulu * Katluan ( = Ka-tlu-an), "thirty." 

 For the guttural, compare Sulu i/clog, Selung k'loen, with Tagalog 

 itlog, Malay telor, " egg.'' The Rode contraction to recurs in Sulu. 



The forms for seven, on the other hand, differ from the 

 typical Malayo-Polynesian pitu and agree subsantially with the 

 Malay tujoh, save only that Selung puts I- for t- . 



In both these cases, it is very noticeable that the dialects 

 now under consideration agree substantially with Achinese 

 (telhn or Iku pronounced telhe'e and Ihee, "three;" and tujuh, 

 " seven ") and with some of the Dayak dialects of Borneo, for 

 which the reader may refer to No. 5 of this Journal, where 

 out of a list of eleven dialects, ten have forms of tolu for three, 

 and eight of those ten agree with some others not included in 

 the ten in having forms of tujoh for seven. 



* Between Borneo and the Philippines. 



R. A. Soc, No. 38, 1902. 



