14 LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA. 



The main object of this paper being merely to point out 

 the existence of Malayo- Polynesian words in these languages 

 and not to determine the difficult question of their right to be 

 classified as genuine members of that family, I shall pass 

 somewhat lightly over their grammatical characteristics of 

 which indeed, except as regards Cham, little is as yet known. 

 Cham forms its derivative words, like the Malayan, but 

 unfortunately also like the Southern Mon-Annam languages, 

 with prefixes and infixes : The common ones in Cham are the 

 prefixes : pa, ma?-, ta- or da- and infixes : -an-, -nee- and -am- or 

 -mm-. Most of these reappear, in more or less similar forms, 

 with much the same force, in Achinese ; but also in Cambojan, 

 where they are very freely used, and to some extent in 

 Peguan.* Suffixes, corresponding to the Malay -/can and -an 



Prefixes. 



Achinese. 



Cham. 



Khmcr. 



Mon. 



Verbs of action : causal or 











merely transitive 



pe-, pu- 



pa- 



p-, ph- 



p-, ph- 



Verbs, generally intransitive ... 



me-, mil- 



mo3- 



9 



ma 



Infixes. 











Verbs of state, intransitive . . . 



-em- 



•mce- 



? 



-m- 



Substantives 



9 



-mce- 



-m-, -amn 



-m- 



Substantives 



-en- 



-an- 



-n-, -an- 



[-an- 



In some other cases, where the forms agree, the meanings appear 

 to differ somewhat. 



do not appear to be in use at the present time either in Cham, 

 Achinese, Cambojan or Peguan ; but if the derivation given 

 above for limoen (liman) from lima is right, they must have 

 existed formerly to some extent in Cham. 



The Selung dialect forms verbs by prefixing me- as in 

 mrtni/am, "to smell" (Malay clnum), no- as in na-baut, " to 

 make" (Malay buat), naleat, "to look" (Malay h'hat), nadok, 

 " to sit " (Malay dttdok, Achinese duk, Cham dok) ; also, appar- 

 ently, by nasalizing the initial consonant, as in nadone, " to 

 sleep" (Malay tidor) and nakoat " to fear" (Malay takut). But 



<lata for the other dialects) through most of the parts of speech, but 

 the non-Malayan element is also, apparently, present in them. 



* A few instances of this general correspondence must suffice : 

 there are of course many differences in detail. 



Jour. Straits Branch, 



