18 LANGUAGES OF SOUTHERN INDO-CHINA. 



peculiarities which distinguish the Mon-Annam from the Mala}-- 

 an group, e.g., a preference for hard sounds * (surds) and the 

 occurrence of true aspirated consonants : these latter char- 

 acteristics may be due to the non-Malayan element in these 

 languages. 



The hypothesis here put forward would account for the 

 remarkable resemblance in structure and formal elements 

 between the Malayan and the Mon-Annam languages, a re- 

 semblance which, so far as I know, no one has yet satisfactorily 

 explained, f But of course it must remain a mere hypothesis 

 until these languages have been thoroughly studied and 

 compared with one another. 



This much, however, is certain : one Mon-Annam language 

 which cannot be accused of having been developed on Malayan 

 soil, namely the Annamese, which grew up on the borders of 

 Kwang Si, within the Chinese sphere of influence, does not 

 exhibit these phenomena, but follows the Chinese system of 

 tones, though it has not adopted the Chinese ideological order. 

 I take it that the differences between Peguan and Cambojan on 

 the one side and Annamese on the other are the measure of the 

 difference between a Chinese and a Malayan environment. 



Whether, however, this suggested explanation be the true 

 one or not, there remains the fact that in Peguan, and still 

 more in Cambojan, there are a fair number of words (too many 

 to be due to accidental coincidence) which correspond in form 

 with Malayan words of similar meanings. As already stated, 

 they are generally more or less contracted or mutilated, by the 

 weakening or entire loss of one syllable, while the Malayan 

 languages retain them in their fuller disyllabic forms. That 

 being the case, the presumption is that they are genuine Malay- 

 an words ; and this presumption is strengthened when any of 



* Clearly, however, it is at a relatively modern date that the 

 Mon-Annam languages have changed some of their sonants into surds : 

 for in many cases (especially in many of the Indian and some of the 

 Malayan loan-words) they still appear as sonants in the written 

 language. Conversely Cambojan pronounces some surds as sonants. 



I Mr. Himly in his paper referred to below, throws out a hint 

 that some such explanation is possible, but does not enlarge upon 

 it. 



Jour. Straits Branch. 



