2 THl miNOLOGT 01 THE 1SDIAS ARCflJPFLAOO- 



directed to 130 words in nine language*, which he ha* presented 

 in a com lenitive table. Humboldt aleo believed that ihe Malayo- 

 Polvnesian lamjuapea would 1* found to be primitively rnono- 

 *vlla!>u\ :«nd lhat the Polynesian in particular hud great gramma- 

 li'cal resemblances to the Chinese. In the Ta^aU be found the 

 HHHiliur forms of the Malayo-Polynesian statural system most 

 Mlv and elaborately developed, and he considered that the other 

 languages hud degenerated from a similar stnje, while the Tap In 

 preserved liie original organism in lull vitality and operation 

 Pi^fessor Bopp, oiH' of the most iustly celebrated philologist*, 

 mis recently endeavoured to prove, fchiefly from an examination oi 

 numeral* and pronouns, that the Mnlayo-'Polynetian languages are 

 dismteffrated Sanskrit. Sir William Jones had long before 

 eon* -liuled. with :i confidence arising from ignorance of the suhjr-ct, 

 that all these tongues were derivatives from the Sans'trit. - 

 Thr raw* ar d languages of tln^i- regions !iav L - .vtrnttod th* 

 attention of mnnv other less original enquirers, but I shall only 

 notice the opinions of Dr Prichard and Chevalier Btimeft. 

 Both have adopted the views of Mairden and Humboldt, t P*> 

 rhard considered it as established that there is one Mftleyo- 

 Polynesian race which, at a period before the influx of Hindm«m t 

 .misled nearly in the htate of the present Tahmatw am! New 

 ft Zanders and spread over all the islands of ihe Indian and 

 Paoiiic OceauF, having the centre of its mental culture, or at 

 tea* of the development of its lan^ua^es, in the northern part 

 of tin- Philipine Archipelago. He tttt of opinion that Bom 

 htd tailed to prove the Sanskrilic derivation of the Ooiaiiie 

 tongttefc or even to establish a family relationship between them 

 and' ihf great eastern representative of the Indo-European lan- 

 guages. The resemblance he declared to be even mneh more 

 remote than that between the Iranian family and the Semitic. 

 I)r Prichard did not himself undertake any original eOqnlnrt 

 into the Oceanic languages nor form any independent ♦■onciuatoiH 

 resisting them. Asia other parts of his laborious and valuable 

 work, his attention was chiefly' attracted by the physical |«»rt 

 i>f ethnology and its bearing on the theory ot the unity ot the 

 human race. , 



The two opinions respecting the internal history ot the 

 Mahmt-Polynesian races to which I have adverted, may be 

 considered a* still before the public in nil their antagonism, 

 no attempt has been made by the advocates of either to modify 

 reconcile them, 1 am not aware that any Malayan philologist ha* 

 critically gone over the some ground as Humboldt. Mr Cn wfurd 



• Wita equal facility bn deduvl, at another lime, thai Qw Malays tt* 

 ,1.Hk ^Ak't I* oi" Arabian tradtm mul mariner* after the age 01 M ahjutiad. 



t fllr HtamforU Raffle* uL*o embraced Mareden'i Tiews, but bin phu^c*] Wiw* 

 iaA%* vn* U«o scanty to admit of hl& being reierred iota an independent authority 

 *,n Vm subject 



3 



