ETHNOLOGY OF THU INDO-PACIFIC ISLANDS. 



177 



coiiJition the formation was much more agj^lomerative, atulconac- 

 qiienily a|)|noachf;d ulosei" ill phaneltc structure to tho great agglo- 

 luerative ntl lance. In this respect as in the character of itg elemen- 

 tary eouiui, anU in the; absence of the regular vocalic harmony that 

 has hc'cri develojifii m' tlifTused throughout the Scythic family it 

 appeurs to aBSociale itself with a proto-Scythic phonetic type. 



3. The basis cf the Dravirian vocahulary ia monosyllabic. In 

 this stage tt is coiiuecJed with the ultimate monosyllabic basis of 

 all other languages, am] by its pronominal roots, aa well as many 

 olberSj it flpccially connects itself with Cbincae. 



4. The actual form of the vocables h in general that of a root 

 with definitives attached, usunlly posffixually but in some cases 

 prL'fixuatly. In this stage it connects itself genprally with all the 

 exii^tinjj harmonic languages ; more closely with those formationa 

 in which the Scyihic postfixing of definitives prevaila to a greater 

 or less extent although comhinetl with prefixes, as in Caucasian, 

 Indo-European, Sctniiico-I-ibyan, K.E. Asian, American and proto- 

 Scythic i and gp'^cially and most closely with the Scythic forma- 

 tion itself in whieh this habit is predominant and almost excludes 

 the prefixual. The postfixing of llie pronoun possessively, and the 

 attainment through this of the assertive form, are referable to the 

 same idiom, and embrace a similar range of affinities. The South 

 Dravirian group' tike the Indo-European formation lias lost the 

 primary uoiversallty of ihe habit, bur, ae in that formalioF^ the 

 posrfixed pronouns and pronominal eiementa in assertives are a 

 remnant of it- The Kol group in one class of words retains liio 

 idiom with substantives. The idiom is fully preserved in Scy thic; 

 in some American languages; in Semitico-Libyan with subsian- 

 tivcfl and in most of the languages with assertives j in the Caucasian 

 lartguages with subdtantivea and in some with assertives j iti 

 Euskarian, as in eome tenses of Libyan languages and in Indo- 

 European, with definitivea used as generic or absolute assertivea 

 otdy; in Malayn-Polynesiaa with substantives and in one group 

 with assertives. The pronoun is pr*'fixed in all or in some cases 

 in certain of the Caut-aiiian, Semitico-Libyan, Zirabian, Yenieeian 

 and American languages (following the Chinese and Tibclo -Ultra- 



