THE LANGUAGES OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 207 
A provisional system of Classification for Comparative 
Vocabularies of the Languages of the Indian Archipelago. 
A. Words applicable to material substances ge¬ 
nerally (physics.) 
Class 1. to bodies at rest (geometrical properties, extension, 
form, size, position, &c.) 
2. to bodies in motion, and time (motions, forces, 
changes, periods, succession of events &c.) 
3. to sound. 
4. to light and colour. 
B. Words appertaining to natural history (ex¬ 
cluding man.) # 
5. to physical geography, geology, minerals. 
6. to hydrology. 
7. to the atmosphere and astronomy. 
3. to vegetables. 
a. names of trees and smaller plants yielding edible fruits and 
seeds. 
b. cultivated plants yielding edible leaves, stems, roots, extracts, 
spices, condiments 
c. plants cultivated (or their flowers. 
d . small uncultivated plants (herbs) 
e. forest trees and shrubs including those yielding.timber and 
other materials for the arts * 
f. plants yielding medicinal substances. 
g . trees and plants yielding dyes, gums, oils (non edible,) poisons. 
h . words relating to vegetables. 
9. to animals (excluding man.) 
of which is that a large number of the words which are given as nouns neces¬ 
sarily reappear in a distant place as verbs, and many not even changed to a 
verbal form, but merely having the words indicative of “ to do/' 14 to be/’ “ to 
become/’ ** to give/’following them. The same order is not followed in arrang¬ 
ing verbs and nouns. The classification of the nouns, upon which most pains 
appears to have been beBtowed, is good ; but, owing probably to the different 
classes not having been distinctly defined before the vocabulary was written 
out, and to the principle of association being sometimes too artificial, occa¬ 
sional awkward juxtapositions, and even repetitions of the same word, occur. 
Apart from the main defect (as we consider it) of adopting a grammatical 
arrangement, these slight blemishes are hardly worth pointing out, as they will 
doubtless be perceived and remedied by the author himself, before he embodies 
the results of his present extensive and vigorous researches into the aboriginal 
languages of India. It augurs well for the progress of ethnographical philo¬ 
logy in the east, when men of his varied and profound acquirements devote 
themselves to it. 
* Many trees in tbit class which aie chiefly valuable for their timber pro¬ 
duce edible fruits also. 
