THE LANGUAGES OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 227 
weakness &c. These have been incidentally noticed in the 
above broad discriminations, but each will require to be 
fully and separately investigated when we attempt to eluci¬ 
date the phonetic characteristics of the different languages 
which we shall compare, and the metamorphoses of their 
words. Here we have, in great measure, limited our view 
to the organic or formative characteristics,f but we shall 
find that the vocal qualities of the letters, irrespective of the 
instrument which produces them, are equally necessary to 
explain their permutations, some depending on the substitu¬ 
tion of one action of the organs for a proximate one, and 
others on the harmonies of sound, which compel the organs 
to produce a letter belonging to one organic class in lieu of 
that of another. 
When we apply the vocal elements of language which we 
have been considering, to the languages of the Archipelago, 
we discover that the various orders of physiological affinity 
which the table exhibits are fully born ont philologically. The 
exceptions, (whether of tr nsmutations which the table does 
not explain, or of affinities existing according to it which are 
not represented by actual transmutations,) are few, and often 
apparent only. 
We give a few examples at random of those permutations 
which take place most openly and commonly. When we 
compare the vocal characters of the different languages we 
shall find that the greater number of these substitutions of 
one sound for another are distinctive of certaiu dialects f 
A. Consonants belonging to the same organic class. 
Gutturals shop, Icadei Mai. gadei Bug. $ fry, goring 
Mai. kori Let.; all, sagala Mai. sekara Biaju; k and g are 
* We hope that actual dissections will ere longascerfain with precision the 
cause of the diff-rent tone and pitch ot' the voice in the different races of the 
Archipelago. The latter, according to physiologists, depends immediately on 
the length of the vocal cords, which have never been measured, so far as we 
are aware, >n any Archipelagic race, but this again is connected with the ge¬ 
neral physical conformation, 
f Thf- surd and sonant forms of the same letter are easily interchangeable in 
most. Tims k into g; eh into j; p into b fsee preceding note.] In Malay there 
are several words in which the strong and weak forms are comnmtable. The 
interchange of p and b is the true explanation of some of the anomalies of 
that most puzzling of Malayan particles, per. It is somet.mes substituted for 
her. In the transitive form of Malayan verbs it is noticeable that while the 
soft b stands its ground before the prefixed particle, the greater weight of 
p requires its displacement; (boat, membuat; pu.tar, memntar.) So with 
d and t (dapat, mendapat ; turut, mennrut) and with k and g (kata, men* 
gata; goso’, menggoso’.) In the Polynesian languages the surds and sonants 
are iaterchangeble. 
