$30 THE LANGUAGES OF THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO* 
gutturals and dentals even in those departments which* from 
being at once aspirate and surd* we might suppose to be most 
repellant of it. The Malayan r evinces its guttural tendency 
by passing into g* k, h, ex. gr. deer, rusa Mai. kusak Samang, 
hus't Daya ; tail, ekor Mai. ekok Bug. * blood, d*ru Mai. dug a 
Kag; sail ,l<yar Mai. layak Kag. Uyag Bis, Tag; day, hati MaL 
arao Tag, aqao Kag; rice, bras MaL bugas Bis; water ayerM* il. 
ay/c Bat; three, tri Kawi* Sanskrit, taru Ende* torn Mu rang 
New Z. Rar. Man., tiga Mai fin other dialects tilu , tolu\ by 
the common euphonic process of inversion lotu * lo &c ; by the 
interchange of 1 and n tiw, teni Tarawa] house, ruma Mak hu~ 
ma Biaju, Sibnau ; hulu Mai. riulu Bugis On the other side 
the r makes itself serviceable to the dentals by doing the work 
of d and t Wall, for instance* which is dinding in Mai. be¬ 
comes renr ng in Bug; nose, idong Mai. urong Kayan, ido 
Samba, iru Rabu, Let; one, satu Mai sadi Bug sorw Mas * ere 
Mank. rcri Paum; leaf, daun Mai rau Rot; two, da a Mai 
nun Tim. lua Bim rua Bat; sea laut MaL lor Belo [ the 
passage of r into n is probably most frequently through 1] 
We have seen that it sometimes takes the place of other 
palatals, such as j, y; and its interchanges with all the weak 
aspirates are easily and often effected* particularly with the 
dental 1 and n. Its highly vocalic nature is further proved 
by the mode in which it is softened until it is lost in a vowel. 
The process by which this is probably most easily accom¬ 
plished is well illustrated by the word m-ri, come; in 
Kedah the r is a soft guttural; the next step is a slight one 
into an aspirate; finally, in the Besisi dialect of the Penin¬ 
sula, and at Ende, Butun, &c , we find the aspirate lost, and 
all that remains of the r a pure vowel coalescing with a,— mai. 
The aspirates and the nasals, from their capacity of dwind¬ 
ling into mere tones of the other letters, are so mobile that 
they may be termed the wings of the letters. When they 
attach themselves to a letter, its organic momentum is so 
much diminished that it is easily born over the boundaries 
of its own class and placed in another. The aspirate again, 
hardening into a decided guttural on the one side, and 
attenuating till it vanishes on the other* furnishes a 
medium by which most of the consonants may ap¬ 
proach* coalesce with, or become absorbed in, vowels* Two, 
dua Mai rua Batta, Ende, &c., hua Lamp.* ua Haya ; Babi * 
wawi , vwi (hog) becomes huhe in Ende and Tmhuo in Sa- 
parua; prut Mai (belly) becomes poot in Menadu and hoot 
in Ternate; four* ampat MaL mpa Bug. hapa Matasanka* 
hat Belo, hake Rotuma, haa Tim ha Roti, Tahiti, Hawaii; 
