m 
OX THE MALAYAN AND POLYNESIAN 
exclusive of the aspirate, which never begins a word or syllable, and 
always follows a vowel. 
In no part of speech of either language is gender or number ex¬ 
pressed by a change in the form of the word; and the only instance 
of an inflexion is to express a possessive. Relation is expressed ge¬ 
nerally by propositions. 
The only changes which verbal roots undergo, express neuter, 
transitive, casual, passive, and reciprocal verbs; and this is effected 
by prefixes or affixes, or both together. Time and mode are ex¬ 
pressed by modals prefixed. 
It is to be observed that the adjectives expressing gender and num¬ 
ber, the propositions expressing relation, the prefixes and affixes ap¬ 
plied to verbal roots, and the modals expressing time and mode are, 
for the most part, different in the two languages, although there be 
so general an agreement in their grammatical structure. 
In these characters, phonetic and grammatical, the other langu¬ 
ages of Sumatra, of Java, of Madura, of Bali, of Lombok, and of 
* 
Borneo agree, but the similarity goes no farther. 
I proceed to compare some of the other languages in which Ma¬ 
lay and Javanese words are found with those characteristics of the 
Malay and Javanese languages, and begin with that of Madagascar. 
Instead of six vowels, this has only four,— a, e, i, and u . Instead 
of nineteen consonants, it has but fourteen, viz., b, d, f, g, k, l, m, 
ji, n, p, v , s , z, zd. It wants the c, the palatial “d, and ‘t, j, h, w, 
and y , of the Malay and Javanese, but it has f, v, z, and zd, which 
are unknown to these. Like these it lias an aspirate; but instead of 
always following the vowel as in them, it always precedes it. 
In Malay and Javanese, words may end in a vowel, a consonant, 
or an aspirate indifferently. In Malagasi, they can end in a vowel 
only. 
In Malay and Javanese, the liquids l, r, w, and y, are the only 
i 
consonants that coalesce with other consonants ; but, with the ex¬ 
ception of r in a few instances, they never do so in Malagasi. On 
the other hand, we have in this language combinations of conso¬ 
nants unpronounceable by a Malay or Javanese, as mp, nt, nzd , and 
