LANGUAGES AND RACES, 
ts, and these, even beginning words and syllables. If the native of 
Madagascar had invented an alphabet, which like other Negro Afri¬ 
cans, they have not done, eaeh of these harsh sounds would, probably, 
have been considered a distinct consonant, and have had its proper 
character. 
But the grammatical structure of the Malagas* has been adduced 
as proof that it is a member of what has been called the Polynesian 
family of languages, in itself a mere hypothesis, and the form of the 
verb has been especially referred to as evidence. 
One form of the Malay, but not of the Javanese transitive verb, 
is made by prefixing to the root the inseparable particle ma, the 
nasals m, n, n, and n, being substituted for the initial letter of the 
root as the euphony of the language may demand. 
There exists also in the Malagasi a verbal prefix beginning with 
the letter m ; but beyond this there is no analogy. The Malagasi 
prefix, instead of being one, expressing one meaning, amounts to 
thirteen, expressing as many meanings. We have mi, man, rnana , 
rnaha, mampi, mampan, mampampan, mifan, mifampi, mifampan , 
mampampan, and mampifampan , Eaeh of the Malagasi verbs form¬ 
ed by these prefixes has an indicative, an imperative, and an infini¬ 
tive mood. The indicative has, throughout, a present, a preterite, 
and a future tense expressed by an inflexion. In four kinds of verbs, 
the imperative has two forms; and in nine, it has four. In all, the 
root may undergo 180 changes. 
There is nothing analogous to this in the simplicity of the Malay or 
Javanese verbs. To the copious and elaborate Dictionary of Messrs 
Freeman and Johns, a most meritorious work, there is prefixed the 
paradigm of a Malagasi verb, from which I have borrowed my repre¬ 
sentation of it.* The root in this case, is suite, a substitute which, I 
have no doubt, is the Javanese word meaning the same 
thing, or “ a representative” or “ agent,” with the loss of its final 
consonant, indispensable to the genius of Malagasi pronunciation. 
The greatest number of changes which any root can be made to 
* A Dictionary of the Malagasi Language, by J* J, Freeman. London, 
1835, 
v. 
