LANGUAGE OF RACES 
20/ 
lips, and short woolly hair. Every word of this language, which 
he supposes to be of New Guinea, differs from that of Wageou; nor 
does a single word of Malay and Javanese occur in it. 
M. Duperry lias given the ten digits of three Negro languages, 
two of New Guinea, and one, that of New Ireland. In the first in 
order of those of New Guinea, the numbers 5, 6, and 10, are Ma¬ 
layan, greatly corrupted. The second, said to be that of the inha¬ 
bitants of the interior, does not contain even one word that is Ma¬ 
layan. But in the language of New Ireland we find the numbers 3, 
4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10, all Malayan. 
Forster* has thirty-three words of the language of Malicolo, one 
of the New Hebrides, the population of all which group appears to 
be Negro. Cook observes, that the people of Malicolo “ seemed to 
be quite a different nation from any we had yet met with, and speak 
a different language. Of about eighty words collected by Mr. For¬ 
ster, hardly one bears any affinity to the language spoken at any of 
the islands I had ever been at. I observed that they would pro¬ 
nounce most of our words with great ease. They express their ad¬ 
miration by hissing like a goose.”f 
The words given by Forster accord with this description of its 
phonetic character. They imply 12 consonants instead of the meagre 
numbers of the Polynesian dialects. These are b, d, g, k, l, m, n, 
n, r, s, t, and y ; and they are combined in a manner, not only un¬ 
known to the Polynesian, but to the Malay and Javanese, as db, ts, 
and rg. 
Among the thirty-three words there are three which are corrupt¬ 
ed Malayan : the words, fur “ eye,” “ ear,” and the verb “to die,” 
which last, however, instead of mad, is mats. 
Another Negro language is that of Tanna, also one of the New 
Hebrides. Forster gives forty-one words of it. Cook observes of 
it: “ It is different from any we had before met with, and bears no 
affinity to that of Malicolo ; so that it would seem the people of this 
island are a distinct nation.”;]; 
* Forster's Observations on Cook’s Voyage. 1776. 
f Cook’s Second Voyage. X Ibid. 
