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SPECIMENS OF THE DIALECTS OF TIMOR AND 
OF THE CHAIN OF ISLANDS EXTENDING 
THENCE TO NEW GUINEA. 
By Geo. Windsor Earl, Esq., M.R.A.S. 
In the south eastern parts of the Indian Archipelago, where op¬ 
portunities of social intercourse between the various petty tribes are 
of rare occurrence, every island, indeed every detached group of vil¬ 
lages, has its own peculiar dialect, which is often unintelligible even 
to the tribes in its immediate neighbourhood. In some of the larger 
islands, Timor, for example, these tribes are so numerous, and the 
country occupied by many of them is so little known, that it becomes 
impossible to form even an approximative estimateof their number. 
As far as I have had opportunities of judging, however, the dialects 
spoken by these tribes differ more in appearance than in reality, and 
those at least of the brown-complexioned or Polynesian races seem to 
be mere subdivisions of one common language. I have given below a 
comparative vocabulary of the dialects spoken at different spots be¬ 
tween the south end of Timor and New Guinea, one for each group, 
which will afford some idea of the affinities which exist. These, 
with the comparative vocabulary of the dialects of Saparua, Ceram, 
&c. in Sir Stamford Raffles’ History of Java, will furnish one spe¬ 
cimen at least for every group in the Timor and Banda seas, with 
the exception of Sumba or Sandalwood Island, and although not 
containing many words, they will probably be found sufficient for all 
common purposes of comparison. 
The more extended vocabulary given below is that of one of the 
dialects of the island Kissa, near the east end of Timor, one of the 
Serwatty group. It is spoken by more than two thirds of a popu¬ 
lation estimated to amount to 8,000, probably as large a number as 
will be found any where in these seas speaking one particular dia¬ 
lect, and as there is no evidence of the inhabitants haring mixed in 
the slightest degree with the Papuans, it is well adapted to furnish 
a specimen of this eastern group of dialects. Having visited the is¬ 
land on several occasions, I had repeated opportunities of revising 
the vocabulary, which became the more necessary from the circum¬ 
stance of individuals differing somewhat in the pronunciation of cer¬ 
tain words, especially of those which contained gutturals. 
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