ON ETHNOLOGY. 
247 
They still occupy the greater part of that peninsula, and a portion, at least, of 
the island of Ceylon. Their idioms—the Tamul or Malabar, the Telugii or 
Telinga, and the Karnataka or Canara of the Mysore,—are sister dialects of 
ooespeech. It is likely that the languages of the mountain tribes of India, 
the fibils, the Gonds, the Tudos and others, belong to the same stock. 
Frofcs»>r Husk coujcctared that these uatinns are also of the Tartar stock. 
Their language has some of the peculiarities of structure which have been 
pointed out. 
8. Another suggestion, with which I shall close what 1 have to say on the 
Ui^Mgej of this great family, will appear to be still more conjectural. 
There are certainly some curious analogies between the Tamulian and 
other dialects of the Oekban and the languages of Australia, with which we 
lure obtained some acquaintance through the labours of Mr. Threlkeld and 
several other missionaries, and from the able researches of Captain Gray. 
Siailarlaws of structure have been found in boUi these groupes of languages; 
*>d some of tlieir personal pronouns, words which appear to have remained 
often less dtanged than almost any other vocables, have some very striking 
itteoiblances *. 
In passing from this part of my subject, I must not omit to remark that I 
nm far from regarding the supposition, that all the nations and lan^ngea 
now enumerated really belong to one stock, as established on satisfactory 
pounds. I have briefly touched upon the principal parts of this hypothesis, 
undon gome of the prominent arguments which occur in its support; my 
object being to point out the most advanced steps which have been made, 
though sometimes on grounds not perfectly secure, in the progress of eth- 
■‘o^ogy- It must bo observed that many of the nations thus brought within 
one departtuent differ wi«iely from each other in physical characters. 
3- The third family of languages belonging to the Groat Continent are the 
Chinese and Indo-Chinese idiums. They are associated by the reseniblance 
" their structure, consisting of monosyllabic words, and not by any con- 
Mtrable number of common vocables. Other languages have monosyllabic 
the Sanskrit, but the words of the Sauskrit become polysyllabic in 
^tiuction; not so the Chinese, which are incapable of inflection, and do not 
tlie use of particles as a supplement to this defect, the position of 
Wrdjiud sentences being the principal means of determining their relation 
^each other and the meaning intended to bo conveyed. Baron William 
Humboldt has observed, that conversation in tlmsts languages tlierefore 
Quires a greater intellectual effort than ia necessary to comprehend the 
of sentences spoken in the inflected languages. 
All the nations who speak these languages bear a considerable resemblance 
other in their mental character and disposition, and still more ob- 
their phyaical characters, in which, however, some varieties are 
Strongly marked as the peeuliarity of the monosyllabic languages undoubt- 
J ttv they are not as a class so completely insulated as many persons inia- 
The llbotiya or Tibetan laiigimge belongs to this family, bnt Jt is in 
intermediate between the ntonosyllabic languages lu gene^ 
»ll which is one of the Tartarian groupe. Thi^ >» to o® 
351^ researches of Ai»el Remusat and from the writings ot the 
i 55®“scholar, .Alejcander Csoma Kdrdsi. 
• the Syro-.Amlnan lancnagcs api>car to liave been spoken from the veiy 
J f l‘y the various naUons who inhabited that part of Asia lying to the 
fi*t»ard of the Tigris, They seem also to have had a more ancient footing 
* This fact was pointed out to me by Mr. Norris. 
