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Show 68 ON TilE DISTRIBUTION AND crossings which have made, of the branches of the Negrorace, populn.tions very unequal in development of faculties, and in intelligence exceedingly diverse. One perceives a Semitic influence in the speech, as one sometimes discovers it in tho typo of face. Tho Hottentots, who are more distinct from Negro-populations than any other race of Austral Africa, separate themselves equally through their tongue. Tho Foulahs and the Wolofs, so superior to tho other N cgroes by their intellect and their energy, distinguish themselves equally through tho respective characteristics of their idiom. And in like manner that, maugre the variety ofpltysical forms, a common color, diiforontly shaded (nuanaee), reunites into one group all those inhabitants of Africa whoso origin is not Asiatic, a common character links torrothcr tho grammars of their languages; -or, in otho: words, African idioms have all a family-air, without proClsely resembling each other. Thoro is one important remark to be made here. It is that some African languages denote a development sufficiently advan?cd of ~he faculty of speech, and consequently of the ro.ficctlvc aptttudes of which this is the manifestation. In this fact ~v? have a new proof that tells against the unity of tho or1?111 of languages. Because, if African languages w?ro tho Issue of other idioms, fallon in some way among mmds more narrow (bo1·nes) than had been those of the sul:poscd-oldor nations that spoke them, they ought necessanly to have become impovetished, to have altered themselves; and the laws, which have been established above in tho history of one and the same tongue, would load us to expect that these last ought to be at once more analytical and more simple. Now, their very-pronounced characteristic of agcrlutination excludes .tl:e idea of languages arising from ~ut of the docompos1t10n of others; and the complex nature of their grammar attests a date extremely ancient for their formati~ n ... Tho idioms of Africa carry, then, the stamp both of pnm1t1ve and complicated languages; and, as a consequon. ce, of tongues which arc not derived, at an epoch relattvely modern, from other languages possessing the same pat~llel character. lienee it must be concluded, that ~~esc .A~r10an la~guages arc formations as ancient as other :ngmstlc ~ormattons; possessing their own characteristics; nd of wlnch the analogies conospond with those that bind up together the great branches of the N ogro-raco. CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 69 Wo have soon that a few of the Mrican languages recall to mind, either through their vocabulary, or by peculiarities of their grammar, tho PoLYNESIAN idioms. Those idioms constitute, as it wore, a grand Zone, that extends betwixt Africa and America: and this position explains how migrations of the race that spoke them, and which we shall call MalayoPolynesian, may have como over to blend themselves with tho negroes of Mrica. From Madagascar as far ns Polynesia, we find a family of similar tongues that has become designated by Lhe name of Malayo- I olynesian, after that of the race. It decomposes itself into two groups, viz: the Malay group, comprehending an "ensemble" of idioms spoken from Madagascar to the Philippine-islands; and the Polynesian group, prop rly so-termed. One moots again, in this famHy, with tho self-same inoq11ality of development amid the different languages that compose iL. Whilst the Malay denotes an advanced degree of cultur , the idioms of Polynesia offer a simplicity altogether primitive. Those have restricted their phonetic system within very naiTow limits; and they employ matter-of-fact methods, no less than very poor forms, in order to mark tho grammatical categories. It is through the help of particles, oftentimes equivocal, that these languages try to give clearness to a discourse compounded, albeit, of rigid and invariable olomonLs. The structure of Polynesian words is much more simple than that of tho Malay words: a syllable cannot be terminated by a consonant followed by a vowel; or it is not even formed save tl1rough a single vowel. These languages are, besides, deprived of sibilants; and they tend towards a planing-away of homogeneous consonants, and to cause those that possess a too-pronounced individuality to disappear. It has seemed, therefore, that the Polynesian tongues result from tho gradual alteration of Malay languages; which are far more energetic and much more defined. Otherwise this Polynesian family ofrcrl:! a tolerably great homogeneity: everywhere one ro-boholds in it this identical elementary phonology. Tho idioms of the Marquosas-islos, of N ew-Zoaland, of Ta'iti, of the Society-islands, of the Sandwich and 'l'onga, are bound together by close ties of relationship. Su ·h is tho paucity of their vocal system, that they have recourse frequently to the repetition of the same syllable, in order to form now words. The onomatopee is very frequent in them. The grammatical categories arc also but vaguely indicated; and one often sees the same word belonging to different parts of tho same sentence. 'l'ho methods of enunciating one idea are sometimes the same, whether for oxprossing an action or for designating an object. 'l'ho gend r and number are often not even indicated. Tho vocal system (which |