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Show 1 I I 70 ON TIIE DISTRIBUTION AND recalls, in certain respects, that of the Dravidian tongues) seems, hy the way, to have undergone, in the course of time, modifications sufficiently deep. The Malgaclte, or Malagasy, spoken at the island of Madagascar, constitutes, as it were, a link between the Malayo-Polyncsian idioms and those of Africa. Mr. J. R. LoGAN, in an excellent series of labors on this tongue,25 makes it seen how several traits in common existed between tho Ma.lgachc and those tongues of the great SouabilceCongo family, which he terms Zimbian. The same system of sounds. One finds again in them that euphony signalized in tho idioms of CcntralAfi·ica, associated with those double letters, mp, md, nlt, nd, nJ, t1·, dr, ndr, nr, ts, nts, tz, that also characterize the languages of Africa. Prefixes serve equally in them to represent the categorical forms of a word. Finally, that which is still more characteristic, the Malgacho does not distinguish genders any more than do tho African idioms; and, like the vast Souabilcc-Congo group, it carries with it the gcnerical distinction, accord.ing as beings arc animate rational or inanimate, irrational. But, side by side with these stril<ing ana: logi~s, thc:·o ~ist fundamental differences. Tho Malgachc-vocabulary 1s Afncan m no manner whatever, although it may have imbibed some words of idioms from the coast of Africa : it might approach rat? or towards the Hamitic vocabulary; but its pronouns arc peculiar to 1tsclf .. I~ possesses ~uitc an especial and really characteristic power for combm111g formatrvc prefixes; and many traits attach it to those tongue.s of .tho Sooda~ which have surprised philologers by their analogws w1th Polyncs1an languages. It is, thor fore, evident that the Malgache represents to us a mixturQ of idioms; or, to speak more exactly, tho result of influences exerted upon a Polynesian idiom by African languages and with so~w ~lausibility likewise, by those of tho Hamitic class. 'Thi~ com~ 1 ~1gh ng ?ctm.ys. itself eqt~ally in the population of Madagascar. J ~v1dcntly m tlns 1sland, to JUdge by the pcl'vading type of its inbabttant~, thoro has been an infusion of black blood into the insular or l'OClprocally. In ? ncral, the races that find themselves spread over the zone occupwd by the families of Malayo-Polynesian languages do not at all present homogeneity; and one must admit that they.dcsccnd from innumerable crossings. Nevertheless, the facir-if fact 1t be, after tho analyses of CRAWJ•·mm, indicated farther on-of a (fond) substratum of words in common, and of a grammar reposing upon ~he. same bases, proves that one and the same race has exerCised 1ts mfluence over all these populations. "' 26 'j'"e Journal of tile lndia.n Archipelago and Eaetem Asia, Singapol'e, _Supplementary ~,o. 10l' 1854, pp. 481 soqq. CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 71 Wbcro must one go and seek for the cradle of this race? Comparative philology places us upon a trail towards its discovery. There exists in the trans-Gangetic peninsula an "ensemble" of languages appertaining to tho same family as the Chinese; by attaching itself on the one hand to the Thibctan, and on tho other to the Siamese. Those tongues have been designated by tho name "monosyllabic," because tho primitive monosyllabism is perceived in them in all its original simplicity. In monosyllabic languages, there yet exist only simple words rendered through one single cmiBsion of the voice. These words are, at one and tho same time, both substantives and verbs : they express tho notion, tho idea, indop ndcntly of the word ; and it is the modus through which this word becomes placed in relationship with other words that indicates its categorical sense in a sentence. The Chinese tongue-above all under its ancient or archaic form- is tho purest type of this monosyllabism. It corresponds in this manner to tho older period which had prcccucd that of agglutination. Every Chinese word-otherwise said, each syllable-is composed of its initial and of its final souud. 'l'he initial sounu is one of the 136 Chinese consonants; tho final sound is a vowel that never tolomtos other than a n~sal consonant, in which it often terminates, or else a second vowel. What characterizes tho Chinese, as w •ll as the other languages of tho same family, is t\lo a ·c nt that manifests itself by a sort of singiug intonation; which vari s by four diitercnt ways in the Chinese, reduces itself to two in tho J3armau, and ends by oflacing itself in the Thibotan. The presence of this accent destroys all harmony, and opposes itself to tho "liaison" of wor<ls amongst themselves; because, the minutest chancre in t}JC tone of a word wo ulu gi vc birth to another word.. In order that s pooch should remain intelligible, it is imperative that tho pronunciation of a given word must be invariable. lienee tho absence of what philolo•··ists call "phonology" in the Chinese family. Albeit, in the vomacnlar Siamese, already an inclination manifests itself to lay stress upon, or rather to drawl out, tho last word in a compound expres~:~iou. These compounded expressions abound in Chin so; tho word~:~ that enter into them give birth, in reality, through their assemblage, to a now wol'cl; because tho sense of this expression has often no resemblance whatsoever, almost no relationship, to tl1at of tho two or three words out of which it is formed. The dmwling upon the second syllable that takes place in the Siamese is the point of departure from monosyllahism, whiclt alr ady shows itself still more in the Oambodfian. Tho Barman con·cHponds to the passage of monosyllabic tongues, wherein the souu<ls arc not |