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Show 76 ON TIIE DISTRIBUTION AND populations of tho peninsula of Malaya.26 Now, we again encounter, even yet, this binary system among Australian populations. The Dravidian idioms have, then, chased before them the Australian tongues at a primordial epoch that now loses itself in tho night of time. At a later ago, thoro appeared tho Malayo-Polynesian languages, which have coalesced in order to push still farther on to the eastward, or at least to drive within a more circumscribed space, these same Australian tongues. Then, after having implanted themselves in those islands whence tho Australian savages had been gradually oxpulsed, the two groups, the Malay and tho Polynesian, cloclarcd war against each other; and now- a-days, in tho Indian 0 ·can, tho Polynesian becomes more and more crowded out Ly the Malay. 'l'hi~ fac~ ~rings us ~ack n~turally to the problem of tho origin of that lmgmst1c formatiOn wInch we have designated by tho name "Malayo-Polynesian." We have said that the Thibeto-Barman races had e>..'J>Clled from Incli~ those black tribes wi~ _which they must have intermingled in certam cantons. _TJ:e. Drav:d1an pop~lations acted in the same way. Several of tho pr1m1t1ve tnbos of llmdostan preserve still in their features and in their skin, the impress of an infusion of Australian blood. lias a mixture of another natL1re taken place in Polynesia? Aro tho isla~dcrs of tho Great Ocean born from tho crossing of some race commg from elsewhere? Several ethnologists and notably M. GusTAVE n'ErcnTIIAL,27 have admitted that tho Polyn~sians came ft·om tho cast. Bes~des tho rosomLlancos of usage which those ethnograp~ors have perceived between divers American populations (and espoc1al!y those of. the G_ua1·ani family) and the Polynesians, they have discove_red, m thou· respective idioms, a considerable nu_mber of :W~rds m common. N cvertheless, such similitudes arc n~tther su.fri.cwntl~ general, nor sufficiently striking, to enable us With certamty to Identify tho two races. There are concordances tha:, as regards words, may originate simply from migrations ; or whwh, as regards forms of syntax, result from parity of O'rammatic 1 development. b a This does not prevent the employment of other facts (as yot historically un~roven, and _fr~:1ght with tremendous physical obstacles) to de~onstiate the poss1bihty of the emigration of some American populah?~ s; but upon this point languages do not yield us anythinO' declBlve. More conclusive aro the comparisons that M. n'EIOIITIIA~ ll6 J,ournal of the Indian Arcllipelago a11d Eastern Asia A "1 27 Etudes sur l'Ilistoire Primitive des Race 0 ~ . ' pn -June, 1855, p. 180. cr6tairc-adjoint de Ia Soci6t6 Etbnologiqu:." c amcnncs ct Amdricaines, by the learned "So- CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 77 has made between tho tongues of those Foulahs, or Follatahs, that inhabit Senegambia, and some idioms of the Malayo-Polynesian family. These analogies are too striking for us to refuse some recognition of an identity of origines; which, furthermore, rosiles from many other comparisons. Tho light complexion of tho Foulahs, and tho superiority of their int llcct, had at an early hour attracted the notice of voyagers. We would admit, therefore, that the MalayoPolynesian race,-wbilst it advanced towards the south-cast of Asia, and exterminated or vanquisl1ed tho black races-had penetrated on the opposite hand into A{i·ica; crossed itself with tho negro populations; and thus gave birth to the Foulah-tribcs and their congener peoples. At Madagascar, we rc-encountcr this same Malayo-Polynesian race nndcr tho name of Ovas, or llovas. This iHlancl appears like tho point of re-partition of tho race that might be nam cl C< par excellence" Oceanic, because it is by sea that it has invariably advanced. [Not to interrupt the order of tho foregoing sketch of those Oceanic languages, we have hitherto refrained from presenting another contemporaneous view, that would, in many respects, modify the one which, on the European continent, represents an opinion now current among philologists concerning those families of tongues to which tho name "Malayo-Polynosian" ba been applied. If tho high authority of Mn. JOliN ORA \HUIW~ wore to be passed over in Malayan subjects, our argument would lack completeness; at tho same time that the results of the learned author of tho "History of tho Indian Archipelago," wore they rigorously established, would merely operate upon those we have set forth, so far as bl'caking up into several distinct groups,- such as, Malgache, Malay, Parman, IIarfoorian, Polynesian, AuFJtralian, Tasmanian, &c.,- tho families of languages, in this treatise, denominated by om·solvos Malayo-Polynosian. And it mu. t be conceded concerning those tongues spoken by the perhapsindigenous black races of Malaysia, Micronesia, and Melanesia, that, while, on the one hand, science possesses at pre ont but scanty information; on tho other, no man has devoted more patience anu skill to tho analysis of such materials as we have, than Mn. CRAWl!'URD. Tho following is a brief coup d'C£il over his researches. "A certain connoxion, of more or less extent, is well ascertained to exist between most of the languages which prevail from Madagascar to Easter Island in tho Pacific, and from Formosa, on tho coast of China, to New Zealand. It exists, then, over two hundred dog1·ocs of longitude, and seventy of latitude, or over a :fifth part of the surface of the earth. * * * * * * The vast region of which I --;A Grammar and Dictionary of the Ma.luy Language, London, in 8vo., 1862; vol. i., DiHsortaiion and Gro.mmar. |