The languages and literature of Celebes, though
in many features of resemblance partaking of the
character of those of the more western countries,
differ very essentially from them. The alphabet, in
the first place, takes a new character ; the letters
of which it consists taking a new form, as little like
that of the Javanese as the latter is to the Arabic
or Roman. The alphabet of Celebes consists of
eighteen consonants and five vowels, to which are
added, sometimes, four supplemental consonants,
being merely four of the first eighteen aspirated,
and an additional vowel. It is singular that
the peculiar and technical classification of the
Sanskrit alphabet should have been adopted in
the alphabet of Celebes, though rejected in that of
Java.
Besides the dialects of some abject savages and
of some tribes more improved, two great languages
prevail in Celebes, the language of the Bugis and
Macassars, as they are denominated by the people
of the western portion of the Archipelago, and
from them by u s; or Wugi and Mangkasara, as
they call themselves. The Bugis is the language
of the more powerful and numerous nation, and
the most cultivated and copious. The Macassar is
more simple in structure, abounds less in synonyms,
and its literature is more scanty. Both
partake of the common simplicity in structure of
all the languages of the Archipelago, and are distinguished
above all, even the Malay, for a soft
and vocalic pronunciation. Of the two the Macassar
possesses this property in the most eminent
degree. Except the soft nasal ng, no word or syllable
in either language ever ends in a consonant,
and no consonant ever coalesces with another.
The organs of the people seem hardly capable of
pronouncing a consonant so situated, so that even
foreign words, when used, or adopted in the language,
must undergo the change implied in this
principle of orthoepy, whether they be from the
guttural Arabic, the grunting Dutch, or the hissing
English. The best Macassar is spoken in the
state of Goa or Macassar Proper, and the worst in
the principality of Turatea, the inhabitants of which
are, by their fastidious neighbours, accused of injuring
its natural softness by an uncouth pronunciation.
The Bugis are said to be possessed of a recondite
and ancient language parallel to the Kawi of
Java and the Pali of the Buddhist nations ; but
the knowledge of it is confined to a very few, and
I have met no specimens.
The learning of the Macassars, as already mentioned,
is inconsiderable ; but the Bugis have a
considerable body of literature, which consists of
tales and romances founded on national legends
and traditions,—»translations of Malayan and Java