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CHAPTER V.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLYNESIAN
LANGUAGESResemblance
between the whole o f the Languages of the Indian
Archipelago.—Resemblance- in Sound.—-In Grammatical
form— In Idiom.—Redundancy on some Subjects and poverty on
others.—Great variety of Written Character.— Three Alphabets
on Sumatra.—One on Celebes.—-A current and obsolete
Alphabet on Java.- —East-insular Alphabets cannot be traced
to the Hindus.— The improved Languages may be resolved
into seven component parts.—Radical portion o f each language
distinct.—Languages numerous in each Country in the direct
ratio of their Barbarity.—Arguments in Favour o f an
aboriginal Language with each Tribe.— Gredt Polynesian
Language.—Pervades the whole o f the languages o f Polynesian—
Words o f this Language most numerous in the most cultivated
Dialects.—Nature o f this Class of Words.—Conjectures
respecting the People o f whom the Great Polynesian was
the Language.—Arguments in favour of Java being their
country.—Influence o f the Polynesian long prior to that of
the Sanskrit.— Cognate Languages.—Probable history of
their Reciprocal Influence on each other, illustrated in the Influence
o f the Malay on the neighbouring Languages.—-Examples
of that Influence, illustrated in the History of the
Malay Language.—Sanskrit words admitted into all the
improved Languages,—Probable history of its Introduction,
and arguments in Support o f the Hypothesis adduced.
—Kawi, a recondite Language, how formed.—Sanskrit