Chapter X: Appendix: To Jukes's Voyage of Hms Fly

1847.

For philological purposes it is convenient to arrange the Blacks of the Asiatic and Oceanic Islands under five divisions.

I. The Blacks of the Andaman Islands.--These are, comparatively speaking, isolated in their geographical position; whilst the portion of the continent nearest to them is inhabited by races speaking a monosyllabic language.

II. The Blacks of the Malay area.--With the exception of Java, all the larger, and many of the smaller Malay Islands, as well as the Peninsula of Malacca, are described as containing, in different proportions, a population which departs from the Malay type, which approaches that of the Negro, which possesses a lower civilization, which generally inhabits the more inaccessible parts of the respective countries, and which wears the appearance of being aboriginal to the true Malay population. These tribes may be called the Blacks of the Malay area.

III. The Papuan Blacks of New Guinea.--Under this head may be arranged the tribes of New Guinea, New Ireland, the New Hebrides, Tanna, Erromango, Annatom, New Caledonia, &c.

IV. The Blacks of Australia.

V. The Tasmanian Blacks or the Blacks of Van Diemen's Land.

I. The Andaman Blacks will not be considered in the present note.

II. With respect to the languages of the Blacks of the Malay area, it may be stated unequivocally, that the dialects of each and every tribe for which a vocabulary has been examined, are Malay.

A. Such is the case with the Samang, Jooroo, and Jokong vocabularies of the Peninsula of Malacca.--See Craufurd's Indian Archipelago, Asiatic Researches, xii. 109, Newbold's British Settlements in Malacca.

B. Such is the case with every vocabulary that has been brought from Sumatra. The particular tribe sufficiently different from the Malay to speak a different language has yet to be found.

C. Such is the case with the eight vocabularies furnished by Mr. Brooke from Borneo; notwithstanding the fact that both the Dyacks and the Biajuks have been described as tribes wilder and more degraded than the Malay: in other words, as tribes on the Negro side of the dominant population.

D. Such is the case with every vocabulary brought from any of the Molucca, Key, Arru, or Timorian Islands whatsoever; no matter how dark may be the complexion, or how abnormal the hair, of the natives who have supplied it.

E. Such is the case with the so-called Arafura vocabularies of Dumont Durville from Celebes, and of Roorda van Eysinga from Amboyna and Ceram.

F. Such is the case with the languages of the Philippine Islands. In no part of the great Malay area has the difference between the higher and lower varieties of the population, been more strongly insisted on, and more accurately explained than here. Yet the testimony of the early Spanish Missionaries, as to the fundamental identity of the Black with the other languages is unanimous; and, to put the matter further beyond doubt, the few words of the Igorot negroes, near Marivèles, which are supplied by Lafond Luray, who visited them, are Malay also.

Now, on these grounds, and laying the Andaman Islands out of the question, it may be safely predicated, that, until we reach either New Guinea, or Australia, we have no proofs of the existence of any language fundamentally different from the Malay; whatever may be the difference in physical appearance of those who speak it.

III. For New Guinea, and the islands Waigioo, and Guebé, I have found only ten short vocabularies, and these only for the north-western districts. One of these, the Guebé, of the voyage of the Astrolabe, although dealt with by Mr. Durville as Papuan, is Malay. The rest, without any exception, have a sufficient portion of Malay words to preclude any argument in favour of their belonging to a fresh class of languages. On the other hand, the commercial intercourse between the Papuans and Malays precludes any positive statements as to the existence of a true philological affinity.

From New Guinea, westward and southward, we have for the localities inhabited by the black tribes with curly hair, the following vocabularies.

1. For New Ireland.

A. Gaimard's Carteret Harbour Vocabulary--Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 143.

B. Durville's Port Praslin Vocabulary. Ibid.

C. Dalrymple's, so called, New Guinea Vocabulary, collected by Schouten and Le Maire, given also by De Brosses.

2. For Vanikoro--Gaimard's Vocabulary in three dialects, the Vanikoro, the Tanema, and the Taneanou--Voyage de l'Astrolabe, Philologie, ii. 164.

3. Mallicollo--Cook's Vocabulary.

4. Tanna--Ditto. Also a few words marked G. Bennet, in Marsden's Miscellaneous Works.

5. Erromango--a few words by Bennet, in Marsden.

6. Annatom--Ditto.

7. New Caledonia--A short Vocabulary in Cook. A longer one in Dentrecasteaux and La Billardiere.

All these languages, although mutually unintelligible, exhibit words common to one another, common to themselves and the New Guinea, and common to themselves and the Malay. See Transactions of the Philological Society, vol. i. no.[26] 4.

[Footnote 26: This is the preceding paper. (1859).]

IV. The Blacks of Australia are generally separated by strong lines of demarcation from the Blacks of New Guinea, and from the Malays. Even on the philological side of the question, Marsden has written as follows--"We have rarely met with any negrito language in which many corrupt Polynesian words might not be detected. In those of New Holland or Australia, such a mixture is not found. Among them no foreign terms that connect them with the languages even of other _papua_ or negrito countries can be discovered; with regard to the physical qualities of the natives it is nearly superfluous to state, that they are negritos of the more decided class."--_p._ 71.

In respect to this statement, I am not aware that any recent philologist has gone over the _data_ as we _now_ have them, with sufficient care to enable him either to verify or to refute it. Nevertheless, the isolation of the Australian languages is a current doctrine.

I believe this doctrine to be incorrect; and I am sure that, in many cases, it is founded on incorrect principles.

Grammatical differences are valued too high; glossarial affinities too low. The relative value of the grammatical and glossarial tests is not constant. It is different for different languages.

In 1844, I stated, at York, that from three true Malay localities, and in three true Malay vocabularies, I had found Australian and Tasmanian and Papuan words, viz:--

1. In the Timboran dialect of the Sumbawan.
2. In the Mangerei dialect of Flores.
3. In the Ombayan of Ombay.

1. Arm = _ibarana_, Ombay; _porene_, Pine Gorine dialect of Australia.

2. Hand = _ouiue_, Ombay; _hingue_, New Caledonia.

3. Nose = _imouni_, Ombay; _maninya_, _mandeg_, _mandeinne_, New Caledonia; _mena_, Van Diemen's Land, western dialect; _mini_, Mangerei: _meoun_, _muidge_, _mugui_, Macquarie Harbour.

4. Head = _imocila_, Ombay; _moos_, (= hair) Darnley Island; _moochi_, (= hair) Massied; _immoos_, (= beard) Darnley Islands; _eeta moochi_, (= beard) Massied.

5. Knee = _icici-bouka_, Ombay; _bowka_, _boulkay_ (= forefinger) Darnley Islands.

6. Leg = _iraka_, Ombay; _horag-nata_, Jhongworong dialect of the Australian.

7. Bosom = _ami_, Ombay; _naem_, Darnley Island.

8. Thigh = _itena_, Ombay; _tinna-mook_ (= foot) Witouro dialect of Australian. The root, _tin_, is very general throughout Australia in the sense of _foot_.

9. Belly = _te-kap-ana_, Ombay; _coopoi_, (= navel) Darnley Island.

10. Stars = _ipi-berre_, Mangarei; _bering_, _birrong_, Sydney.

11. Hand = _tanaraga_, Mangarei; _taintu_, Timbora; _tamira_, Sydney.

12. Head = _jahé_, Mangarei; _chow_, King George's Sound.

13. Stars = _kingkong_, Timbora; _chindy_, King George's Sound, Australia.

14. Moon = _mang'ong_, Timbora; _meuc_, King George's Sound.

15. Sun = _ingkong_, Timbora; _coing_, Sydney.

16. Blood = _kero_, Timbora; _gnoorong_, Cowagary dialect of Australia.

17. Head = _kokore_, Timbora; _gogorrah_, Cowagary.

18. Fish = _appi_, Mangarei; _wapi_, Darnley Island.

Now as the three dialects have all undoubted Malay affinities, the statement of Marsden must be received with qualifications.

V. Concerning the language of Van Diemen's Land; I venture upon the following statements, the proofs which I hope, ere long, to exhibit _in extenso_.

α. The Language is fundamentally the same for the whole island; although spoken in not less than four dialects mutually unintelligible.

β. It has affinities with the Australian.

γ. It has affinities with the New Caledonian.

A fourth proposition concerning the Tasmanian language exhibits an impression, rather than a deliberate opinion. Should it, however, be confirmed by future researches it will at once explain the points of physical contrast between the Tasmanian tribes and those of Australia that have so often been insisted on. It is this--that the affinities of language between the Tasmanian and the New Caledonian are stronger than those between the Australian and Tasmanian. This indicates that the stream of population for Van Diemens ran _round_ Australia rather than _across_ it.

The following affinities occur between the vocabularies published in the present volume and the Malay and Monosyllabic dialects; and they are the result of a very partial collation.

1. Blood = _mam_, Darnley Island; _muhum_, South Jooroo dialect of Malacca; _mau_, Anamitic of Cochin China.

2. Nose = _peet_, Darnley Island; _peechi_, Massied; _pih_, Chinese; _pi_, Kong Chinese.

3. Face = _awop aup_, Murray Islands; _eebu_ = (head) Cape York, Massied; _oopoo_ = (head) Tahiti; _epoo_, Sandwich Islands; _aopo_, Easter Island.

4. Hair = _moos_, Darnley Island; _mooche_, Massied; _maow_, Chinese.

5. Country = _gaed_; Darnley Island; _kaha_, Ternati.

6. Black = _gooli_, Darnley Island; _houli_, Tongataboo.

7. Hand = _tag_, Darnley Island; _tangh_, Madagascar; _tong_, Jooro; _tay_, Anamitic. A current Malay root.

8. Fish = _wapi_, Darnley Island; _iba_, Poggy Isles off Sumatra. Also in other Malay dialects.

9. Flame, fire = _bae_, Darnley Island; _api_, Flores, or Ende; _fai_, Siamese; _ffoo_, Kong Chinese.

10. Hair = _yal_, Massied; _eeal_, Cape York; _yal_, Port Lihou; _houlou_, Tongataboo.

11. Teeth = _dang_, Massied; _danga_, Cape York; _dang_, Port Lihou; _dang'eta_, Gunong-talu of Celebes; _wahang_, Menadu; _rang_, Anamitic.

The evidence upon which I rest my belief of the fundamental unity of the three philological groups of the Malay, Papua, and Australian languages, is, of the sort called _cumulative_; and it is the only evidence that our present _data_ will afford us.

Believing, however, in such a fundamental unity, the problem to be solved by further researches on the vocabularies from either Torres Strait or the South of New Guinea, is the problem as to the particular quarter from which New Holland was peopled--whether from New Guinea, or from Timor. Such a problem is not beyond the reach of _future_ philologists.

In the fifth volume of Dr. Prichard's valuable work, I find that Mr. Norris has indicated points of likeness between the Australian dialects, and the Tamul languages of Southern India.

Such may be the case. If, however, the statements of those philologists who connect on one side the Tamul, and on the other the Malay, with the Monosyllabic languages, be correct, the two affinities are compatible.

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA (1859).

The error of presuming the ruder tribes to be Negrito is apparent in the notice of the Sumatra, and Borneo tribes. They should have no place in a list of Negritos at all.

The gist of the paper lies in the suggestions to break down (1) the lines of demarcation between the Australians, Tasmanians, and Papuans on one side, and the Malays &c. on the other, and (2) those between the Malay and Monosyllabic tongues.

REMARKS ON THE VOCABULARIES
OF THE
VOYAGE OF THE RATTLESNAKE.