ETHNOLOGY OF THE INDO-PACIFIC ISLANDS.

By J. R. LOGAN.

LANGUAGE.

Chap 1.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE INDO-PACIFIC LANGUAGES.

SEC. I. PHONOLOGY.

Elementary Phonology. The insular languages present similar contrasts of harsh and soft phonologies to those that are found in every considerable region in other parts of the world. But their prevailing character is vocalic, harmonic, and flowing. This is

• Introductory Note. As the publication of the various sections of my review of the ethnology of the Indo-Pacific islands must necessarily occupy a considerable period, I thought it advisable to proceed at the same time with the separate notices of each tribe. After some trials I found it would be impossible to convey a clear idea of the ethnologic results afforded by the languages of particular tribes, without the constant repetition of references to the general characteristics of the insular languages. In order to avoid this I propose to take a rapid reɣiew of all the known languages of Oceania, and to compare their leading traits with those of other families of language around the eastern Ocean. I hope to be enabled at some future period to offer a more complete view.

The following arrangement has been adopted. A brief sketch of the general characteristics of the Oceanic languages is first given. This might perhaps have been advantageously enlarged, but it has appeared to me sufficient for ethnological purposes. It would be difficult, without undesirable amplification, to give a more exact view, while continuing to avoid any anticipation of ethnic comparisons and conclusions. When I endeavour to trace the relations of the insular languages to those of the continent, the comparative character of the former will be more clearly indicated. The second chapter is a general classification of the Oceanic languages according to their leading phonetic and ideologic characters. The subdivisions must be postponed until we come to glossarial comparisons. In the third chapter each of the groups established in the second, is separately considered, not with the object of observing its structure fully, but to seize on its more prominent peculiarities and affinities. This is followed by a comparative view of the formatives, definitives, pronouns, possessives and directives. I have thrown into the form of a Supplement to chap. III. a multitude of details and illustrations which if incorporated in the text would have defeated my object in making it brief, but which are necessary to convey more precise notions thau can be obtained from general description. The foreign alliances of the insular languages are next considered. I commence by examining the general characteristics of the languages of the basin of the Indian Ocean,-the Lau-Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan, Himalayan, Archaic Indian and African. Before adopting any conclusions respecting the connection between the Africo-Semitic and Oceanic languages I considered it necessary to examine the former as fully as the data within my reach allowed. The results are too extensive to form a portion of the present paper, but they will be given separately. In the meantime I have indicated very briefly the character of the African families. The relations of the Oceanic languages to the different continental alliances are examined and a view is given of the affinities between the formatives, definitives, pronouns, directives and numerals of the former and those of the latter. The bearing of the results on the ethnology of the Indo-Pacific islands are adverted to in this last chapter. That no room may be left for doubt as to those continental families with which the insular languages are most closely connected, I have added brief general comparisons with the Fino-Japanese and American alliances.

I have already remarked on the great deficiencies in our knowledge of the IndoPacific languages. Journ. Ind. Arch. vol. iv. p. 445. The list at the end of this

fully developed in the middle languages of the region, those of Eastern Indonesia, in most of which the proportion of consonantal finals is small, and in some of which the vocalic tendency is so great that all final consonants are rejected. This phonology has largely influenced the languages of Melanesia and Micronesia, and it has degenerated in Polynesia into an extreme softness and weakness. Polynesian has not only, like some of the E. Indonesian, lost the power of pronouncing final consonants, but even that of maintaining the distinction between surds and sonants, and the phonetic elements are reduced to a smaller number than in any other known language. In N. E. and W. Indonesia the vocalic phonology is accompanied by a greater love for consonants and a tendency to nasal terminals. In the ruder dialects it becomes harsh, without entirely losing the vocalic tendency; strong nasal and guttural sounds abound; and the pronunciation, instead of being pure and distinct, is smothered and intonated. The pronunciation of some of the more cultivated languages of the West is open and agreeable, retaining however a considerable degree of intonation; that of many of the East Indonesian tongues is highly rythmical and harmonious; while the Australian is extremely hurried and abrupt.

The Melanesian languages in general partake of the prevalent insular phonology. The western New Guinea, the Australian, Tasmanian and New Caledonian are in general highly vocalic, the Tasmanian and some of the Australian being purely vocalic in their finals. But some languages in the Melanesian region, particul arly those of N. Australia and Torres Strait, have preserved a highly consonantal phonology, possessing some compounds which are unknown in Indonesia. In Micronesia the prevalent phonology is intermediate between this high degree of consonantalism and that of N. Indonesian. The latter has peculiarities which connect it with Micronesian phonology, and some of these are found in a few of the languages of Borneo.

The insular intonations have not the complexity and variety which distinguish those of the Chinese and Ultraindian phonologies. In general each language has a prevailing tone which is consequently of no phonetic value. There are, however, some

paper of all the authorities from which I have derived any data, presents, I believe, a tolerably accurate view of the contributions that have hitherto been made to this branch of the ethnography of the region.

In the ethnographic notices of the different tribes, the characteristics and affinities of each language will be separately considered.

I ought to add that in the use of certain terms, and in the general mode of treating the subject, I assume that the rcader has perused my previous papers on insular ethnology, or at least three of them,-entitled "a System of Classification and orthography for comparative vocabularies," Journ. Ind. Arch. vol. ii. "Preliminary remarks on the generation, growth, structure and analysis of languages." Ib. vol. III p. 637, and "the ethnology of the Indian Archipelago, embracing enquiries into the Continental relations of the Indo-Pacific Islanders." Ib. vol. iv p. 252.-J. R. L.

exceptions. The substitution of the abrupt tone for k is common in the West, and the same tone forms a principal characteristic of Polynesian phonology.

It results from the vocalic tendency of the Oceanic languages, that the powerfully articulated and complex consonantal sounds of archaic times, still preserved to a considerable extent in N. and N. E. Asia, in the uncultivated Tibetan dialects, in S. India and S. Africa, in Rakhoing and some of the ruder languages of N.W. Ultraindia, and, in a less degree, by the ruder tribes along the more southerly portions of the W. mountain chain into the Malay Peninsula, have become softened by ejecting, abrading or vocalising the consonants. In the middle of the Oceanic region however there are remnants of a highly consonantal phonology with Tamulian and Hottentot traits. Although this archaic phonology appears to be now chiefly confined to N. Australia, it probably prevailed in Melanesia before the vocalic influence of the E. Indonesian began to operate in that region. In N. E. Indonesia and Micronesia also some allied consonantal phonologies are preserved, and this, combined with other reasons, leads to the inference that the oldest Oceanic phonologies were highly consonantal.

The variations in the phonetic character of languages which have so much in common are perhaps best illustrated by the terminals. Those of Polynesian, it has been already remarked, are purely vocalic. In E. Indonesian this is the case with the languages of Gorontalo in Celebes, Ende in the S. Chain, Saparua and Halmahera in the Moluccas; the others have a small proportion of consonantal endings, e. g. in Celebes, Kaili about 5 per cent, Buol about 7, Parigi and Tojo 10, Mandhar, Mangkasar and Bugis 25, Buton 5; in the S. chain Tenimber 16, Letti 10, Savo 3, Sumba 14, Bima 5; the others exceed the highest Celebesian ratio, Kissa 40, Timor 38, W. Timor 34, Belo 40, Roti 37, Solor 36. The Ceramese gives 16 for one dialect and 28 for another. A few W. Indonesian languages have the E. Indonesian phonology in a much larger measure than the others. This is the case with some of the languages of the islands to the W. of Sumatra. That of

It must be borne in mind that languages easily pass from consonantal to vocalic terminals. Hence we sometimes find that allied languages, spoken by adjacent tribes, differ in the terminals. Many instances of this are afforded in those parts of Asianesia in which the vocalic system meets the consonantal or penetrates into it. Thus in Australia we find some dialects with numerous and varied consonantal finals, others with nasal and liquid finals, and others purely vocalic. Some languages are neither decidedly consonantal nor decidedly vocalic. This must be the case where the existing phonology differs from the original one. The Vitian seems to be an instance of a language primitively consonantal having become vocalic from interpenetration with Polynesian, but still retaining a consonantal tendency, the final vowel being frequently indistinct and hardly perceptible.

The ratios are drawn from 300 words in the W. and N. E. Indonesian languages and 100 in most of the others. These numbers are too small, but they are sufficient to shew the tendencies of the different languages. More exact phonetic results will be given when we come to glossarial comparisons.

A

Nias has only about 9 per cent of consonants and that of Tilanjang (Engano) about 5. The Daya' tribe who occupy the river Sandol in the S. W. of Borneo have 31 per cent of final consonants, and it is remarkable that amongst these d and g occur, thus presenting a combination of N. E. and E. Indonesian phonology.

In W. Indonesian the final vowels and consonants are in general in about equal proportions, e. g. the consonants are in Malay about 65 per cent, Batta 57, Achin, Lampong, Javan, Sundan, Bali 50 per cent, Komring, Bawean, Ngaju about 40. In the N. E. Indonesian the proportions are nearly the same as in W. Indonesian or about 50 per cent. But some dialects of the Formosan appear to be more consonantal than any other Indonesian language, having as much as 70.

The W. Micronesian languages are in general as consonantal as the N. E. Indonesian. Tobi has about 50, and Pelew 66 per cent; the Marian and the Caroline are probably similar to the latter. The E. Micronesian present in Mille (Radak) a language still more consonantal, for it has 70 per cent of final consonants, a ratio only found elsewhere in Formosa and Torres Strait. The Tarawan, near Polynesian, has only 13 per cent. The Melanesian languages vary from a consonantalism greater than that of W. and N. E. Indonesia, to a vocalicism as great as that of the most vocalic of the E. Indonesian dialects. New Caledonian has about 20 per cent of terminal consonants of a W. Indonesian character. The Tasmanian and S. Australian languages in the S. and the Limba Apiu in the N. W. are purely vocalic. The western, eastern, middle and a few of the northern languages of Australia are vocalic, but most have a proportion of consonantal terminals nearly the same as the W. Indonesian. In the E. and S. W. languages the vocalic tendency is very decided, for although the proportion of terminal consonants is large in several of the dialects, the consonants are few and all of the most vocalic kind,—the nasals n and ng and the liquids I and r, e. g. Wiradurai 63 (n 23, ng 20, l 14, 6) Kamilarai 39 (n 16, ng 17, 16.). The western languages are more consonantal. The S. W. Australian has the same variety of terminals as the W. Indonesian with the exception of s, the nasals and liquids predominating. This trait, with the possession of j as a substitute for s, both being wanting in E. Australia, connects the S. W. with the N. W. Australian dialects, and leads to the inference that the intermediate western languages will be found to have similar characteristics. The northern languages present remarkable contrasts, but the prevailing character is a much higher consonantal development, and a greater proportion of terminal consonants, than the more southern languages possess. In the N. W. dialects the consonantal terminals vary from 65 to 50 per cent, while one at least is purely vocalic. The N. E. languages, have the eastern phonology as far N. at least as Endeavour River. The dialects of the Torres Strait islands are

highly consonantal, having about 70 per cent of final consonants. They are distinguished from all the Australian languages by their possession of sibilants. The N. W. languages however are phonetically allied to them. The western New Guinea languages are in general E. Indonesian in their phonology. Utanatan has 4 per cent, Lobo 14 per cent and Waigiu 9 per cent of final consonants. These languages are chiefly insular. That of Point Dory is highly consonantal, having about 65 per cent of final consonants, and it may be inferred that this represents the archaic phonology of New Guinea better than the dialects that have become vocalised at the line of contact with E. Indonesian.

The most common consonantal finals are the nasals n and ng ; t ranks next; then s and r; the others are comparatively rare. ng and n are in nearly equal proportions in most of the W. Indonesian languages, and both united form from 20 to 30 per cent or about one-half of all the consonantal finals. In the more consonantal of the E. Indonesian there is about 20 per cent of nasals, but it is remarkable that while the Mangkasar and Bugis affect the more sonant and musical ng, the Eastern and Southern languages use the surd n almost to the exclusion of ng. In the vocalic Australian languages the nasals are in larger proportion than in W. Indonesian, some having upwards of 40 per cent. In the Torres Strait dialects they are almost wanting. The Micronesian vary, Tobi having only 5 per cent and Mille 28 of which n forms 23. The final ng of W. Indonesia becomes kn in several of the Borneon dialects, and is sometimes replaced by g in the N. E. Indonesian. In Kayan kn is also initial. K is a frequent terminal in several of the W. and N. E. Indonesian such as Batta, Malay, Pontiana, Tagalo, in some of the E. Indonesian, such as Roti, Timor, Belo, Kissa, and in the more consonantal Melanesian and Micronesian languages, S. W. and N. E. Australian, Torres Strait, Tobi, Pelew, Mille. T is also common in most of these languages, and the majority of the W. Indonesian, unlike the E. Indonesian, affect it in preference to k. D does not occur in Indonesian save in some rare instances in Malay, Sandol and N. E. Indonesian. It forms 2 to 8 per cent in Torres Strait, N.E. and S. W. Australian and 1 per cent in Mille. In W. Indonesian g occurs very rarely and in a few languages. In N. E. Indonesian it is more common, reaching in Formosan to 14 per cent. In E. Indonesia and Australia it does not occur. In the Torres Strait dialects it is as common as in most of the N. E. Indonesian. In the Micronesian languages, which have so much phonetic affinity both to the N. E. Indonesian and Torres Strait, it appears to be rare. The liquids and are not common finals in W. Indonesian, but in Malay, Javan and a few others, and in the N. E. Indonesian, they form about 8 per cent. In W. Indonesian r predominates and in N. E. Indonesian and Micronesian 1. In most of the E. Indonesian these liquids are rare, but in some, such as Ceramese and Kissa, r