A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

DISSERTATION. xciii
guages, the Sumbawa, the Bima, and the Tambora. The geo-
Langua-es
logical formation is eminently volcanic, and it was in
ofsumbawa.
^j^-^ island that took place in 1815 the most tremen-
dous volcanic eruption on record. On my way to Celebes in
1814, 1 saw this volcano in activity, and the great eruption took
place in the following year, when I was at Surabaya in Java,
distant about 250 miles. We were there enveloped in darkness
by the ashes from the volcano for three days. The natives of
Sumbawa are little inferior in cultivation to the most improved
nations of Celebes.
In the appendix to Sir Stamford Raffles' History of Java,
short examples are given of the three languages of Sumbawa.
According to these, the Sumbawa contains 9 Malay words,
1 Javanese, 21 common to these two languages, 5 Bugis, 3
Macassar, 4 common to the Bugis and Macassar, and only
1 native word out of 45. This would make it appear that the
Sumbawa is a mere mixture of foreign tongues ; but I have no
doubt but that this result is produced by the inadequacy of the
specimen adduce! But 46 words of the Bima give a different
result. Two only are Malay, 3 Javanese, 13 common to these
two languages, and 2 Bugis, while 26 are native. But the most
remarkable result is exhibited by the analysis of the Tambora
language. Of 48 words, 2 only are Malay and Javanese, viz :
—
;
bulu, " a hair,'^ and makan, " to eat " and there is but one
which is Bugis, the term for man or human being. All the
rest, including 12 numerals, have every appearance of being
original. It was in the country of the people speaking this
language that the great volcanic eruption of 1815 took place,
and natives of Sumbawa afterwards stated to me, that the greater
part of the tribe was destroyed by it. If the orthography of the
specimens of the languages of Sumbawa be correct, their pho-
netic character must differ from that of the Bugis and Macassar,
for several of the Mords are made to end in consonants which
are neither aspirates nor nasals.
The Sumbawa and Bima languages are written in the
Bugis character, but there exists in this island a singular and
curious obsolete alphabet worth noticing ; it is as follows :
a, ch, ph, n, s, r, t, th, b, 1, gh, j, p, d, w, m, oh, dh, bh, k, ng,