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

clxxYiii DISSERTATION.
with the low state of civilisation among the Australians, is
the absence of abstract or general terms of the most ordinary
description. There is no word in any Australian language for
tree, bird, or fish, but specific names in abundance.*
The most commonly adopted theory respecting the origin of
the Australian languages is, that, however numerous in appear-
ance, they are all sprung from one common stock, and in fact,
are mere dialects. Judging by the arguments produced in
support of this hypothesis, it appears to me as untenable and
baseless as that which makes all the languages of the Indian
Archipelago and the Pacific one tongue. As in this last case,
the hypothesis is chiefly built on the similarity of a very small
number of words. Mr. Eyre gives a list of 15 words in nine
languages. They consist of the personal pronouns, in their
singular, dual, and plural numbers, of four numerals and the
adjectives " many " and " few." In the pronoun of the first per-
son singular, there is a resemblance in five languages, and that
resemblance consists merely in the words beginning with the
consonant ng : in the remaining five examples, there is not a
shadow of likeness. In the pronoun of the second person singu-
lar, the word is essentially the same in four instances ; while
in four others, the only resemblance consists in the initial
letter of all of them being n. In the ninth example there is
no resemblance at all. In the pronouns of the third person
singular—of the second, and of the third person plural, there
are no two words alike out of the nine languages. In six cases
out of the seven, the first personal pronoun of the dual
is the same ; in the seventh, it is utterly unlike. In the third
person of the dual, there is a resemblance in two languages,
and a dissimilarity in four. In the numerals of the nine
languages, I can see no similarity, such as would warrant a
common origin. The adjectives "many" and " few " appear
to me to be dissimilar in every one of the nine languages.
Specimens such as these arc mere selections ; they afford
evidence of a connexion between certain languages, but are no
proof at all of a common tongue.
Sir George Grey gives a list of 28 words, ten nouns, and
* Eyre's Expeditions, vol. ii.