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

cclxxxvi DISSERTATION.
termed provincial differences arising chiefly from pronuncia-
tion, but hardl}' a dialect in the sense in which we apply it to
Scotch and English, to Welsh and Armorican, or to Irish and
Gaelic. The languages of the Archipelago might, indeed, be
classed in groups, according to their phonetic character and
grammatical structure, but this would, by no means, make even
all the languages of one group, the same tongue, as long as their
elementary words and the body of each language are known to
be different.
As far as my enquiry goes, the languages of the Negro races
differ among themselves as much as those of the brown-complexioned
;—to appearance, indeed, even more, since no common
languages to any material degree connect them as is the case
with the languages of the brown-complexioned races. Within
the field of our enquiry there is just one example, and it is a
remarkable one, of a wide-spread language split into true
dialects. This is the Polynesian. Its dialects agree in phonetic
character, in grammatical structure, in elementary words, and
in the great majority of all their words ;—in short, the unity
of language is in this case unquestionable.
As to the manner in which the Malayan languages have been
diffused, I presume to think that the nearest analogy to it will
be found in the diffusion of Greek over the ancient vernacular
languages of Italy and Asia Minor. The locality of the people
with whom the Greek language originated bears no incon-
siderable resemblance, in its leading features, to that of the
Malayan nations. The early Greeks were as notorious for
roving and piracy as the Malays themselves ; like the INIalayan
nations, too, they were a rude people when they disseminated
their language, and the history of the dissemination is almost
as obscure. The Greek language, indeed, Avas not so far spread
as the Malayan tongues, but this, assuredly, was not owing to
inferior enterprise, but to obstacles insurmountable by a rude
people ; for, instead of being favoured by pei'iodical winds and
tranquil seas, after quitting the Mediterranean, the Greeks had
to encounter the variable storms and winds of the Euxine on
one side, and of the Ocean on the other, while to the north and
south, instead of a continuity of islands, they were hemmed in