supposed to have modified the speech of the people, first, immediately round them, and then landwards.[1]
As to this, it may be pointed out that Australia is three- fourths the size of Europe. What would be thought of an hypothesis based upon the landing of occasional parties of Asiatics upon the northern coasts of the Mediterranean, thereby introducing an Asiatic strain into the people inhabiting, for instance, Northern Germany?
The linguistic ground upon which this "Malayan" hypothesis rests consists, first, in identification of the interrogative pronouns, for instance, minyanggai or minna of the Kabi language in Queensland with the Malayan mana, which, as Mr. Mathew himself points out, is properly the adverb "where," but which is used idiomatically to signify "who," "whom," "which," and "what"; second, on twelve words selected from vocabularies of Australian tribes. Of these words, three, namely, the Malay terms for moon, rain, and sun, are, on reference to Dr. Codrington's work,[2] found to be also Melanesian. A fourth word, namely, the West Australian yoora, or ura, meaning "man," he identifies with orang, but does not rely on it. As to the remaining eight words which are scattered over the continent, it may be that some might also be identified with Malayan and Melanesian words, and as in the case of isolated occurrences, it is always open to doubt whether the average collector of Australian vocabularies has correctly reported them. Even to the occurrence of the word bapa over wide areas in Australia, meaning "father," much weight cannot be attached, since a similar or identical term may be found in languages the world over.
The Rev. Mr. Threlkeld, than whom no one has obtained so great a knowledge of an Australian language, denies that it has any close affinity with the Malay, either in word or construction.[3] This opinion carries weight, not only by reason of his special qualifications, but because it relates to
