insular, and, with the exception of the islands of New Zealand, monsoons, or trade winds, prevail through every part of it. To this, I have no doubt, is mainly to be attributed the wide dis- semination of language now the subject of inquiry, and which, among rude nations, were impossible on a continent without periodical winds.
Generally adopted theory.The generally adopted explanation of this wide dissemination of language amounts to this, that the many existing tongues were originally one language, through time and dis- tance split into many dialects, and that all the people speaking these supposed dialects are of one and the same race. But as this hypothesis could not well be main- tained in the face of an existing negro population, the negroes and their languages are specially excepted, on the erroneous supposition that no words of the common tongue exist in their languages. This hypothesis originated with the German naturalist, Forster, who accompanied Captain Cooke in his second voyage, and it has been adopted by many distinguished philologists, but especially by Mr. Marsden and Baron William Humboldt. It was, in a modified form, my own opinion, in a less mature state of my acquaintance with the subject; but I am now satisfied that it is wholly groundless.[1]
Refutation of the theory.Some of the objections to this hypothesis, exclusive of the palpable one of the existence of Malayan words in all the negro languages, are obvious. It supposes, for example, that language and race are identical, taking it, of course, for granted, that men are born with peculiar languages as they are with peculiar complexions; and that both are equally unchangeable. Many well known events of authentic
- ↑ "We likewise find a very remarkable similarity between several words of the fair tribe of islanders in the South Sea, and some of the Malays. But it would be highly inconclusive, from the similarity of a few words, to infer that these islanders were descended from the Malays...." "I am, therefore, rather inclined to suppose that all these dialects preserve several words of a more ancient language, which was more universal, and was gradually divided into many languages, now remarkably different. The words, therefore, of the language of the South Sea isles, which are similar to others in the Malay tongue, prove clearly, in my opinion, that the South Sea isles were originally peopled from the Indian, or Asiatic Northern isles; and that those lying more to the westward received their first inhabitants from the neighbourhood of New Guinea."—Observations.-Voyage round the World, by John Reyhold Forster; London, 1778.
