Page:A Grammar and Dictionary of the Malay Language with a Preliminary Dissertation- Dissertation and Grammar, in Two Volumes, Vol. I (IA dli.granth.52714).pdf/27

Elements of the Malay language.An examination of 4074 radical words of the Dictionary shows that the Malay language is composed of the following lingual elements:—Native Malay words, 2003; common to the Malay and Javanese, 1040; Sanskrit, 199; Tâlugu or Telinga, 23; Arabic, 160; Persian, 30; and Portuguese, 19; which, in a 1000 words, give the following proportions respectively:—Native, 491; Javanese, 255; Sans- krit, 49; Tâlugu, about 5 1/2; Persian, about 7; and Portuguese, about 4 1/2. Leaving the other elements for consideration until I come to treat of the Javanese language, I shall now describe only the Arabic and Persian.

Arabic element of the Malay.The Arabic element of the Malay, as stated in the grammar, may be said to be indefinite in its proportion. It was not introduced by conquest, but through commerce, settle- ment, and religious conversion. The missionaries who converted the Malays and other islanders to the religion of Arabia, and hence introduced the language of that religion, were not genuine Arabians, but the mixed descendants of Arab and Persian traders, far more competent instruments by their intimate acquaintance with the manners and languages of the islanders. In the course of time Arabian and Persian traders appear to have settled at various ports of the western parts of the Archipelago, and never being accompanied by their families; to have intermarried with the natives. It was the mixed race that sprang out of such unions which produced the apostles of Islam. The earliest conversion recorded was that of the Achinese, the nearest people of the Archipelago to the continent of Asia. This was in 1206 of our era. The Malays of Malacca were not converted until 1276; the inhabitants of the Moluccas not until 1465, the Javanese not until 1478, and the people of Celebes not until 1495, only the year before Vasco de Gama passed the Cape of Good Hope. These dates refer only to the conversion of the rulers of the country. Many of the people were, no doubt, converted before, and some remained to be converted long after. To this day there are a few mountaineers in Java still professing a kind of Hinduism. Between the first and last conversion, the long period of 289 years intervened. The conversion, in fact, was slow and gradual, and bore little resemblance to the