A Grammar Ad Dictionary of the Malay Language: With a Preliminary Dissertation, Volume 1

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Smith, Elder and Company, 1852 - English language
 

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Page 73 - The language most likely to continue long without alteration, would be that of a nation raised a little, and but a little above barbarity...
Page clxi - inhabitants of the black islands," which, although applicable enough to the Papuans, is equally applicable to the greater portion of the Australian tribes. The features of the Papuans have a decidedly Negro character ; broad, flat noses, thick lips, receding foreheads and chins, and that turbid colour of what should be the white of the eye which gives to the countenance a peculiar sinister expression.
Page clxii - But it is among the natives of the north coast of New Guinea, and some of the adjacent islands of the Pacific, that the hair receives the greatest attention. These open out the ringlets by means of a bamboo comb, shaped like an eel-spear, with numerous prongs spreading out laterally, which operation produces an enormous bushy head of hair, which has procured them the name of 'mopheaded Papuans.
Page clxxiv - The men were fine, active, well-made fellows, rather above the middle height, of a darkbrown or chocolate colour. They had, frequently, almost handsome faces, aquiline noses, rather broad about the nostrils, well-shaped heads, and many had a singular Jewish VOL.
Page clxii - ... the hairs which form each tuft keeping separate from the rest, and twisting round each other, until, if allowed to grow, they form a spiral ringlet. Many of the tribes, especially those who occupy the interior parts of islands whose coasts are occupied by more civilized races, from whom cutting instruments can be obtained, keep the hair closely cropped.
Page ii - 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...
Page xcvii - In these islets the inhabitants are of the same race with the Malays, and speak many languages. By far the most ample and authentic account of them has been given by Mr. Winsor Earl, who, after a longer experience of the countries in which they are spoken than any other European, makes the following observations. — " In the southeastern parts of the Indian Archipelago, where opportunities of social intercourse between the various petty tribes are of rare occurrence, every island, every detached...
Page cxxxiv - A language, with variations is spoken by the same race of men from the Fiji group west to Easter Island eastward, and from the Sandwich islands north to the New Zealand island south. It has been called the...
Page 67 - I wish to eat soup,' but no verb for ' I wish ;'4 and separate words for a blow with a sharp, and a blow with a blunt instrument, but no abstract word for blow. Mr. Crawfurd5 bears similar witness to the Malay languages. ' The Malay,' he says, ' is very deficient in abstract words ; and the usual train of ideas of the people who speak it does not lead them to make a frequent use even of the few they possess. They have copious words for colours, yet borrow the word colour, warna, from the Sanskrit....

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