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The Austric family

In the year 1906 there a.ppeared in Brunswick a little book by Pater W. Schmidt entitled ' ,Die Mou•Khmer-V6lker, ein Bindeglied zwischen Volkern Zentmlasieos und Austronesiens' which at once attracted the attention of students of language and of ethnology-. The -author's -researches into the languages known as MllD. Khmer, and KMsi had a.l~'" established. his reput&tion as a skilled a.nd. lIot the same time, as a. sobor philologist. and in this work new and far-reaching views, based on solid and wide learning. were enU:~ciated. These views up to the present time have not been seriously challenged. Pa.ter Schmidt here proved the eristenoe of a great family of languages hitherto not recognized, which, although the langti:ages composing it are spoken by a. comparatively small number of people. is spread over au "rea wider than that occupied by any other group of tongues. Its speakers are found scattered' over Nearer a.nd Further India.. and form the native popul!lotion of Indonesia.

Mel!lonesia, and Polynesia, including madagascar and New Zealand. It extends from Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, to Easter Island which is less than forty degrees from the COOBt of South America.. In the North, traces of it were discovered in Kaniiwar in the Panjab. a.nd it.~ sQuthern limit included Nelv Zealand. West, of Easter Island it covers the whole Paci6.c Ocean, except Australia. (including Tasmania) and a part of New Guinea..

'This' Austrie Family,' as he named it. he divided into two sub-fa~ilios. the' AustroNesian' a.nd the' Austro-Asiatic.' The former included the languages of Madagascar. Indoeesia, and the islands of the Pacific. while the latter included language!! scattered O\'l;)r Neare.r and Further India. The annexed map. based on that in Pater Schmidt's work. shows their respective localities.

The only Austro-Nesian languages politically connected. witb India. aU! Sal6n.spoken by a tribe of sea--gipsies inhabiting the isllmds of the Mergui 8a.I8a. Arohipelago and the adjacent pa.rt.a of the Malay Penin6ulo. and Malay spoken in the same locality". These languages consequently did not fall

The Aunstro-Asiatic sub-fa.m.ily is much more strongly represented. in India. There is first the great Mon-Khmer Branch spoken in Further India. of which we have three representatives in Burma, in tbe shape of Mon, Bn ancient litera.ry llmguage now spoken in 'l'bat.on and Amherst. Bnd Palaung

the Sakei and the Semang. Like Khmer these are spoken outside the limit;., of Briti!:lh India.. Nieoooreae al80 belong. to this branch. and seems to form a connecting link between the M~41l languages and MOn.

None of the above languages fell within t he opera.tions of the Survey, but going north we come to Khlsi, 80 M6n-Khm~r la.nguage spoken. in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills of Assam. This W&8 fully dea.lt with in the Survey. It/lstandard dialect has been often dcscribed.audmoreover possesses a. small Iitera.ture with 'which it has been end0:Wed. by the local missionaries. Khiiai is more or less isolated a.like from its cousins of Burma and from those of India, und hM struck out on somewlmt independent lines a.part from MOil, Nicobarese, und MUQQ.ii, which are mutually more closely connected. than any of t hem is with Kha,si. With its three dia.lects of Lyng-ngam, Bynteng, and War, in addition to the standard form of

The resemblances in the vocabularies of Rbisl and of ~be dialects of tbe PUlalWgWa group aettle the question. But the resemblance is not; only one of vocabulary. The construction of the Mon and of the Khasl Iw.ntenoo b the same. The various component parts are put in the saMe order, and the order of thought of the speakers is thns shown to be the same. Like Mim and other members of t he bmncb, and unlike the other Indo-Chinese ~guages by which it is surrounded., KhAsi has no tones.' On the other'

hand, it differs from the other Mon-Khmer languages in possessing the so-called articles, which are wanting in other member8 of the branch. and in ha.ving grammatical gender. Here we must leave the matter in the hands of the ethnologist<>. It will be interesting to see if allY connexion of tribal customs can be tmced, and if the MOns or Palaungs still retain surviva.ls of the matriarchal state of society which is so characteristic of the Khiisls. The Palaungs . at any rate, trace their origin to a princess, and not to a Prince.leaving Assam we pass to Central India. where we find the Munda languages