falls linguistically into the Melanesian section. Also it ultimately became plain that of these three subdivisions Indonesian best represented the archaic family type, while Polynesian at the other extreme had gone furthest in the direction of simplification and decay. 1 Thus was established, by the strictest scientific proof, the existence of the Oceanic or Malayo-Polynesian family of languages, extending from Madagascar in the west to Easter I. in the east, and from Formosa and Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the south.
Meanwhile further exploration and research had revealed the existence in New Guinea and some of the neighbouring islands of a number of languages which could not be fitted into this scheme of classification, and did not even apparently form any family of their own, but only a number of distinct groups between which no ultimate relationship could be safely asserted. 2 These so-called Papuan languages (which have since been found in portions of Dutch and German as well as British New Guinea) are therefore to be regarded as a purely provisional group, the time for their systematic classifica- tion not having as yet arrived. But it is quite certain that they have nothing whatever to do with the Oceanic family, though some of the neighbouring members of the latter have undoubtedly been in- fluenced and to some extent modified by Papuan languages, and also vice versa, particularly in the matter of syntax. 3 Moreover there exists in an outlying corner of Eastern Indonesia a small enclave comprising a number of closely related and very curious languages which differ profoundly from their neighbours of the Oceanic stock. These are the languages of the northern peninsula of Halmahera (or Jilolo), together with Ternate, Tidore, and a few other small ad- jacent islands. In spite of some attempts that have been made to show their ultimate connexion with the Oceanic family, 4 it cannot be said that the thesis has been proved or even rendered very probable. It is at least as likely that they are remnants of some archaic Papuan group, though the tribes that speak them are not Papuan in physical type. 6
The Oceanic languages having thus been delimited, 6 there remained the further question of their source of origin. By an ingenious comparison of purely linguistic data, Kern had shown 7 that the common mother-tongue from which they were derived must have been spoken on some long coastline in the tropics, the east coast of Indo-China seeming on the whole to be the most likely one. Here there were actually languages, such as Cham and its immediate neighbours, which were plainly in some way connected with the Indonesian branch of the Oceanic family. But no really satisfactory attempt could be made to connect the Oceanic with any of the differ- ent groups of Indo-Chinese languages until the latter had been properly classified. This was done in part by Forbes 8 and carried further by Kuhn, 9 but the final achievement was the work of W. Schmidt. In a series of admirable monographs 10 he succeeded in proving the intimate connexion of the aboriginal languages (Sakai and Semang) of the Malay Peninsula, the Mon-Khmer group, the Palaung-Wa-Riang group of the Shan states, Khasi in Assam, Nico- barese, and finally the Munda languages of India proper. All these are characterized by a structure based ultimately on monosyllabic roots from which more complex words are formed by means of pre-
1 S. H. Ray, " The Common Origin of the Oceanic Languages," "Hellas" Revue Polyglotte Internationale, Vie Annee; Thalheimer, Beitrag zur Kenntniss der Pronomina der Sprachen Mikronesiens (1908), reviewed by Ray in Man (1908).
2 Ray, " The Languages of British New Guinea," Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxiv., pp. 15-39; ibid, xxvi., pp. 204-5; Reports of the Cam- bridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, vol. iii., Lin- guistics (1907).
3 W. Schmidt, Man (1907) 106; Ray, Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxx. (Anthr. Rev. and Misc. 50).
4 Kern, Bijdr. tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde van Neder- landsch-Indie (1891), Deel xl., pp. 493-530. See also A. Hueting, " lets over de Ternataansch-Halmaherasche Taalgroep," ibid. (1908), lx., pp. 369-411.
6 Schmidt, " Die sprachlichen Verhaltnisse von Deutsch-Neu- guinea," Zeitschr. f. Afrik. u. Ozean. Sprachen, Jahrg. v. and vi., espec. vi. pp. 74-99. See also Van der Veen, De Noord-Halmahera' se Taalgroep (1915).
6 It is hardly necessary to add that the languages of Australia and the now extinct dialects of Tasmania lie entirely outside this sphere.
7 " Taalkundige gegevens ter bepaling van het stamland der Maleisch-Polynesische volken," Versl. en Med. Ron. Akad. v. Wet. (Amsterdam, 1889), Afd. Letterk Hie R., Deel 6.
8 Comparative Grammar of the Languages of Further India.
9 Beitrage zur Sprachenkunde Hinterindiens," Sitzungsb. d. K. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., Phil.-hist. Kl. (1889).
10 " Die Sprachen der Sakei und Semang auf Malakka und ihr Verhaltnis zu den Mon-Khme'r-Sprachen," Bijdr. tot de T. L. en V. v. Ned.-Indie, 1901, Deel Hi., pp. 399-583; " Grundziige einer Lautlehre der Mon-Khmer-Sprachen," Denkschr. d. Kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien, 1905, Phil.-hist. Kl., Bd. iii. ; " Grundziige einer Lautlehre der Khasi-Sprache in ihren Beziehungen zu denjenigen der Mon-Khme'r-Spracnen," Abhandl. d. Konigl. Bayer. Akad. d. Wiss., 1905, I Kl., Bd. xxiii., Abt. iii. and op. cit. inf.
fixes and infixes (in the case of Munda and Nicobarese, suffixes as well). Both in structure and vocabulary they are altogether different from the large family, or agglomeration, of languages to which Tibetan, Burmese, Siamese and Chinese belong.
On the other hand a considerable amount of work had been done, mainly by Dutch scholars such as Van der Tuuk, Kern, and Brandes, to analyze the structure of the Oceanic languages; they succeeded in showing that the superficial dissyllabism characteristic of the family was really the result of an ancient agglutinative system building upon originally monosyllabic roots. 11 This left the way open to Schmidt to show 12 that his newly formed synthesis of languages, which he proposed to call Austroasiatic, was ultimately related to the Oceanic (or as he would style it Austronesian) family, so that the two could be conveniently grouped under the generic name " Austric." Schmidt's arguments were based both on similarity of structure and numerous cases of identity between the very roots of the two families; and so far as they were confined to linguistic classification his conclusions have met with general acceptance at the hands of those best qualified to judge. But his attempt to establish a corresponding anthropological unity of the very diverse races speaking all these different tongues was not so successful and must be regarded as altogether premature. Most of these populations are blends, and though conceivably there may be some thin strain of common blood running through all of them, it is impossible as yet to define it or correlate it with the common element of their speech. Nor is any such assumption a necessary conclusion from the linguistic data. The synthesis of the languages has established a purely linguistic unity, implying no identity of race and admitting the existence here and there (e.g. among the Negritos of the Malay Peninsula, in Melanesia and even in parts of Polynesia) 13 of traces of older aboriginal languages embedded, like flies in amber, in the prevailing type of speech.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Brandstetter, Tagalen und Madagassen (1902); Ein Prodromus zu einem vergleichenden Worterbuch der Malaiopoly- nesischen Sprachen (1906); Gemeinindonesisch und Urindonesisch (1911); Das Verbum . . . in vierundzwanzig Indpnesischen Sprachen (1912); An Introduction to Indonesian Linguistics (1916); Ferrand, Essai de phonetigue compares du malais et des dialectes malgaches (1909); Kern, " Taalvergelijkende Verhandeling over het Aneityumsch, met een Aanhangsel over het klankstelsel van het Eromanga," Verhand. Kon. Akad. v. Wet. (Amsterdam, 1906), N. R., D. viii., No. 2; Schmidt, " Ueber das Verhaltnis der Mela- nesischen Sprachen zu den Pofynesischen und untereinander," Sitzungsb. d. Kais. Akad. d. Wiss. in Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl., Bd. cxli., No. vi., " Die Jabim-Sprache " (Deutsch-Neu-Guinea); ibid., Bd- cxliii., No. ix. ; Meyer, " Die Papuasprache in Niederlandisch-Neu- Guinea," Globus, xciv., pp. 189-92; Finot, " Les etudes indochinoises," Bull, de I'E. F. d' Extreme-Orient, viii., pp. 221-33; Cabaton, " Dix dialectes indochinois," Journal Asiatrique., Mars-Avril, 1905, pp. 26'j-'?44; Aymonier and Cabaton, Dictionnaire cam-franfais (1906). (C. O. B.) ,
AUTOMOBILE: see MOTOR VEHICLES.
AVEBURY, JOHN LUBBOCK, 1ST BARON (1834-1913), English banker (see 3.51*), died at Ramsgate May 28 1913.
AVIATION : see AERONAUTICS.
AYLMER, SIR FENTON JOHN (1862- ), British general, was born April 5 1862, and joined the army in 1880. He served in the Burma campaign and the Hazara expedition of 1891, and greatly distinguished himself in the Hunza-Nagar operations, winning the V.C. and promotion to brevet-major in 1892. He took part in the Isazai expedition of 1892 and for his services in the relief of Chitral in 1895 was promoted brevet lieutenant- colonel. After some years on the staff, he commanded brigades in India from 1904 to 1910, was promoted major-general in 1909, and in 1912 became adjutant-general at Simla. This position he held until Nov. 1915 when, now a lieutenant-general, he was- summoned to Mesopotamia to lead the force being organized for relief of Kut. This was composed mainly of two Indian divisions which had been fighting in Flanders and were arriving in driblets. The urgency of the situation obliged Aylmer to push up the Tigris with little preparation; but he inflicted two severe defeats upon the Turks before being brought up, 23 m. short of Kut, by the lines of Hannah on the left bank of the river. He halted for six weeks for reenforcements and war material before striking
11 Conveniently summed up in Brandstetter's Wurzel und Wort in den Indonesischen Sprachen (1910).
12 " Die Mon-Khmgr-Volker," Archiv. f. Anthr., xxxiii., pp. 59- 109; and in French " Les peuples Mon-Khmer," Bulletin de I'Ecole Franfaise d' Extreme-Orient, vii., pp. 213-63, viii., pp. 1-35-
13 Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, vol. ii., Language; Ray, " The Common Origin of the Oceanic Lan- guages, loc. cit., and Jour. Anthr. Inst., xxvi., pp. 204-5.
- These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.
