Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/72

58 LANCJUAGE AND LITERATURE, &C. who read and write a language written in the same character with the Koran, pride themselves on the circumstance, and view with some contempt those whose learning is expressed in a profane alphabet. There is a surprising uniformity in the language of all the Malayan tribes, both oral and written, a circumstance to be attributed to the similarity of their situations, and the stationary condition of their manner3 throughout, since the period when their language assumed its present form. The language of the people of Menangkabao, the pa- rent tribe, differs most from the rest. As far as I can judge, the best Malay is written and spoken in the state of Queda, or Keddah. Here, at least, the Malays are most anxious about the purity of their language, and most scrupulous in excluding foreign words. In the neighbourhood of the other great tribes of the Archipelago, the language is often corrupted by admixture with their dialects ; and in the vicinity of former, or existing European es- tablishments, by a mixture of Portuguese and Dutch, still more incompatible with its genius.