Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/95

POLYNESIAN LANGUAGES. 77 bets of the Archipelago, are their being written from right to left, the principle of their for- mation, and their peculiar classification ; while their diverging from the parent alphabet, with their own dissimilarity, are left to be accounted for by the effects of time, and by the difference brought about by the practice of writing, in some cases on paper, or scratching, in others, on palm leaves. The first argument is not worth examining, or at least is fully refuted, by the circumstance of one of the five alphabets being written, not from the right to the left, nor from the left to the right, but, fantastically, from the bottom to the top of the page. In the principle of formation, the only strik- ing similarity is in the consonants always implying the short vowel a though not expressed ; and with respect to the classification, this is not universal, it happening that two of the alphabets, that of the Battaks and Javanese, believed to be the most an- cient, and the latter, undoubtedly, that of the most polished language, are not classed according to the Dewanagri order, but in an arbitrary manner. It is curious to discover, at the same time, the alpha- bet of the distant island of Celebes classed on the Hindu principle. An additional argument may be drawn from the fact of inscriptions, in the true Detjoanagari character being found in Java, among those in the national character. The fact seems to be, both with respect to the