Now as the three dialects have all undoubted Malay affinities, the
statement of Marsden must be received with qualifications.
V. Concerning the language of Van Diemen's Land; I venture upon the
following statements, the proofs which I hope, ere long, to exhibit _in
extenso_.
α. The Language is fundamentally the same for the whole island;
although spoken in not less than four dialects mutually unintelligible.
β. It has affinities with the Australian.
γ. It has affinities with the New Caledonian.
A fourth proposition concerning the Tasmanian language exhibits an
impression, rather than a deliberate opinion. Should it, however, be
confirmed by future researches it will at once explain the points of
physical contrast between the Tasmanian tribes and those of Australia
that have so often been insisted on. It is this--that the affinities of
language between the Tasmanian and the New Caledonian are stronger than
those between the Australian and Tasmanian. This indicates that the
stream of population for Van Diemens ran _round_ Australia rather than
_across_ it.
The following affinities occur between the vocabularies published in
the present volume and the Malay and Monosyllabic dialects; and they
are the result of a very partial collation.
1. Blood = _mam_, Darnley Island; _muhum_, South Jooroo dialect of
Malacca; _mau_, Anamitic of Cochin China.
2. Nose = _peet_, Darnley Island; _peechi_, Massied; _pih_, Chinese;
_pi_, Kong Chinese.
3. Face = _awop aup_, Murray Islands; _eebu_ = (head) Cape York,
Massied; _oopoo_ = (head) Tahiti; _epoo_, Sandwich Islands; _aopo_,
Easter Island.