MINOR LANGUAGES, &C. 67 probably of not more than of one-tenth of its in- habitants. 1 he number of consonants in the Sunda is eigh- teen, the cerebral^' d and t of the Javan alphabet being wanting. Besides the ordinary vowels of the Javanese, they have several uncouth sounds, si^ milar to those which prevail in the Celtic dialects, and which, as speech becomes more cultivated, ap* pear in all ages and countries to be laid aside. Contrary to the practice of the Javanese, a word or syllable may in the Sunda begin with a vowel ; nay two vowels may immediately follow each other, without any contrivance to obviate the hiatus that is the consequence. Words are devoid of any inflection that marks gender, number, relation, time, or mode. The possessive or genitive case of nouns is determined by position, the first of two nouns being the go- verning one. This seems an universal rule in the structure of the languages of the Indian islands. Actual property in an object, is expressed by a distinct term, (hoga^) importing this sort of rela-
- " This scries of consonants is pronounced by turning
and applying the tip of the tongue far back against the palate, which, producing a hollow sound as if proceeding from the head, it is distinguished by the terra Murddhanya, which Mr Halhed, in his elegant grammar of the Bengal language, h^a translated cer^^rrt/." — Wilkins' Sanskrit Grammar, p. 8.
