Through China with a camera/Appendix
APPENDIX.
The Aboriginal Dialects of Formosa.
There appears to be no trace of the existence of a written language among the aborigines of Formosa, unless indeed we take into account the use which the semi-civilised tribes have made of Roman and Chinese written characters.
The use of the former was taught by the Dutch over two centuries ago, when they occupied the island,. Some singular specimens of Romanised Malay documents are still treasured up among the tribes, although they are quite ignorant of their value, as they are now unable to translate them. These papers are chiefly title-deeds to property, or simple business agreements between man and man.
The Chinese, since the time of the Dutch occupation, have impressed upon the Pepohoan, or * strangers of the plain ' , their own language both written and oral. It was therefore only from the oldest members of the Baksa Pepohoan tribe that I could obtain the words set down in the Vocabulary. At Baksa the native language has been superseded by the Chinese collo- quial dialect.
The Shekhoan is the great northern tribe of half-civilised aborigines. They still retain their original tongue, although the crafty Chinese invaders are making rapid inroads on their fertile valleys, and civilising them out of the lands, if not out of the language of their fathers. In the savage mountain tribes of Formosa — separated as they are from each other by impenetrable forests, rocky barriers, impetuous torrents, and deep ravines, as well as by ceaseless warfare — we have an example of the change which, in time, may be effected in a language by the breaking up of a race into tribes which for at least two hundred years have been, from necessity, for the most part, isolated from each other, and where oral tradition afforded the only means of retaining a knowledge of their original tongue. We find that the numerals of the language, which were probably the sounds most con- stantly in use, have suffered least change, and the number " five " has retained its original sound. This may be from the fact that among primitive tribes who have no written numerals, the five fingers of the hand are invariably used to solve their simple problems in arithmetic; so notably, indeed, is this the case, that in many dialects five" and "hand" are synonymous: the hand in that way becoming a sort of — if I may use the expres- sion — rude hieroglyphic signifying five. In the same way " eye ", or Mata, is a simple, easily remembered sound; and as it designates the organ of sight — something that has its sign in each human face, that is in constant use, and constantly appealed to to satisfy the savage, as well as the most cultivated instincts — it too has been retained, in nearly its pure sound, in the various dialects. Thus I might go on selecting the words that appear to me to have retained their primitive sounds, simply because they find their visible symbols in the objects which surround the simple abodes of the aborigines.
But the reader, by referring to the Vocabularies, will be enabled to form his own conclusions, and to trace out the affinities, or the opposite, that exist between the Formosan dialects, and also the close family likeness which they bear to the Polynesian languages. (See Polynesian Vocabularies in Crawford's "Indian Archipelago", vol. iii, and the words noted on Table III.)
Fresh evidence of the existence of races on the New Guinea coast who speak the Polynesian dialects has been afforded by the Rev. W. W. Gill, who made three visits to the island in 1872.[1] Thus, he tells us that the word for "eye" with two separate tribes is Mata, for "ear" Taringa and Taia, and for "hands" Ima-ima and Rima-rima. These words are all to be found in the Formosan dialects, and indeed might have been taken from them. As for the numerals in use among the aborigines of Formosa, they would afford but doubtful evidence of the Polynesian origin of the tribes were they not supported by the more direct testimony which the various dialects supply. 278 1
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- ↑ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, xviii. 45.