Sydney Parkinson's Savu list

[Waruno Mahdi]

>  I tried to make sense of Parkinson's Sumatra wordlist (because, to 
>my untutored
>  eye, it looked so strange), but had to give up.

It is indeed definitively not Austronesian but a language of the mainland
(probably Daic, aka Thai-Kadai) with a numeral system of partially Chinese
origin (as is the case in Daic languages).
I haven't had time to check, whether it might not actually be Thai or some
dialect of it. My first thought had actually been, that it might be a
Chinese dialect of a long-time Chinatown in Sumatra, but after a second look
(particularly the word for "two"), I realised that couldn't be, but that it
was probably Daic.

>  A VOCABULARY of the LANGUAGE spoken by the People of the Island MADAGASCAR.

this seems prima facie indeed Malagasy, although with some alien inclusions,
e.g. grimiss (spelling?) is Malay gerimis 'drizzle'. Even as loanword, Malagasy
would have made something like herimisa out of it.

>  or Anjenga, on the coast of Malabar, where he listed 'High Malay'(p 236) it

is indeed neither high nor any other Malay or even at all Austronesian, but a
language of India. I have only not been able to check yet whether it 
is Malayalam,
the Dravidian language spoken on the coast of Malabar, the name of 
which may have
been confused with Malay by the editors.

Anyway, thanks for the Excel lists you sent me per direct email, all downloaded
without a hitch.

All the best,
Waruno
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