Note 1 — Chapter V · The Filipino People Before the Arrival of the Spaniards.
Reading edition
Languages of the Malayan Peoples.—With the exception of the Negrito, all the languages of the Philippines belong to one great family, which has been called the “Malayo-Polynesian.” All are believed to be derived from one very ancient mother-tongue. It is astonishing how widely this Malayo-Polynesian speech has spread. Farthest east in the Pacific there is the Polynesian, then in the groups of small islands, known as Micronesian; then Melanesian or Papuan; the Malayan throughout the East Indian archipelago, and to the north the languages of the Philippines. But this is not all; for far westward on the coast of Africa is the island of Madagascar, many of whose languages have no connection with African but belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family.1