Note 39 — Chapter XV · THE GROWTH OF CIVILIZATION: OLD WORLD HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY (continued 2)

Several languages in the interior of the larger Melanesian islands have been described as non-Malayo-Polynesian. If they confirm as such, they may be regarded as survivals of a group of languages which were the original tongues of the Melanesians and are probably to be classed with the Papuan languages. The Malayo-Polynesian speech of the majority of the modern Melanesians may in that case be considered as having been taken over through contacts with brown peoples of a higher culture. A similar situation exists in Madagascar, which in race is predominantly Negroid, but whose speech is purely and whose culture largely Malaysian.