HANDBOUND
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UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS

MELANESIAN LANGUAGES

CODRINOTON

HENRY FROWDE

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
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THE

MELANESIA^ LANGUAGES

BY

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E. H^CODEINGTON, D.D.

OF THE MELANESIAN MISSION
FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFOED

SEE^4 BY

PRESERVATION

SERVICES

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

M DCCC LXXXV
[All rights reserved']

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PREFACE,

I HAVE endeavoured in the following 1 pages to carry on the
work of Bishop Patteson. He brought to the philological
study of the Melanesian languages an extraordinary linguistic
faculty,*which enabled him to use very many of them with
ease, but he left little behind him in print or in manu-
script. In the year 1864 he printed privately some outline
grammars or grammatical notes, and in 1866 phrase-books,
and Vocabularies of Mahaga, Bauro, and Sesake, which have
furnished material for the Melanesischen Sprachen of Von
der Gabelentz. In the latter year also phrase-books were
printed in some of the languages of the Banks' Islands.
I have not taken these as tne foundation for my own
work. I never had the advantage of studying them with
Bishop Patteson, and I know that he considered them im-
perfect and tentative. It seemed better to work indepen-
dently on materials obtained directly from natives of Mela-
nesia, and afterwards to compare my conclusions with those
of the Bishop where the subjects were the same. Bishop
Patteson, therefore, is not answerable for the general views
concerning the Melanesian languages here put forward, nor
for the structure and arrangement of the Grammars ; but I
can never forget that I owe any knowledge of these languages
that I may possess to the impulse towards the study of them
and to the direction which I received from him in the first
instance; and I desire to make all that I have been able
to do a memorial of gratitude and affection to him.

We have in our Mission school in Norfolk Island from time
to time boys and young men from many of the Melanesian

vi Preface.

Islands, who all come to know and use, more or less, the
Mota language. From these natives of the various islands, and
by the medium generally of the Mota language, I have ob-
tained what I now offer ; with the exception of what concerns
the Duke of York, Rotuma, Sesake, and Fate languages.
There is an evident advantage in a method that is throughout
more or less comparative ; and in some cases my interpreters
have been able to speak more languages than their own
and Mota. In this way I received the greatest assistance
from my friend and pupil the late Edward Wogale, a native
Deacon, who used with much intelligence his knowledge of
the languages of the Banks' Islands, Torres Islands, Florida
and Fiji.

Great, however, as are the advantages of Norfolk Island for
gaining knowledge of the Melanesian languages, the want of
books and of communication with scholars is much felt in so
remote and isolated a place ; and I hope in consideration of
such difficulties that some indulgence will be allowed to the
many defects of which I am sensible. Since my return to
England I owe much to the kindness and learning of my
friend the Rev. A. L. Mayhew, of Wadham College, who
has saved me from many errors and helped me in many
difficulties.

In conclusion, I venture to say that I put forth my con-
tribution to the knowledge of these languages with a certain
desire to show that in my long absence from Oxford I have
not been altogether idle or unmindful of my connexion with
the University and College to which I owe so much.

WADHAM COLLEGE,
Aug. i, 1885.

CONTENTS.

I. INTBODTJCTION.

I. The Groups of Melanesian Islands. 2. The Melanesian languages here in
view. 3. Polynesian settlements in Melanesia ; their language not in
view. 4. The Melanesian languages homogeneous, and of a common
stock with the Ocean languages, those of the Indian Archipelago and
Polynesia. 5. Great and conspicuous differences between the various
Melanesian languages tend to disappear on closer view. The most ex-
ceptional among them not Australian. 6. Proof of kinship to be found
in Vocabulary ^Grammar, and Phonology, whether between the Melanesian
languages themselves or between these and the Ocean languages gene-
rally. Examples of the use of Vocabulary. 7. Common Numerals and
systems of Numeration. 8. Examples of proof from Grammar ; suffixed
Pronouns, and Verbs. 9. Great differences among Melanesian languages
to be accounted for by the probable history of the population of the
islands. Note. Theory of the connexion of the Melanesians with the
Ocean races pp. 3-35

II. VOCABULABIES.

Mr. Wallace's Vocabularies in his ' Malay Archipelago.' Examination of his
nine words in fifty-nine languages. Seventy words in forty Melanesian
Notes on the Vocabularies .... pp. 36-100

III. SHOBT COMPABATIVE GBAMMAB OF MELANESIAN
LANGUAGES.

Comparison of Melanesian languages with Malay, Malagasy, and the Maori of
New Zealand. Absence of Inflexion and formal Parts of Speech. I.
Demonstrative Particles. 2. Articles. 3. Personal Articles. 4. Pro-
nouns. 5. Personal Pronouns. 6. Suffixed Pronouns. 7. Possessives.
8. Interrogative Pronouns. 9. Demonstrative Pronouns. 10. Nouns.
ii. Independent forms of Nouns. 12. Classes of Nouns. 13. Construct
Nouns. 14. Prefixes to Nouns. 15. Collective Nouns. 16. Redu-
plication of Nouns. 17. Plural of Nouns. 18. Prepositions. 19. Ad-
verbs. 20. Adjectives. 21. Verbs. 22. Verbal Particles. 23. Verbal
Suffixes. 24. Prefixes to Verbs. 25. Reduplication of Verbs. 26. Pas-
sive Verbs pp. 101-192

IV. PHONOLOGY.

I. Alphabet. II. Phonetic Changes: i. Gutturals; 2. Dentals; 3. La-
bials ; 4. Compound Consonant ; 5. Nasals ; 6. Liquids ; 7. Sibilants ;
8. Aspirates; 9. Metathesis; 10. Vowels; n. Phonetic Character

pp. 193-219

viii Contents.

V. NTTMEBATION AND NUMEBALS.

i. Systems of Numeration. 2. Grammar of Numeration. 3. Peculiar
Methods and Terms. 4. Numerals pp. 220-251

VI. GBAMMABS.

I. Banks' Islands PAGE

1. Sugarloaf Island, Mota 253

2. Saddle Island, Motlav 310

3. Volow 322

4. Vanua Lava, Pak . . . . . . . . 332

5. Leon and Sasar ...... 337

6. Vuras 345

7. Mosin 350

8. AloTeqel . .355

9. Star Island, Merlav 357

10. Sta. Maria, Gog 367

11. Lakon 377

12. Bligh Island, Norbarbar 384

II. Torres Islands

14. Lo 391

III. North of Fijir

15. Botuma . 401

IV. New Hebrides

16. Aurora Island, Maewo 408

17. Lepers' Island, Oba 420

18. Pentecost Island, Arag 431

19. Espiritu Santo, Marina 441

20. Ambrym 449

21. Three Hills Island, Sesake . 459

Tasiko, Lemaroro, Tonoa.

22. Sandwich Island, Fate 471

Nuna, Anaiteum.

V. Loyalty Islands

23. Britannia Island, Nengone 478

VI. Santa Cruz

24. Sta. Cruz, Deni 486

25. Nifilole "... 493

VII. Solomon Islands

26. San Cristoval, Fagani 499

27. Wawo 505

28. Contraries Island, Ulawa 5^

29. Malanta, Saa 5*6

30. Florida, ffela 522

31. Guadalcanar, Vaturawa 539

32. Ysabel Island, Bugotu 54"

33. #ao 555

34. Savo 559

35. Duke of York Island 5 6 5

3o

MELANESIAN LANGUAGES.

GUIDE TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF
MELANESIAN WORDS.

Vowels have the Italian sound.
Consonants :

1 . In the languages Grammars of which are given
b, generally mb. d, generally nd.

g, a guttural with a trill, peculiar sound.

5 r =ngg, i. e. ng in ' finger.'

j, as in English, but ch in Santa Cruz, Torres Islands, Ure-

parapara.

m, nasal, nng in 'singer.'
gn, same as n, as in Italian.
q, compound of kpw.

2. In Fiji words
b=mb. d=nd.

g=ng in 'singer.' q=ng in 'finger.'
c=th in 'that.'

3. In Fate and Anaiteum
g as in Fiji;

4. In Nengone words

g, hard ; ng as in ' singer.'

c=ch. 'm, nasal m=m.

x, the peculiar g above described.

N. B. The Malagasy o is u.

/

The italics n, m, g, are used when the words are in Roman type :
when native words, as in the following pages, are distinguished by
being printed in italics, the Roman n stands for ng, g for ngg, m
for the nasal m. Thus in Roman type sin, in italic stn, sounds
' sing.'

INTRODUCTION.

1. 'MELANESIA comprises that long- belt of island groups
which, beginning in the Indian Archipelago at the east
limits of the region there occupied by the Malay race, and
as it were a prolongation of that great island region, runs
south-east for a distance of some 3500 English miles ; i. e.
from New Guinea at the Equator in 130 E. longitude, to
New Caledonia just within the Tropic in 167 E. longitude,
and eastwards to Fiji in 180. This chain of groups has a
certain geographical as well as ethnical unity. Its curve
follows roughly the outline of the Australian coast, and
large islands occur, with a number of small ones, along the
whole length, with mountains of considerable height coin-
ciding pretty closely with the line of volcanic action. Mela-
nesia is usually held to begin with New Guinea, this great
island being then viewed as the headquarters of that dark
Papuan race which, widely and variously modified in all
the other groups, occupies the whole region, as the name
Melanesia implies 1 .' To the east of New Guinea lie the
two great islands of New Britain and New Ireland, with
Duke of York Island between them. Next come the So-
lomon Islands, seven large islands running N.W. and S.E.
for 600 miles. The curve is continued by the Santa Cruz
group ; and further on by the Banks' Islands, with the
Torres Islands to the north of them, which, with the New
Hebrides, stretch for more than 500 miles. South-west from
the New Hebrides and zoo miles away lies New Caledonia,
an island 240 miles long, with the Loyalty group 70 miles
1 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
B 2

Melanesian Languages.

5

to the east. Fiji lies detached to the eastwards, and ap-
proaches very nearly the limit which divides Melanesia from
Polynesia. Although Polynesia is often made to include the
Melanesian islands as far as New Guinea, yet if Melanesia is
to be the name of the region defined above, as undoubtedly
the languages and the people are separated by a clear line
of division from their eastern neighbours, it is desirable to
use the term Polynesia strictly to indicate the region of the
East Pacific, to the west of which Melanesia begins with the
Fijian group. To the north of Melanesia lies the region of
small and scattered islands which are comprised in the name
of Micronesia.

The attempt here made to give an account of the languages
of Melanesia does not include, except in the way of occasional
reference, the languages of New Guinea. Whether the in-
habitants of Melanesia can be all called Papuans or not, it is
clearly desirable to avoid the use of the name Papuan when
the languages of Melanesia and not of New Guinea are in
view. That some of the languages of New Guinea, e.g.
Motu, are Melanesian is clear, the vocabulary of a very distant
part, such as Mafoor, contains a large proportion of words
common in Melanesia, and by no means all of these Malayan
or Polynesian ; but the languages of New Guinea have not
been available for consideration and examination together
with those of Melanesia in the narrower acceptation of the
word. Of these languages, those of the great curve stretching
from New Guinea, beginning with New Britain and New
Ireland and ending in the Loyalty Islands, it may perhaps be
said that a general representation is here given. The lan-
guage of Duke of York Island, which has been kindly communi-
cated by the Rev. George Brown, may be taken to represent
those of the great islands between which it lies. The likeness
of this language to those of the Solomon Islands and of the
New Hebrides, and its wholly Melanesian character, together
with the Melanesian character of such a New Guinea lan-
guage as that of Motu, warrant the assumption that the
space between New Britain and Ysabel is occupied by not

Introduction. 5

dissimilar languages. The personal knowledge and enquiries
of the writer begin with Ysabel to the north, and extend, with
serious deficiencies here and there, to the Loyalty Islands.
The Fiji language is within easy reach in Hazlewood's Gram-
mar and the translation of the Scriptures 1 . A Grammar and
Dictionary of the Anaiteum language has been put forth by
the Rev. John Inglis 2 . The two treatises on the Melanesian
Speech of the elder von der Gabelentz deal with many of the
languages included within the limits above specified 3 . The
materials were supplied to him to some extent by Bishop
Patteson, and the same materials have been employed here ;
but in whatever case the same language has been dealt with,
what is put forth here is either, as in the case of Nengone, the
result of independent enquiry from natives of the place, or, as
in the case of Wawo in San Cristoval, the representation of
a dialect not the same as that which has been given by von
der Gabelentz. It may be confidently hoped that a view of
languages taken from within, that is, by means of a native
language in which Melanesians give an account of their own
speech, has certain advantages over a view taken, with greater
intelligence and more knowledge of language generally, from
without, that is, from printed books. A Nengone man, for
example, who can speak Mota will probably be able to ex-
plain some things to an European who can speak Mota, which
may be misunderstood even by an European who can speak
Nengone himself. The Melanesian languages, like all kindred
languages, explain one another, and appear in the light when
they are viewed one with another. At the least, all the groups
of Melanesia are represented here, at the furthest point west-
wards by the Duke of York Island, at the furthest southern ex-
tremity by Nengone ; and if the regions towards the extremities
are comparatively unexplored, there is a tolerably complete

1 I am bound to take the earliest opportunity of expressing my sense of
what I owe to the assistance of the Rev. Lorimer Fison, late Missionary in
Fiji, in the discussion of the various problems that arise in the comparison of
the Fijian with other Melanesian languages.
Williams and Norgate. London, 1882.

3 Die Melanesischen Sprachen. Leipzig, 1873.

Melanesian Languages.

2. New Hebrides.

3. Banks Islands.

investigation of the central part in the languages of the
Northern New Hebrides, the Banks' Islands, Santa Cruz, and
the Southern Solomon Islands.

2. It will be convenient to give a list here of the languages
of Melanesia which are brought into comparison in the intro-
ductory treatises of this book, and of which Grammars, or
outlines of Grammars, are subjoined. Beginning at the ex-
tremity furthest from New Guinea :

1. Loyalty Islands. 1. Nengone or Mare.

2. Fate, Sandwich I. 1

3. Sesake, Three Hills.

4. Ambrym.

5. Espiritu Santo.

6. Araga, Whitsuntide or Pentecost.

7. Oba, Lepers' I.

8. Maewo, Aurora.

9. Merlav, Star I.

10. Santa Maria, Gaua, or Gog.

11. Lakon.

12. Vanua Lava, Pak.

13. Sasar.

14. Vureas.

15. Mosina.

16. alo Teqel.

17. Mota, Sugarloaf I.

18. Saddle I., Motlav.

19. Volow.

20. Ureparapara, Bligh I.

21. Lo.

22. Rotuma.

23. Deni, Santa Cruz.

24. Nifilole.

25. Ulawa, Contrarie'te I.

26. Malanta, Saa.

27. San Cristoval, Warco.

28. Fagani.

1 The sketch of this Grammar is drawn from the translation of a Gospel.

4. Tones Islands.

5. N. of Fiji.

6. Santa Cruz.

7. Solomon Islands.

Introduction. 7

Solomon Islands 29. Guadalcanar, Vaturawa.

(continued). 30. Florida.

31. Savo.

32. Ysabel, Bugotu.

33. GQ.O.

34. Duke of York.

Some of these are but dialects differing not much from one
another, as those of Vanua Lava here given ; but there is
much instruction in the comparison even of dialects philo-
logically and geographically very close. Vanua Lava, an
island fifteen miles long, had, before its depopulation by the
labour trade, fifteen dialects recognised as distinct by its in-
habitants : it was worth while to preserve as much as possible
of so characteristic a specimen of Melanesia. Other lan-
guages, though very near together in one island, as those of
Gog and Lakon on Santa Maria, are not less valuable or less
characteristic because they differ so widely one from the
other. The absence of the Fijian language from the above
list leaves, no doubt, a great incompleteness in that general
view of the Melanesian languages which might otherwise be
thought to be given. But the language of Fiji, so much the
most important of all, is so well known as not to need what it
would be a presumption on the part of one not practically
acquainted with it to offer. Much, no doubt, remains to be
learnt about it by the study of dialects and by the com-
parison of other Melanesian languages, for which materials
may be here supplied.

3. From the limits of the Melanesian languages as defined
above, the language of the Polynesian settlements in Me-
lanesia has to be withdrawn. The distinction between this
and the Melanesian is everywhere plain, and there is very
little distinction apparently to be made of dialect in the
speech of one settlement and another. These Polynesian out-
liers are to be found in Uea, one of the Loyalty Islands ; in
Futuna, a small island of the New Hebrides ; in Fate, Sand-
wich Island ; in some of the islets of the Sheppard group, and

8 Melanesian Languages.

notably in the settlement of Mae in Three Hills ; in Tikopia,
north of the Banks' Islands, and in several of the Swallow
group near Santa Cruz ; in Rennell and Bellona, south of the
Solomon Islands, and in Ontong Java, near Ysabel. The
language of these is said, on good authority, to be substantially
that of Tonga, and the same throughout ; speakers of the
Maori of New Zealand can understand it and make themselves
understood ; it has nothing directly to do with the Melanesian
languages *. The existence of these Polynesian settlements,
however, in the midst of Melanesia cannot fail to suggest ques-
tions of interest and importance which it is impossible to dis-
miss without consideration. As to their origin, it is not difficult
to conjecture what it has been. Canoes accidentally drifting
or blown away, or expeditions purposely directed to known
islands, have landed small parties of Polynesian people either
on uninhabited places or on islands occupied by Melanesians.
Some at least of such settlements may be supposed compara-
tively modern. If such islands as Rennell, Bellona, or Tikopia
have been reached, remote from any large Melanesian island,
the colonists naturally remain purely Polynesian in language,
habits, and physical characteristics, for there is no admixture.
If a single canoe, or a small male party, has found its way to
an inhabited Melanesian island, the Polynesian element has
been absorbed, leaving perhaps only some fairer and more
straight-haired children as an evidence of mixed blood 2 . In
the case of such a settlement as Mae the case is different.
The middle part of that island, one only about six miles long,
is occupied by people whose speech is that common to all
these Polynesian settlers, but who physically are not dis-
tinguishable from their neighbours who are Melanesian both

1 Some few years ago a whaler picked up in the Solomon Islands and
brought down to Norfolk Island some natives of Mae and of Fate, survivors
of a crew massacred in Ongtong Java. They belonged to the Polynesian
settlements, and they told me that they, the Mae and Fate men, spoke the
same language, and also understood that of the Ongtong Java people.

2 I have seen myself in Ureparapara a man and woman with a son, drifted
thither from some Polynesian island ; and I have noticed straight-haired chil-
dren in Saddle Island who were known to be descendants of Polynesian cast-
aways.

Introduction. 9

in language and physical character. The same is the case in
the Swallow Islands : the inhabitants of islands close together
speak either a language like that of Santa Cruz' or the Poly-
nesian ; but they are all alike Melanesians in appearance.
The Tikopians, an isolated Polynesian settlement, are wholly
unlike Melanesians, tall, heavy, light-coloured men, with
straight hair. The reason why the Polynesian-speaking
people of Mae, for example, are Melanesian in appearance
clearly is that the Melanesian blood in them has overborne
the Polynesian element ; that is to say, the Polynesian settlers
have, generation after generation, taken Melanesian wives
into their villages in which the speech was Polynesian. The
speech, the descent of chiefs, certain religious practices, have
remained Polynesian, the physical aspect has gradually lost
its original character. Under such circumstances the speech
which will be permanent is the speech of the settlement ; the
physical character that will prevail will be that of the blood.
Hence the Tikopian is physically and in language purely
Polynesian, the Fileni man of the Swallow group is in speech
Polynesian but physically Melanesian. The phenomena of
the case are thus explained 1 .

It remains to state another remarkable fact. In Three
Hills Island, Mae, the Polynesian settlement above men-
tioned is about two miles distant from Sesake, at one end of
the island, occupied by those who may be called the aborigines.
The Mae language is Polynesian, if not purely at least de-
cidedly so ; the Sesake language is Melanesian decidedly, and
at any rate has nothing that makes it appear more influenced
by its Polynesian neighbour than if Sesake and Mae were in

1 Some fifty years ago the Banks' Islands were visited in two successive
years by -double canoes. The people in these canoes said they came from
Tonga. They settled the first year for a time on the Islet of Qakea, close to
Vanua Lava, quarrelled after a time with their neighbours, and went off.
When they returned next year they were attacked by the natives and driven
off. There were women with them. If they had settled on Qakea there
would be there now a Polynesian-speaking people, but Melanesian wives
from Vanua Lava would be continually bringing in Melanesian physical
characteristics. If Qakea had been an isolated place like Tikopia, there would
have been then a small purely Polynesian colony.

io Melanesia*, Languages.

different and distant islands. This cannot be too positively
stated, and the importance of the fact is very great. It is an
exemplifi cation, in a very narrow field, of what is found also to
be the case with regard to Fiji. The Fijian group is only
some 200 miles west of the Friendly Islands, which are de-
cidedly part of Polynesia. There has been a considerable
intercourse between the two groups, and no doubt a great
infusion of Tongan, Friendly Islands, blood among the higher
classes of Fijians. There has been also, according to native le-
gends, a considerable intercourse between Fiji and the purely
Polynesian Samoa 1 . Yet the Fiji language is most decidedly
Melanesian ; it has no doubt something directly derived from
Tonga, but it is no more Polynesian than the languages of
the Banks' Islands, which lie far away to the west, out of
reach of any but the most casual and insignificant intercourse
with Tongans or other Polynesians. Intercourse therefore
and close neighbourhood with Polynesians do not as a matter
of fact materially affect the language of Melanesians.

4. The view of the Melanesian languages here proposed is,
in the first place, that they are homogeneous ; and secondly,
that they belong to a common stock with the Ocean tongues
generally those of the Indian Archipelago and of Polynesia.
The view which is opposed is one which would make the
Melanesian stock of languages originally distinct from that
to which Malayan and Polynesian languages belong, and
would pronounce all that is found in Melanesian languages
common with Malay and Polynesian to be borrowed from
these tongues, or due to influence received from them. In
opposition to this latter view, it is by no means denied that
the Melanesian languages have borrowed from those of the
Indian or Malay Archipelago on the one side, and from those
of the Eastern Pacific on the other, or that they have been
influenced in various ways ; allowing this, what is maintained
is, that whatever has been introduced has been brought from

1 Turner's Samoa, Macmillan, 1884, pp. 41, 123, 225, 228, 230, 256. In
these stories the Fijians are by no means represented as inferior to the Samoans.
See Vocabulary Notes under the word ' Bow.'

Introduction. 1 1

languages of a kindred, not a distinct stock. By way of
illustration, not of exact comparison, the English language
has borrowed largely, directly and indirectly, from Latin and
Greek, but still what has been borrowed has been taken from
kindred languages. It is not as when Arabic is found in
Spanish. There was an archaic flow of Aryan language over
Europe, and over a great part of the region so covered
more recent waves of the same have passed. There is differ-
ence enough between Celtic, Slavonic, Italic, and Teutonic,
but they are members of one family. Let as much difference
be allowed between the various Ocean families, and let not
one be said to borrow from the other without good reason.

The Melanesian languages, which are very little known,
come geographically between the Malay and Polynesian
languages, which are well known. Any observer of the
Melanesian languages who approaches from the West and
sees in them much that is the same with the Malay, calls
that a Malay element, and calls that which he does not
recognise the native Melanesian or Papuan element. One
who approaches the Melanesian languages from the East
finds much that is common with the Polynesian, and he calls
that the Polynesian element, and again what he does not
recognise the Melanesian or Papuan. But suppose an ob-
server to begin with the Melanesian languages, and, being
familiar with them, to advance on the one side to the
Polynesian regions and on the other to the Malayan. He will
find in the islands of the Eastern Pacific people of a brown
colour, using a language very much of which is familiar
to him, but one poorer in sounds, poorer in grammatical forms.
He will say that they speak a kind of Melanesian dialect.
If, as is conceivable, it had so happened that an English
occupation of Australia had made the Fijian language familiar
to Australian merchants, officials, and scholars, before English-
men had advanced far enough to the East by India to have
come in contact with Malay; then as Australian commerce
advanced westwards from Fiji, and the native languages were
found more or less to resemble Fijian, it would certainly

12 Melanesian Languages.

have happened that the Melanesian, the Indian Archipelago
languages, Malay, Malagasy itself, would have all been found
marked by Fijian character, would even by Australian scholars
have been said to belong to the Fijian family. It is a matter
of chance or circumstance after what member of a family a
family of languages is called, just as it is by what name
foreigners call another country. The first that comes perhaps
is the one that gains the place, and it is very likely that it is
quite inappropriate. At any rate, there is a certain fallacy in
the natural conclusion that the language after which a family
of languages is named is the standard, the characteristic, and
to the unlearned the original, language of them all. If an-
other supposition may be ventured on ; suppose America to
have discovered Europe and not Europe America, and the
American discoverers to be in a superior state of civilisation
to the discovered Europeans, so that they should extend their
acquaintance with them and observe their languages: they
would discover England first it may be supposed, find the
Dutch language a form of English, recognise in French an
English element in that which was found in common ; when
their learned men knew more they would distinguish the
languages of Northern Europe from the Southern, but the
Northern languages would take their name from English ;
German would be classed as Anglic, and not English as
Teutonic. It is possible, by the correction of a similar mis-
take, that, instead of speaking of Malay or Polynesian elements
in Melanesian languages, it would be right to class Malay
and Polynesian languages as Melanesian.

The Melanesian people have the misfortune to be black, to
be much darker, at least, than either Malays or Polynesians ;
and because they are black it is presumed that their original
language cannot be of the same family with that spoken by
their brown neighbours ; that where their language has a
general resemblance to that of their neighbours they must
have cast off their own and taken another in the lump, and
that where the resemblance is not conspicuously apparent
they must have borrowed words and expressions in com-

Introduction. 1 3

mercial or other intercourse. With regard to colour it is
enough to say, if the matter is to be considered at all in a
question of language, that between the black of Melanesians
and the brown of Polynesians the difference is not so very
great, and that the colour of the inhabitants of the Indian
or Malay Archipelago is much the same as that of the
Melanesians. There is a great variety of shades of colour in
Polynesians, Melanesians, and others ; with quite enough of
general distinctive character to throw them into classes, but
yet such that among Polynesians are to be seen very dark
individuals, as among Malays those who might be taken for
Chinese. Given an original dark and frizzly-haired stock,
it is not difficult to conceive such a cross with straight-haired
and light-coloured men as would produce a brown and wavy-
haired progeny, and beyond that such a series and confusion
of inter-crossings as would give a great variety of inter-
mediate shades of colour, straightness or curliness of hair,
and other physical characteristics. There is no doubt a
certain reluctance on the brown side to acknowledge the
kindred of the black. The Melanesians are the poor relations,
at the best, of their more civilised and stronger neighbours ;
but a question of language must be discussed on its own
merits, and degrees of complexion or cultivation may be put
on one side.

Any one who approaches the Melanesian languages with
some knowledge of a Polynesian or Malayan language cannot
fail to find a certain resemblance ; he will find words, perhaps
very many words, the same; he may find the Melanesian
language so much like the one he has been before acquainted
with that he will hazard the assertion that it is a corrupt
Samoan for instance, or will conclude that commercial inter-
course with Malays has had a great effect upon the native
language. Whether, except in the Polynesian colonies above
mentioned, he will ever find a language that he can think
taken over by Melanesians as a whole to supersede their
original tongue is very doubtful. That such a language has
been taken over from Polynesians one may say is certainly not

14 Melanesian Languages.

the case. In a Melanesian language many words will be the
same as the Polynesian, many grammatical forms will be the
same ; but undoubtedly, as a rule, the phonetic character of the
Melanesian will be fuller than that of the Polynesian word,
and the Melanesian grammar will fail in some feature con-
spicuous in the Polynesian, the Passive for instance, and will
have in vigorous life some power which is at work, but com-
paratively little at work, among the Polynesians ; for ex-
ample, the definite transitive power of certain forms of verbs.
If the inhabitants of any Melanesian island have cast off
their old tongue and taken to a new one, which is not here
! denied, at any rate it has not been one of the Polynesian
languages of the East Pacific that they have taken. If the
people, for example, of the Banks' Islands have, either in
their present seats or in some place from which they came
in a distant time, given up their old speech and taken to
another, we should not expect to find what they had given up,
but we should have every reason to expect to find the source
whence they have obtained their present language. Cer-
tainly this is not Polynesian, and certainly not Malayan ;
looking round for a language resembling the Banks' Islands
languages we may fix on Fiji as being very similar on the
whole. But in Fiji the same process has to be gone through.
If the Fijians, Melanesians, have thrown off their old speech
and taken another, whence did they get their modern lan-
guage? Most certainly not from their Polynesian neigh-
bours. The most remarkable characteristic of the Fiji
language, that very efficient suffix of a transitive termination
to a verb, which flourishes in this even more than in any
other Melanesian language, is absolutely unknown to their
Tongan neighbours, and to the Malays also, if in consideration
of the immense space which divides them it is necessary to
mention the Malays. But the fact that Melanesians, pre-
sumed to have cast off their original language and taken
another, have not taken a Malayan or Polynesian one instead,
is no proof that they have not taken any other. It may be
that the languages here treated of, those of which a list has

Introduction. 1 5

been given above, and here called Melanesian, because the
islands in which they are spoken are Melanesian, are not
the original languages of the race that now speaks them.
It may be that a third term should be used for the languages
which, not Malay, not Polynesian, are now spoken in the
Indian Archipelago and in the Melanesian islands. Those now
in use are the languages here called Melanesian ; and if the
ancient language once possibly belonging to the people now
inhabiting Melanesia could be found, there would be a great
difficulty about nomenclature ; a difficulty which only does not
arise because the languages here called Melanesian are the
only languages, with the exception always understood of what
is spoken in the Polynesian settlements, now found to be
spoken in the Melanesian islands. This last assertion, resting
on no authority, requires some explanation ; the truth of it
can only be assented to, or dissented from, after the study of
the languages themselves.

5. The first view of the Melanesian languages no doubt
shows great differences between some languages and others ;
the learner who has acquired one approaches another as if
it were quite a foreign language, with some words only in
common with that which he knows. But languages which
are mutually unintelligible to natives of parts of the small
islands on which they are spoken are often perceived without
much trouble to be really not far apart, when once acquaintance
has been made with them ; for, without any substantial differ-
ence in vocabulary and with little difference in grammar, two
languages as closely allied as Dutch and English may have so
far diverged in pronunciation and in the use of the vocabulary
as to be very different to the ear. As acquaintance with the
languages increases, the likeness of one to another becomes
more apparent ; a sort of ideal standard is established to which
they conform, the specific differences become subordinated to
the general character, the difficulty presented by the multi-
plicity of forms diminishes more and more. But there will
remain some among the Melanesian languages which seem
exceptional and hard, not fitting into the neighbouring

1 6 Melanesian Languages.

groups, and having forms which cannot well be matched
with parallel examples. Supposing-, for example, that the
languages of the Northern New Hebrides are to be learnt
by one who has an acquaintance with Mota : it is not long
before he sees that the languages of Aurora, Pentecost,
Lepers' Island, and Espiritu Santo belong to a type with
which he is acquainted, though a knowledge of Mota does
not enable him to understand what he hears. But when he
reaches Ambry m he finds that the language is much more
hard ; there are words indeed that he knows, but he seems a
stranger. Beyond Ambrym, in such a language as Sesake,
he is comparatively again at home. The same is the case in
the Solomon Islands, where round Florida, in Guadalcanal
Malanta and Ysabel, the languages which are heard are not
very far apart ; but at Savo, which lies in the midst of
them, the language seems altogether puzzling: many words
indeed are the same and the people identical in customs and
appearance, and yet to make out the speech is very difficult.
Far beyond Savo, the language of Duke of York Island is
again familiar, with hardly anything in it which has not an
easily-perceived analogy with the Solomon Islands, Banks'
Islands, Fiji, and New Hebrides tongues. If difficult ex-
ceptional languages are to be named in the list of thirty-four
Melanesian languages given above, they would be Nengone,
Ambrym, Santa Cruz, Savo. The very important question
then arises whether these differ so fundamentally from the
other languages that they cannot group with them as mem-
bers of the same family. The lesser question, whether they
agree together in difference from other Melanesian languages,
is easily answered in the negative : they sometimes agree,
but generally do not ; each has its own peculiarities. On the
main question the judgment of the writer has been already
given when the Melanesian languages have been pronounced
to be homogeneous. As with the Melanesian languages
generally, very much as their differences are conspicuous at
the first view, greater acquaintance with them makes them
appear more and more alike, so with these exceptional Ian-

Introduction. i 7

guages, the difficulties of them do not disappear, they do
not range themselves by the side of the others in orderly
groups, but the more they are known the more their features
show the family likeness. It cannot be said of these that
they are the remains of the old Melanesian speech, now in
many islands thrown off to make room for a foreign language
to take its place. More archaic they well may be, belonging
to an earlier movement of population, carried forwards by an
earlier wave of speech passing onwards among the islands,
but having somewhere a common origin with those which
have since and successively passed among them.

It is equally clear that these languages, which are rather
exceptional among those of Melanesia, do not, in the points
in which the exceptions appear, agree with the neighbouring
language of Australia. It would seem natural, on the sup-
position that there was a language in the Melanesian islands
originally which has since been exchanged for another and
that some traces of the original still remain here and there,
that we should look to Australia with the expectation of
finding in the native people and languages the kindred of
the original Melanesian. But in regard to language it must
be said that any one familiar with the Melanesian tongues
finds nothing but what is strange to him in Australian
grammar and vocabulary. Illustrations of this will be offered
hereafter, but the statement is necessary here that, with
regard to words at least, whereas a strange word appearing
in a Melanesian language is very often to be found in some
distant Ocean vocabulary, no correspondence whatever seems
to occur between Melanesian and Australian vocabularies.

If then two distinct families of language do not appear in
Melanesia at the present time, not including New Guinea in
the consideration, and the Melanesian languages are homo-
geneous, it further has to be established that they belong to
the same family with the Ocean languages generally, that is
to say, with the Polynesian, the Malay, the Malagasy, and
those of the Indian Archipelago generally. This can only be
-done here, so far as a very limited acquaintance with those

c

1 8 Melanesian Languages.

languages can enable it to be done at all, by a comparison
of Vocabularies and Grammar.

6. The proof of the kinship of languages must be made in
consideration of Vocabulary, Grammar, and Phonology. Some
material is here offered towards this end. Seventy words in
forty languages of Melanesia are given, which can be com-
pared among themselves, to see what proof they give of the
substantial unity of the Melanesian languages ; they can be
compared further with the same list of words given in thirty-
three languages of the Malay Archipelago by Mr. Wallace
in his book on that subject ; and they can be compared also
with the corresponding Malagasy and Polynesian words, which
will make comparison with the Ocean languages tolerably
complete. A comparative sketch of the Grammar of the
Melanesian languages is given, with reference also to the
Ocean languages as exemplified in Malay, Malagasy, and
Maori, and in the Marshall group in Micronesia. There is
also added something on the phonology of the Melanesian
languages, the vocabularies and grammar of which are the
subjects of consideration. With regard to Vocabulary it may
be observed that the use of it requires always careful con-
sideration when proof of the kinship of languages is sought
in it. There is always a certain element of chance corre-
spondence to be expected, such as may be seen in the words
tarn, as, si, if, the same in Latin and Mota, or sike in Mota,
the same in sense with the English seek. There is also to be
calculated on the presence of borrowed words. It proves
nothing as to the kinship of two languages that many words
are found common to both. On the other hand, the pre-
sence of very many common words must be allowed to prove
something in favour of relationship, and disagreement to a
very great extent in vocabulary does nothing to disprove
relationship. No one could refuse the evidence of vocabulary
in proving the kinship of English and German, and no one
is shaken in the belief of such relationship by complete
disagreement in the ordinary words for the commonest
things, horse, dog, or pig, woman, boy, or girl. If there-

Introduction. 19

fore in comparing- Melanesian vocabularies among themselves
we find a great deal of agreement, that is not without
its value in proving them homogeneous ; if we find differ-
ences where we might look for agreement, that does not
prove any fundamental distinction. The same is the case in
comparing Melanesian vocabularies with those of the other
Ocean languages. For example, if we find iga the common
Melanesian word for a fish, it argues something for the re-
lationship of the languages which have it ; and if we find the
same word common in the Polynesian and Malay Archipelago
vocabularies, as it is in the Melanesian, it argues something
for the relationship of all these Ocean languages together.
But if we find two neighbouring Melanesian languages like
Merlav of the Banks' Islands and Aurora of the New Hebrides,
one having the word for fish ig and the other mast, there is no
proof whatever of radical difference between the two 1 . There
is no reason why a language should not have taken into its
use a word for fish which is unknown elsewhere. When, how-
ever, in Borneo a fish is masik, as it is masi in Aurora, and
many common words are found in Borneo and in Aurora be-
sides, although this particular coincidence may be accidental,
it is impossible not to admit the fact as going some way to
prove that a common stock of words is found in the Malay
Archipelago and in Melanesia. Exceptional words have thus
their value, as have those which are so commonly the same.

It is certain, however, that the presence of words the same
in form and in meaning, in two or many languages, does not
do anything like so much to prove a common stock as the
presence of words either the same in form but differing in
signification, or the same in signification but with a change
of form. With regard, in the first place, to words which are
substantially the same in form in different languages but
different in signification, this may be rather apparent than
real, it may be only a difference of application 2 . Words also

1 The words for fish in the nearly related languages of Latin and Greek are
radically distinct.

2 ' Would not a man, not well versed in the Teutonic languages, infer from

C 2

2O Melanesian Languages.

are often present in two languages, or more, but when a
vocabulary is being compiled they will appear in one and not
in another, because they lie in different levels of the language 1 .
What is the general term in one language is specific in
another, what is the common word in one is an out-of-the-
way word in another. If English and German vocabularies
are compared in the few words mentioned above, Horse and
Pferd, Dog and Hund, Pig and Schwein, Woman and Weib,
Boy and Knabe, Girl and Madchen, are wholly different
words, and the effect of them set side by side is to make the
two languages seem distinct. But there are in the English
language prad 2 , hound, swine, wife, knave, maiden, on
other levels in the language, some of them only different
in application, some with a specific instead of a general signi-
fication. Vocabularies such as are gathered by travellers are
made up of words taken from the surface of language, and are
therefore apt to deceive. Very often a word is in a language
but in another meaning, very often it is there but is not
ordinarily used : a common stock of words is held by various
languages, but in the lapse of time and changes of use they
get sorted and re-sorted into various applications and employ-
ments, though they may lose very little of their original
form. A few examples may be useful, taken from Melanesian
and Ocean tongues. The word rangi in Maori is the sky, as
in other forms it is in all the Polynesian languages ; the same
rani in San Cristoval is rain ; the same in Mota, Ian, is wind ;
the same in Fiji, cagi (dhangi) is wind and, more generally,
the atmosphere. If the % Maori ua, rain, is put against the San
Cristoval rani, or the Maori hau, wind, against the Mota Ian,
there is nothing to show a likeness in vocabulary. But usa for

but, maar, sondern, and to, naar, zu, that English, Dutch, and German are no
kindred languages ? Such words seem different, because they are very liable
to different applications.' Outlines of Malagasy Grammar, H. N. van der Tuuk.

1 Mr. Fison has used the expression that ' words are not in the same focus,
microscopically speaking,' using the illustration of infusoria in a drop of water,
one of which may be invisible until a turn of the screw brings it into focus.

2 The word palfrey, I am informed, contains the same root ; and wife is in
fact contained in the word woman, wife-man.

Introduction. 2 1

rain is used in the next island to San Cristoval, and saw in Mota
is the blowing of the wind ; the words are there, though in the
latter case not in the same application. The common word for
blood in Melanesia, as in the Malay Archipelago and in
Malagasy, is ra, dara, nara ; the common Polynesian word is
toto. But toto appears in the Solomon Islands in the name
of a disease, and as congealed blood, and no doubt is the
same with the totoa, toto, of the Banks' Islands, where it
signifies the sap or juice of trees. The word tasi, tahi,
tai, is common in Melanesia, Polynesia, and the Malay
Archipelago for salt, salt-water, the sea, and a lake. In the
Banks' Islands, though tas has gone out of use as meaning
salt, or salt-water, the verb tasig is used for seasoning
food with salt-water ; tas is no longer the sea or sea- water,
but the names of places on the lee or weather side of islands
retain it in that sense : Tasmate, where the sea-water, the surf,
is dead or still; Tasmaur, where it is alive or breaking. The
lake in Santa Maria is the Tas l . Again, the Maori wketu,
Samoan fetu, is no doubt the Mota vitu, a star, which,
with the termination commonly suffixed, is in the Banks'
Islands also vitwgi. In Celebes bitui is clearly the same and
the meaning the same; but in Dayak of Borneo betuch is
'eye ;' as in the compound betuch anuh, the eye of day, the
sun. The word is the same, and the expression is paralleled
in the Malagasy maso andro, eye of day, the sun, masoe being
a star also in the Banks' Islands, and maso, eye, in Malagasy.
To add one more, the word for mouth in Maori, waka, in
Batak baba, Malagasy vava, in Lepers' Island wawa, does
not appear in Mota as a mouth, but in a verbal form is
wawan, to open the mouth. Another Maori word for mouth,
mangai, is ma&a, mouth, in Florida, which is also a word or
speech ; and in Mota again is formed into the verb manasag, to
make a word or speech about a thing, to make known 2 .

1 In Madagascar one of the large lakes is Itasy, and on the weather S. E.
coast is Tasimoro. These names Tasmate and Tasmaur, in varying forms,
are applied to places on weather and lee sides of islands in the New Hebrides
and Solomon group.

2 See further these words in the Vocabulary Notes.

22 Melanesian Languages.

To observe words which are evidently the same under
changes of form is equally interesting-, and more effective as
a proof of kinship between languages. The word for star,
mentioned above, whetu, vitu, betuch, bitiii, is no doubt the
Malay bintang, the Malagasy vintana, n having been intro-
duced to strengthen t. It is plain that the Malay bintang
cannot have been introduced in the form vitu, vitugi ; the
word has not been borrowed by the Melanesians from Malay.
Has it then been borrowed from the Polynesians ? There is
one objection to the supposition, in the fact that in Fiji,
which is nearest to the Polynesians in Tonga, kalokalo is the
word for star, not vitu ; but, as has been observed, there is no
greater nearness in speech coinciding with geographical near-
ness to the Polynesians. It is in the likeness of the Dayak
form to the Melanesian that the argument for the common
property of the Ocean tongues in this word mainly lies. The
Dayak nouns have this termination ch where the Banks'
Islands languages have gi or g ; buruch, feathers = wulugi ;
turoch, egg = tolegi ; jipuch, tootk = liwoffi J ; as the non-Hova
Malagasy has a similar ending in ch. There cannot well be
conceived an importation from the Dayak into the Banks'
Islands, there must have been a common source for both ;
and the Polynesian wlietu^fetu without the termination can-
not have got into Borneo as betuch, and into the Banks'
Islands as vitugi.

A good word perhaps to show changes of form stretching
over a vast extent of Ocean with identity of signification is
what in Malay is rumah, house. This in Javanese is uma,
in Amboyna lima,, in Bouru huma, in Gilolo um. In Mela-
nesia there is ruma in Duke of York, San Cristoval, and in
Motu of New Guinea. ; uma in the New Hebrides and Banks'
Islands ; luma, nima in the Solomon Islands ; sumo, in Fate ;
ima in Banks' Islands and New Hebrides ; 'ma, ma, in Nengone
and Santa Cruz ; and ^m, em, and en in the Banks' Islands.

1 See Vocabulary, No. 64. Out of the seventy words selected for these
Vocabularies twenty-seven in the Sarawak Dayak are known to me as Mela-
nesian.

Introduction. 23

The changes and variations are regular, no one can doubt the
identity of the word ; and it is impossible to suppose that
the words were imported into Melanesia from the places
in which they have the corresponding- form ruma into San
Cristoval from Malay, uma into Lakona from Java, suma into
Fate from Bouro, lima into Malanta from Tidore or Amboyna.
It is evident that the word belongs to some common ancient
stock, that it has been modified into various forms in use,
and that it has travelled hither and thither in a way that it
is now impossible to trace. But this word is not in use in
Polynesia ; it runs from the Malay regions down the Indian
Archipelago, through New Guinea, and through the Mela-
nesian islands to their extremity, not continuously, but here
and there ; and it should be observed that it is present in
such places as Nengone and Santa Cruz in such a form as does
not look like a recent importation. The distribution of words
in these regions cannot be traced ; but as the question arises
whether we can find in Melanesia some original stock of
language upon which the languages now spoken have been
superinduced, it is important to attempt to find regions
to which particular words are confined. In the word for
house that which is characteristically Melanesian is also
Malay. It happens, as before remarked, that certain lan-
guages in Melanesia strike the enquirer as different from
others, such as those of the Southern New Hebrides, Am-
brym, Loyalty Islands, Santa Cruz, Savo, and it is in these
that the supposed original stock of language would be sought.
This word ruma is found among them, as it is found in the
Mafoor of New Guinea, which, it seems, has been observed
as an example of a language very different from those of
Melanesia generally 1 . Such points of agreement are common
in that language ; for example, the word which the Voca-
bulary No. 10 shows to be very common in Melanesia for
' bone ' is in Mafoor ; but it is not in those languages of
Melanesia in which exceptions are often noticed, and it is
not in Polynesian or in Malay. The divisions into which the

1 Georg von der Gabelentz and Meyer.

24 Melamsian Languages.

Vocabularies appear to arrange themselves cross and perplex
one another. There are disconnected lines of passage along
which words, like ruma, can be traced from one end of the
Ocean region to another, and often a word quite unknown
in Melanesia, except in some isolated spot, is found to be
well known very far away * ; but, whether sporadic or fre-
quent, common words appear in all the Ocean languages,
and bear their share of witness to the common kinship of
them all.

7. The presence in the Ocean languages of Numerals which
have a general resemblance does not in itself go far to prove
a common origin, for languages may very likely borrow nu^
merals from others more advanced than themselves. At the
same time, there is something which cannot be passed over
as without signification when numerals radically identical
but very various in form are found in regions widely separated
from one another, and in languages which are otherwise
shown to be akin. There is much more, however, when
comparison shows not only numeral words but numeral systems
to be related ; and when in languages the most advanced in
the art of numeration the traces of the same methods are to
be found which are in use in the most archaic or least deve-
loped members of the family. It is not only that there is a
general consent in the Ocean languages with regard to the
first five numerals at least, but it may be seen that the
grammatical form of the numerals is common, that what can
be made out of the meaning of Melanesian terms explains
others, and that the methods used for expressing numbers,
such as those above ten or twenty, are in fact the same. It
is also important to observe that the numerals common in
Melanesia have certainly not been borrowed from the Malay,
because four out of ten of them are different, and that the
Melanesian forms are phonetically fuller than the Polyne-

1 For example, the word for head in Vaturama, lova, Malagasy loha ; the
Santa Cruz loju (j=tch), Sula Island lotu, canoe; blood in Araga, New
Hebrides, daga, in Philippines dagga, Formosa tagga. The common word
butterfly in Melanesia and in Polynesia is pepe, but Savo in the Solomon
Islands has bebeula, and Morella in Amboyna has pepeul.

Introduction. 2 5

sian as they now appear. In the Island languages, at any
rate, numeration advances with ease and accuracy up to
a considerable height; there is no difficulty in counting
thousands in the languages which are here examined. And
the difference in this between the Melanesian languages and
the Australian is very remarkable. It is not only that the
numerals, so far as the latter go, are different ; it is that the
Australian, who calls three two-one and four two-two, appears
to be in matters of numeration altogether in a different
mental region from that in which the Melanesian reckons.
An account therefore of the Numerals and Numeration of the
Melanesian languages is given, not only because of the inte-
rest of the subject in itself, but on account of the bearing
which it has on the argument for the radical connection of
all the Ocean languages.

8. The proof of kindred afforded by the Grammar of
languages is no doubt more effective than that given by
Vocabulary. Grammatical forms may no doubt be borrowed,
but not so freely as words, and in themselves they are more
characteristic. It is necessary, however, to use caution in
comparing grammars as well as vocabularies. In the first
place, it cannot be assumed that the presence of a common
grammatical form is any proof of kindred at all when two or
more languages have the same, apart from the consideration
whether one has borrowed from the other. In languages
which have no inflexions, and therefore little grammar, it is
particularly likely that the same method of putting words
together should occur when there is no family connection of
one language with another. For example, the practice of
suffixing pronouns to nouns and verbs is one which may
well have arisen in quite distinct families of language ; it is
only when vocabulary comes to the assistance of the grammar
in such a case, as it does when the Melanesian languages are
compared with the other Ocean tongues, that the proof of
relationship is complete. In the second place, since in making
comparison some sort of standard must be set up, it is very
important that the language taken as the standard should

26 Melanesia^ Languages.

not be a late, simplified, or decayed member of the family
the members, or presumed members, of which are being com-
pared. Such a standard is naturally to some extent fixed by
the language from which the start is made, and it is neces-
sary to guard against this natural bias of judgment. Any
one who from the Indian side approaches the languages of
the Indian Archipelago and starts with Malay, has Malay as
his natural standard ; it is a Malayan element that he sees
where there is agreement, and a divergence from Malay where
there is disagreement. But Malay is undoubtedly, as com-
pared with the languages of Madagascar and the Philippine
Islands, a simplified form of the common language, just as
English is as compared with German. It would be absurd to
judge of the relationship of a claimant to the position of a
Teutonic language by its correspondence to the grammar of
modern English. In the same way, one who approaches the
languages of the Western Pacific from the Polynesian side,
starts with the standard of Maori or Tongan or Samoan
naturally in his mind. If he finds correspondences to Samoan
it is to Samoan intercourse that he ascribes it ; if he begins
with Tongan, it is the Tongan influence that he observes.
But it is quite certain that, as compared with Fijian, the
languages of Tonga and Samoa are late, simplified, and
decayed 1 . It would be absurd to put down some Greek
grammatical forms as belonging to a distinct, perhaps more
ancient, element in the language because they are not found
in Italian ; and there is a danger lest something of the same
kind of mistake should be made in the case of the Ocean
languages. If it be asked what language should be taken
as a standard, conformity to which may be assumed to be a
proof of membership of the Ocean family of languages, the
only answer can be that no such standard is likely to be
agreed upon. Let the whole range of languages be examined,
and it will not be difficult, in some particulars at least, to

1 This statement will be shocking to some who are impressed with the
excellences of the Polynesian tongues ; but a comparison of grammars will
uphold its truth.

Introduction. 2 7

determine where the most archaic forms are to be found.
To recommend caution lest a false standard be set up, is not
the same thing as to point to a true one.

As an example of grammatical forms which being com-
pared together show the common kinship of the Melanesian
languages, and of these again with the Ocean languages
generally, the suffixed Personal Pronoun just referred to will
be useful. There is a form of the Personal Pronoun in the
three persons singular the characteristic consonants of which
are k, m, n ; in Malay, ist person ku, 2nd mu, 3rd tia ; in
Malagasy, 1st ko, 2nd nao, yd. ny ; in Maori, ist ku, 2nd u,
3rd na ; in Melanesian languages, ist, ku, gu (qu), k, g, ffw,ffo,
ng, n, n ; 2nd, mu, ma, m, na, m, m, n ; 3rd, na, na (gna), ne,
n, de. These Pronouns, in all these languages alike, are
suffixed to Nouns, giving, in a general way, a possessive sense,
as Malay rumahku, my house, Malagasy volako, my money.
But although, as was inevitable on any extended and intelli-
gent observation, these suffixes have been recognised as in
fact personal Pronouns, their limited employment in the Poly-
nesian languages has caused them, together with the stem to
which they are suffixed, to be considered only as Possessive
Pronouns. It has not been apparently recognised that what
is called a Possessive Pronoun in Polynesian languages is in
fact a Noun with a Personal Pronoun suffixed, that ku in the
Maori toku, my, is exactly the same grammatically with ku in
the Malay rumahku, my house. The suffixed Personal Pro-
nouns then, being common to all, or almost all, these Ocean
languages as far as may be known, and substantially identical,
are used in three ways. In Malay they can be suffixed in-
discriminately to all common Nouns ; they are not usually as
a matter of fact so suffixed, but there is no distinction : in the
Melanesian languages they are suffixed, according to a definite
rule of practice, to certain Nouns only: in the Polynesian
languages they are used only in the suffixes of what are called
Possessive Pronouns. Thus the Malay says rumahku, my house,
suffixing ku to that noun as to any other ; the Fijian says
valeqii ; the Solomon Islander says valegu, because vale is one

28 Melanesian Languages.

of the nouns which take the pronoun suffixed ; the Maori says
toku wTiare, because he cannot suffix ku to any common noun,
only to the o or a which appears in what is called the
Possessive Pronoun. The Melanesians have a strict rule
dividing common Nouns into two classes, those that take the
suffixed Pronoun and those that do not. Those that do not
are in the condition of all Polynesian Nouns; there is a
Possessive, with the appropriate Pronoun suffixed, which goes
with the Noun and qualifies as a Possessive Adjective would
do. Melanesians, generally at least, would not have their
word for money in the class of Nouns which takes the suffixed
Pronoun ; they cannot, like the Malagasy, say volako, but
noqu lavo in Fiji, nok som in Mota, nigua na rono in Florida ;
and these Possessives exactly correspond to the Polynesian
toku, inasmuch as they consist of a nominal stem no or ni,
signifying a thing belonging, and the Pronoun suffixed. We
see then a general agreement in the practice of suffixing a
Pronoun to make a Possessive, and a general agreement in
the Pronoun suffixed ; but we see a difference in the use, in
that the Melanesians suffix to a certain fixed class of common
Nouns, Malays to common Nouns indiscriminately, and Poly-
nesians to no common Nouns at all. If then the Melanesians
have borrowed these suffixed Pronouns, whence have they
borrowed them ? and how is it that they use them according
to strict rule unknown to Malays or Polynesians ? It appears
that it is no case of borrowing, but that these Pronouns
which are suffixed and the practice of suffixing them are
common property, which the Melanesians use in a more
elaborate way. In fact, it is very instructive to observe that
one of the first effects on a Melanesian language of inter-
course with foreigners is a relaxation of this rule of theirs ;
they come down to the Polynesian level ; they use the
possessive noqu, nok, or whatever it may be, with all common
Nouns alike, to make their language more easy to strangers
because less idiomatic. It is no longer tamak, tamaqu, my
father, but noqu tama, nok mama, like toku matua, like the
Pigeon English ' father belong-a-me.' It is impossible surely

Introduction. 29

to doubt that the Melanesians have the ancient idiomatic
use 1 .

If further examples are needed, they are easily supplied by
the Verbs. It is characteristic of the Ocean languages gene-
rally that the Verbs are preceded by certain particles which
mark them as being Verbs, and to a certain extent fix tense
and mood. But these particles are not used in Malay, though
they are present and mark tense in Madagascar and the
Philippine Islands. Here then is a grammatical feature
which connects the Ocean languages together. Another
characteristic of Melanesian Verbs is the termination which
turns a neuter Verb into a transitive one, or gives a definite
direction to one already active, the taka, caka, raka of Fiji, tag,
sag, rag of Mota, the ni, M, li, ti of Florida, and n, s, I, t of
Mota. These terminations in some form, like the Verbal
Particles, appear in all Melanesian languages ; they are not
in Malay or Malagasy, though they are in Javanese to some
extent, and they are not in the Polynesian languages except
in Samoan 2 , and in that not very conspicuous. The presence
of the termination in Javanese and in Samoan shows this
grammatical form not to be purely Melanesian, but it is very
characteristically so. In Fijian, for example, it is the most
conspicuous feature in the language, and it is certainly a very
effective mode of speech. If then the Melanesians have
borrowed this form, whence have they borrowed it? It is
indeed, a little of it, in the Polynesian language, but the
ample and elaborate forms of Melanesia cannot have been
borrowed from that little ; that little in Samoa shows rather
that they have retained there something of a common
property. Fiji is very near Tonga and has this feature in

1 The Polynesian languages have only two roots, o and a, which are the
foundation of their Possessives. Melanesian languages generally have more
than two of these possessive nouns ; at least one meaning a nearer, and
another a more distant, relation, at most five or six applied to things owned,
produced, eaten, drinkable, &c.

2 The reciprocal Samoan verb, with the terminations fcfi, scfi, ta'i, &c. j
the termination -alee in Javanese.

30 Melanesian Languages.

great force ; Tongan has none of it. If Fiji borrowed verbal
particles from Polynesia, whence did it get its definite transi-
tive terminations ? If these transitive terminations belong
to an original Papuan stock, and therefore are characterist-
ically Melanesian, how have they come into Javanese and
Samoan ? It is easy to account for their absence in some
regions while present in others if they are supposed to belong
to a common stock of which all, with various peculiarities,
partake : but to account for their conspicuous development in
Melanesia, on the supposition that the Melanesians have bor-
rowed from Polynesians or Malays, would be certainly very
difficult.

The mere fact of a comparison being possible between the
grammars of the Melanesian languages and those of the
Malayan and Polynesian branches of the Ocean family, such
as is here attempted, goes some way to show relationship
between them all. That they have a great deal in common
is unmistakeable ; the question is whether what the Me-
lanesians have in common with the others is really their own
or borrowed, and, if borrowed, whether there can be found
anything of the original languages upon which what has been
borrowed from Malayans or Polynesians has been super-
induced ? The examination of vocabularies does not seem to
disclose any such ancient stratum of words, nor does the com-
parison of grammars show any greater difference than may
well be consistent with a community of origin. There is
perhaps only the one language of Savo among those the
grammar of which is here examined which shows a form not
to be reconciled with the rest ; but this only in one particular,
and with very little known about the language. It is con-
ceivable, on the supposition that the languages now spoken
by Melanesians are not originally their own, that the original
stock is not now represented anywhere, either in vocabulary
or grammar, that languages derived from without have en-
tirely taken the place of some earlier speech, but it is difficult
to allow it to be more than possible. The circumstances that
have brought about such a state of things elsewhere do not

Introduction. 3 1

seem to have occurred in Melanesia ; and there is the great
difficulty that the present Melanesian languages certainly
have not been introduced by intruders speaking the present
Malay or Polynesian languages. The analogues of the Me-
lanesian languages are found in Madagascar, the Philippine
Islands, not in Malay ; the Melanesian languages spoken
nearest to the Polynesian settlements, such as Sesake near
Mae, or in regions, like Fiji, most visited by Polynesians, are
distinctly not more Polynesian in character than those that
are exposed to no such influence. This is most important in
view of the theory that Malay commerce or Polynesian coloni-
sation has made Melanesian languages what they are.

9. It has been said, with regard to Melanesian Vocabulary,
that it does not appear to coincide at all with any Australian
list of words, and the same may be said, though with less
confidence, of the Grammar. There is included in the vocabu-
laries given hereafter one of Murray Island, situated on the
edge of the great reef that fringes Australia, opposite the
Gulf of Papua. This is given to show that, although as an
island tongue it might be supposed Melanesian, it is quite
distinct, so far as this list of words goes, from the Melanesian
languages here considered. It is the same with the grammar.
The translation of a Gospel in the Murray Island language is
quite strange to one accustomed to Melanesian languages ; it
is very likely that close study would show many resemblances,
but the aspect of the language is strange. It would be too
much to assert that it is Australian, but the construction which
corresponds to the use of prepositions with nouns by way of
making up for the loss of case is also Australian l . Have we
then in this an example of the supposed original Melanesian
language ? and are there among the New Guinea languages
some which agree with this, and are distinct from those which
are upon the face of them, like Motu, similar to the ordinary
Melanesian tongues ? It would be very natural that in New
Guinea the aboriginal population should be the same with

1 ' Nouns form their dative and ablative in im and lam ; plantation gedub,
to plantation gedubim, from plantation gedublam? Eev. S. M c Farlane.

32 Melanesian Languages.

that of Australia. If it should be so, and upon these should
have come the same people who have occupied the Melanesian
islands, it would certainly result that one acquainted with the
Ocean languages would find himself in a foreign region of
speech when he was enquiring into these languages of Aus-
tralian affinity 1 . But it would go no way to prove that there
are, or ever were, people or languages of the same stock in
the Melanesian islands, other than New Guinea.

In these latter islands it may be safely asserted that the
vocabularies and grammars here given do not show more
than one family of language to exist. The languages are
very numerous and various, their differences are such as to
make them mutually unintelligible, there are some among
them that seem to depart considerably from the common
type ; but, on the whole, they have a vocabulary and grammar
which is found in them all, and in the other Ocean lan-
guages in common with them. It is plain that there has
been no one unbroken flow of population and of language
into and among these islands. There may have been an
ancient movement of the primitive inhabitants of the Indian
Archipelago of which Melanesia is but a prolongation, which
by successive advances has arrived at the very furthest islands.
Upon this, age after age, may have succeeded immigrations
from one quarter or the other of the Oceanic region, from
Micronesia, from Polynesia, from Indonesia again, and these
somewhat mixed on their wanderings, possibly with Austra-
lian, certainly with Asiatic blood. But the family of popu-

1 Mr. M c Farlane, of the London Mission Society, has been kind enough to
send me short vocabularies of the languages of Erub, Tauan, the Fly River,
Port Moresby, Kerepuna, South Cape, East Cape, Teste and Heath's Islands,
all belonging to the coast of New Guinea, from Torres Straits eastwards. The
first three of these, close to Cape York in Australia, contain no words that I
know ; all the others have words with which I am familiar as belonging to
Solomon Islands, Banks' Islands, and New Hebrides. The suffixed pronouns
are shown in tinana, his mother, tinalcu, my mother, and the verbal particle,
i, is prefixed, as in Melanesia, to adjectives and to verbs. The pronouns of the
first three languages are quite different from the Melanesian, those of the six
latter substantially the same. In the numerals the same difference appears,
and not merely in words, but in capacity and system.

Introduction. 33

lation and of language is apparently one, languages and
dialects of one family intermixed, migrations from one stock
crossing and intercrossing. We may conceive of the peopling
of Melanesia and the settlement of its languages as of the
filling with the rising tide of one of the island reefs. It is
not a single simultaneous advance of the flowing tide upon an
open beach, but it comes in gradually and circuitously by
sinuous channels and unseen passages among the coral, rilling
up one pool while another neighbouring one is dry, appa-
rently running out and ebbing here and there while generally
rising, often catching the unwary by an unobserved approach,
sometimes deceiving by the appearance of a fresh-water stream
on its way into the sea, crossing, intermixing, running con-
trary ways, but flowing all the while and all one tide till the
reef is covered and the lagoon is full.

NOTE. Although the connection of the Melanesian Lan-
guages is here considered entirely on the side of language, and
ethnological difficulties do not properly belong to the subject,
yet such a theory of the ethnological connection of the Me-
lanesian people with those of the Ocean races generally, as
may be consistent with the varying physical characteristics
of the inhabitants of the Indian and Pacific Archipelagos,
may perhaps be propounded without presumption. It has been
stated above, p. 8, that the Polynesian settlements in Three
Hills Island in the New Hebrides, and the Reef Islands
near Santa Cruz, show us people physically indistinguishable
from Melanesians but speaking a Polynesian language ;
whereas isolated Polynesian settlements at Tikopia, Rennell
Island, and Bellona, with no Melanesian neighbours, are
physically Polynesian. The children speak the language of
the village if their mothers are foreigners, still more would
they speak the language of the village if their fathers were
foreign visitors. Suppose, then, in the islands adjacent to the
Asiatic continent a population of dark-coloured and curly-
haired physical character with their own language. Suppose

34 Melanesia* Languages.

the islands to be settled with this population, originally of
one stock, and the gradual settlement of the islands further
away to the south-east to be going on by the people of this
one stock, their languages diverging as time and distance
increase. Suppose Asiatic people, lighter in complexion and
straight-haired, to have intercourse with the island people
nearest to the continent, going over to trade with them,
residing on the island coasts, giving rise to a certain number
of half-castes. These half-castes then, in regard to language,
would be island people, they would not follow their foreign
fathers' speech, but their mothers' and their fellow-villagers' ;
but in regard to physical appearance they would be mixed,
lighter than their mothers in complexion, with natter features
(if their mothers were like Papuans and their fathers like
Chinese), and their hair would be straighter. This mixed
breed would begin on the coast, and increase ; it would mix
in its turn both with the inland people and with the foreign
visitors, relatives on the fathers' side. The result, after a
time, would be that in the interior of the island the aboriginal
inhabitants would remain physically and in speech what they
were, but on the coast and towards the coast there would be a
great mixture of various degrees of crossings, some very like
the Asiatic visitors, some very little unlike the inland people ;
but all speaking the island language. Suppose this to be the
case in all the islands, most in those nearest the continent,
but as time went on and migrations took place extending
far beyond, we should find great diversities of appearance,
ranging between the light and straight-haired and dark and
curly-haired ; yet the languages, various as by distance and
isolation they might well become, would show that they
belonged to the same stock. This would account for the
Malay and Chinese being, if dressed alike, very much alike to
look at, and for the Malay and Banks' Islander being a good
deal unlike to look at, and it would account for the Malay
and Banks' Islander speaking languages of the same stock,
and quite distinct from Chinese. It would do more ; it
would account for Asiatic words, if there be such, being found

Introduction. 35

in Melanesian languages, for some words would come in from
the continent, though the language of the islands would
not be superseded ; and it would account for the fuller less-
decayed grammar of the darker less-mixed people of the
further islands. Let a branch of the mixed population, of a
certain degree of mixture, go off by themselves where they
could mix no more, they would carry a branch of the old
stock of language with them which would vary into dialects
in time, and they would not change their physical character-
istics except as circumstances might modify them ; yet there
would naturally be visible among them, as there are among
the Maoris of New Zealand, individuals or strains darker and
less straight-haired than the rest: the dark ancestry would
show. This would account for the Polynesians having a
language allied both to the Malay and to the Melanesian.
To the Polynesian, who is shocked at being claimed as a
relation by a much blacker man than himself, it is answered
that he speaks a language very like the Melanesian, but not
so complete and full, and that he has a good deal of black
blood and shows it. To the Malay, who will equally disclaim
his poor relation, it is replied that his speech is that of the
dark man, but much decayed and simplified ; and though he
has a good deal of Sanskrit and very likely some continental
Asiatic words in common use, yet that there is no doubt
but that his tongue and that of the Banks' Islanders belong
to a common stock.

Nor would the truth of this theory be upset if in New
Guinea were to be found languages which could not be re-
conciled with the island Melanesian tongues. The Austra-
lian languages are evidently distinct from these, and the part
of New Guinea on the other side of the Torres Straits from
Australia has people whose language is not like Melanesian.
There may be New Guinea men, Papuans, not Australians
nor Melanesians of the Islands ; but if there be, what is here
considered is the stock to which the Melanesian islanders and
their languages belong.

II. VOCABULARIES.

MR. WALLACE, in his valuable book on the Malay Archi-
pelago, has given Vocabularies of one hundred and seventeen
words in thirty-three languages of that Archipelago. He
also gives nine words in fifty-nine languages of the Archi-
pelago.

He divides the Archipelago into two portions, by a line
which he conceives to separate the Malayan and all the
Asiatic races from the Papuan and all that inhabit the
Pacific. This line is not the same as that which divides the
animal productions of the same countries ; but since it divides,
as is conceived, the races, it must be taken to divide the
languages, according to Mr. Wallace's view of the radical
distinction between the Malay and Papuan races. This line
then would be the boundary of Melanesian and Malayan
languages ; and it is of great importance, to the under-
standing of the relation of the one set of languages to the
other, to ascertain if the distinction thus made holds good
according to the Vocabularies.

For this purpose the nine words in fifty-nine languages
supply convenient matter for investigation. Do these nine
words divide themselves into two sets, the one on the one side
and the other on the other side of the dividing line ? If they
do, we have the boundary of the Papuan and Melanesian
Vocabularies ; if they do not, there is no boundary, at least
where such an observer as Mr. Wallace marks the difference of
physical characteristics. Of the fifty-nine languages twenty-
seven are Malayan, according to Mr. Wallace's division, and

Vocabularies* 37

thirty-two are Papuan. Examination of the nine words
shows them distributed as follows :

1. Slack. Out of fifty-nine words thirty-six are forms
to which the Malay itam belongs. Of these thirty-six,
ten are on the Malayan side, and twenty-six on the Papuan.
More than two-thirds of the Papuan languages have the word
which is also Malay; and the proportion is greater on the
Papuan side than on the Malayan.

2. Fire. Excluding doubtful words, there are about equal
numbers on either side agreeing with the Malay word api ;
fifteen out of the twenty-seven Malayan, fourteen out of the
thirty- two Papuan. If words rather doubtful, i.e. farther
from the form api, are taken, there are many more on the
Papuan side.

3. Large. There is no word common by which comparison
can be made. Words are very various on both sides.

4. Nose. Here there is the same word in nineteen lan-
guages, fourteen on the Malay side, five on the Papuan. The
word therefore, in Malay idong, may be claimed as Malayan
rather than Papuan.

5. Small. There is no word by which to make a division.

6. Tongue. There is an approach to a division of words
corresponding to the supposed division of races. The Malay
lidah has seventeen on its side, against one Papuan ; the other
word, ma, has twelve Papuan to two Malayan.

7. Tooth. This most common word occurs eighteen times,
and in nearly equal proportions on either side ; eight on
the Malayan, ten on the Papuan. Malay itself is an ex-
ception.

8. Water. Taking ayer to be the same as wai, thirty-four
of the fifty-nine are the same. Of these, twenty-five are on
the Papuan side, nine only on the Malayan ; but Malay itself
has the Papuan word.

9. White. The Malay word putih is very common on both
sides, thirty-five out of fifty-nine. But about half the Ma-
layan languages have it, and two-thirds of the Papuan. It is
rather then Papuan than Malayan.

38 Melanesia* Languages.

On the whole, it is from this Vocabulary quite impossible
to draw a line between the languages. In only one case
out of nine do words arrange themselves on the two sides
of the line in accordance with the proposed division of the
races.

So much being ascertained, we can compare with more
satisfaction Melanesian Vocabularies with those of the Malay
Archipelago ; and Mr. Wallace's Vocabularies supply an ex-
cellent basis for comparison. It is evident that those voca-
bularies can be taken as a whole, and that there is no danger,
while concerned with them, of travelling beyond reasonable
and legitimate limits of comparison. To go further beyond,
and search for likeness between Melanesian words and those
belonging to the continent of Asia, would be to go altogether
beyond the inquiry which is undertaken here. What is pro-
posed is to compare Melanesian vocabularies together, so as to
ascertain what evidence they show as to the possession of a
common stock of words ; and further to compare the Me-
lanesian words with those of other Ocean languages which
may add their testimony to that of the Malay Archipelago
lists and make the comparison tolerably general and com-
plete.

Vocabularies are here given of seventy words in forty
Melanesian languages, the words being chosen from those of
Mr. Wallace's list. Many of his words are inapplicable in
islands where metals are unknown ; and there were good
reasons for leaving out others. With the Melanesian words
are added, for comparison, the corresponding ones in Malay,
Malagasy, and the New Zealand Maori. Words from Murray
Island, an island between Australia and New Guinea, are
given among the Melanesian for the sake of the example it
affords of a vocabulary very unlike the others, where a Me-
lanesian language would perhaps be expected. Only one is
given of New Guinea, from a part where the language is
clearly very near to those of the Solomon Islands.

Vocabularies.

39

SEVENTY WORDS IN FOKTY MEtANESIAN LANGUAGES.

I. Ashes.

i. Sad.

3. Banana.

4. Belly.

5. Bird.

I. Nengone

cekole

nia

hnamaco

ore

ia

2. Anaiteum

ohpa

has

nos

etga

man

3. Eromanga

owanta

sat

tini

minok

4. Fate

tano ou

sa

at

kweli

manu

5. Sesake

tano au

sa

adi

bele

manu

6. Api

poparua

pirai, adi

sine

manu

7. Ambrym

hagavi

vi

bwehel

8. Espiritu Santo

avuavu

oso

vetali

tia

nanu

9. Whitsuntide

taniavu

hantai

ihi

siqeni

manu

10. Lepers' Island

qie

esi

votali

taqanigi

manu

ii. Aurora

digevu

seseta

udi

taqa?iii

manu

12. Meralava

vurua

sasat

vetal

teqei

man

13. Santa Maria, Gog

tarowo

tes

vatal

toqan

man

14. Lakon

tawehav

sa

vetal

toqan

inah

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

uwus

se

ve'el

eqei

men

1 6. Sasar

uwus

se

ve'el

eqegi

men

17. Vureas

wowo

tisi

vetel

toqai

man

1 8. Mosina

tuwus

tisi

vetel

toqegi

man

19. alo Teqel

UWU8

see

ve'el

oqegi

mon

20. Mota

tarowo

tatas

vetal

toqai

manu

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

wowo

het

vtel

tqege

men

22. Volow

ao

heat

vetel

teqegi

men

23. TJreparapara

powo, puio

set

vetel

toqegi

man

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

wowa

hia

vetel

toqa

mon

2.> Fiji

dravu

ca

vudi

kete

manumanu

26. Eotuma

roh

raksa

pori

ef

inanman

27. Santa Cruz

bu

jia

bepi

bole

kio

28. Nifilole

nublese

ea

nou

noweso

deguluo

29. Ulawa

ora

tataala

liuti

iia

manu

30. San Cristoval, Wano

dohu

taa

hugi

ahu

manu

Fagani

ravu

tai

fuki

oba

manu

31. Malanta, Saa

pwasa ora

eaiala

huti

lie

manu

Bululaha

ora

tataala

huti

opa

manu

Alite

ora

taa

bau

oga

malu

32. Vaturana

ravu

taulaka

vudi

toba

manu

33. Florida

ravu

dika

vudi

kutu

manu

34. Savo

lavu

isarowo

sou

pika

kosu

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

pidaravu

dika

vudi

kutu

manu

36. ao

parafu

di'a

jau

tia

waji

37. New Georgia

eba

jena

batia

tia

oloko

38. Duke of York

kabu

akakai

un

bala

pika rowo

39. Murray Island

adud .

kaba

adua

40. New Guinea, Motu

kaliu

tika

/

boka

manu

Malay

habu

jahat

pisang

prut

burung

Malagasy

lavenona

ratfti

ontsy

kibo

vorona

Maori

pungarehu

kino

kopu

manu

Melanesian Languages.

6. Black.

7. Blood.

8. Boat.

9. Body.

10. Bone.

I. Nengone

nashene

dra

koe

hnengome

dure

2. Anaiteum

apig

injairan

elcau

ohu

eduo

3. Eromanga

de

lo

okilis

oiran

4. Fate

gota

ta

rarua

kwatoko

vatu

5. Sesake

maeto

da

rarua

saranaliokakana

vatu

6. Api

mokoliko

wa^a, rarua

puriu

7. Atnbrym

bulbul

8. Espiritu Santo

naeto

tsae

ovo

oson

sui

9. Whitsuntide

meto

daga

wa.g'a

repehi

hui

10. Lepers' Island

maeto

dai

&g&

turegi

huigi

1 1 . Aurora

osooso

dai

aka

turii

surii

1 2. Meralava

silsilig

dar

ak

turi

suri

13. Santa Maria, Gog

wirwiriga

dar

ak

turgi

suri

14. Lakon

wiwirig

dara

ak

tigri

suri

1 5. Vanua Lava, Pak

malegleg

tar

ok

arpegi

sirigi

16. Sasar

melegleg

tar

ak

arpegi

sirigi

1 7. Vureas

korkor

dar

ak

turgi

sir!

1 8. Mosina

meliglig

nar

ak

turgi

surgi

19. alo Teqel

melegleg

tar

ok

arpegi

sirigi

20. Mota

silsiliga

nara

aka

turiai

suriu

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

mlegleg

dar

ok

trige

hir

22. Volow

sisilig

dar

g

tarbegi

hir

23. Ureparapara

melilia

dar

ak

tarepegi

hirin

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

meligaliga

dara

eka

tarapi

hur

25- Fiji

loaloa

dra

waqa

yago

sui

26. Rotuma

lahlah

tot

ak

for

sui

27. Santa Cruz

bo

newia

loju

neke

^lu

28. Nifilole

weo

dela

loasiu

namele

ve

29. Ulawa

rodohono

apu

haka

sape

suisuli

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

buruburu'a

abu

haka

abe

suri

Fagani

buruburuga

kara

faka

ape

suri

31. Malanta, Saa

rotohono

apu

baka

sape

suisuli

Bululaha

pulpulu'a

apu

haka

sape

suli

,, Alite

golu

abu

va^a

rape

rabegu

32. Vaturaa

bora

habu

vaka

kokora

suli

33. Florida

bili

gabu

vaka

huli

huli

34. Savo

boraga

gabu

vaka

mejila

tovolo

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

jowo

gaugabu

vaka

tono

huli

36. (?ao

dodofu

dadara

vaka

tono

huli

37. New Georgia

kiki

juka

vaka

susuri

38. Duke of York

marut

A'.ap

aa

pani

uri

39. Murray Island

qoleqole

mam

nar

lid

40. New Guinea, Motu

koremakorema

rara

lakatoi

tau

Malay

itam

darah

prau

badan

tulang

Malagasy

mainty

ra

lakana

tena

taolana

Maori

mangu

toto

whaka

tinana

iwi

Vocabularies.

II. Bow.

12. Butterfly. 13. Child.

14. Cocoa- 15. Cold.

nut.

I. Nengone

pehna

wabiengo

tene, tei

nu

leulebue

2. Anaiteum

tana

teijig

halav

aig

idoido

3. Eromanga

nitni

4. Fate

asu

pepe

karikik

niu

milate

5. Sesake

asu

gari

niu

maladi

6. Api (Pama, hisu) viu

lepepe

susua

niu

manini

7. Ambrym

yu

terera

ol

mala

8. Espiritu Santo

vus

paule

matui

narir

9. Whitsuntide

ihu

pepe

nitui

niu

masisi

10. Lepers' Island

vuhu

bebe

natugi

matui

madidi

II. Aurora

usu

bebe

natui

matua

madidiw

12. Meralava

VU8

beb

nati

matua

mamarir

13. Santa Maria, Gog

vus

beb

iiatu

motu

mamerir

14. ., Lakon

vus

pep

natun

matu

misiw

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

vus

pep

nenigi

me'ig

mamgit

1 6. Sasar

vus

pep

ni'igi

mi'ig

manwit

1 7. Vureas

vus

rom

notui

moto

mamegin

18. Mosina

vus

rup

natugi

moto

mamegin

19. alo Teqel

vus

pep

niigi

mi'ig

mamgit

20. Mota

us

rupe

natui

matig

mamarir

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

ih

beb

nten

mtig

momrir

22. Volow

ih

beb

netei

metig

mamrir

23. Ureparapara

wuh

peb

juin

meji

mamedin

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

u

pip

magola

matu

melehih

25- Fiji

dakai, vucu

bebe

gone

niu

liliwa

26. Botuma

fan

pep

lelea, riri

uiu

matitf

27. Santa Cruz

netevu

bo

ito

nalu

abao

28. Nifilole

jeepoa

mumulo

dowolili

nu

balelo

29. Ulawa

pasi

pepe

kale

niu

wawai

30. San Cristoval, Wao

ba'e

bebe

gare

niu

wanusi

Fagani

aepage

pepe

kare

niu

magauga

31. Malanta, Saa

pasi

pepe

kale

niu

wawai

Bululaha

pasi

pepe

kale mela

niu

wowai

Alite

basi

iigra

gale

liu

guaguari

32. Vaturawa

periga

bebe

baka

niu

bisi

33. Florida

bage

uleulebe

dale, <7ari

niu

bihi

34. Savo

bage

bebeula

niuba

gazu

gaule

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

bage

aloalo

dathe, ^ari

niu

gaula

36. Gao

ba'esu

kokou

tuna

koilo

luuna

37. New Georgia

bakala

koburu

Mosara

gamu

38. Duke of York

toto

nat

lama

madarig

39. Murray Island

sareg

kap

uerem

bunari

gebgeb

40. New Guinea, Motu

peva

kaubebi

miro

niu

kerukeru

Malay

panah

kupukupu

anak

klapa

dingin

Malagasy

renifa

lolo

zanak

nihu

malaina

Maori

kopere

pepepe

tamaiti

makariri

Melanesian Languages.

1 6. Door.

17. E a r.

18. Egg.

19. Face.

20. Father-

I. Nengone

pa ma

wabaiwa

wa tei

paegogo

caca

a. Anaiteum

eucse neom

tikga

hakli

soga nimta

etma

3. Eromanga

buketampiat

teligo

akli

ipmi

temi

4. Fate

meta

taliga

toli

rai

tema

5. Sesake

mata ki kopu

dalina

tolu

nako

tama

6. Api

dalina

kokolu

mara

ara

7. Ambrym

rii

8. Espiritu Santo

natan na ima

saliga

gotolina

nago

tetai

9. Whitsuntide

mat gatava

qero

toll

lol mata

tama

10. Lepers' Island

matai vale

qerogi

toligi

nagogi

mama

II. Aurora

gatame vale

qoroi

tolii

nagoi

tata

12. Meralava

meteim

qoroi

utoli

nagoi

mam

13. Santa Maria, Gog

mate govur

qoron

tolin

nago

mama

14. Lakon

mate uma

telwan

wii

nawon

mam

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

me'e e

telwegi

olgi

nogogi

mam

1 6. Sasar

me'e qeqek

telwegi

olgi

nogogi

mam

1 7. Vureas

mate govur

qoroi

wowese

nogoi

mam

1 8. Mosina

meteim

qorogi

weswesegi

nugugi

mam

19. alo Teqel

me'e qeqek

telwegi

olgi

nogogi

mam

20. Mota

mateima

qoroi

toliu

nagoi

tama

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

mteem

delmege

tlen

ngoge

mam

22. Volow

meteem

delnegi

tili

negegi

mam

23. Ureparapara

mete e

delwegi

juluin

weregi

mam

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

mete ima

daliwa

tul

nago

ma

25- Fiji

katuba

daliwa

yaloka

mata

tama

26. Rotuma

nusura

faliaw

kaleuf

maf

o' fa

27. Santa Cruz

neva

dole

li

maku

nuwe

28. Nifilole

ba a foa

gdko

nuolie

nuoeinibe

tumai

29. Ulawa

ma na nima

alma

saulu

maa

ama

30. San Cristoval, W&no

ma nai ruma

karma

poupou

ma

ama

Fagani

ma rima

kariwa

oru

ma

wama

31. Malanta, Saa

ma na nume

alme

maopu

ma

ama

Bululaha

ma na nima

ali/za

maomaopu

ma

ama

Alite

ma luma

alma

rau li main

lao mae

mama

32. Vaturawa

samani

kuli

duva

mata

tama

33. Florida

mataula

kuli

tolu

mata

tama

34. Savo

^ola

ta^alu

sii

nito

mao

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

hagetha i vale

kuli

kidoru

mata

tama

36. G&o

tana

kuli

keredi

matata

ma

37. New Georgia

tolagra

talerae

vovo to

mata

mama

38. Duke of York

bona na naka

taliga

kiau

mata

tama

39. Murray Island

girip

babi

40. New Guinea, Motu

ituala

taia

vaira

tama

Malay

pintu

telinga

tulor

muka

bapa

Malagasy

varavarana

sofina

tody

tarehy

ray

Maori

tatau

taringa

hua

mata

matua tane

Vocabularies.

43

21. Finger.

22. Fire.

23. Fish.

24. Flesh.

25. Fly.

I. Nengone

tubenine

iei

wa ie

iaile

nengo

2. Anaiteum

upsikma

cap

numu

emihta

lag

3. Eromanga

dugerugo

om

nomu

elat

4. Fate

kini

kapu

ika

pakas

lago

5. Sesake

kini

kapu

ika

visiko

6. Api

sulima

kapi

ika

7. Ambrym

av

ika, malo

8. Espiritu Santo

pisu

gapu

natj

visigo

latto

9. Whitsuntide

pihu

gapi

ige

vigoho

larao

10. Lepers' Island

bisugi

avi

ige

vihigogi

lareo

11. Aurora

bisui

avi

masi

visigoi

lawo

12. Meralava

bisi

av

ig

visgoi

law

13. Santa Maria, Gog

bisu

av

eg

moswivin

la wo

14. Lakon

pisin

av

mah

pihvi

ItlH.

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

pusugi

ev

ig

vosogi

Ian

1 6. Sasar

pusugi

ev

inanat

vosgegi

Ian

1 7. Vureas

busui

ev

mes

vusgoi

Ian

1 8. ,, Mosina

pusugi

ev

e g

visugi

Ian

19. alo Teqel

pusugi

ev

eg

vosgegi

Ian

20. Mota

pisui

avi

iga

visogoi

lawo

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

bhuge

ev

eg

vhog

len

22. Volow

bihigi

ev

eg

vohog

Ian

23. Ureparapara

pusugi

ev

ie

viho

Ian

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

pub.

ev

iga

vog

lew

25- Fiji

gagalo ni liga

buka waqa

ika

lewe

lago

26. Rotuma

kak'e

rahe

i'a

tiko

Ian

27. Santa Cruz

tokiamu

gnie

no

vode

mo

28. Nifilole

( gogago nime
( (nails, bisi nime)

nie

si

nuwe

nula

29. Ulawa

kiki

tuwa

ia

hasio

lawo

30. San Cristoval, Wao

kakau

eu

i'a

hasio

lawo

Fagani

kakau

giu

iga

visogo

rawo

31. Malanta, Saa

riirii

tuwa

iie

hasio

laMo

Bululaha

uu

tuna

i'a

hinasu

lawo

Alite

^rau

duwa

ia

vilisi

lawo

32. Vaturawa

ririki

lake

cheche

venesi

lano

33. Florida

giffiri

lake

iga

vinahi

lano

34. Savo

karakara bizi

keda

mii

melomelo

kurigidi

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

kaukau

joto

fei

vinahi

thawo

36. #ao

0e#esu

kaagi

sasa

nnahi

(flanu

37. New Georgia

kakarisi

ikusu

ihana

borabora

dodo

38. Duke of York

kalkali na lima

ugan

ian

pani

lag

39. Murray Island

ur

lar

gem

nager

40. New Guinea, Motu

dodori

laki

lao

Malay

jari

api

ikan

daging

langau

Malagasy

rantsan tanana

afo

(fiana)

nofo

lalitra

Maori

matehao

ahi

ika

kikokiko

ngaro

44

Melanesian Languages.

26. Fowl.

27. Fruit.

28. Good.

29. Hair.

30. Hand.

I. Nengone

titewe

wawene

roi

ie hawo

wa nine

a. Anaiteum

jaa

howa

upene

umri

ikma

3. Eromanga

tuwo

buwa

ariiui

ov limpu

nokobe

4. Fate

to

ua

wia

lulu

ru

5. Sesake

toa

wa

qia

ululu

ru

6. Api

to

po

ilu

lima

7. Ambrym

to

wi

bua

ili, wolu

vera

8. Espiritu Santo

toa

va

pei

vul

gave

9. Whitsuntide

toa

wai

tavuha

ilu

lima

10. Lepers' Island

toa

wai

rea

vulugi

limegi

ii. Aurora

kur

oi

wia

ului

lima

12. Meralava

ov

we

wia

uli

lima

1 3. Santa Maria, Gog

toa

we

wi

vulu

lima

14. Lakon

to

wehi

we

vul

lima

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

to

wewegi

we

viligi

pinigi

1 6. Sasar

to

wowegi

we

viligi

pinigi

1 7. Vureas

to

wie

we

vului

peni

1 8. ,, Mosina

to

weegi

we

vulugi

penigi

19. alo Teqel

to

wowegi

we

viligi

pinigi

20. Mota

toa

woai

wia

ului

panei

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

to

we

we

ilige

bnege

22. Volow

kav

wenen

we

iligi

benegi

23. Ureparapara

to

wo

wie

wulugi

pinigi

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

to

win

wia

ul

pan

25- Fiji

toa

vua

vinaka

vulu

liga

26. Rotuma

moa

hue

lelei

leva

si'u

27. Santa Cruz

kio

va

mela

nini na ve

mu

28. Nifilole

kio

nua

fako

lu

nime

29. Ulawa

kua

hua

tiana

waraehu

nimanima

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

kua

hua

goro

warehu

rinianma

Fagani

kua

fua

koro

waraefu

ruma

31. Malanta, Saa

kua

hua

tiana

warehu

ninime

Bululaha

kua

hua

tiana

uuhu

kikii

Alite

vuavua

oka

ivu

limalima

32. Vaturawa

kokoroko

vuvua

vasea

ivu

kima

33. Florida

kokoroko

vuavua

uto

ulu

lima

34. Savo

kokoroko

igu

dai

luta

kakau

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

kokorako

sagaro

toke

sesehu

lima

36. <?ao

kokorako

ure

keli

klakla

kame

37. New Georgia

kokoroko

ure

leara

kalu

lima

38. Duke of York

kareke

wai

auakak

weu

lima

39. Murray Island

debele

mus

tag

40. New Guinea, Motu

kokoroko

huahua

namo

houi

ima

Malay

ayam

bua

baik

rambut

tangan

Malagasy

koho

voankazu

tsara

volo

tanana

Maori

heihei

hua

pai

huruhuru

ringa

Vocabularies.

45

31. Hard.

32. Head.

33. Hot.

34. House.

35. Large.

I. Nengone

tace

hawo

shodrone

ma

hmaiai

a. Anaiteum

ehka

idjini

ehri

im, coin

lupas

3. Eromanga

pu

imo

tamas

4. Fate

kasua

bwau

futunu

suma

kwila

5. Sesake

^asua

bau

dorodoro

kopu

bula

6. Api

ba

pisusunu

uma

taura

7. Ambrym

botu

hale, ima

tlam

8. Espiritu Santo

yaur/aua

re

tutunu

ima

tagasuei

9. Whitsuntide

wasi

qatu

aruaru

ima

gaivua

10. Lepers' Island

siaga

qatugi

mamavi

vale

lawua

II. Aurora

tortoruga

qatui

raragai

vale

lata

1 2. Meralava

inarniar

qatu

sawsaw

im

lav

13. Santa Maria, Gog

mamartig

qotu

tutun

govur

lava

14. ,, Lakon

lekteg

qatu

tutun

uwa

rig

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

marmar

qi'igi

vavat

ew

lowo

1 6. Sasar

marmar

qi'igi

i'in

qeqek

lowo

17. Vureas

meneg

qotui

tutun

govur

luwo

1 8. Mosina

marmar

qutugi

tutun

im

lowo

19. alo Teqel

marmar

qi'igi

i'in

qeqek

luwo

20. Mota

maremare

qatui

tutun

ima

poa

2 1 . Saddle Island, Motlav

marmar

qtige

seuseu

em

Iwo

22. Volow

marmar

qitegi

sousou

em

luwo

23. Ureparapara

maremare

qujugi

seseu

ew

luwoa

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

mermer

qat

tun

ema

luwo

25. Fiji

kaukaua

ulu

katakata

vale

levu

26. Botuma

momo

filo'u

sunu

ri

te'u

27. Santa Cruz

muwe

vo

luepu

ma

levu

28. Nifilole

ao

nu otaa

vepe

nu opwa

elo

29. Ulawa

paapau

pa'u

matoro

nima

paina

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

babau

ba'u

raurau

ruma

raha

Fagani

gata

bau

raurau

rima

rafa

31. Malanta, Saa

papau

pa'u

madoro

nuwze

paine

Bululaha

mauta

pau

matoro

nima

paina

Alite

aata

^ualu

ra^a

luma

baila

32. Vaturawa

kakae

lova

papara

vale

loki

33. Florida

asi

ulu

papara

vale

sule

34. Savo

wasi

batu

parapara

tuvi

duiroMO

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

(heta) asi

ulu

papara

vathe

hutu

36. <?ao

maku

pa'u

jalatoga

su^a

bio

37. New Georgia

ira

salevi

vanua

^etena

38. Duke of York

dekdek

lori

uan

ruma

galapi

39. Murray Island

kerem

ureuri

meta

aule

40. New Guinea, Motu

auka

kuara

siahu

ruma

paga

Malay

kras

kapala

panas

rumah

busar

Malagasy

mafy

loha

mafana

trano

be

Maori

pakeke

upoku

wera

whare

nui

Melanesian Languages.

36. Leaf.

37. Little.

38. Louse.

39. Man.

40. Mat.

I . Neugone

ru

waami

ote

ngome

gucoe

2. Anaiteum

ri

tintin

cet

atimi

ap

3. Eromanga

eteme

4. Fate

ulu

kiki

kutu

tamole

mwit

5. Sesake

lau

(^iki) riki

tamoli

lae

6. Api

takisi

aru, tamoli

takue

7. Ambrym

rakakre

vantin

8. Espiritu Santo

rau

tagapiu

gut

tatsua

tatavura

9. Whitsuntide

rau

tirigi

gutu

atatu

qana

10. Lepers' Island

raugi

biti

wutu

tawaloe

qana

II. Aurora

doui

riki

wutu

tatua

eba

12. Meralava

doi

werig

wut

tanun

eb

13. Santa Maria, Gog

do

wesekit

wut

todun

eb

1 4. Lakon

drawi

sik

wut

t&t\m

ap

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

togi

tiktik

wu

ansar

anap

1 6. Sasar

togi

wogrig

wu

amar

ep

17. Vureas

doi

menet

wut

tansar

am

1 8. Mosina

no

meule

wut

tawtsar

apa

19. alo Teqel

togi

wowrig

wu

amsar

ep

20. Mota

naui

mantagai

wutu

tanun

epa

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

ron

su

git

et

tabge

22. Volow

raren

siwi

git

ta, at

eb

23. Ureparapara

dugi

sosogot

wut

at

am

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

hoi

ririg

gut

tela

epa

25- Fiji

drau

lailai

kutu

tamata

ibi

26. Rotuma

rau

me'ame'a

ufa

fa

cap

27. Santa Cruz

leu

topa

kutu

nepala

nini

28. Nifilole

taav

laki

no

sime

niiia

29. Ulawa

apaapa ni ai

haora

pote

inoni

hull

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

raua

kekerei

bote

noni

bona

,, Fagani

afa

kikirii

fu

enoni

bwana

31. Malanta, Saa

apaapa

maiinai

pote

inoni

hulite

Balulaha

apapaie

maimai

u'u

inoni

hulita

Alite

abe

maude

u

ioli

vau

32. Vaturawa

rarau

tetelo

otu

tinoni

poro

33. Florida

rau

pile

gutu

tinoni

gime

34. Savo

kiba

gnari

dole

mapa

vagu

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

eloelo i gai

iso

gutu

tinoni

wehe

36. <?ao

klakla

maniko

teli

noni

nia^ru

37. New Georgia

rokroko

kikina

tinoni

ekoani

38. Duke of York

dono

lik

nanut

muana

bat

39. Murray Island

lum

kebile

le

40. New Guinea, Motu

malaki

tau

kipai

Malay

daun

kichil

kutu

orang

tikar

Malagasy

ravina

kely

hao

olona

tsihy

Maori

rau

iti

kutu

tangata

whariki

Vocabularies.

47

41. Moon.

42. Mosquito.

43. Mother.

44. Mouth.

45. Night.

i. Nengone

cekole

nine

nene

tubenengoce

ridi

2. Anaiteum

mohoe

nyum

risi

ipjineucse

Pig

3. Eromanga

dinemi

navran

pumrok

4. Fate

alelag

paterik

pwile

goli

Pg

5. Sesake

masina

qila

bowi

6. Api

variu, kapaiiu

awia

boni

7. Ambrym

ola

noe

8. Espiritu Santo

vula

namugi

tiai, tina

vava

powi

9. Whitsuntide

vula

namu

ratahi

lolwa

qo

10. Lepers' Island

vule

gagasi

garuwegi

wawagi

bora

1 1 . Aurora

wula

namu

veve

valai

qow

1 2. Meralava

vul

nam

vev

velei

qon

13. Santa Maria, Gog

vul

nam

rave

valan

qon

14. Lakon

vul

namug

vev

valan

qew

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

mar

nem

mo

velegi

qow

16. Sasar

mawar

nom

mo

weregi

qo

1 7. Vureas

wol

nam

retne

velei

qow

1 8. Mosina

vol

nam

lei

yieregi

qow

19. aloTeqel

magag

torn

mo

orogi

qow

20. Mota

vula

namu

veve

valai

qow

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

wol

nem

tita

vlege

qon

22. Volow

wol

nem

vov

naregi

qew

23. Ureparapara

mewe

nem

tat

velegi

qo

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

magaga

nam

reme

vala

qow

25- Fiji

vula

namu

tina

gusu

bogi

26. Rotuma

luial

rom

o honi

nuchu

bowi

27. Santa Cruz

tema

mo

jia

nao

vabu

28. Nifilole

pe

namu

ise

nede

ni tabu

29. Ulawa

warowaro

tahula

nike

wawa

roto

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

hura

namo

ina

hara

rodo

Fagani

fagaefa

namu

ina

no

bowi

31. Malanta, Saa

warowaro

tahule

nike

wawa

roto

Bululaha

warowaro

tahula

nike

wawa

roto

Alite

ailua

simi

tetelia

voka

bowi

32. Vaturawa

vula

namu

tina

mawa

bom

33. Florida

vula

namu

tina

mana

bowi

34. Savo

kuge

namunamu

mama

napu

muzi

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

vula

gnamu

ido

livo

borai

36. G&o

<7laba

nufi

ido

floflo

bowi

37. New Georgia

paleke

tina

huduru

38. Duke of York

kala&

namu

na

wa

bug

39. Murray Island

meb

apu

nuga

ki

40. New Guinea, Motu

namu

tina

utu

boi

Malay

bulan

namok

ma

mulut

malam

Malagasy

volana

moka

reny

vava

alina

Maori

marama

waeiroa

whaea

mangai

po

48

Melanesian Languages.

46. Nose.

47. Pig.

48. Rain.

49. Rat.

50. Red.

I. Nengone

gupiede

puaka

ebe

xeli

dicadica

a. Anaiteum

gidjin

picad

copda

cedo

cap

3. Eromanga

opia

ehe

4. Fate

gusu

wago

usa

kusue

miel

5. Sesake

nisu

wagro

lisa

kusuwe

miala

6. Api

nisu

pui

ua

kawe

iliili

7. Ambry m

guhu

bue

tomo

8. Espiritu Santo

gogo

poe

usa

garivi

gagara

9. Whitsuntide

qarmanho

qoe

uhe

garivi

memea

10. Lepers' Island

qanogi

boe

uhe

garivi

memea

1 1 Aurora

lisui

qoe

reu, usa

gariv

memea

12. Meralava

inadui

qoe

reu

gasuw

memea

13. Santa Maria, Gog

modun

qo

urei

gosug

meme

14. Lakon

iiiatnn

qo

uh

wohow

meme

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

metigi

qo

wat

gosog

lawlaw

1 6. Sasar

mitigi

qo

wet

gosow

meme

1 7. Vureas

medui

qo

wen

gosow

mame

1 8. Mosina

monugi

qo

wen

gusuw

meme

1 9. alo Teqel

mitigi

qo

wet

gosow

meme

20. Mota

manui

qoe

wena

gasuwe

memea

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

mdige

qo

smal

gohow

lawlaw

22. Volow

medigi

qo

wed

gohow

lawlaw

23. Ureparapara

modugi

qo

wen

gosow

mama

24. Torres Islands, Lo.

mot

qo

weta

gahuwa

memi

25. Fiji

ucu

vuaka

uca

kalavo

damudamu

26. Botuma

isu

puaka

uas, usa

picha

mia

27. Santa Cruz

no

qoi

ua

leke

poa

28. Nifilole

noto

poe

lu

lavu

opulo

29. Ulawa

palusu

po

mmo

as uhe

waruwarua

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

barisu

bo

rawi

gasuhe

meramera

Fagani

barusu

boo

rawi

gasufe

merameraga

31. Malanta, Saa

pwalusu

pwo

nemo

asuhe

nonoro'a

Eululaha

palusu

po

nemo

asuhe

nonoro'a

Alite

oora

bo

uta

^ruaua

kuakuala

32. Vaturana

isu

bo

usa

^asuve

chichi

33. Florida

ihu

bolo

uha

kuhi

sisi

34. Savo

gnoko

polo

kuma

kuzi

sisi

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

ihu

botho

uha

kuhi

sisi

36. <?ao

nehu

bosu

hani

kusi

jijia

37. New Georgia

moa

ubata

kutu

orova

38. Duke of York

gigiro

boro

bata

kada

dara

39. Murray Island

pit

borom

inner

mokis

mamomam

40. New Guinea, Motu

udu

burumu

medu

bita

kakakaka

Malay

idong

babi

hujan

tikus

mera

Malagasy

orana

lambo

ranonorana

voalavo

mena

Maori

ihu

poaka

ua

kiore

whero

Vocabularies.

49

51. Road.

52. Root.

53. Salt.

54. Sea.

55. SKw.

i. Nengone

lene

wee

cele

cele

nenune

2. Anaiteum

efalaig

icvan

mohoanjap

jap

arasi

3. Eromanga

silat

noatni

natukus

tok

4. Fate

pua

koa

tasmen

tas

wili

5. Sesake

mata ki sala

; lake

tasi

tasipua

weli

6. Api

dapa

si

kulu

7. Ambrym.

tie

8. Espiritu Santo

rio

goe

tasi

getja

tinina

9. Whitsuntide

hala

garo

tahi

tahi

vinui

10. Lepers' Island

matahala

goarigi

tahi, navo

wawa

vinugi

II. Aurora

tursala

goarii

tas

lama

vinui

12. Meralava

metsal

gari

naw

lam

vini

13. Santa Maria, Gog

matawirsal

gerin

naw

lelam

vini

14. Lakon

matali

gegi

naw

lam

vingi

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

me'esal

gergi

naw

lam

vinigi

1 6. Sasar

ma'al

gorgi

naw

lam

vingi

1 7. Vureas

rnateqersal

malsei

naw

lam

vini

1 8. Mosina

metesal

sigrigi

naw

lam

vingi

19. alo Teqel

me'esal

gergi

naw

lam

vingi

20. Mota

matesala

gariu

nawo

lama

viniu

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

mtehal

goren

naw

lam

vnen

22. Volow

metehal

girigi

naw

lam

vinigi

23. Ureparapara

matehal

durin

naw

lam

vinin

24. Torres Islands, Lo

matsala

gurah

new

lem

gilit

25- Fiji

sala

vu

masima

taci

kuli

26. Eotuma

sala

va'a

ternosi

sasi

uli

27. Santa Cruz

naji

nau no

navo

daopue

be

28. Nifilole

bara^i

nuo

nao

lo

l&gs

29. Ulawa

tala

imimi

asi

ahowa

teetee

30. San Cristoval, Wano

tara

rari

asi

asi

uriuri

Fagani

tara

rari

asi

matawa

gafo

31. Malanta, Saa

tala

imiimi

asi

ahowa

teetee

Bululaha

tala

imiimi e

moi asi

ahowa

tete

Alite

tala

kalokalo

asi

matakua

suwasuw*

32. Vaturana

sautu

lamu

tasi

horara

kokora

33. Florida

halautu

lala

tahi

horara

guiguli

34. Savo

keva

ogni

gnagnue

zorara

korakora

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

hathautu

oga

tahi

horara

guiguli

36. #ao

brau

^lati

tahi

orara

#uli

37. New Georgia

huana

idire

kolo

korekore

38. Duke of York

akapi

akari

masima

tai

pin

39. Murray Island

gab

sip kak

gur

egur

40. New Guinea, Motu

tamena

tavara

kopi

Malay

jalan

akar

garam

laut

kulit

Malagasy

lalana

vody

sira

riaka

hoditra

Maori

ara

putake

wai tai

moana

hiako

E

Melanesian Languages.

56. Smoke.

57. Soft. 58. Spear. 59. Spittle. 60. Star.

I. Nengone

kali

nidra

cace

kadeu

wajecole

a. Anaiteum

adaran cop

mulmul

mopul

danmas

moijeuv

3. Eromanga

molokloku

mosisu

4. Fate

asua

maneinei

olo

tanue

masei

5. Sesake

asua

manukunuku

io

puvurai

masoe

6. Api

pulamera

rue

7. Ambrym

walehi

meta

moho

8. Espiritu Santo

asu

nalumlum

gole

loto

vitui

9. Whitsuntide

aho

madamada

sari

loto

visiu

lo. Lepers' Island

ahu

madamada

sari

lodo

visiu

II. Aurora

asu

malumlum

mataso

wura

vitiu

1 2. Meralava

asu

malumlum

matas

lot

viti

13. Santa Maria, Gog

asu

malobus

sar

loton

wo vitig

14. Lakon

ahau av

masoksok

ser

anuh

maha

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

OS

mulumlum

ma'as

garmes

vi'

1 6. Sasar

OS

mulumlum

ser

garwis

vi'

1 7. Vureas

es

melumlum

ser

garmes

wo wiase

1 8. Mosina

as

molumlum

eser

garmos

wo viti

19. alo Teqel

OS

muluwluw

ser

garmis

vi'

20. Mota

asu

malumlum

isar

anus

vitu

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

aho

mulumlum

mtah

nib.

vit

22. Volow

aho

melewlem

metah

wih

vit

23. Ureparapara

suio, ah

molumlum

matah

garewd

vit

24. Torres Islands, Lo

hiev

meluwlure

mata

wewuh

veji

25- Fiji

kubou

malumulumu

moto

weli

kalokalo

26. Rotuma

aasu

parapara

oi kou

onusi

hefu

27. Santa Cruz

kagnie

nomio

lu

bika

vei

28. Nifflole

#asi

momave

va^i

bui

vu

29. Ulawa

sasu

motau

lula

isu

uui-heu

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

asu

magomago

00

wusu

he'u

Fagani

asu

marumurumu

rura

%usu

figu

31. Malanta, Saa

qa'ule dufia

mairo

noma

wisu

he'u

,, Bululaha

sasu

mina

noma

nisu

he'u

Alite

rasu

eikoaliatu

sua

ilu

kualikuli

32. Vaturawa

puu

maluka

bao

chuve

vitugu

33. Florida

ahu

malumu

tinabe

areusu

veitugu

34. Savo

azuazu

malumu

#oru

suasua

simusimu

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

ahu

malumu

garatu

awusu

vaitugu

36. (?ao

^a^ahu

pila

goru

misu

tunu

37. New Georgia

rovu

ma^uana

bao

kamisu

seru

38. Duke of York

mi

galom

bele

kara

nagnag

39. Murray Island

kamur

kalak

ver

40. New Guinea, Motu

kualau

manoka

io

Malay

asap

lumbut

tombak

ludah

bintang

Malagasy

setroka

malemy

lefona

ivy

kintana

Maori

paoa

ngawari

tao

hauare

whetu

Vocabularies.

61. Sun,

62. Sweet.

63. Tongue. 64. Tooth.

65. Tree.

i. Nengone

du

buruia

gutinene

ge

sere ie

2. Anaiteum

gesega

aiyu

man

ijin

cai

3. Eromanga

ipminin

luami

4. Fate

elo

kasi

mena

pati

kasu

5. Sesake

elo

masoso

mena

bati

kau

6. Api

mat ni elo

pomeno

bati

kau

7. Ambrym

yial

meen

lowo

liye

8. Espiritu Santo

maso

tasi

meme

uju

gau

9. Whitsuntide

alo

reterete

mea

liwo

gae

10. Lepers' Island

uho

gologolo

meagi

livogi

gai

1 1 . Aurora

aloa

tartar

luemei

liwoi

geiga

12. Meralava

aloa

derwot

luamei

liwoi

tankei

1 3. Santa Maria, Gog

lo

vadurus

mea

liwo

regai

14. ,, Lakon

alo

lulus

gamaran

liwon

rega

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

lo

nonos

garmegi

lowoi

enge

1 6. Sasar

lo

tetres

garmegi

lowogi

enge

1 7- Vureas

lo

derderes

garmei

liwoi

retenge

18. ,, Mosina

lo

nerner

garmegi

liwogi

rekenge

19. alo Teqel

lo

tetres

garmegi

lowogi

enge

20. Mota

loa

nerewzot

garameai

liwoi

tangae

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

lo

neneh

garmege

Iwege

tenge

22. VoloW

lo

noh

garmegi

liwegi

tenge

23. Ureparapara

loa

dodoros

garamegi

liwogi

tenge

24. Torres Islands, Lo

elo

ditweh

garemi

luwo

raga

25. Fiji

siga

kamikamica

yarne

bati

kau

26. Rotuma

astha

suinami

alele

ala

oi

27. Santa Cruz

nana

upwa

lapu

nine

no

28. Nifilole

le

pelawi

libia

wotede

ena

29. Ulawa

sato

malimali

mea

niho

ai

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

sina

mamagi

meamea

riho

hasie

Fagani

sina

mamaki

mea

lifo

gai

31. Malanta, Saa

sato

malimali

mea

niho

dawo

Bululaha

sato

malimali

mea

niho

ai

Alite

davi

^ari^aria

mea

livo

ai

32. Vaturawa

aso

mami

lapi

livo

hai

33. Florida

aho

manilu

lapi

livo

gai

34. Savo

kuli

imo

lapi

nale

kola

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

aho

mugna

thapi

kei

gai

36. #ao

aho

kuakuda

#lapi

kei

gazu

37. New Georgia

ini

mamisi

mea

livo

hai

38. Duke of York

ma&e

namian

karame na wa

lakono

diwai

39. Murray Island

lem

uerut

tereg

gair

40. New Guinea, Motu

dina

mala

hau

Malay

mata ari

manis

lidah

gigi

kayu

Malagasy

maso andro

mamy

lela

nify

hazo

Maori

ra

reka

arero

niho

rakau

E 2

I

Melanesian Languages.

66. Water.

67. White. 68. Wing.

69. Woman.

70. Yellow.

\. Nengone

wi

gada

kataadi

hmenewe

2. A 11, -ii tell 111

wai

alii

ehpan

takata

yag

3. Eromanga

nu

evlok

sivin

4. Fate

noai

tare

faru

garuni

monamon

5. Sesake

noai

dautau

varu

goroi

miloloa

6. Api

ui

uwowo

kupe

goroi

7. Ambrym

we

pan pehel

vihin

8. Espiritu Santo

pei, tei

voke

gave

gajae

inajina

9. Whitsuntide

wai

inaita

gapaun manu

vavine

awoga

10. Lepers' Island

wai

mavuti

painhigi

vavine

anoga

ii. Aurora

bei

siwara

ban manu

tawone

awoaga

12. Meralava

bei

wedwed

bane man

tamake

awaw

1 3. Santa Maria, Gog

liwu

wewed

beni

tawa

awoawo

14. ,, Lakon

tun

wetwet

pane mah

gamtu

anoa.no

15. Vanua Lava, Pak

pe

qagqag

gapugi

drene

nornor

1 6. Sasar

pe

qag

gapugi

reree

nonor

1 7. Vureas

be

qag

penigi

reqe

aa

1 8. ,, Mosina

pe

aqag

penegi

reqe

an&n

19. ,, alo Teqel

pe

qag

gapugi

reene

nornor

20. Mota

pei

aqaga

panel

tavine

arioano

21. Saddle Island, Motlav

be

qagqag

bnege

Iqovin

nornor

22. Volow

be

bitbit

pene men

liqeven

nornor

23. Ureparapara

pe

qaqa

penigi

retine

nanar

24. Torres Islands, Lo

pe

lul

perperi

laqavina

era

25- Kji

wai

vulavula

taba

alewa

26. Rotuma

tanu

fin

papau

hoina

peropero

27. Santa Cruz

luwe

peki

be

ovla

ialuli

28. Nifilole

woi

opa

bule deguluo

siweda

kokolu

29. Ulawa

wai

rerea

apaapa

hua

sausaula

30. San Cristoval, Wawo

wai

mamahui

abaaba i manu

urao

edaeda'a

Fagani

wai

mafui

kakafo

fefene

getagetaga

31. Malanta, Saa

wai

rearea

apaapa i manu

hue

sa'usa'ula

,, Bululaha

wai

ekeekela

apaapa

hua

Alite

kuai

kakaa

abaaba i malu

majjreli

kekeroa

32. Vaturaraa

ko

sere

rapo

kakave

mera

33. Florida

beti

pura

gata

vaivine

awoawo

34. Savo

piva

sere

gavara

adoki

oreorega

35. Ysabel, Bugotu

bea

pura

bagi

vaivine

aoa?zo

36. G&o

kumai

vega

bagi

gase

aoao

37. New Georgia

kavo

heva

sasarava

manemaneke

38. Duke of York

pala

mada

bibia

tebuan

/tabol

39. Murray Island

ni

kakak

luba

kosker

40. New Guinea, Motu

rano

kurokuro

haini

Malay

ayer

putih

sayap

parampuan

kuniug

Malagasy

rano

fotsy

etatra

vehivavy

vony

Maori

wai

ma

parirau

wahine

pungapunga

Notes on the Vocabularies. 53

NOTES ON THE VOCABULARIES.

1. Ashes. In Mr. Wallace's list nine out of thirty-three are
forms of the word represented by Malay habu, avu, lavu, &c.
Many of the words mean ' dead or burnt out fire,' for which reason
the list is deficient in true words for 'ashes.' Natives will not
use the same word for the white ashes of burnt wood and other
ashes ; there may be therefore also some confusion in the Vocabu-
lary. In the words that are given an example is shown of
what is very common in the Vocabularies, viz. the varying of the
initial letter of a word, which evidently remains the same, or the
dropping of it altogether : we have habu, rapu, lavu, laf, avu, abu.
Varying forms of this same word appear in the Melanesian
vocabulary, sometimes as part of a compound word, fourteen of
which are unmistakeable. If ou, au, ao, bu, as is possible, be
added, nearly half the Melanesian words agree. In the Banks'
Islands there is a word, which, in the form rowo, may seem the
same as ravu, connected by the Rotuma roll, but which is probably
distinct. The Maori pungarehu contains ravu. We have, there-
fore, that word in varying forms in the Malay Archipelago, in
Polynesia, and in Melanesia.

2. Bad. The Malay Archipelago list shows hat, with prefix,
jahat, rafiat, ahati, lekat-and. in some other forms. The Malagasy
ratsi may represent rahat. From the variation of prefix it is clear
that the sense of the word lies in hat. This appears in seven
Melanesian languages with little change, sat, seseta, sasat, sesati,
het, heat, set. Considering that s=, sat=tas; and besides, words
sometimes reverse their forms ; thus we have has, han-tai, tes, tisi,
tatas. It is necessary, however, in view of the Melanesian vocabu-
lary to go further back, and find the root in sa or ta, from which
the above forms have come. Thus in the New Hebrides we have
sa ; in the Banks' Islands, sa, se ; Fiji, ca ; Santa Cruz, jia ;
Solomon Islands, taa, tai, e'ai-ala, tata-ala : the word in the simple
form is distributed through Melanesia, as reduplicated or with a
prefix it is spread through Melanesia and the Malay Archipelago.
Taking, then, the Malayan jahat, rahat, as having the same root
with the Mota tatas, we find that the simple ancient forms are in
Melanesia.

It is worth noting that ala, which appears in composition in the

54 Melanesian Languages.

Solomon Islands tataala, e'aiala, is the Malay salah, Samoa sola
wrong, Maori kara. The Florida dika is tika in Port Moresby,
New Guinea.

3. Banana. There must always be a difficulty, when a vocabu-
lary is got by asking the name of visible objects, in getting the
generic and not the specific word. Of the words given by Mr.
"Wallace for banana some may be assumed to be the names of
various kinds, which are always numerous. There is one word,
however, which occurs seven times in his Vocabulary, fuat, fud,
2)hudi, j)hitim, the relationship of which with Malagasy and Mela-
nesian generic names for bananas is plain. In Fiji this is vudi, as
in part of the Solomon Islands. In this word d represents nd. It
is impossible to say whether the root of the word is ut or un, the
one consonant or the other, if not both, being represented. In the
Malay Archipelago, n is absent. In Melanesia vudi is pronounced
vundi', in Duke of York there is no v in the language the word is
un as given by Mr. Brown ; Mr. Powell gives wudu for Duke of
York and New Britain. In the Solomon Islands huti is clearly the
same. The same word is the Malagasy ontsy, o being pronounced
u ; and the Betsileo in the same country use hotsy. Words as
unlike in appearance as phitim and un are thus brought together.
There are also unchim wild bananas, in Batak of Sumatra, unti
in Mangkasar, punti in Sumbawa, not given by Mr. Wallace. From
this word, common to the Indian Archipelago, Madagascar, and
Melanesia, it will be observed that the Malay pisang is altogether
different. The Samoan isfa'i, of which no form is Melanesian. In
Tongan, the nearest geographically to Melanesia of any Polynesian
group, the word isfugi, which certainly is far from the Fiji vudi.
But it is the same with the San Cristoval Tiugi and fuki in the
Solomon, Islands. It is possible that these words hugi,fugi may be
another form of the Ceram fud and the Malagasy ontsi, by the
substitution of k for t. In languages so close together as Ulawa
and ~Wa.no there may be that very ancient difference between the
two forms of the word they have taken up : or the Tongan word
may somehow have been conveyed to that small district, being itself
distinct ; or again the two words may be distinct, and Tonga and
San Cristoval have received fugi from some common source. But
it will be observed that if forms with t and k are ancient