19023 Dialects of Oceanica 



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mons, also, have a considerable following. Yet we 

 did not detect any religious intolerance, rivalry within 

 the same mizhonery being more in evidence. Moors 

 nevertheless told me of a tragic feud between two A tragic 

 churches on neighboring islands in Micronesia. This 

 having developed into actual war, one group invaded 

 the other's territory and put most of their opponents 

 to death. An aged man, however, found refuge by 

 the sea under an overhanging rock, where he kept on 

 a shelf a pathetic memorial, a big conch shell to 

 represent the chieftain, a fine sea snail for the queen, 

 smaller ones for family and friends. 



The Samoan language, like all others of the South 

 Seas, is soft and flowing, made up largely of vowels, 

 with only consonants enough to tie the former to- 

 gether; /, g (ng), /, m y n, p, s, t, and v, therefore, 

 make up the list for Samoa. Furthermore, among 

 the various dialects of Oceanica there is a definite 

 shifting of consonants like the Lautverschiebung or 

 " sound shoving-on" of Professor Grimm. Thus no schlebun s" 

 one tongue contains both / and r. The Maoris of 

 New Zealand and the Raratonga folk use r, just as do 

 the Japanese. Hawaiians and Samoans, like the 

 Chinese, have / only. The Marquesans lack both h 

 and r. The Samoan/ is replaced by h in Hawaii, and 

 by w or h in other islands, but is wanting altogether 

 in Raratonga. The Samoan s is everywhere else 

 replaced by h; thus Savaii and Hawaii are really the 

 same word. T, which occurs generally, becomes k in 

 Hawaii, while the k of other islands is silent or elided 

 and replaced by in both Hawaii and Samoa. V 

 becomes w in Hawaii and New Zealand, the word for 

 "water" being vai in Samoan and wai in the other 

 two. The Samoan g (ng) is m in Hawaii, in the 



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