THE POLYNESIAN ALPHABET. 



13 



In certain of these languages a somewhat modern impulse has caused 

 the dropping of k. This is strongly marked in Samoa; it is found in 

 the Marquesas. In Samoa the k has vanished so recently let it be 

 understood that the reference is to the surd palatal mute and not to 

 the kappation of t which is now conquering modern Samoan as it has 

 succeeded in conquering Hawaiian the k has so lately dropped out 

 that it actually leaves an audible hole in the word, the vowels remain 

 disjunct on either side of the gap, crasis does not take place. In the 

 Samoan alphabetical system the place of the vanished k is taken by the 

 inverted comma; thus fa' a is the modern form of a preceding jaka and 

 is pronounced the same in every particular except that the k has gone 

 away. The choice of the character is governed in this case also by 

 typographical convenience; as the comma represents the briefest breath- 

 pause in the continuing sentence, so the comma inverted might logically 

 represent this infinitesimal but positive breath-pause in the continuity 

 of the word. The sign is in but rare other use; the possibility of the 

 need arising in Samoan composition to mark the opening of a quotation 

 within a quotation seemed, and very reasonably, negligible. In the 

 Marquesas the type supplies represented the provision of the common 

 French chapel, which in this particular happens to differ from the 

 English in the important detail that the marks of quotation line at the 

 foot of the type instead of at the top and are therefore less practicable 

 for such employment in representing the absent k. But the French 

 fonts must carry a complete supply of accented vowels, a waste pro- 

 vision in the Pacific where the seldom-varied penult accent is almost 

 autographic. The acutely accented type of these otherwise useless 

 characters have been employed by Bishop Dordillon to represent 

 vowels from before which consonants have dropped away. We should 

 not fail to note that he is by no means accurate in such employment of 

 the diacritical mark; in my collation herewith I have not assumed to 

 correct his dictionary record, even though the compared material shows 

 that no loss of consonant has taken place. 



After this general introduction we now present the alphabet of 

 Rapanui in the standard arrangement, the dashes filling the place of 

 English sounds which do not occur. 



a 



u 





