THE POLYNESIAN ALPHABET. 27 



tionary record are not far to seek. In the first place the compilers of 

 these vocabularies, cramped for room and held to rigid economy in typo- 

 graphical composition, have been at pains to record the standard of 

 each speech and to let the variants pass without comment. Thus, in 

 the Samoan nofoa means a seat ; there can be no doubt that this is the 

 standard form, a derivative from nofo to sit ; it is found in the dictionary ; 

 yet on the lips of men it is frequently sounded fonoa or even jongoa. In 

 familiarity with the spoken language we scarcely notice the metathesis, 

 certainly it does not seem worthy of dictionary record. But when 

 some other branch of the race has accepted for its standard the meta- 

 thetic form, that is to say, when it is used more commonly than the 

 primitive form, the compiler of a dictionary, in particular one unfa- 

 miliar with the other Polynesian languages, unknowingly enters this 

 as principal form and regards the true form, if he ever does hear it, as a 

 corruption. In such a case we obtain the record of metathesis; we dis- 

 cover it by the comparison of other languages. Thus it is that the 

 record of such changes is far less abundant than the word-mutation 

 itself. 



To this specific and particular reason we are to add another and 

 general reason, one which functions with great potency in the laws of 

 common thought. The phenomenon has a name, therefore it ceases to 

 challenge information. We have to recognize that names, even per- 

 fectly good names, throttle investigation, for a certain type of wisdom 

 consists in the accumulation of names, and Webster and Worcester are 

 leaders of thought. It may well be comprehended that the introduc- 

 tion of so simple a designation as eschatology in general and improving 

 conversation might lead to no result, the name buries the fact; yet 

 introduced to the student keen in the pursuit of knowledge through 

 research and investigation the same name might well lead on and yet on 

 to the living hope of the joys of a life yet to come. Thus, named and 

 satisfactorily named, metathesis has passed practically unstudied as to 

 method and principle. 



It has not been easy to codify the instances of metathesis in such 

 wise as to establish the principles which underlie this mechanism of 

 speech, but after many efforts which have proved fruitless I feel con- 

 fident that I have devised a system of record by which all cases may be 

 rendered comparable. It will be borne in mind that the Polynesian 

 syllable is of the simplest structure. There are but two forms there 

 can be no more the syllable containing a single vowel sound and the 

 syllable containing a single vowel introduced by a single consonant 

 sound. 



Now before passing to the less familiar Polynesian words it will be 

 well to illustrate metathesis through typical instances in our own more 

 familiar speech, sometimes jocular, sometimes produced by some mental 

 inversion of order of utterance, and then commonly known as Spoon- 



