28 EASTER ISLAND. 



erisms, from a distinguished Oxford don who was forever tripping 

 after this fashion; in a very few instances really formative as shown 

 by language comparison. 



Of the jocular type, there comes to mind the name which the sub- 

 urban resident applies to the implement of his semiweekly exercise, the 

 mawnlower. A genuine Spoonerism is the solemn injunction of the 

 clergyman that the congregation shall unite in singing hymn 688, omit- 

 ting the last two stanzas, hymn 688, "this world is sure from paw to 

 paw " ; possibly less genuine is the similar ascription to the deaconing of 

 yet another hymn, " this world is but a shooting flea. " The third type, 

 that which alone adds to our permanent vocabulary, is represented by 

 the Norman cry of haro, at the sound of which all acts of whatever vio- 

 lence must cease until justice were done the petitioners, which has lost 

 its gravity in passing into English hurrah. 



If in these three types we disregard the final consonants of the 

 respective syllables which compose them we shall find our path easy 

 toward the establishment of the two simple classes of metathesis. Upon 

 examination we shall at once see that in respect of the elements inter- 

 changing position we have two distinct types and a third which com- 

 bines them. In mawnlower the interchanged elements are the initial 

 consonants ; in hurrah the consonants remain unmoved but the vowels 

 interchange; in shooting flea syllable interchanges position with syllable. 

 This last type we need not now consider; in Polynesia I have not yet 

 identified a single instance in which syllable interchange is positively 

 established, and the few instances with which I am acquainted in Mela- 

 nesia are complicated by an alien element in the mixture of languages.* 



So far as these researches have been prosecuted in the Polynesian lan- 

 guages, there are but two metathetic types and these two do not com- 

 mingle ; a word may interchange its consonants or may interchange its 

 vowels, but not both at the same time. 



To secure codification whereby comparison may be possible I have 

 hit upon the device of employing the letters of our alphabet as designat- 

 ing position, the vowels in order indicating the vowels of each successive 

 syllable of the words under examination, the consonants in like manner 

 indicating the consonants introductory to each such syllable. Thus B 

 will always represent the consonant of the first syllable ; the absence of 

 B will show that the word lacks a consonant in its first syllable ; A will 

 represent the vowel of the first syllable, no matter what the word ; c and 

 E are assigned to the second syllable, d and I to the third, and so on. 

 Thus diagrammed lawnmower is bace, in which b represents I, a repre- 

 sents awn, c represents m, and E the scumbled vowel sound ower. In 

 like manner bace diagrams haro with b for h, a for a, c for r, and E for o. 



*In "The Polynesian Wanderings" I have listed cases of metathesis as cited in the follow- 

 ing list, the references being to the serial number of the items in the Appendix I: Leon 139, 

 Retan 193, King 196, Baki 298, Bierian and Baki 321, Saa 351, and Pala on page 108. Even 

 though the publication of that work preceded the writing of these pages by less than a year, 

 it will be seen that therein I was still striving to codify metathesis by a numerical method and 

 not meeting with success. 



