36 EASTER ISLAND. 



approximate to the lingual positions of the buccal closures and appar- 

 ently prior to those positions, for a post-aspirated consonant is scarcely 

 to be found in the Polynesian Pacific* Accordingly, in such cases as 

 these the impossible sibilant is omitted and sk, ks, sm, sp, of the original 

 word are satisfactorily reproduced by the remainder of the pair. Where 

 s stands alone it is reproduced by t, thus giving rise to the deliciously 

 pious collocation of tiki, tokini, tope of the former table; in which any 

 person who has acquired familiarity with the harsh introduction to the 

 Pacific islanders of the accidentia of civilization will sadly recognize a 

 case of hysteron proteron, for tokini and tope are really major and minor 

 premises of a fatal syllogism. 



When we pass to the comparison of Rapanui with other languages of 

 the Polynesian family we shall have to consider changes less violent, 

 changes which are clearly reducible to certain fixed, smoothly acting, 

 and, we believe, readily comprehensible laws of mutation not peculiar 

 to this remotest speech, but general throughout the family. In order 

 to facilitate comparisons of the material I suffix to the last chapter 

 finding tables of all such vocables as afford comparable data and 

 shall cite them by the assigned serial numbers. It will be seen that 

 just one-third of the dictionary material is thus made available to a 

 greater or less extent for this particular research. 



Our first inquiry shall be addressed to the vowel changes which 

 Rapanui exhibits in comparison with our standard of Polynesian speech. 

 Naturally, because of the durability of the Polynesian vowel, the num- 

 ber will not be found a large one; each instance will, therefore, be of 

 particular interest. 



a-O The mutation in thesis occurs in 789, 791 ; in arsis in 514. In the quasi diphthong 

 au we find the mutant ou in 517, 518, 677, 783, but it is not critical in Southeast 

 Polynesian, for the duplicate forms exist in these stems quite generally and 

 may have been coexistent in the earliest swarms of migration. 



a-e Found in thesis in 375, 470. 



O-a Found in arsis in 730, 873 ; in thesis in 856. 



o-e Found in thesis in 754. 



o-u Found in thesis in 748. 



Duplicate forms, that is to say, instances of vowel variety which are 

 not critical for Southeast Polynesian, are found in 375, 470, 517, 518, 

 660, 699, 751, 777, 783, 938. There remain the following, which are 

 not to be arranged in the foregoing classes: 



34 1 . The identification is very uncertain both in sense and in source and must be neg- 

 lected until better supported. 



452. The Rapanui really represents here the standard form of the Tongafiti migration. 



867. The Rapanui is regular, the Maori an anomalous form. 



920. The word in most of its occurrences shows evidences of an upheaval so violent as 

 to remove it from consideration under the ordinary laws of phonetic variety. 



*We note the sh of Tongarewa, its dialectic occurrence as an /t-variant in Maori, and 

 traces among the Polynesian loan material in Melanesia; also the dh of Viti in mutation 

 from Polynesian h and s; the wh of Maori is, of course, not properly in this list, for it is 

 really hw attracted out of order in writing by the influence of the English error. 



