THE DOMINANCE OF TAHITI OVER THE PROVINCE. 



113 



in Samoa the effort, and phonetically if not etymologically the success- 

 ful effort, to repair the damage. But in Tahiti the case is indeed hope- 

 less, the speech is as moribund as the speakers, the end is not remote. 

 Those whom Tahiti welcomed gladly as taio have but poorly repaid 

 the welcome. Landless and laugh terless the Tahitian is quietly fading 

 beneath a burden which he may not bear. There is an anemia of the 

 soul, English missionary effort and French colonial administration have 

 failed to find the disease and certainly have sought to apply no remedy. 

 In this language in its marcescence, even though it is riddled with the 

 mycelium of such a fungus as we recognize in te pi, with one of the vocal 

 organs atrophied, we shall find a melancholy interest in the one basic 

 principle of the evolution of speech to which this Polynesian family gives 

 us clearer and more direct approach than any other which has passed 

 under philological review. The skeleton of these words is in the vowels. 

 The alterations which the vowels may undergo are few and are readily 

 to be comprehended; it is in them that the sense obtains which is the 

 soul of speech. Tahiti shows us that we may excise one whole organ 

 of consonant production and yet speak the living principle of the 

 mother tongue. Just one example will suffice to present this to the 

 eye. In Tongan we say ngako when we mean the kidney fat of animals; 

 in Samoan we say nga'o, with a slight catch of the vocal breath in place 

 of the vanished k; in Tahiti it is enough to say ao, every vestige of 

 consonant is lost, but the vital vowels are unaltered and with them 

 the sense survives. 



Table 14. 



Pau-Rn-Mgv-Mq-Ta 



Pau-Rn-Mq-Ta 



Pau-Rn-Mgv-Ta 



Pau-Rn-Ta 



Mgv-Rn-Mq-Ta 



Mgv-Rn-Ta 



Total 



Pau-Mgv-Mq-Ta 



Pau-Mq-Ta 



Pau-Mgv-Ta 



Pau-Ta 



Mgv-Mq-Ta 



Mgv-Ta 



Total 



Grand total 



Southeast 

 Polynesia. 



8 

 I 



2 

 12 

 21 



8 



Poly- 

 nesian. 



Proto- 

 Samoan. 



52 



227 

 14 

 15 

 3 

 89 

 10 



9 



4 

 o 



1 



9 

 1 



Tongafiti. 



40 

 9 

 7 

 4 



16 

 1 



Total. 



284 

 28 

 24 

 20 



'35 



20 



358 



24 



77 



1 1 



32 



21 



279 



42 



76 



40 

 18 

 15 

 25 

 73 

 26 



461 



513 



197 



555 



8 

 10 



7 

 '4 

 34 

 14 



87 



1 1 1 



47 

 29 

 25 

 58 

 42 

 29 



511 



106 

 89 

 68 

 376 

 191 

 145 



230 



307 



975 



i486 



In the table above we begin the classifications of the identifiable 

 material found in Tahiti. Much of it has been worked out in preceding- 

 chapters in the cases where the study of the Paumotu and the Ma- 



