Smith. — On Maori Nomenclature. 399 



called single vowel which can be uttered by the voice as a 

 single sound capable of being prolonged indefinitely ; — that 

 names having many syllables are compound words, and may 

 be broken up, as it were, into their component parts, which 

 may be dealt with separately, as a preliminary process ; — I be- 

 lieve that any difficulty apparent on first sight will vanish. 

 Simplicity is the main characteristic of the Maori language — 

 indeed, I cannot conceive of anything more simple, so far as 

 the mere pronunciation of the words is concerned. Its words 

 are formed from dissyllabic roots, each syllable being com- 

 pounded of a consonant qualified by a vowel, which is required 

 to make it utterable. The consonant sound at the end of a 

 word, found in other languages, is— excepting only in the case 

 of the sibilant — incapable of being dwelt on or prolonged, and 

 the fact that all Maori words and syllables end with a vowel 

 (which may be so prolonged) makes the language remarkably 

 adapted for singing. 



I may here say that I differ from some of the recognised 

 authorities on the question of the sounds which go to make 

 Maori words as spoken by the Maori, and which are repre- 

 sented by fifteen letters or signs — five vowels, with eight single 

 and two double consonants. 



The Maori language was, as we all know, reduced to 



writing by the early missionaries, who caught, as it were, the 



utterances of Maori speakers, and endeavoured to reproduce 



them by using these English letters, and it is remarkable how 



well adapted and suitable for the purpose they prove. Still, as 



equivalents for the Maori sounds they are not perfect. Among 



the consonants the English " r " approximates only to the sound 



of the correctly-pronounced Maori word spelt with that letter. 



That sound might be described as a compound or compromise 



between " d," "1," and " r," partaking of, or approaching 



to, the sound of all and each. (It may be observed here that 



English-speaking people pronounce the " r " in different ways.) 



In an early attempt to reduce ihe Maori language to writing, 



made by Professor Lee in the year 1820, these three letters 



were given as used by the Maoris, and instances are given in 



his vocabulary of the use of the " d " in words which are now 



spelt with the " r " only. The fact is that none of these letters 



give exactly the proper sound. As caught by the ear of the 



careful listener, with the vowels " a," " o," and generally with 



" e," the sound is like our " r," as in ra, rangi ; rcpo, rerc ; 



roro, raro. With the vowel " i," it often sounds like "1" — 



ringa-riuga, almost linga-linga. With the vowel " u," it is 



more like "d" — rua, runga, almost dua, chinga. The name 



of a noted chief in the Bay of Islands, which we now spell 



with " r," was in the early days spelt and pronounced 



" Duatara." 



