418 Transactions. 



It will be noticed that in the case of many of these changes the vowel 

 appears to have been attracted, so to speak, to the vowel in the preceding 

 or following syllable (though in not a few instances the vowel change 

 has disturbed a previously existing symmetry), and the same rule may 

 be observed operating loosely in the choice of alternative forms in a 

 sentence : thus ku muru will generally be used for ki 'miiri, ko ru kupu and 

 hi ri kupu for ko ra kupu and ki ra kupu respectively (ru and ri representing 

 the article te), no ro me for no te mea. A good illustration occurs on 

 page 77 : Kite ko Tu i rari i ri papa o ro waka, Tu was found heneath 

 the flooring of the canoe. {In Maori, I kitea ko Tu i raro i te ])apa o te 

 waka.) 



In addition to these changes a vowel is sometimes drojiped (i) before 

 a consonant, as na (ena), ha {aha) ; (ii) after a consonant, leaving a closed 

 syllable, as rangat {rangata), nawen {naivene), hok {Jioki), or {oro), mot 

 (motu)* ; I'n) after a vowel, in which case the preceding vowel is lengthened 

 by way of compensation, as ahe {ahea), me {mea), i {ia), and the passive 

 terminations M, rl, tl {Ma, ria, tia), ingo {ingoa), no {noa), aim {ahua), 

 ta {lae), marl {marie), ko (koe), en? {enei), ml {nni), re {reo) ; and (iv) before 

 a vowel, the remaining vowel, as in the last case, being lengthened, as 

 pe {fae), te {lae), weive {waewae), Jiere (haere), and, apparently, kci {koa). 

 Examples similar to the group (iv) occur in Tikopia, wher(> w^e find fe, ke, 

 me for foe, koe, moe. 



In a number of words a vowel has become long where in Maori we have 

 a short vowel, as iht^, tihc, Ika, tciki, tird, apaajxi, tapoko. But I speak 

 with some difl&dence on this point, as I find that Mr. Shand has, in the 

 MS. in my hands, corrected the quantity in several passages quoted from 

 the articles which were printed some ten years previously. It is possible 

 that in reciting the legends a rhythmical diction may have been adopted 

 which placed on certain vowels a stress which did not accord W'ith that 

 of the normal pronunciation. 



The consonants are not quite so pliable as the vowels, but still offer 

 no inconsiderable variety. In the cases of H, K, and T a peculiar method 

 of pronunciation is sometimes adopted, in which the tongue appears to 

 be somewhat arched into the palate and the letter uttered with a slight 

 emission of breath which not infrequently produces the effect of a suppressed 

 /, or sometimes E, sound before the proper vowel of the word. This 

 stressed pronunciation is used with K only when followed by A, possibly 

 only in the case of the particle ka ; wath H only when followed by A or 

 ; but with T it occurs much more frequently, and with any vowel 

 except 0. Mr. Shand represented this peculiarity of utterance variously 

 in the case of each of the letters named, using the combinations HHI, 

 HI, or HE for //; KH, KHI, or KKHI for K ; and TCH, TCHI, TCHE, 

 or TC for T. He states in a note that it is difficult to represent the 

 pronunciation in wanting, and mentions that it a})pears to be used in 

 some cases for the sake of emphasis. It is of interest to note that a 

 somewhat similar usage with respect to H was observed in the north of 

 New Zealand in the early days, and led the missionaries to write Shunghie 

 and Shanraki for Hongi and Hauraki. In Tonga, too, the method of 

 pronouncing T when followed by / leads to its being represented variously 

 by J or S. 



* Ka is thus sometimes clipped to k\ and to to l\ 



