Atkinson. — The Aryo-Semitic Maori. 665 



2. Comparison may be made between word and word, or 

 between a part of one word and part of another ; or a mono- 

 syllabic root in one language, Sanskrit for instance, may be 

 compared with a single syllable in a Maori word ; and this 

 syllable may be taken in any part of the word : one syllable, for 

 instance, and that the less permanent, of an apparently dissyl- 

 labic root, as Sanskrit, tu (to grow), and Maori, tiqm (to grow), 

 of which there is a common variant with the same meaning, 

 tipu; or in an apparently non-radical part, as Sanskrit ma 

 (measure), and Maori mataki (inspect) ; or it may be made up 

 of parts of two syllables, an apparently non-radical prefix being 

 joined to the first letter of the root, as Sanskrit gon-e (an angle), 

 Maori kon-oni (crooked), ttoni being the radical, and capable of 

 separate use (and cf. tanoni). 



3. If the word to be compared has letters or combinations 

 of letters which the Maori has not, the Maori pronunciation of 

 the word, (as nearly as a Maori can manage it,) may be taken 

 as the basis of comparison. But this pronunciation need not 

 always be that which apparently an ordinary Maori would give, 

 nor always uniform. Hence, for instance, Sanskrit ve may be 

 pronounced in three different ways, according to the different 

 words it is compared with, i.e., as we, whe, or ivhi; and so 

 Sanskrit siv will not be pronounced Jdwi, or hiui, but hui, or 

 even ttii, if the last should happen to be the word for com- 

 parison. This seems a new and useful extension of the law 

 of attraction or assimilation. 



4. Comparison may be made with words in the most suitable 

 period of their life-history : a word from the Vedas, or a word 

 of current English, may alike be compared with a current Maori 

 word, and an identity declared " upon the view." This, it will 

 be observed, does not ignore the historic method, but subor- 

 dinates it. 



5. It is not necessary to discuss, or to state the laws (if any) 

 which govern phonetic change as between Maori and the several 

 compared languages : such laws, if existing, must be considered 

 of a very general and elastic character. Hence, for instance, 

 while Sans, k and Gothic k, according to Grimm's law, have not 

 the same etymological value, Maori /.-, though quite distinctive, 

 may represent them both ; and so with other letters and other 

 languages. Again, Sans, d, dh, I, and r, may all be represented 

 by Maori r; whilst some of these (d and dh), as well as t, and 

 even s and ch, will, upon occasion, stand for Maori t : on the 

 other hand, as I have said. Sans, v will represent both the simple 

 and the aspirated Maori w. 



6. It is not necessary to discuss the possibly difficult but 

 certainly interesting question in phonology : how the copious, 

 and in many points much stronger, alphabets of the Aryans 

 were evolved from an alphabet at once as scanty and as definite 

 as the Maori. 



