Fox. — Oceanic Comparatives. 3 



The following principle seems, then, to hold good : that all Oceanic 

 roots consist of two syllables. The first point to determine about a word 

 is this root. But the full form is often missing, and the next point is to 

 find out how these root-forms are modified. In the first place, the first 

 consonant may be dropped. The Florida aho (the sun) is a modified form 

 of raho or laho. This modification is a common one. Still more common 

 is the dropping of the second consonant, especially in Polynesia. The 

 full form of the Maori kau (to swim or wade) is karu, the word really mean- 

 ing " to move the legs and arms." 



In many cases both consonants are dropped, as in the Rarotongan at 

 (fire), the root of which is Jcapi ; or the Maori ao (dawn), from raho. 



Sometimes the second vowel is dropped, as in the Mota kor (dried), from 

 koro ; but the first vowel remains, and is rarely altered ; it is, in fact, the 

 most stable part of the word. On the other hand, the second vowel is liable 

 to frequent change. 



The commonest modification of all is the dropping of the second syllable. 

 Thus, the Maori ra (sun) is from raho ; po (night) from pongi ; pa (a fence 

 or stockade) from para. It frequently happens that when only the first 

 syllable remains this is strengthened by reduplication. Thus Mota koko 

 (enclose) is from koro ; Mota rara (scorch), from raho ; Mota roro (deep), 

 from roto ; Mota lolo (inner parts), from roto ; Mota roroi (news), from 

 rongo ; Maori rara (a branch), from rana ; Fiji haha (side of a hill), from 

 hara. Such reduplications are very common. 



Perhaps there are cases of the dropping of the first syllable of the root ; 

 but until they are shown to exist, such comparisons as that of the Mota 

 gana (to eat) with the Malay makan (to eat) must be viewed with suspicion. 

 Manga, which also appears as maka, means originally " a cleft or rent," 

 in some languages " a mouth " ; in Mota " to keep opening and shutting, 

 as the gills of a fish." This is, no doubt, the Mota representative of the 

 Malay makan (to eat), the n being the common verbal suffix. 



There is yet another fairly common modification of the root — by meta- 

 thesis. Thus, the Florida labu (strike) is the Malay palu ; the Mota toro 

 (deep), the Maori roto ; the Mota ma-vinvin (thin), from nihi ; Maori ngaro 

 (fly), from rango ; Maori rahu (scratch), from karu ; Aneityum mulmul 

 (soft), from lumu ; Tongan pelupelu (bent), from lupe ; Maori tumu (cape), 

 from mutu. It may be asked which is the root and which the transposed 

 form. The answer is that the transposed form is usually local, and is shown 

 to be later by the fact that modifications of it are absent or rare ; whereas 

 the real root is found all over the Pacific, and broken-down forms of it are 

 very common. 



Of course, many forms of the same root may, and generally do, exist 

 in one language. An instance may be given from Mota. The root koro 

 means " to encircle, enclose " ; hence, " to contract, shrink," &c. It is 

 found in many Oceanic languages, as koro, kolo, koko, &c. Probably it is 

 the source of the following words in Mota : kolo (contract), koloi (a hole), 

 kolkoloi (a small contracted thing), kor (to shrink with heat or dryness, 

 dried breadfruit), koko (keep close, contract, carry water in the hands), 

 kokor (enclose, keep carefully), kokos (enclose, as fish in a net ; fowls, by 

 the people catching them), kokot (enclose, contract), kokota (narrow, con- 

 tracted), kokorou (fold the arms or wings), gogo (shrink or shrivel), gogo- 

 rag (gather together with the hands), goro (a preposition, with many mean- 

 ings of enclosing or shutting-in), goro-vag (throw the arms round), goro (to 

 cut round, and so generally to cut), gorogoro (harvest), goro (to embrace). 

 1*— Trans. 



