DATA AND NOTES. 199 



75- 

 matulu, matultul, matoltol, to be swollen, thick. 



Samoa: mdtolutolu, matoutou, thick (restricted to pork). Nukuoro: 

 matolutolu, thick. Tonga, Futuna, Niue : matolu, thick. Uvea : 

 matolu, thickness. Maori: matotoru, id. Fotuna, Tahiti: 



matoru, thick, full-fleshed. Mangareva: matoru, fat, thick, 

 heavy. Rapanui : matorutoru, thick, not compact. Hawaii : 

 makolu, wide, thick, deep. Marquesas: motou, thickness. 

 Epi: torn, large. Norbarbar: motoltol, thick. Mota: matoltol, id. 

 Nguna: matulu, id. Malekula: metetir, id. Baki : mererolu, id. 



This root is discussed under 163. 



um, ubu, oven. 



Samoa, Maori, Nukuoro, Niue, Tahiti, Hawaii, Mangaia, Marquesas, 

 Mangareva, Paumotu: umu, oven. Tonga: ngotoumu, id. 

 Uvea: ngutuumu, id. Futuna: umu-kai, id. Fotuna: amu, 

 cooking place. Rapanui: umu, oven; humu hare, cook house. 



Motu : amu, oven. Mabuiag : amai, id. Miriam : ame, id. New Bri- 

 tain :ubu, id. Mota: um, id. Ponape: um, id. Bierian : baumo, 

 id. Tanna: noanumun, oven stones. Aneityum: inmunum, 

 oven (inmun, an opening) ; nehpanum, a large fire for cooking. 



The Polynesian radical is consistently umu. Tonga and Uvea compound 

 with it a word which in Uvea is distinctly ngutu mouth and in Tongan we 

 may feel that ngutu has been specifically differentiated in this composite. 

 In the Futuna composite the latter element is merely kai food. 



The principle of terminal abrasion is sufficient to identify with this the 

 Efate and Mota um, and even the remote and extralimital Ponape um. 

 It is no difficult task to find the identification in Motu and Fotuna, for the 

 u-a mutation is general. The fact that Efate has ubu as well as um serves 

 to link in the New Britain ubu. We lack data on which to discuss an m-b 

 mutation; the nearest approximation lies in a single m-v instance in 

 masaki (323) ill Nggela vahagi. Codrington (Mota dictionary) cites the 

 New Britain word as umbu. This would correspond to the system in Viti 

 where a b requires the preface of an m. It might be that a people who 

 required thus to preface a b would by attraction add a b to an m in 

 loan material. Then when it passed along in secondary borrowing to 

 others who could manage an unprefaced b the proper m would be relin- 

 quished in favor of the intrusive b. This is purely speculative, yet we 

 may cite at least one instance in which a similar principle has been active 

 in the borrowing. We have this on Dr. Codrington's excellent authority 

 (Melanesian Languages 92) : 



The formation of the Fagani figti (star) deserves notice. In that place the h of Wango, 

 three miles off, regularly turns to /, but g represents the same letter left out, perceptibly j 

 with a gap in the sound, in Wango. The Fagani (Ha'ani at Wango) word figu ought \ 

 then, to represent the Wango hi'u, and in fact it represents he'u. But it is very instruc- 

 tive to observe that the gap in the Wango word really means t, not g, and has been filled 

 up with g in the Fagani word under a misapprehension. It is plain that the Fagani 

 and Wango words are independent, because one comes from vitu, one from vetu. The 

 interest lies in the filling up the gap with g in Fagani, because the gap in Wango generally 

 represents g, though sometimes it is in place of t. 



