346 THE POLYNESIAN WANDERINGS. 



It is advisedly that I use the adverb probably. The true aspirate is so 

 gentle a breathing that we have no very sufficient evidence for its existence 

 in Proto-Samoan. From a careful examination of all the available material 

 I have been led to the conclusion that Proto-Samoan possessed two aspi- 

 rations, one so weak that it has failed of influence upon Samoan in its 

 modern phase, but is retained in such other tongues of Nuclear Polynesia as 

 employ the aspirate; the other, probably of a stouter intonation, which 

 has passed into the sibilant in modern Samoan and remains an aspiration 

 in Nuclear Polynesia. 



The uila of Samoa (uhila in Tonga, Niue, Uvea) involves the former or 

 weak aspiration. The verb hila in Uvea goes far to prove that the aspirate 

 is structural and no mere grace note of speech. The presence in Hawaii of 

 the form uwila is another finger-board to the direct migration from Samoa 

 to that group, and the verb wila is confirmatory of Uvea hila. 



Viti liva is metathetic, closer to Melanesian consonantal forms than to 

 the Polynesian initial vowel. 



In Melanesia Malo has the modern Samoan form. Laur hille, Pala hlle 

 are akin to the verb form in Uvea. Mota, Omba and Efate forms also 

 derive from the verb. 



Indonesian forms are in accord with the later Tongafiti uila, except per- 

 haps Tidore kila in kinship with the verb hila, and in their own cycle of 

 development they have undergone accretion by prefixes and suffixes which 

 correspond to nothing in Polynesia. 



Having segregated an effective stem hila, it needs but to put the Semitic 

 by the side of it to show that kinship is out of the question. 



296. 

 fonu, turtle, tortoise. 



Tonga: fonu, turtle, tortoise. Futuna, Niue, Uvea, Fotuna: fonu, 

 turtle. Tahiti, Hawaii, Mangareva, Rapanui, Tongarewa: 

 honu, id. Marquesas: honu, id. Samoa: volu, tortoise. 

 Nukuoro: holu, turtle. 

 Viti: vonu, turtle. 



Nggela : vonu, turtle. Sesake: fonu, id. New Ireland (Duffield) : 

 kauk-foon, id. (kauk, fish). Kalil, Laur: 'hun, id. Lamassa, 

 Lambell: pun, id. King: puni, id. 

 Malay: panu, turtle. Malagasy: fani, id. 

 Arabic: 'dwinat, 'ayinat, turtle, tortoise. 

 Two matters engage our attention at the outset of the examination of this 

 material. Nukuoro and Samoa are the only languages which present the 

 n-l mutation, a mutation of wide extent in Polynesia and of considerable 

 frequency in the Melanesian area, as the table will exhibit. This is but one 

 of many evidences which go to show that Samoa in its modern phase and 

 Nukuoro form a binary system in the general sphere of Polynesian affinities. 

 The other point is that while the variation in Melanesia is generally 

 upward, we find the downward mutation in Lamassa, Lambell, and King, 

 and the extreme of upward mutation in Kalil and Laur; yet these five 

 languages are comprehended within 61 miles of New Ireland littoral. 

 Thus we see that, considered by itself, the direction of mutation lacks 

 diagnostic value. 



