DATA AND NOTES. 307 



the language is yet so little known that we can not explain the change of 

 vowel or the latter member of the composite. 



The Malay is not at all to be considered . It seems to me that Dr. Macdonald 

 has brought in the Aneityum and the Malay to establish a chain running 

 sungi-sumi-aijumnyi-chyum-s'amma. Inasmuch as there is no strength in 

 the inner links the chain scarcely supports the Semitic load. 



265. 



suma, uma, himwa, house. 



Maori: ruma, a room, an apartment. 



The following words mean house : 



Duke of York, Motu, Uni, Doura, Kabadi : ruma. Wango : rumwa. 

 Lambell, Lamassa : rumai. New Guinea, Laur : rum. Buka : 

 luma, aluma, lumu. Bougainville, Alite, Ugi, Uni, Pokau: 

 luma. Iai, Kpi, Rubi: uma. Lifu, Uea: uuma. Lakon: 

 umwa. Waigiou, Moanus: urn. Tubetube: yuma, id. Treas- 

 ury Island, Sinaugoro, Hula, Keapara, Galoma, Suau, Sariba, 

 Tavara, Awalama, Taupota, Wedau, Galavi, Boniki: numa. 

 Saa: numwe. Tubetube: numi, id. Fagani: rima. Ulawa, 

 Bululaha : nimwa. Tangoan Santo, Ambrym : ima. Eromanga : 

 imo. Aneityum: im. Mota, Arag: imwa. Deni, Nengone: 

 mwa. Merlav, Mosin : imw. ho:emwa. Motlav, Volow : e mw. 

 Norbarbar, Pak, Leon : eng. Makura : na-ingma. Aneityum: 

 neom, niitn. 

 Malay, Baju, Liang, Lariko: rumah. Matabello: oruma. Kisa: 

 rome. Amblaw : lumah. Cajeli, Caimarian : luma. Q&hJume. 

 Mayapo: humah. Java: humah, uma. Teluti, Nikunau : uma. 

 Arabic: h'a'mat, h'im', house. 

 Tregear is by no means convinced that Maori ruma is not the borrowing 

 of the English room. Since the word does not anywhere else enter the 

 Polynesian area I prefer to let our best Melanesian authority argue the 

 case for his client. I cite herewith Codrington's highly interesting note 

 (Melanesian Languages, 77) : 



This is an interesting and important word. The very wide range of the word, which 

 in Malay is ruma, and the great variety of its forms point to the great antiquity of this 

 as a common possession of these languages. As is the case with the very widely pre- 

 vailing name for a canoe, we may argue that a word which has spread so far and changed 

 so much goes to show that the thing which it names was known to the undivided people 

 whose dispersion spread the word so widely abroad. If the presence of certain common 

 words in Aryan languages shows that the Aryans did not separate till certain arts were 

 known and practised by the common ancestors, so we may argue that the ocean lan- 

 guages testify that the ancient speakers made canoes, built houses, cultivated gardens, 

 before the time came when their posterity branched off on their way to Madagascar 

 and Fiji. 



The word now immediately in view as the name of a house ranges from the Malay 

 Peninsula, through the islands of the Indian Archipelago, to the very extremity of 

 Melanesia in the Loyalty Islands. It has not a continuous range, it appears and dis- 

 appears at intervals, but in that line and chain of islands it is never absent long. It 

 appears in Mafoor at the northwest of New Guinea, and in Motu at the southeast, and 

 in the Marshall Islands of Micronesia. In Polynesian languages it does not appear; 

 in the Kingsmill it is im. The fact that the word has in this way established itself 



