DATA AND NOTES. 377 



Sariba, Tubetube, Dobu: numa, id. Tanna: numi, id. Suau: 



nom, id. Tavara: uma, id. Taupota, Wedau, Galavi, 



Boniki: umai, id. Awalama: umaia, id. Kiriwina : mum, id. 



Tanna: (t)amaniim, id. Kiviri: toman, id. Raqa: tanuma, id. 



Kubiri: foraa, id. Oiun: torn, id. Murua: amomu, id. 



Aneityum: umnyi, id. 

 Malay: minum, pinum, to drink. Pampangas: minom, id. Magin- 



dano: ominum, id. Tagalog: ominom, id. Malagasy: ram- 



nuna, id. Java: nginum, id. Togean Islands : mangino, id. 

 Syriac: mistuta, to drink. Chaldee: .y'/'a', } is't'o\ id. Hebrew: 



.y'a/'a, id. Ethiopic: sataya, id. Hebrew: s'akah, id. Arabic: 



saka\ id. Ethiopic: sakaya, id. 



It is by no means easy to determine the primal stem. We shall best 

 consider the series of forms, paying no regard here to the vowel change. 



inum. Polynesia ubique, Viti, Rotuma, Malo, Motu, King, Duke of 



York, Motlav, Mota, Tanna, Marina. 

 minum. Efate, Malekula, Lo, Nguna, Makura, Baki, Bierian, Tanna, 



Malay, Pampangas, Magindano, Tagalog, Java. 

 minung. Efate, Malagasy, Togean Islands. 

 inuv. Nggela, Mota. 

 nginuv. Viti. 



The vowel interchange appears not to be critical, for most of the t-forms 

 are paralleled by similar u -forms. 



The common factor of all these stems is inn; this may be modulated by 

 a final m, ng or v, and by a frontal m, ng. If we take the position that m 

 and ng may stem in a common parent we have simplified the problem in 

 but a small degree ; we still have to consider an inn which may be intro- 

 duced by a nasal and which may close in a nasal or a labial spirant. 



After the preceding stem classification we need comment on but a few 

 more irregular phases. In Motlav nin we find an uncoordinate form; in 

 may be abraded inu, nin may perhaps present the central nasal n, which 

 should stand in the position of the parent of initial ng-m, or it may be some 

 obscure duplication. Mota un, nnuv, falls systematically into the scheme 

 of stems ; but the Maligo ima seems impossible to place. The Marina forms 

 suggest affiliation with the mwm-stem ; the n-l mutation is well established 

 over a wide area, but this is the only case in which it is found in Marina ; 

 and the excision in o'omia is left unexplained. Tanna numi and Epi muni 

 are most readily disposed of as metathesis, of the types 2341 and 4321, 

 respectively. Aneityum is very obscure, yet it does seem to preserve a trace 

 of minu. 



There is, as we have seen, abundance of confusion in the island areas; 

 but not so much as one confounded form comes into the slightest resem- 

 blance with the Semitic st root. 



322. 



mirama-ni, merama, to be light, to shine; e meromina, in the light (as 

 opposed to abokas, the dark and gloomy underworld of Hades), 

 in the world, the world. 



