:308 W. G. Ivens: 



NOTES, ETC., ON TABLE I. 



Dr. Codrington, " Melanesian Languages," p. 177, gives the 

 following definition of the use and the nature of Verbal Suffixes. 

 " The Verbal Suffix marks the word as a Verb. All Verbs have not 

 Suffixes; a Suffix is added to a Verb to change in some way its 

 signification. It may very well be that a Verb with a suffixed termi- 

 nation may be found in a language in which the Verb without a 

 Suffix is not found at present, but the stem is a Verb, and the 

 signification of the Suffix will be felt in the meaning of the word." 

 This quotation applies directly to the use of these Suffixes in the 

 Melanesian languages. While the same Suffixes may be clearly 

 seen attached to Verbs in the Polynesian languages, yet it is very 

 evident that the Polynesian peoples do not regularly employ these 

 Suffixes in the same way or to the same extent in which they are 

 employed in Melanesia. However, instances given Wow from 

 Samoan and from Maori show certain uses of the Verbal Suffixes 

 directly corresponding to uses in the Melanesian languages. 



The Verbal Suffixes are attached in the Melanesian languages to 

 Verbs, Nouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, their function being to make a 

 Neuter Verb definitely transitive, or to increase the transitive 

 signification of a Verb already transitive, or to fix its action on to 

 a certain object, or to mark a word as a Verb. In this latter 

 capacity the Verbal Suffixes are attached to Nouns, Adjectives and 

 Adverbs. No instance has been collected of a Verbal SuflSx added 

 to an undoubted Adjective in any Polynesian language, and it may 

 well be that the Adjectives in Sa'a and Ulawa, to which Verbal 

 Suffixes are added, imine big, xwainxti small, haora (Ulawa), small, 

 are really Verbs, and that the Verbal Suffixes are not really added 

 to pure Adjectives, and in all probability the so-called Adverbs to 

 which the Suffixes are added are really neuter Verbs. 



It is unnecessary for the purpc^se of this enquiry to quote the 

 examples of Verbal Suffixes that are given in the languages treated 

 by Dr. Codrington in " Melanesian Languages," and accordingly 

 examples will be given in those languages only which the writer has 

 himself added to the Table, or which have been amplified. 



(1) Verhal Sii-ffi.res in tlie htnguage of Ngima. 



These have been collected from the translation of the Gospels 

 according to S.S. Matthew and John. 



Maworawora adj. broken, 7nairori to break, (c.f. Mel. Lang., p. 

 461); muiiu v.i. to drink, niunuc/i to drink of; marimatagi v.t. to 



