174 Mr Crawfui'd on the 



nant ever coalesces with another ; or, in other terms, a vowel 

 or diphthong is always interposed between two consonants. 



The paucity of consonants, and the frequency of vowels 

 and diphthongs, necessai'ily convey to a stranger a sense of 

 monotony and feebleness. Tluis, the word " to shiver witli 

 cold,'' kauaehahuru^ notwithstanding its length, contains but 

 two consonants. Tiahuahu, " to distribute" or " scatter 

 about," and puhihihi, words each of eight letters, have but a 

 single consonant a-piece. These are sounds so utterly re- 

 pugnant to tlie genius of Malayan pronunciation, that a Malay 

 or Javanese could hardly articulate them. 



The grammar of the Polynesian language is neai'ly as 

 widely apart from that of the Malay or Javanese as its pho- 

 netic chai'acter. The Polynesian has two articles, parts of 

 speech unknown to tlie Malay and Javanese, but bearing 

 some analogy to those of our own language. The cases of 

 nouns are expressed, not by inflexions, but prepositions, 

 which, however, differ wholly from those which serve the 

 same purpose in the Malay and Javanese languages. 



The noun has a plural formed by the inseparable prefix ha. 

 Gender is designated by adjectives; but these dift'cr not only 

 from those of the T^Ialay and Javanese, but from those of 

 every other language of the Archipelago that I have exa- 

 mined. 



One of the most remarkable differences between the Malay 

 and Javanese languages on the one hand, and the Polynesian 

 on the other, consists in the latter having a singular, a dual, 

 and a plural number to its pronouns of the second and third 

 persons. The only languages of the Archipelago that have 

 something resembling this peculiarity, are those of the Plii- 

 lippines ; but here it is the pronoun of the first, and not of 

 the second and third persons that have numbers. 



The Polynesian verb differs entirely from the Malay and 

 Javanese. The simplest form of it is the neuter or active 

 verb, which may be considered the root. This is made causal 

 by the prefix ivaka, and passive by the affix a. The moods 

 are formed by particles ; and the tenses, of v.'hich there are 

 six, by the help of prefixes, affixes, or adverbs. A verbal 

 noun is formed by adding to the root the inseparable particle 

 «a, under certain rules of euphony. 



