Malayan and Polynesian Languages and Faces. 175 



Tlie New Zealand Dictionary contains about 6000 words ; 

 but omitting derivatives, about 5500. I have carefully gone 

 over it, and can discover in it only 107 words belonging to 

 the Malayan languages. Of these 24 are Malay, 16 Javanese, 

 59 common to these two languages, and 8 belonging to the 

 Bugis or Wugi of Celebes. The proportion, then, of Malayan 

 Avords in the Polynesian, to judge by the dialect of New 

 Zealand, is less than 20 in 1000. 



There are two words in the New Zealand which may pos- 

 sibly be Sanscrit. Apiti, " to join," may be the word apitoi 

 the Malay and Javanese, taken from the Sanscrit, and mean- 

 ing " close, pressed together ;" and tapu, the well-known 

 labu, may be the tapa, or religious penance of the Hindoos, 

 found in almost every language of the Indian Archipelago. 

 The addition of the A'owel, in the case of api(, has already 

 been explained ; and of the permutation of the final a into 

 other vowels, we have several examples, as kapu, " an axe," 

 for kapak ; tanu, "to bury," for tnnam ; ono, " six," for 

 anam ; and rami, " to squeeze,'' for ramds. 



From the wide discrepancy which exists between the pho- 

 netic system of the Polynesian and Malayan languages, the 

 words of the latter introduced into the former, are of course, 

 greatly corrupted in form. The Malay and Javanese word 

 rt/»i, " fire," becomes, for example, ahi ; Buah, " ivviii,'" be- 

 comes Jiua ; ?«m?<m, " to drink,'' mw ; salah, " a crime," A«>-a; 

 papan, "a boar," papa; tahun, " a year,'' taw; and daun, "a 

 loaf,'' rail. 



Corruptions in sense are also frequent. Mata, " the eye," 

 in Malay and Javanese, means " the face" in the New Zea- 

 land. In the Marquesas, however, this word has the correct 

 meaning of " the eye," as well as the improper one of " the 

 face." Although this word, however, in its literal sense is 

 misapplied, it is remarkable that, in some of its figurative 

 meanings, it is correctly used, as for the " mesh of a net," 

 " the point" or " blade" of a weapon, and " a spring" or 

 " fountain." Batu or ivatu is a stone in Malay and Javanese, 

 l)ut in the New Zealand it means " hail" and the " pupil of 

 the eye," figurative senses of it in the two first languages. 

 liahi, in Javanese, means " the face," but its literal meaning 



