718 Reviews. | [ Oct., 
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unwritten tongues, causes which would never occur to our minds were 
not instances brought under our notice. A remarkable case is as 
follows :— 
“The Tahitians, besides their metaphorical expressions, have another 
and more singular mode of displaying their reverence towards their king, by 
a custom which they call 7e pi. They cease to employ in their common 
language those words which form a part or the whole of the sovereign’s name, 
or that of one of his near relatives, and invent new terms to supply their 
place. As all names in Polynesian are significant, and as a chief usually has 
several, it will be seen that this custom must produce a considerable change 
in the language. It is true that this change is only temporary, as at the 
death of king or chief, the new word is dropped and the original term re- 
sumed. Butitis hardly to be supposed that after one or two generations the 
old word should still be remembered and reinstated. Anyhow it is a fact 
that the missionaries, by employing many of the new terms, give them a 
permanency which will defy the ceremonial loyalty of the natives. 
Vancouver observes that at the accession of Otu, which took place 
between the visit of Cook and his own, no less than forty or fifty of the 
most common words which occur in conversation had been entirely 
changed. Itis not necessary that all the simple words which go to make 
up a compound name should be changed. The alteration of one is 
esteemed sufficient: thus in Po-mare, signifying “the night (Po) of 
coughing (mare),” only the first word Po has been dropped, mi being used 
in its place. So in Az-mata (eye eater), the name of the present queen, 
the Az (eat) has been altered to amu, and the mata (eye) retained. In 
Te-arti-na-vaha-roa (the chief with a large mouth), roa alone has been 
changed to maoro, It is the same as if with the accession of Queen 
Victoria either the word victory had been tabooed altogether, or only part 
of it, for instance, tori, so as to make it high treason to speak during her 
reign of Tories, this word being always supplied by another such, for 
instance as Liberal Conservative. The object was clearly to guard against 
the name of the sovereign being ever used, even by accident, in ordinary 
conversation, and this object is attained by tabooing even one portion of 
his name.” * 
Another cause of variation is found more especially among the 
Kafirs. The women never pronounce any word which contains a 
sound similar to the names of their male relatives. In many lan- 
guages the influence of women has given a peculiar turn to the speech 
of the whole nation. Thus Dante ascribed to the ladies of Italy, who 
did not understand Latin, the first patronage of literature in the vulgar 
tongue. Our author goes on to divide many languages into two 
dialects; “one showing a more manly, the other a more feminine, 
character.” He instances “ Greek in its dialects, the Aiolic and the 
Tonic, with their subdivisions the Doric and Ionic;’ High and Low 
German; in Celtic, the Gadhelic and Cymric; in India, the Sanskrit 
and Prakrit ; and, following the suggestion of Grimm, he believes— 
“The stern and strict dialects, the Sanskrit, the Molic, the Gadhelic, to 
represent the idiom of the fathers and brothers, used in public assemblies ; 
while the soft and simpler dialects, the Prakrit, the Ionic, and the Cymric, 
sprang originally from the domestic idiom of mothers, sisters, and servants 
at home.” 
* P. 34. 
