818 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
of the Semitic languages is, in the course of their analytic 
development, to confound these gutturals, and, finally, to soften 
them all down to @, or a mere spiritus lenis. Dr. Codrington, 
speaking of the guttural trill, which he calls ‘“‘ the Melanesian g,” 
says :—“ It may be taken for 7, or may be missed altogether. 
Tt has been written g (hard), 7, g (ngq), rg, h, rh, and k. That it 
resembles 7 is shown by the spelling of visitors. . . . Bishop 
Patteson was struck by its resemblance to the Arabic ghain 
(.e., h“), and Professor M. Miiller’s description of the Hebrew 
ain (7.€., h‘) as a vibration of the fissura laryngea, approaching 
sometimes to a trill, nearly equivalent to a German g in tage, 
closely suits it.” (The Melanesian Languages, pp. 204-206). In 
Oceanic 7 is sometimes pronounced as a lingual, sometimes as a 
guttural (Crawford, Malay Gram., p. 75; F. Miller, G.d. 
Sprache, ii, il, ii, p. 92ff); hence, as we shall see, we find it 
not only interchanged with ¢, 6, v, &c., but also with h, g, (4), or 
spiritus lenis. 
Interchanges with each other of dentals, sibilants, gutturals, 
labials, or of dentals with sibilants are not to be wondeucd at. But 
the more remarkable interchange in Oceanic between (1) dentals (or 
sibilants) and labials, and vice versa, (2) between dentals (or sibi- 
lants) and gutturals, and vice versa, and (3) between gutturals and 
abials, and vice versa, are not so easily understood. In (Melan. 
Hang., pp. 403-407) Rotuma folu 3, hak 4, hif 7, for the common 
Oremic tolu, bat, pitu(and generally i in the Owsamie numerals every- 
where, as we shall see) all these interchanges are exemplified (1) in 
_folu, hif, (2) in hak, and (3) in hak, hif. In Hawaiian, dental and 
guttural are confounded, and / stands for both ¢and #. In 'Tangoan 
Santo, dental and labial are confounded, as ¢ and p, mand n. 
(South Sea languages, p. i). The same confusion is found in 
North East Malekula, where it is impossible sometimes to tell 
whether the native speaker utters m or n, th or v. In these cases 
one letter might represent both ¢h or v, letter ¢ or p, m or n, as 
Hawaiian / stands fork or 4. In Efate kis very often pronounced 
ngandtas7,orras¢. In some cases 7 and e are confused. 
““Tt is a question whether the sound made in some localities is 
really an aspirate which may be written h, or not rather to be 
represented by f . . . ‘In the greater number of languages 
which have both sibilants and aspirates, 4 and s are equivalent.” 
(The Melanesian Languages, pp. 193, 216.) Now, these inter- 
changes must have been going on from the earliest times, as we 
find examples of them generally throughout the Oceanic dialects. 
Thus, in Efatese dialects “who ?” is fez, se, and he (Tahitian var); 
and bea, ‘first,’ in one dialect, is tiamia, which is certainly for 
miamia or fiamia, Epi beamu, Samoan muamua. Efate finanga, 
food, is in Duke of York winaga, Mota sinaga, Motlay hinag. 
Star in Malay is bintang, in Javanese lintang and wintang, in 
ce 
