NOTES ON THE LOYALTY ISLANDS. 687 



the prpceding- consonant, and the we is the onlv combination 

 to he considered, the nearest sound of which tliat ] can tliink 

 of is the we in the word " went," only the e must scarcely he 

 perceived. 



G. Is j a]ways = tli .'* In the Mare lanj^Miaoe the j is never 

 =th, but is uniformly sounded as soft g- in genius. In the Lifu 

 language, however, the j has been adopted to represent th as 

 in that. 



7. Is c=e ay and r) = German n? v in Lifu is not any 

 sound in the English language, but is very near the en in 

 French, tres ]ne)i ; the Jl is something like (rerma!! o, though 

 I think the Lifu ("» is more distinctive. 



8. In we-pi=]0, can you suggest any meaning for pi.'' 

 No. All I can say is that pi goes for five, as ckete is 

 four. 



9. In tripi = 5, what is the tri ? I can't tell, unless it has 

 been obtained from the little jiarticle te with a harsh or heavy 

 t sound almost like tr; this te is a particle with no translatable 

 meaning; it is a kind of rest or stepping stone fi-om one part 

 of a sentence to anothei', and is very much used ; thus — " Ame 

 la ate ke 'nci, te, troa nyi thnp^ne koi nycn." — "The person 

 who steals shall be ])unished." It might have been that in 

 counting five on their fingers, as is usual, they might have 

 proceeded — cas, wete, klinite, ekete, and then, as they were 

 about to give a more complete number, they made a kind of 

 rest — te, pi — and this in time became tripi ; tri never occurs 

 elsewhere. 



lU. In chasi=l is cha = tsha or = ^ct;' Ch is pronounced 

 as ch in chapel. We never write ch in the Marc or Lifu, 

 only c, which stands for the sound ch. In writing ch to you 

 I have committed an error ; please adopt the c only, and 

 everywhere. 



11. What are the common words for and and the^ Is 

 there any word like the Tongan ko — and .'' 



i. Mare — ne = and ; ko re = the ; ha is another con- 

 junction for and, but the union of the two parts of 

 a sentence, or two words, is not so complete as 

 when )ie is used, 

 ii. Lifu — me and memine = and ; la = the ; nge in Lifu 

 has the same force as ka in the Mare. 



12. In caate = 20 = one man, what is the simple form of 

 the word man ? ate is the word for person ; trahman = male 

 or man ; fiJe = female or woman. 



13. Is 100 = tripi lao ate or tripi las ate:* tripi la o ate. 



