POLYNESIAN GRAMMAR. 



235 



ETYMOLOGY. 



5 10. The dialects of Polynesia have, properly speaking, no gram- 

 matical inflections. The only changes which words undergo are by 

 affixed particles, or by the reduplication of one or more of their 

 syllables. 



Particles, both affixed and separate, play a great part in all these idioms. They may 

 be divided into three classes, particles which qualify nouns, verbal particles, and con- 

 junctives. In the former are included the articles, certain demonstratives, the signs of 

 case and of number, of the first of which we proceed to speak. 



THE ARTICLE. 



J 11. There are, in most of the dialects, two articles, one of which 

 is definite, and at the same time singular, and the other indefinite, 

 and prefixed either to the singular or the plural. 



In the dialect of Fakaafo the definite article is te, and the indefinite se or he (s and h 

 being used indiscriminately) ; as ua lelei te tama, good is the boy ; se mata, an eye ; he 

 tufuya koe 1 art thou a priest 1 



In Samoan, the articles are le and se; le tayata, the man ; se tayata, a man. 



In Tongan, there appear to be but two articles, a and he. The former is used before 

 proper names and pronouns, and becomes ae (probably for a he) before common nouns ; 

 as, bea toki lea a Jem, and then Jesus said ; a hono Uhina, his brother ; bea tie tuku ki 



