ESSAY 



AT 



A LEXICON OF THE POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE. 



As in the preceding Grammar an attempt has been made to deduce, 

 from a comparison of the various dialects, the general principles of the 

 primitive language to which they owe their origin, it has seemed 

 proper to complete, as far as possible, the view of that language, by 

 bringing together, from the different vocabularies, those words which, 

 from the fact of their existence in several dialects, may reasonably be 

 supposed to have formed a part of the original Polynesian idiom. It 

 is evident, from the nature of things, that such a collection cannot be 

 complete, and that it must be liable to errors. Some words may be 

 found in two or three dialects, as, for example, in those of Eastern 

 Polynesia, which never formed a part of the primitive tongue, but 

 have come into use since the separation of the Tahitians from the 

 original stock. On the other hand, each dialect has, no doubt, pre- 

 served some words of the parent language, which have been lost in all 

 the others, and which we have, therefore, no means of distinguishing 

 from such as are the peculiar property of the dialect. Our materials, 

 moreover, for such a work, though probably more ample than any 

 that have been before collected, are yet very imperfect. When com- 

 plete dictionaries of all the dialects shall have been formed, no doubt 

 the number of words common to all, or to the greater number, will be 

 materially increased. It is believed, however, that this Lexicon con- 

 tains the mass of those vocables which constituted the primitive wealth 

 of the Polynesian speech. It comprises the terms for all the most 

 common objects, qualities, and acts, and would probably furnish a 



