292 PHILOLOGY. 



sufficient vocabulary for the purposes of ordinary intercourse among 

 a semi-barbarous people. 



The plan of the Lexicon will be readily understood on inspection. 

 The primitive or radical form of the word (or that which is considered 

 to be such) is first given in large type, and then the variations in form 

 and meaning which occur in the different dialects are added, together 

 with the most important derivatives. Some difficulty has been found, 

 occasionally, in the determination and arrangement of the latter, and 

 it is not likely that in all cases the disposition which has been adopted 

 will be found to be correct. Some words may have been referred to 

 a common source, which are really from different roots, and, in other 

 cases, the thread of connexion uniting apparently distinct terms may 

 not have been perceived. In many instances, it will be seen that the 

 primitive form of the word is not found in our vocabularies, but has 

 been deduced from a comparison of the variations. In such cases, 

 a note of interrogation is affixed, which must not be understood, in 

 general, as implying a doubt of the correctness of the deduced form, 

 but merely an uncertainty with respect to its actual existence. Thus, 

 for example, we have in Samoan sii, meaning " to lift up," and in 

 Tongan hiki ; the former dialect has no k, and the latter no 5; hence 

 there can be no doubt that the original form of the word was siki, 

 which is, accordingly, given in the vocabulary. The dialect of 

 Fakaafo, and probably also that of Niua, have all the elements, and a 

 full vocabulary of one of them would therefore be extremely desirable, 

 as it would probably present us with most of the words of the Polyne- 

 sian language in their primitive completeness. Thus, in Satnoan, saa, 

 and in Nukuhivan, haha, signify " to dance ;" the ground-form must 

 therefore be saJca, which is accordingly found among the words 

 obtained by us at Fakaafo. The brief vocabulary given by Schouten 

 of the language of Cocos Island (Niua-tabu), the first ever published 

 of any Oceanic dialect, affords us, in the word for "beads," or rather 

 " necklace" (casoa), the original form of the Samoan asoa, and the 

 Tongan kahoa. In some few cases, however, the radical form is 

 really doubtful, the variations not being such as to give a clue to the 

 word from which they are derived. Thus hohonu, which, in the dia- 

 lects of New Zealand, Tahiti, and Hawaii, signifies " deep," may be 

 a corruption of sosonu, or of fofonu, either of which would, in those 

 dialects, assume that form. 



In some instances, words of the Vitian, Rotuman, and Tarawan dia- 

 lects (all of which are partly of Polynesian origin) have been intro- 



