DIALECT 

 OF FAKAAFO AND VAITUPU. 



A FULL account of these two clusters and of their inhabitants is 

 given in the first part of this volume, p. 149 to 169. It is there re- 

 marked that the dialect was found to be nearly or quite identical at 

 the two places. The only difference of importance was in the greater 

 distinctness of pronunciation at Vaitupu, where the natives sounded 

 the consonants (particularly the f and s) more strongly and sharply 

 than is usual with the Polynesians. At Fakaafo, on the other hand, 

 the utterance of the people was very indistinct. The f frequently 

 became a sound like the rvh in where, and sometimes, particularly 

 before o and u, a simple h. The s, likewise, was often sounded like 

 a strongly aspirated h. Fand rv were used indifferently ; and in some 

 instances, k seemed to be sounded like t. With these exceptions, the 

 resemblance of dialect is so close, that it has seemed superfluous to 

 give separate vocabularies for the two clusters, the words obtained 

 at both being for the most part exactly alike. The grammatical 

 notes which follow, refer, therefore, to this common dialect, having 

 been deduced from the sentences which were written down on the 

 spot, as heard from the natives. All the phrases given by way of 

 example were thus obtained. Of course, the circumstance that this 

 dialect was found to be a purely Polynesian idiom, closely resembling 

 the Samoan, gave a facility and certainty to the determination of its 

 grammatical characteristics, which would otherwise have been unat- 

 tainable. 



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