A VOCABULARY 



OF THE 



DIALECT OF TOBI, Oil LORD NORTH'S ISLAND. 



OF Horace Holden, to whom we are indebted for the following 

 vocabulary, some account is given on page 78.* Besides the list of 

 separate words, many sentences were written down, for the purpose 

 of elucidating the grammatical structure of the language. It was, 

 however, soon evident that this was expecting too much. The 

 situation in which the captive seamen were placed, was such as to 

 deprive them of all desire of acquiring a better knowledge of the 

 language of their inhuman masters, than was absolutely necessary 

 for the purpose of communicating with them. And even had the 

 desire not been wanting, their opportunities, while constantly engaged 

 in harassing labors, were very unfavorable. They were therefore 

 contented with learning the most common words, which they strung 

 together so as to be intelligible, but with little or no regard to the 

 proper idiom of the language. Thus they had no knowledge of the 

 affixed possessive pronouns, although, from the fact that nearly all the 

 words expressive of relationship (as rvutimum, father, mtferum, mother, 

 btjium, brother, miayvm, sister), and the names of the parts of the 

 body (as, mttfemvm, head, petgim, foot, kusum, beard, tgtm, hair) 

 terminate, as given by Holden, in m, which, in the other languages 

 of this division, expresses the pronoun thy, we can hardly doubt that 



* Mr. Holden is now engaged in business at the Sandwich Islands, where he is much 

 esteemed for his probity and intelligence. 



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