VOCABULARY 



OF THE 



DIALECT OF MILLE, ONE OF THE RADACK ISLANDS. 



WE are indebted for this vocabulary, as has been elsewhere stated (p. 87), to the 

 Rev. H. Bingham, who obtained the materials for it from the two seamen, Lay and 

 Husscy, shortly after their rescue from captivity. His experience in writing the Poly- 

 nesian idioms, and his accuracy in such matters, leave no room to doubt that the vocabu- 

 lary is as complete as, under the circumstances, it could have been made. He remarks 

 concerning it, that " it is very imperfect ;" but the deficiencies are such as must properly 

 be referred to a limited knowledge of the language on the part of the two men, who 

 could have acquired little more than a smattering of the most common idioms, with such 

 words as were needed in the daily intercourse with the natives. 



The orthography adopted by Mr. Bingham is so similar to that employed in this 

 volume, that but few alterations would be necessary to make it entirely the same. Some 

 of these, such as the change of aw to , of u to u, and of_/ to dj, we have thought proper 

 to make. But the double consonants employed by Mr. B. to give a short sound to the 

 preceding vowel, as in bettin for bilin, have been retained, as also the use of the h and r 

 in some instances for the purpose of lengthening a syllable, as mamaru, for momau, 

 amaru, for amiifi, pah-o, for poo, &c. The combination rh, which frequently occurs at 

 the end of a word, seems to be rather intended to express a vague and obscure vowel 

 sound, than that of the consonants which compose it. Of the pronominal affix dfrh or 

 derh, Mr. Bingham remarks that " its sound would be tolerably well expressed by the 

 English pronoun their, by rejecting the t and removing the h to the end of the word, 

 thus, eirh." But in the ordinary (though incorrect) pronunciation of the word t/teir, the 

 r is not heard, the sound being nearly that which would be written, with our alphabet, 

 eu, and it is probably some such sound as eti which is here meant to be represented. 



The possessive pronouns given by Mr. B. are i, it-ar, or, it-arh, I ; face, thou or 

 you ; ia, he, she, or it ; devro, we. It is evident that the real word for you (plural) as 

 well as for Oney was unknown to his informants. 



