43g PHILOLOGY. 



language. His acquaintance with its idioms was more extensive than might be inferred 

 from his defective pronunciation. Many deficiencies, however, still remain to be supplied 

 in the following grammatical sketch, and some errors will possibly have to be corrected 

 on further investigation. 



ORTHOGRAPHY. 



The following remarks upon the sounds of the language were written immediately after 

 leaving Taputeouea (Drummond's I.), and before we took on board the two sailors : 

 " The articulations are very difficult to catch, owing to the guttural and indistinct pro- 

 nunciation ; hence arose, at first, many singular mistakes in writing them, such as the 

 use of t and even b instead of g ; r for n and vice versa ; d for r, &c. They had no /, 

 h,j, $, or v. The Z, which was once or twice written, was properly an r ; p and b are 

 the same sound ; as are t and d, k and g. The # is common, and in a few instances the 

 softer nasal sound of the French language was heard. There are several combinations 

 of consonants, as nt, yg, mr, nr, &c. Most of the words terminate in vowels, and where 

 the contrary appears, the consonant is pronounced with a sort of prolonged utterance, as 

 though there were a vowel suppressed ; which we presume to have been really the case. 

 Diphthongs are numerous, and being pronounced with great quickness, their orthography- 

 is sometimes doubtful, as, wi or oi, oo or ou, ae or ai. 



" The accent is often placed on the antepenult, rarely on the last syllable. When a 

 possessive pronoun is affixed to a noun, the accent is shifted forward one syllable, as 

 dpa, country, apdmu, thy country." 



In the pronunciation of Grey and Kirby the sounds /:,_;', c, s and v were heard, but 

 they seemed, in all cases, to be corruptions of other elements, as, k, t, and w. If the 

 language should, hereafter, be studied on the spot by a competent person, the number of 

 consonant sounds will probably be reduced to eight, viz. : k, m, n, TJ, p, r, t, w, being 

 (with the exception of the -g) the same elements as are found in the Hawaiian. 



ETYMOLOGY. 



Properly speaking there are no inflections in the language. The accidents of case, 

 number, tense, mood, &c., are denoted either by independent words, or by affixed parti- 

 cles. The particles, however, sometimes coalesce with the word to which they belong, 

 in such a manner as to have the appearance of inflections. 



THE ARTICLE. 



The article is te, which seems to be merely the word for one. It is used, however, 

 before nouns in the plural as well as in the singular, though, possibly, in the former 

 case, they may have a collective signification, and be regarded as singular. It takes 

 the place of both our articles, as : 



Tia kana te tu, I eat the fruit. 



Anted naiwarai rC te tapa, don't stab me with the knife. 



