CHAP. I.] THE GRAMMAR. 327 



OBSERVATIONS. 



These letters express exactly the sounds as the language 

 is spoken in most parts of the island, and especially in those 

 where, from the slight intercourse between the natives and 

 Europeans, it must, be regarded as most pure. These letters 

 are also used by the natives in writing, from having been 

 adopted by the missionaries in their translations of some 

 parts of the sacred writings. 



In Cook's Straits the / often appears very distinctly 

 instead of the r, which forms a dialectic difference between 

 the New Zealand language and that of the Sandwich Islands, 

 and is also very common in Greek ; the b instead of the /?, 

 or the b for the w, or the d for the r. The h, as aspiration 

 before vowels at the beginning and in the middle of words, 

 is more frequently used in the northern than in the southern 

 parts, which is of no importance, as it is also very often the 

 case in other languages. 



The w is not the English w, but the German : in some 

 words it is the French v, or even the f; for instance in 

 wenua, the land, it is in the southern parts of the island 

 fenua, in other parts venua. 



There exists a letter which cannot be expressed correctly 

 by any of the English letters : it most nearly approaches to 

 the th, and is formed by the tongue, but not to the same 

 extent as the th. It is the Anglo-Saxon dh, as in that. 

 In the alphabet the r and the d are used for it, as in the 

 pronunciation of some natives the sound really is an r or a 

 d ; for instance - 



riri . . . angry, 

 might also be written 



ridi, or rithi. 



Tongariro (name of a mountain) could also be spelled 

 Tongarido, and Tongaritho. 



It is not essential for this difference of pronunciation that 

 the number of letters should be increased. 



The s is also an occasional dialectical difference, especially 

 if the word begins with a vowel and an aspiration : for in- 



