Report of tli^ Director for ip22 25 



Study of Pacific Languages 



During the days of active missionary expansion, 1820-1860, much at- 

 tention was given to preparing word Hsts and generalized grammars of 

 various Pacific dialects, and the theories of language relation expounded 

 by Max Miiller appear to have led some scholars to undertake philological 

 researches in the language of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. For 

 Polynesia the Maori Comparative Dictionary by Tregear (1891), the 

 Maori Dictionary by Williams (1892). the Tongan Vocabulary and 

 Grammar, by Rev. Shirley Baker (1897); the Samoan Grammar and 

 Dictionary, by Rev. George Pratt (revised edition 1911); A Dictionary 

 of the Hawaiian Language, by Lorrin Andrews (1865, revised 1922) ; the 

 Polynesian Wanderings and Easter Island Rapanui Speech, by William 

 Churchill ; and the dictionaries for the dialects of French Oceania, com- 

 piled by the Catholic fathers, are standard works. Studies by S. Percy 

 Smith, Sidney Ray and other contributors to the journal of the Polynesian 

 Society have served to elucidate many doubtful points. But increase in 

 the knowledge of the Polynesian and related languages has not kept 

 pace with researches in other branches of anthropology, and the death of 

 William Churchill in 1920 and of S. Percy Smith in 1922 has removed 

 two of the most distinguished students of Polynesian philology. 



As anthropological work proceeds, the call becomes insistant for a 

 court of final appeal for spelling, meaning, and origin of words and 

 phrases that inclose within themselves a picture of the migrating ideas and 

 give significance to words which at present represent merely groups of 

 letters or sounds. There is need for trained scholars who will devote a 

 lifetime of effort to fundamental researches in philology of the Polynesian 

 dialects. 



Perhaps the first work of such a scholar would be to edit the several 

 dictionaries and the grammars now in manuscript form. Similar studies 

 could then be made of native dialects for which no adequate word lists are 

 in existence. 



Since the inadequacy of philological research is felt by all institutions 

 interested in Pacific work, it is not improbable that support could be ob- 

 tained through some co-operative arrangement. 



Hawaiian Diction.'^ry 



In 1913 the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii made provision 

 for the "compiling, printing, binding, and publishing in book form a 

 Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" to replace Andrews' Dictionary, 

 which had long been out of print. Supported by legislative grants in 

 1913, 1917, 1919, amounting to $25,000, revision has been in progress 



