842 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 283. 



parison,a study of these groups is beset 

 with difficulties. Think of the immense 

 space and time separating the localities and 

 occurrences. From New Zealand on the 

 south to Formosa on the north ; from 

 Easter Island on the east to Madagascar 

 on the west, covering a territory of 208° of 

 longitude and 88° of latitude — nearly one- 

 fourth the habitable surface of the globe — ■ 

 we find a root language governed by the 

 same grammatical system and pervaded by 

 the same modes of thought. We shall have 

 occasion later to point out certain peculiar- 

 ities which are common to all the Oceanic 

 languages, but which are radically distinct 

 from any branch of the Indo-European 

 family, showing that Oceanic speech, in the 

 great struggle of the race to acquire an 

 instrument of analysis, has been developed 

 from a fundamental, separate type, and in 

 its origin had nothing in common with 

 the stock to which European tongues are 

 referred. Between some of the islands 

 there has been no contact for thousands of 

 years ; yet their linguistic connection is un- 

 mistakable and everything points to deriva- 

 tion from a common source. They have 

 the same customs and mythology ; the 

 laws of euphony regulating the change 

 from one consonant to another are fixed 

 and uniform ; the mold into which sentences 

 are cast, the co-ordination of phrases, the 

 mutual dependence of ideas, all reflect the 

 thought habits of an identical race. 



Classification of Oceanic Languages. — The 

 Hawaiian is one branch of the Polynesian 

 group of the great Oceanic family. An 

 analysis of the structure shows that six 

 groups can be logically defined, namely, 

 the Polynesian, Micronesian, Papuan, Aus- 

 tralian, Malayan, and the Malagasy. Each 

 one of these embraces distinct branches, 

 having close affinities with one another. 

 For example, the Polynesian includes the 

 language of Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Marquesas, 

 and Tahiti. The Micronesian comprises the 



Gilbert, Marshall, and Caroline Islands ; 

 and so on through all the members of the 

 family, ending with Madagascar, which is 

 the center and type of the Malagasy group. 

 When we consider that this vast territory 

 of speech, from America on the east to 

 Africa on the west, with its families, 

 groups, branches, and dialects almost num- 

 berless, has been reduced to a permanent 

 and philosophical system of sj'ntax, we do 

 not wonder that one of the most profound 

 students of comparative philology refers to 

 the achievement as a discovery of the great- 

 est importance. 



Dispersion of Terms. — Before passing to 

 an analysis of Hawaiian speech, one word 

 on the theory of dispersion. It is admitted 

 that all the Oceanic languages were derived 

 from one very ancient tongue, now lost. 

 The Malagasy has felt the influence of the 

 Arabic, and the Malay shows unmis'takable 

 contact with the Sanskrit ; yet the great 

 tidal wave of emigration, which was ever 

 from west to east in the Pacific, swept on 

 and preserved intact the structural features 

 of the original form. The theory that each 

 dialect has an indigenous base, and that 

 words common to all were introduced 

 through commercial intercourse, is entirely 

 inadequate. In the first place, the connec- 

 tion was far too slight to produce the effect 

 mentioned, and in the next place the com- 

 mon words are not those ingrafted and ab- 

 sorbed by intercourse, but are such as are 

 in every known language — the oldest and 

 the commonest. When the ]S"ormans came 

 to England they introduced many words ; 

 but they could not displace those simple 

 names of natural objects as sun, moon, etc., 

 nor those indicating intimate family rela- 

 tions, such as father, mother, brother, sister 

 — terms always dear to the heart of human- 

 ity and jealously guarded against foreign in- 

 trusion and corruption. Just so in the 

 Pacific. The words common to all branches 

 of the group are those which from the very 



