June 1, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



845 



written, the o is elided, and we say he pon 

 ole, just as the Spaniards in rapid speech nse 

 boca bajo instead of boca abajo. So strong is 

 this sentiment that rules of gender are some- 

 times made to give way so that euphony 

 may be preserved, and the method observed 

 in Italian finds application in Hawaii. In- 

 stead of saying na alii, the chiefs, the Kan- 

 akas drop a letter and say na' Hi. The 

 Italians say bel originate, avoiding the repe- 

 tition of ; the French use mon amie and the 

 Spanish el agua, in order to eliminate the 

 same disagreeable effect. In English the 

 combination is equally distasteful and we 

 say an apple; yet the Hawaiians do some- 

 times violate this rule in the middle of 

 words. Notice the artifices employed in 

 the different languages to avoid cacophony. 

 The Kanakas prefer elision ; the French and 

 Spanish are willing to break another rule 

 of speech in order to satisfy the ear, and 

 couple words of opposite genders, while 

 English avoids the difficulty by supplying 

 a letter. The methods employed exem- 

 plify characteristic national traits. The 

 Hawaiian accomplishes his purpose in any 

 way that diminishes labor; he therefore 

 cuts out rather than introduces. The en- 

 ergy of the Anglo-Saxon prompts him to 

 interject something, and the Latins, true to 

 their natural instinct, sacrifice symmetry of 

 form to euphony of sound. 



TheGuttiiral Break. — Besides the Hawaiian 

 sounds previously cited there is a guttural 

 break which represents the elision of the k 

 in other Polynesian dialects. It is indicated 

 by a comma, just as the circumflex accent 

 in French indicates the suppression of a 

 letter or syllable in earlier forms. This 

 break is an essential part of the word, and 

 a disregard of it completely changes the 

 meaning. For example, ao means light; 

 a'o means to teach; ia means he; i'a means 

 fish. There are many examples of this in 

 the language. 



As we pass from Sanskrit to Gothic, and 



on to high German, a regular mutation in 

 the appearance of certain consonants is 

 found. No less evident than this law of 

 Grimm is the change of Polynesian sounds, 

 and, although neither rule is infallible, both 

 are useful in tracing certain paths of de- 

 velopment. 



The I in Samoan becomes r in New Zeal- 

 and and returns to the original letter in 

 Hawaii. The p in Samoan is b in Tongan, 

 and is again p in Hawaii; v in Samoan is w 

 in New Zealand, but remains tv in Hawaii. 

 The k in New Zealand is replaced by the 

 guttural break in Tahiti and Hawaii. The 

 vowels, however, undergo fewer changes 

 than the consonants. 



Meanings of aa. — The definition of words 

 by context necessarily finds wide applica- 

 tion in the stage of development now 

 reached by the language of Hawaii. The 

 sound indicated by the letter a is probably 

 the most common in the entire range of ar- 

 ticulation. Standing alone, it has, like 

 many others, a variety of meanings; but 

 doubled, it answers to nearly thirty signifi- 

 cations, many of them of the most diverse 

 nature. To begin with, aa may be either a 

 verb, adjective, or noun, and some of its 

 meanings are: 



to hum, to tempt, to defy, to girdle, to make a noise, 



to send love. 



Then it may mean — 



spiteful, silent, stony, mischievous. 



And finally it stands for — 

 fire, belt, dumbness, roots of trees, pocket, bag, 

 dwarf, lava, covering for the eyes, bird of prey, 

 caul of animals, sea breeze at Lahaina, husk of the 

 cocoanut, chaff, outside of seeds or fruit, red fish. 



Add to these some adjectives that may 

 be derived from verbal meanings and the 

 number may be considerably increased. It 

 is evident that a necessary condition for the 

 successful employment of a word of such 

 unlimited power is great flexibility of con- 

 struction. The groundwork of the Ian- 



