Тномзох.— Whence of the Maori. xxv 
Philological Considerations on the Whence of the Maori* 
By J. T. Тномѕох, F.R.G.8. 
(Pl. L-IIL) 
[Read before the Otago Institute, 8th July, 1873.] 
Ix approaching the question our stand-point is naturally in New Zealand, 
from whence the subject must be traced (if possible) to its end. Having 
already dealt with the same from an ethnological point of view,t I may 
remark that the study of words in tribes or nations has the same position in 
relation to the above science as the tracing of fossils has towards geology. 
One has its material as much imbedded in the people as the other has its in 
the earth—where one class is as much preserved for ages as the other is 
for epochs—and both may be dug out from their encasements and displayed to 
the present generation. The conclusions that we may draw from thence can 
only be stated after mature consideration. 
The subject divides itself into three headings, viz., Glossarial, Idiomatic, 
and Phonetic; and as the first forms the easiest approach to what may prove 
a tedious and difficult enquiry, I will commence with it. 
Primary words, ie, those that express first wants in men in their 
infancy—and, equally so, tribes or nations in their infancy—are the most 
tenacious of existence. These are common nouns, pronouns, and verbs, but 
more particularly the first—such as man, woman, son, daughter, food, fruit, 
fish, etc. ; or, I, you, he, we, etc. ; or, go, come, give, kill, etc. In elucidating 
a subject such as this, therefore, we apply our enquiries to primary terms, 
which we may denominate as the fossils of the languages, so that we may, 
from their coincidence or approximations in different and distant communities, 
weigh the affinities of race or blood in the communities themselves. 
But while primary words are the most lasting, yet they even are subject 
to slow and gradual change as ages roll on. In English, Chaucer gives a 
ready example of this; and turning to the Portuguese, as one of the modern 
nations of Europe, who, more than any other, initiated the great spread of the 
* In this paper I am indebted for assistance to the following works, viz. :—Malagasi 
= Grammar, by Griffiths ; Tamil Grammar, by Rhenius ; Tongan Grammar, by West ; and 
Maori Grammar, by Williams ; Malayan Dictionary, by Marsden; Tongan Dictionary, 
by Mariner ; Maori Dictionary, by Williams ; Vocabularies of the Indian Archipelago, 
by Wallace ; also of the Kayan Language (Borneo), by Burns ; of the Timor Language, 
by Windsor Earle ; of the Silong Tribe, by Ed. O’Riley ; and some collections of words, 
by J. R. Logan, in Journ. Indian Arch. 
+ See Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. IV., 1871, p. 23. í 
