98 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
I propose, therefore, now, as I believe this is, on the whole, the simplest 
plan, to take the different parts of speech, separately, in the order usually 
presented in European grammars, and, in this instance, to adhere to that 
given by Dr. Williams, as, perhaps, the clearest, though, by no means, the 
fullest. Dr. Maunsell’s work is invaluable for the Syntax; but, with this 
portion, I do not feel myself at present competent to deal; nor is it, indeed, 
essential that I should for the object I have here in view. I ought, 
perhaps, to add here, that Dr.’ Maunsell and some other writers have 
objected to the use of the names, cases, moods, etc., in Maori grammar, 
because, in it, strictly speaking, as in other Polynesian dialects, we do not 
find those modifications of the root-stems of the words which occur in 
Sanskrit, Greek, ete., and which constitute the peculiarity of what are, 
therefore called Inflectional languages. I venture, however, to think that 
these names may be usefully retained as conveying, at least, to Huropean 
eyes and ears, certain definite senses which are in the main true. Asa 
matter of fact, such names might as easily be dispensed with in most 
modern languages, and are, indeed, only kept for the sake of convenience. 
Before, however, I proceed to discuss in detail the various parts of the 
Grammar, it is necessary to note the principal and constant variations in 
the consonantal systems of these Oceanic languages and to establish for 
them so far as it is possible, the common laws of their permutation, after 
the fashion so successfully applied by Jacob Grimm in the case of the 
European tongues. There is, indeed, a remarkable regularity in these 
changes ; but I am not, at present, prepared to state that the reason for 
this is, that any one of them stands to any other exactly in the relation of 
parent to children. This point I must reserve till the conclusion of my 
paper. Now many writers have called attention to a larger or smaller 
number of these variations. Thus, Mr. Thomson, in the article to which I 
have already referred more than once (Trans. N. Z. Inst.,” Vol. Vi 
53), has pointed out that, in Tongan, the Maori p, t, k, , and w, find equi- 
valents in b, b, y, l, and v: as, in the following instanees,— 
Potiki Bibigi (child). 
Maori weet kurt Tongan guli (dog). 
wera vela (hot). 
80, too, h and p similarly interchange, as, 
Maori ..,.{ = Tongan a — 
( huru "mila (hair). 
Again, Mr. Logan has shewn that i 
Tahitian, and Hawaian, though prese 
way, /in Tongan: that A appears as 
is very generally omitted in Samoan, 
nt in other dialects, and, in the same 
*, in the dialects of the Samoans and 
‘ha, 
Ae 2 y San A by 
