The Oceanic Languages Shemitic : a Discovery. 265 



const., fit or vit (always in const, in Ef., as fitina, his 

 side ; fiti natamol, side of man). Now, this form was not 

 only const., but const, fern., and exhibits in Ef. all the 

 original changes of case and gender, and, it may be added, 

 of number, for this is the common, the universal Oc. word 

 denoting four, Ef., bat, pat — i.e., literally and originally, as 

 will be explained under the numerals, sides or quarters, of 

 which there are four, hence four. It is the plural of pah, 

 a side or quarter. I could give other examples, and hun- 

 dreds of such relics are waiting to reward the diligent 

 student of Sh.-Oc. There is a peculiar redundant Syr. 

 idiom found in Oc. Thus (Acts iv. 35) " apostles' feet," 

 literally, feet of them the apostles. So (John xviii. 10), " his 

 ear the right." Ef., talingena ni matua, his ear the right, is 

 exactly analogous. This idiom is common in Fiji and 

 Madagascar. Corresponding to Syr., Ch., cl, Assy., s, signs of 

 genitive, we have Ef. and Mg., ny, ni.; Java, ne, &c, &c, all 

 of which Sh. and Oc. are to be found in §1. I need not 

 say that in both Sh. and Oc. the relative pronouns were 

 originally demonstratives. 



3. In Oc. we have nouns of the type of Heb., ab, Ef., ava, 

 ab ; formed from verbs by a change of vowel, as in Sh., thus 

 --Ef., bes, a prey from bass, to snatch, like Heb. biz from 

 bazz, Ef., tiko, a pole (thrusting), from taka, to thrust, &c, 

 &c.; and formed from verbs, as in Sh., by attaching particles, 

 thus — Ef., moru, Heb., ma'rah, a hole, is formed from the 

 verb by prefixing the demonstrative m (§1) ; so Ef., mwit, 

 Heb., ma'teh, a covering. Usually Ef. and Mg. prefer ni, 

 ny, and My., ka, to m. A kind of verbal noun is formed 

 universally in Ef., Tannese, My., and Mg., by suffixing n to 

 the verb : the n in Heb., korbaw, an offering, is the same n 

 used in the same way. 



§8. The Verb. The late Bishop Patteson thought 

 that the Oc. tense usages threw light upon the perplexed 

 subject of the Sh. usage, and wrote a book on the subject, 

 which I have not seen. To express the tenses in Ef. auxili- 

 ary verbs are used. This usage had already become common 

 in Ch. and Syriac, the verb substantive, future or preterite, 

 with the participle of any verb, denoting the future or 

 past tense. In Ef. the verb to be is ba or bi, fa, fi, future 

 wo, fo, or o; An., pu; Mg., hi or ho; Heb., havah; Ch., id.; and 

 the Syr. often dropped the initial h. The Ef. wo is used 

 before a verb to denote the future exactly as the Syr. ' wu — 



