313 



I only had an oppoi'tunity of conversing with two or three old men, who did 

 not seem to know much, and referred me to others who, they said, could 

 give me a great deal of information respecting their early history, and could 

 count back more generations than the New Zealanders. 



I think that very much remains to be collected concerning this most 

 interesting race, which is rapidly becoming extinct. 



[Mr. W. L. BuUer, F.L.S., who visited the Chatham Islands in 1855, 

 informs me that the author has omitted all reference to an important circum- 

 stance connected with the conquest of the early Maiorioris, and accounting in 

 some measure for the rapid extinction of the race, the particulars of which 

 will be found recorded in a pamphlet published by Dr. DieiFenbach, which is 

 now very rare. — Ed.] 



Aet. LIX. — On the Analogy between the Maori and Indo-European Languages. 



By Edwik Fairburn. 



(abstract.) 



[Read before the Aucldand Institute, October 10, 1870.] 



The present j)aper will consist chiefly of a comparison of words. Before 

 proceeding, I woiild, however, point out certain resemblances of grammatical 

 structure which the Maori bears to the Indo-European languages. 



1st. The resemblance of the Maori definite and indefinite articles respec- 

 tively to the English, as he = a, te=^ the. Also, of particles forming cases, as 

 o and a = of, identical with o and «, the Old English form of of ; also, the 

 particle ho (interchangeable with to) sometimes used in Maori for the dative to. 



2nd. The formation of substantives from verbs in Maori by the addition of 

 nga, hanga, tanga, ranga, etc., resembling the English ing and German ung, 

 by which the same process is efi"ected in the same manner. 



3rd. The formation of the present participle by the addition of ana to the 

 verb, resembling the Sanskrit ana of the middle voice, the Latin ans, and the 

 English ing, etc., applied similarly to form the present participle. 



4th. The superlative is formed in Maori by prefixing tino, " very, exceeding," 

 to the adjective ; in Latin by affixing timu, in Zend tema, and in Sanskrit tama. 



5 th. In most Maori verbs the perfect tense coincides with the imperative 

 and passive, which last two are always identical ; but when the perfect does 

 not so coincide, it is formed by a reduplication of the first syllable, as — 

 imperative, taari-a, '■'■ loait ;" perfect, kuatatdriia, "Ae has loaited f resembling 

 a similar reduplication in the Greek and Sanskrit perfects. 



In the preceding example, the particle kua helps to form the perfect. 

 German has a similar particle, ge, prefixed to form the perfect. 



2s 



