Thomson.— Wiejzce of the Maori. 



xli 



Maori. 

 Adjectives and verbs are modified, both 

 in form and meaning, by the reduphcation 

 of one or both of the syllables of the root. 

 An adjective with the first syllable of the 

 root donbled becomes plural, thus he ralcau 

 pai — a good tree ; he rahau pai pai — good 

 trees. It is to be observed, however, that 

 the simple form is used both as singular and 

 plural. 



The effect of doubling both syllables of 

 the root is to diminish the intensity of the 

 meaning of the adjective, thus : mate — sick ; 

 mate mate, sickly. 



In the case of verbs, the effect of the two 

 kinds of reduplication is somewhat differ- 

 ent. Thus, kimo denotes winking of the 

 eyes ; kikimo — closed and kept so ; kimo 

 kimo, frequent winking. 



Nouns and adjectives and verbs may all 

 have a prefix — ivhaka or ivha — the effect of 

 which is to make a causal verb ; thus 

 lohakatangata signifies to make a man or 

 trea,t as a man ; ivhakanoho — to cause to sit ; 

 whakamohio — to cause to know. 



The usual passive terminations of verbs 

 are a, ia, hia, kia, mia, ngia, ria, tia, whia, 

 na, ina, and whina. Thus 



Poro becomes jJoroM 

 Waru ,, toaruhia 

 Horo , , horomia 



Intransitive, as well as transitive, verbs 

 have a passive voice requiring the addition 

 of a preposition in English to make the 

 sense complete. Thus : noho — sit ; nohia — 

 be sat upon. 



Nouns of circumstance are derived from 

 adjectives, participles, or verbs by the fol- 

 lowing suffixes : — Nga, anga, hanqa, manga, 

 ranga, tanga, inga, the choice of termina- 

 tion being somewhat arbitrary. Thus : 

 Mahi makes mahinga 

 Noho ,, nohoanga 

 Titiro ,, tirohanga 



Numerals have certain prefixes — e, ko, 

 toko, hoko, and taki. 



Passive verbs sometimes have the suffix 

 tanga. The force of the same is difficult to 

 determine, sometimes having the same 

 effect as ana, thus : hiko tomi, ia ki nga nga- 

 rehii, apuatanga — he immediately snatched 

 up the burning coals, and crammed them 

 into his mouth. 



The syllable nge is sometimes prefixed to 

 personal or possessive pronouns, as nge-au, 

 nge-ona; and sometimes it appears as a 

 suffix to the adverbs pea and koa, thus : 

 peange, koange, but not affecting the mean- 

 ing thereof. 



Well-known words may sometimes be 

 met with in such a disguise that it is diffi- 

 cult, at first sight, to recognise them at all. 



Malay. 

 Reduplication of adverbs, noitns, and 

 verbs has an intensitive as well as a mul- 

 tijDle effect ; the doubling of an adjec- 

 tive does not pluralise the noun, but the 

 doubling of the noun itself does so, as 

 sa poke hai — a good tree ; poko poko hai 

 — good trees. Also the simple form with- 

 out the article prefixed may be singular or 

 plural. 



The effect of doubling the syllables of the 

 root is to intensify the meaning of the 

 adjective, as sakit, sick ; sakit sakit, very 

 sick. 



Here kejap signifies to wink ; kejap 

 kejap — to wink continuously ; but tutup 

 mata signifies to 61ose the eyes. 



Here the prefixes hekan or boat are used 

 in nearly a similar manner, as iekan hetul 

 — straighten ; loat gila — pretend madness. 



Verbs, active or passive, have properly 

 no inflections, and are expressed as fol- 

 lows : — 



Habes becomes habes ulih ku 

 Chukur , , chukur ulih ku 

 Anchor ,, anchor ulih nia 



Here the distinctions are made as fol- 

 lows : hunoJi — to kill ; ter hunoh — to be 

 killed ; the passive voice being here ren- 

 dered by a prefix. 



Here the same principle is carried out by 

 the suffix an. Thus : 



Kreja makes kreja-an 

 Dudu , , dudu-ati 

 Tingo ,, tingo-an 



Numerals have no prefixes. 



Expression by passive verbs is very com- 

 mon in the written language, the prepo- 

 sition ulih being used after the verb. Thus : 

 Arang herniala sahintur de sintak ulih nia 

 dan masokan mulut nia — burning charcoal 

 was immediately snatched by him, and 

 crammed into his mouth. 



Here it does not have an equivalent. 



In the search for camphor the Malays 

 disguise the words by inversion, in order to 

 j)ropitiate the hautus, or spirits, whose 



6 



