LANGUAGE. 
375 
natives use the h and reject the r. The Hervey Island 
dialect is widely used, and most closely resembles that of 
the Maori. The Melanesian races differ from the Polynesian 
by terminating their words with consonants ; their languages 
may be said to be quite distinct from those of the latter,* 
which are more or less closely allied. 
In Samoa na is a particle, marking the imp tense, it is 
also a pronoun, standing for he, she, this, that, or those, 
and a verb signifying to hush or quiet a child, to conceal or 
deny, and a a may mean the fibres of a root, as aha in 
Maori, with the addition of the breath or slight aspirate, a a 
means the husk of a cocoa nut, and a species of fish, so in 
Maori, awa is a fresh water fish, and also an exclamation of 
disappointment. 
One of the peculiarities of the Maori is the re-duplication 
of words, this seems to be done to express number ; the 
doubling of a word makes it a noun of multitude, it con- 
tinues action and increases force. 
Patu is to strike ; papatu is to strike frequently. 
Kino bad, kikino very bad. 
Haere to go, haerere walk about. 
Pai good, papai very good. 
Huti to pluck up, huhuti perfectly to do so. 
Tika straight, titika perfectly so. 
Waka a canoe, hollow, wakawaka fluted. 
The influx of a foreign element may cause many of these 
alterations. When the English began to colonize New 
Zealand they gave a proof how difficult it is to lay aside the 
characteristic idiom of their native tongue, and thus began 
with introducing their own pronunciation of Maori ; for the 
sweet sounding word Wairarapa, the name of a district, sub- 
stituting that of Widderup, and for Waingongoro that of 
Wan-gong-gorah, the chief Pauparaha was changed into 
Raw-bullah, the Maori tongue has the Tig, and h, which 
are wanting in Tahaiti, thus the word tangata, man, is 
there ta a ta, and in the Sandwich Islands Hawaiki is Ha- 
* Cruise of the Fazmi. 
