I.—Introduction. 
Geographical Limits of Languages Considered. —The establish¬ 
ment of the Oceanic family of speech has been characterized 
by Max Mhller as one of the most brilliant discoveries in the 
science of language. Both on account of the wide geograph¬ 
ical limits involved and the scanty basis of comparison, a 
study of these groups is beset with difficulties. Think of the 
immense space and time separating the localities and occur¬ 
rences. From New Zealand on the south to Formosa on the 
north; from Easter island on the east to Madagascar on the 
west, covering a territory of 208° of longitude and 88° of lati¬ 
tude—nearly one-fourth the habitable surface of the globe— 
we find a root language governed by the same grammatical 
system and pervaded by the same modes of thought. We 
shall have occasion later to point out certain peculiarities 
which are common to all the Oceanic languages, but which 
are radically distinct from any branch of the Indo-European 
family, showing that Oceanic speech, in the great struggle 
of the race to acquire an instrument of analysis, has been de¬ 
veloped from a fundamental, separate type, and in its origin 
had nothing in common with the stock to which European 
tongues are referred. Between some of the islands there has 
been no contact for thousands of years; yet their linguistic 
connection is unmistakable and everything points to deriva¬ 
tion from a common source. They have the same customs 
and mythology; the laws of euphony regulating the change 
from one consonant to another are fixed and uniform; the 
mold into which sentences are cast, the coordination of 
phrases, the mutual dependence of ideas, all reflect the 
thought habits of an identical race. 
Classification of Oceanic Languages. —The Hawaiian is one 
branch of the Polynesian group of the great Oceanic family. 
An analysis of the structure shows that six groups can be 
logically defined, namely, the Polynesian, Micronesian, 
Papuan, Australian, Malayan, and the Malagasy. Each one 
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