42 
PRESTON. 
of these embraces distinct branches, having close affinities 
with one another. For example, the Polynesian includes 
the language of Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Marquesas, and Tahiti. 
The Micronesian comprises the Gilbert, Marshall, and Caro¬ 
line islands; and so on through all the members of the family, 
ending with Madagascar, which is the center and type of 
the Malagasy group. When we consider that this vast ter¬ 
ritory of speech, from America on the east to Africa on the 
west, with its families, groups, branches, and dialects almost 
numberless, has been reduced to a permanent and philo¬ 
sophical system of syntax, we do not wonder that one of the 
most profound students of comparative philology refers to 
the achievement as a discovery of the greatest importance. 
Dispersion of Terms .—Before passing to an analysis of Ha¬ 
waiian speech, one word on the theory of dispersion. It is 
admitted that all the Oceanic languages were derived from 
one very ancient tongue, now lost. The Malagasy has felt 
the influence of the Arabic, and the Malay shows unmistak¬ 
able contact with the Sanskrit; yet the great tidal wave of 
emigration, which was ever from west to east in the Pacific, 
swept on and preserved intact the structural features of the 
original form. The theory that each dialect has an indig¬ 
enous base, and that words common to all were introduced 
through commercial intercourse, is entirely inadequate. In 
the first place, the connection was far too slight to produce 
the effect mentioned, and in the next place the common words 
are not those ingrafted and absorbed by intercourse, but are 
such as are in every known language—the oldest and the 
commonest. When the Normans came to England they in¬ 
troduced many words; but they could not displace those 
simple names of natural objects as sun, moon, etc., nor those 
indicating intimate family relations, such as father, mother, 
brother, sister—terms always dear to the heart of humanity 
and jealously guarded against foreign intrusion and corrup¬ 
tion. Just so in the Pacific. The words common to all 
branches of the group are those which from the very nature 
of things must have been in use from time immemorial. 
