THE LANGUAGE OF HAWAII. 
47 
another rule of speech in order to satisfy the ear, and couple 
words of opposite genders, while English avoids the difficulty 
by supplying a letter. The methods employed exemplify 
characteristic national traits. The Hawaiian accomplishes 
his purpose in any way that diminishes labor; he therefore 
cuts out rather than introduces. The energy of the Anglo- 
Saxon prompts him to interject something, and the Latins, 
true to their natural instinct, sacrifice symmetry of form to 
euphony of sound. 
The Guttural Break .—Besides the Hawaiian sounds previ¬ 
ously cited there is a guttural break which represents the 
elision of the k in other Polynesian dialects. It is indicated 
by a comma, just as the circumflex accent in French indi¬ 
cates the suppression of a letter or syllable in earlier forms. 
This break is an essential part of the word, and a disregard 
of it completely changes the meaning. For example, ao 
means light, a’o means to teach ; ia means he, Ta means fish. 
There are many examples of this in the language. 
As we pass from Sanskrit to Gothic, and on to high Ger¬ 
man, a regular mutation in the appearance of certain con¬ 
sonants is found. No less evident than this law of Grimm 
is the change of Polynesian sounds, and, although neither 
rule is infallible, both are useful in tracing certain paths of 
development. 
The l in Samoan becomes r in New Zealand and returns 
to the original letter in Hawaii. The p in Samoan is b in 
Tongan, and is again p in Hawaii; v in Samoan is w in New 
Zealand, but remains w in Hawaii. The k in New Zealand is 
replaced by the guttural break in Tahiti and Hawaii. The 
vowels, however, undergo fewer changes than the consonants. 
Meanings of aa .—The definition of words by context neces¬ 
sarily finds wide application in the stage of development 
now reached by the language of Hawaii. The sound indi¬ 
cated by the letter a is probably the most common in the 
entire range of articulation. Standing alone, it has, like many 
others, a variety of meanings; but doubled, it answers to 
nearly thirty significations, many of them of the most diverse 
