50 
PRESTON. 
Tense and Case. —The distinctions of time are never so def¬ 
inite as in other languages, the chief attention being centered 
on the accidents of place. The word ana denotes contin¬ 
uance, and may be past, present, or future. Thus e liana 
ana au may mean, I am working, I was working, or I will be 
working, according to the connection. 
Take the relations of case. There are ten. The six cases 
of Latin are well defined, and four of them-—the genitive, 
accusative, vocative, and ablative—each have two shades of 
meaning, for which only one means of expression exists in 
English. Not only this, but one of the subgenitives, the 
aui pili, has two significations for which we have only one. 
This difference is so distinct in the Hawaiian’s mind that the 
distinguishing words are seldom, if ever, used interchange¬ 
ably. In designating the cases, recourse is necessarily had 
to Hawaiian terms, since no European tongue provides suffi¬ 
cient names. The extreme development of the case relation 
is seen by comparison. The English has 4; the Latin, 6; 
the Sanskrit, 8, and the Polynesian, 10. 
The formation of words is one of the interesting phases of 
the language. As in all uncultivated tongues, intensity of 
expression is accomplished by repetition. This may be done 
by doubling a letter, a syllable, or even two syllables, as 
a means to burn, aa to burn hotly; 
naki means to bind, nakiki to bind tightly; 
pulu means wet, pulupulu very wet. 
A noted distinction before referred to in speaking of case 
is made between active and passive relations, as indicated 
by the prepositions a and o. If we refer to the house a man 
built, we use a ; if he simply lives in it, we use o— e. g.: 
ka hale a Keawe means the house that Keawe built; 
ka hale o Keawe means the house that Keawe lives in. 
a is employed in speaking of a man’s wife; o in speaking 
of his maid servant— e. g.: 
ka wahine a Keawe means Keawe’s wife ; 
ka wahine o Keawe means Keawe’s maid servant. 
