36 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
ent, that a distinct character is essential. The first 
sound is often a distinct word, and frequently marks the 
future tense of the verb, while the second sound distin¬ 
guishes the past, and is also a distinct word. These 
two sounds often occur together, forming two distinct 
syllables, as in the interrogation e-a ? what ? and the 
word he-a, to call. In the English language, two let¬ 
ters, called double vowels, are used to lengthen the 
same sound, as ee in thee, or to express one totally dif¬ 
ferent, as oo in pool; but in Hawaiian there is often a 
repetition of the vowel sound, without any intervening 
consonant, or other vowel sound, as in a-a, a bag or 
pocket, e-e, to embark, i-i, a name of a bird, o-o, an 
agricultural instrument; which must be sounded as two 
distinct syllables. Hence when the ee is employed to 
express a lengthened sound of e, as in Owhyhee, and 
oo to signify the sound of u in rule, as in Karakakooa, 
which is generally done by European visitors ; it is not 
possible to express by any signs those native words in 
which the double vowels occur, which are invariably 
two distinct syllables. 
Another cause of the incorrectness of the orthography 
of early voyagers to*these islands, has been a want of 
better acquaintance with the structure of the language, 
which would have prevented their substituting a com¬ 
pound for a single word. This is the case in the words 
Otaheiti, Otaha, and Owhyhee, which ought to be 
Tahiti, Tahaa, and Hawaii. The O is no part of these 
words, but is the sign of the case, denoting it to be the 
nominative answering to the question who or what, 
which would be O wai? The sign of the case being 
prefixed to the interrogation, the answer uniformly 
corresponds, as. 
