CHAPTER III. 
GRAMMAR OF ISOLATING SPEECH. 
It is manifest that the comminution of English speech before it 
becomes Beach-la-mar is chargeable to the English themselves. The 
study of the accompanying vocabulary will show that the islanders 
have scarcely ventured upon so slight a modification as mispronun- 
ciation of the material communicated to them, even conquering in 
their effort toward accuracy grave phonetic difficulties. In this con- 
nection it should be noted that a rough comprehension of such 
phonetic difficulties, or rather a dim recognition that phonetic diffi- 
culties existed, has to a certain extent conditioned the selection of 
material for the jargon. Any English word which on experiment 
proved impracticable to the islanders has undergone alteration to 
bring it within the scope of their familiar range of sounds or has been 
rejected for some facile synonym. 
A more minute examination of the vocabulary than is worth while 
in this paper will show that the concessions in speech material made 
on phonetic grounds are found most markedly in the case of words 
dependent for the accuracy of their pronunciation on a fine differen- 
tiation of the labials. ‘This falls into line with what I have been 
at pains elsewhere to establish, namely that in the languages of the 
Pacific the facility of the lips as speech organs is as yet most imper- 
fectly acquired.* 
Having accepted from the foreigner this accumulation of new 
vocables, just as ages ago in the sweep of the great Proto-Samoan 
migration of the Polynesian race the Melanesians acquired similarly 
a supply of loan material, these islanders have subjected the new 
fund of speech units to the regime of their own speech. 
For this reason we should engage on a summary survey of the 
principles of Melanesian speech. 
We are yet far too little acquainted with the many and diverse 
languages of Melanesia to feel warranted in using the term Melane- 
sian speech as in the least implying that there is now, or by analysis 
and comparison may be at all established, such a thing as one parent 
of the languages to be met with between the Papuans of New Guinea 
and the empty sea to the south of the Isle of Pines at the lower tip of 
New Caledonia. Infact Iam expectant that future research directed 
upon data more complete than are at present accessible will show the 
existence of at least two, perhaps three, distinct speech families within 
this large area of oceanic land. 
*The Polynesian Wanderings,’’ 332. 
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