A BRIEF GRAMMAR OF SA‘A AND ULAWA. 
THE ALPHABET. 
No letters are used in this dictionary with arbitrarily assigned values. 
In all the books printed in the two languages for the use of native 
readers two italic letters are used, and m; 1 is printed for ng the palatal 
nasal to which n frequently mutates, and m is printed for mw which 
represents a lightly vocalizedm. In this grammar and in the dictionary 
these two letters are given in full as ng and mw which are to be under- 
stood as representing those sounds of which the value has hitherto been 
represented in Sa‘a and Ulawa texts by the italic letters n and m. 
The vowels are a, e, i, 0, u, with the Italian sounds. All of these 
vowels may be long or short, the long sound being represented by 
doubling the vowel. Both Sa‘a and Ulawa are fond of vowel sounds; 
many words consist only of vowels. The habit of dropping certain 
consonants is largely responsible for this excess of vowel sounds. 
Closed syllables do not exist and every word ends with a vowel. 
In Sa‘a the vowel a in certain words changes to e when 7 or u or the 
verbal particle ko precedes it; the vowel following this a is always 
either 7 or u, this a is marked in the grammar and in the dictionary by 
the employment of the dieresis, 4. In many words where the differ- 
ence between the Sa‘a and Ulawa forms consists only of the change of 
this 4 to e the Sa‘a form is the only one recorded. ‘This change of 
vowel is known to the people of Ulawa, but they are not so careful 
about its observance as are the people of Sa‘a; in certain words they 
change 4 to e where there is no preceding i or u, thus mdi hither, Sa‘a 
po‘o mdi on this side, Ulawa po‘o mei. The change of vowel may be 
made in Ulawa at the beginning of a word, but the genius of the lan- 
guage is to refuse to make it at the end of the word; U. hanua village, 
1 henua in the village, S. 1 henue, but in Ulawa the addition of the 
demonstrative i causes the final a to change to ¢, 1 henueni in that 
village. The sufixed pronouns du of the first singular and 4 of the third 
singular change in Sa‘a to eu and ¢ respectively after 2 or u, but Ulawa 
does not observe this rule. In some words where Sa‘a changes final ¢ 
to a Ulawa keeps to ¢; nike mother, S. nikana his mother, U. nikena. 
The diphthongs are ae, ai, ao, au, ei, ou, as in sae, mat, hao, rau, mei, 
hou, pronounced respectively as in the English words eye, iron, hour, 
how, hey, oh. 
The consonants are h; k; d, t; p, q3 w; 1, r; s; m, mw, n, ng. 
The k is hard and there is no g; where the Melanesian g occurs in 
other languages, there is a decided break in the pronunciation of the 
cognate word in Sa‘a and Ulawa; e. g., Mota iga fish, Sa‘a 2°e, Ulawa 1°a. 
Note.—This grammar has been compiled from the larger separate grammars published by 
the present writer. 
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