140 GRAMMAR OF SA‘A AND ULAWA. 
There is no preface of 7 in the sound of d, which holds of all the lan- 
guages of Malaita and is in contrast with the principle of prefacing the 
mutes with the nasal of their proper series which extends in Melanesia 
as far as Fiji. The nearest English equivalent to the sound of d in 
Sa‘a and Ulawa is dr; before 7 d is sounded as ch in church. 
To pronounce the t the tongue is pressed against the teeth and the 
breath forced outward, the teeth being kept fairly close together, then 
the tongue is relaxed and dropped and the breath escapes with an 
explosive sound. Sa‘a often prefers d where Ulawa has t. 
The sound represented by q is pw and p and q are interchangeable in 
certain words, ¢. g., pongi, gongi to promise. In some words Ulawa has 
p where Sa‘a prefers q, ¢. g., U. pito, S. gito sprout. 
The sounds of 1 and r are distinct, and both are trilled. There is a 
change of 1to nin Ulawa, i daluma for 1 danuma in the middle, and Ulawa 
at times has 1 where Sa‘a has r, U. tataloha, S. tataroha news, report. 
In addition to the three nasals ng, n,m there is a variant upon the 
labial nasal, mw a semivocalization of the clearm. The pronunciation 
of the palatal nasal ng is that of ng in sing. 
Beside the loss of the Melanesian g, as shown before, the t, 1, k and 
h are likewise dropped in many words and the loss of the letter is shown 
by a break inthe pronunciation and indicated to the eye by the employ- 
ment of inverted comma ‘; ‘oz to break, FI. gotz; ‘a‘a green parrot, San 
Cr. kaka. ‘This break has not been marked in the books used by the 
natives, but because of its importance in comparison of the languages it 
has been indicated in this dictionary. In the reduplication of verbs 
the inner consonant is often dropped in the former member of the dupli- 
cated form and there is a corresponding break in the pronunciation; 
Florida also drops the inner consonant in reduplication ,but one does 
not hear any such break in the sound as in Sa‘a and Ulaee 
Contractions are common, especially when the locative 7 is used; 
lai for lae 1, ta‘i for ta‘e 1, ke‘i for ke‘u 1, pe‘e for pete, saune for saunie 
kill him. 
ARTICLES. 
Sa‘a_ (a) Demonstrative Sing. nga, me‘1, mi, hoi, hou, hat. 
Plur. mui, mu, mo. 
(b) Personal a. 
Ulawa (a) Demonstrative Sing. nga, mast, hot, hou, hai. 
Plur. mwat, mwa, mo. 
(b) Personal a. 
. In Sa‘a nouns in the singular are used without an article, in Ulawa 
tee is a more frequent use of nga in the singular, and parts of the body 
are preceded by nga, which is not the case in Sa‘a. In Sa‘a nga signi- 
fies a or any and 1s used only inthis sense. ‘This detail is characteristic 
of the language as a whole, Sa‘a is far more particular in its usages and 
is more highly specialized than Ulawa. Nga is used with the inter- 
rogative taa, taha what, with thei U. where, ngaihei who? The nouns 
int §., ile U., both meaning one, are used with nga; ta‘ena ngaini S. 
ta‘ana ngaile U. every one; laa U., a person, is preceded by nga. 
