LINGUISTICS IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC. 161 
(e) The adjectival prefixes showing condition ma, ta, are almost 
universal in Melanesia, and the dictionaries show them as appearing 
also in Fiji, in Polynesia, in Malagasy, and in the languages of the 
Malay Archipelago, though the grammars of the various languages 
do not recognize them. 
4. NOUNS. 
In the Oceanic languages generally, Malagasy, Malay, Melanesian, 
Polynesian, there is a common practice of forming nouns by the 
addition of certain suffixes: nga, na, an, ana; ha, la, a; and in Mela- 
nesia nouns are formed also by prefixing 7 to the verb; Fiji sele to cut, 
isele a knife. Sa‘a damu to eat areca nut, idemu a lime spatula. The 
only noun sufhx regularly employed in Polynesia is nga, but several 
of the Polynesian languages show examples of verbal nouns formed by 
adding a or fa or Ja to the verb. Melanesia regularly employs all the 
noun suffixes stated above. 
5. ADJECTIVES. 
Melanesia also makes an extensive use of adjectival suffixes; these 
are added both to nouns and verbs. ‘The forms are ga, g, a, ra, la, 
la‘a, li, ta, na, ina. Malagasy has forms in na, ana, ina, but Malay 
shows no sign of them, nor does the Maori of Polynesia. Tongan 
and Samoan both show the use of a as an adjectival suffix and odd 
instances occur in Polynesia of the use of na, and Maori has a few 
instances of a thus used. 
6. GENITIVE. 
The Melanesian languages employ a genitive preposition to convey 
the idea of possession when two nouns are in apposition, ¢. g., Ulawa 
‘apa ni menu wing of bird, or else they suffix the pronoun in the third 
person to the first noun: Ulawa ‘apa‘apana manu its wing bird, 1. ¢., 
bird’s wing. 
The common genitive used throughout Melanesia is 77; in certain 
parts of Melanesia ni changes to Ji and si appears there also as a 
genitive. In Melanesia the juxtaposition of two nouns also conveys 
a genitive force: Sa‘a nime hau house (of) stone, and in certain 
languages a genitive relation is conveyed by modification of the final 
vowel when two nouns are in juxtaposition: Mota ima house, ime 
yui house of the spirit. In Lau, Malaita, Solomons, an e is added to 
the first of two such nouns giving a genitive force: tolo hill, toloe fera 
heights of the land. In the Polynesian languages genitive relation is 
expressed by nouns in apposition or by the use of the possessive as 
above (1), and there is no special genitive preposition. 
The Polynesian languages on their side have a large and varied use 
of prepositions and there is much nicety in the use of them; this is 
partly owing to the distinction in the sense of a and o Aen men- 
tioned, a being used as active and 0 as passive. 
