162 LINGUISTICS IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC. 
7. PASSIVE FORMS. 
In Melanesia no passives are found, whereas all the Polynesian 
languages have regular passive endings to their verbs. In a pamphlet 
entitled ‘Certain suffixes in Oceanic languages”? the present writer 
has shown that these passive suffixes are composed of adjectival suf- 
fixes (na, ina, a) added to transitive suffixes. 
CERTAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE FORMS OF SPEECH. 
From the following note, supplied by Mr. Ray, it will be seen how 
great is the difference between the Polynesian and the Melanesian 
forms of speech and the Papuan or non-Melanesian of New Guinea. 
In the Papuan languages: Nouns and pronouns are defined by means 
of suffixed particles, e. gy “my hand” Is not “hand my,” as in Mela- 
nesia, but * me of hand”’; “bird’s wing”’ is not “wing of bird”’ or » bird 
its wing,” as in the Melanesian examples above, but “bird of wing.’ 
Similarly, nouns have various case suffixes instead of prepositions: 
house-to, house-of, house-at, house-from. 
Adjectives usually precede the noun. 
Tenses of the verb are expressed by means of suffixes, not as in 
Melanesia or Polynesia by a variation in a preceding particle. 
Number and person in the verb are expressed by: (a) a prefix, (0) 
a change in the suffix, or (c) shown only by the pronoun. 
Number and person of the subject or object are indicated sometimes 
by a compound prefix. 
METHOD OF LEARNING A MELANESIAN LANGUAGE. 
To learn Mota is easy enough, since both a dictionary and a grammar 
have been compiled by Dr. Codrington. Ulawa and Sa‘a are the only 
other languages in the sphere of the Melanesian Mission which have 
full grammars, and probably they are thus the easiest to learn after 
Mota, since good material exists for study in the shape of translations, 
etc. In learning any of these three languages, which may be regarded 
as typical Melanesian languages, the special points to be studied are: 
PRONOUNS. 
The personal pronouns should be written out and learned by heart; 
the inclusive and exclusive forms should be carefully noted in the first 
person plural. It is quite easy to make a blunder over these forms and 
to say, ¢. g., inina in Mota for ikamam, and the story is told of a 
certain missionary who on describing his experiences in England to a 
class at Norfolk Island kept on saying inina when he meant either 
ikamam or possibly ikara, 1. e., presumably, his wife and himself. His 
hearers protested sotto voce, inina tagai amaia “we were not with him.” 
The suffixed pronouns and their uses must be carefully studied. 
