MELANESIAN ANNOTATIONS ON THE VOCABULARY. 41 
The sense diversity herein involved, though not particularized in 
this series of variant forms, has been sufficiently discussed in ‘‘The 
Polynesian Wanderings” and in ‘“‘Subanu.’” We sum the conclusions 
there set forth in the statement that in Polynesian culture the stem 
may signify the mold, the land in which one lives, the whole round 
world. In Melanesia it may signify place in general, then island (as 
in the Polynesian Kapingamarangi), village, last of all house, as here 
in the Sissano. The specification in this definition of the usage in 
Sissano is employed to set the family house off against the more 
dignified houses of the men’s society and the so-called spirit houses. 
Friederici disclaims any purpose of establishing for the degradation 
forms found in New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago the devo- 
lution from the fanua type; yet in my judgment a very satisfactory 
descending series is manifest in the foregoing ordering of the material. 
This we shall examine through the Melanesian area in the light of such 
suggestion as may be deduced from the history of the word in the mod- 
ern Polynesian tongues. There we see in operation a double set of 
modifications. 
We have already established as fact that the more permanent 
element of any Polynesian vocable inheres in its vowel skeleton; that 
the play of mutation most variously affects the consonantal element. 
We shall, accordingly, give our first consideration to the less fixed 
consonants of the stem. We shall find in the Polynesian forms a nor- 
mal diagram of the word which may be presented to view in the formula 
labial ++ vowel + nua, in which the final element is fixed and under- 
goes no change. We have had occasion to establish the fact that in 
this family of languages the labials are of all consonants the most sub- 
ject to mutation and have offered in explanation of this phenomenon 
the hypothesis that this mutability lies in the fact that the speakers 
of the languages in question have not yet far advanced upon the con- 
trol of the lips as speech organs to be employed with fine precision. 
The strongest form of this initial labial is the spirant; sonant spirant 
v is found only in Viti vanua and is there associated with the a type 
of the mutant vowel; surd spirant f appears in the three forms fanua, 
fenua, fonua, associated with each of the three types of the mutant 
vowel. From this strong labial position the next step in mutation is 
upward in the series, that is, toward the weaker quality, arriving at 
the aspiration; here also we find in use the three vowel types in the 
forms hanua, henua, honua. The next step is a weakening to the 
semivowel proximate to the lingual series, w as still affected by the 
aspiration, hw, in the Maori whenua. ‘The final step is to the oblit- 
eration of the initial consonant, as in enua. “The vowel mutation we 
have just shown to extend in the series a-e-o, and this mutation 
seems not to be conditioned by any change in the mutant labial which 
precedes the vowel. 
