APPENDIX. No. I. A GRAMMAR OF THE TONGA LANGUAGE. A LANGUAGE which is only spoken by a nation ignorant of every principle of grammatical construction, and possessing not the least knowledge, nor the most remote idea, either in theory or practice, of the art of writing, cannot be supposed to be richly endowed with variety of words, choice of expression, or clear and accurate definitions, except of those ideas which are in common use. The rules by which it is spoken, and which can have no other security or foundation but in the constant habit of those who speak it, are nevertheless sufficiently well established; and if we could but readily and for a time emancipate our minds from a sense of the nicer grammatical distinctions in our own languages, it is presumed that the Tonga dialect, and perhaps others of the same class, would be found very simple and easy to be attained. But, as it is, the wide differences of our own habits of speech, will give it the appearance of a language replete with idioms, and abounding in circumlocutions. The orthography of this language, from Mr Mariner's pronunciation, I have settled according to the following rules: First, in respect to the vowels, A is always pronounced as in the English words, tar, car, papa; or in the French article la, except when two consonants follow, when its sound is much less open, approaching very near to the a, in man, can, began. E, like the English a, in ray, say, day, or the French accented é in accablé ordonné; except where a double consonant follows, or tch, then it is sounded as in men, ten, den. I, like the English e, in see, we, be, or i, as it is pronounced in most European languages, except before a double consonant, in which case it is pronounced as in ink, sing. O, as the long English o, in mole, roll, dole; but short before a double consonant. U, like the sound of the English word you, or ew in few, except before a double consonant, then it is short, as in luck, tuck, suck. Y, like the English i, in sigh, die, white; or the German ei, in mein, sein; but somewhat more short and sudden, perhaps rather like the English y in ally, apply. The same sound, when long, is expressed by the following diphthong: AI, like the long English i, in dine, mine, whine. It is a true diphthong, generated from the coalition of a and i, as above defined; the first being heavy, the second light. AO. This is a sound distinctly of two syllables, the a and the o being pronounced as defined in their respective places. AOO. This is a word of two syllables, the a and the oo being pronounced as defined in their places. AU. This is a word of one syllable, pronounced like ow (which see below), but somewhat longer, and yet in such a way as not to run into two syllables like doo, (which see above). Thus these four sounds, viz. ao, aoo, au, and ow, are very nearly similar, except to a good ear; and yet it is necessary they should be thus distinguished, for three of them are words of very different meanings, aoo, a cloud; au, the personal pronoun I, and ow, the possessive pronoun, thy. The same may be said of fao, a peg; faoo, load; and fow, a turban: also, tao, spear; taoo, to cook victuals under ground, and tow, war. AW, as in law, saw, paw. OW, as in how, allow, now. When the w is preceded by a oro, it must be joined in sound with it, not with any vowel or aspirate that may follow; as, fawha is to be pronounced faw-ha, not faw-wha; for in point of fact, the w is not in such instances a separate letter, it only serves to give a peculiar sound, as above defined, to the a or the o. Ow is to be pronounced short, else it will run into the sound of аи, which see above. OY, as in the English words, toy, coy, &c. OO, like the Italian or Spanish u, or like oo in tool, cool, &c, unless one of them be marked thus, ö, in which case they are pronounced distinctly. When oo is accented, the accent is uniformly upon the latter, thus oó. When three o's come together, the two which are not marked thus, ö, constitute the diphthong; or if the first of the three is accented thus, 600, the two latter are the diphthong. As to the consonants, the following only need be particularly mentioned. Bis sounded between the band p, but it has more the sound of the b. C, before a and o, is hard, and partakes in like manner of a little of the sound of the hard g. It never occurs before e and i. To express the sound of the soft c, the letters is always used. el 11 i D. The sound of this letter is scarcely known in the Tonga language. There is, indeed, a sound approaching to it, but it is only the careless conversational way of pronouncing the t. G. This letter is always hard, as in game, gill (of a fish), begin, &c. Wherever the sound of the English soft g occurs, j is always used to express it. J. This letter has not, however, exactly the sound of the English j, but between j and %, so that if the j in our English word jest were thus pronounced, it would sound between jest and zest, and not very much unlike chest. CH, is always sounded as in the English words choose, change, chair, &c. ER. The r is never pronounced strongly. When it follows e it is scarcely sounded, giving merely a power to the e similar Pato what it has in the French words, le, me, te NG, as in the words among, song, wrong. But this sound is not to be intimately joined with the following vowel. For instance, Tonga is not to be pronounced Tóng-ga, as the English reader is apt to do, but thus, Tong-a. Gn. Here the g is not sounded strongly, but somewhat more so than in the word gnomon. Upon the subject of accentuation, I must observe, as a general rule (to avoid the too frequent and unnecessary use of typographical accents), that in words of two syllables the emphasis is to be laid on the first; in words of three syllables, it is to be placed on the middle one; and in words of four syllables, on the first and third. In all exceptions to this rule, and in some of those instances where vowels themselves form syllables, typographical accents will be placed accordingly. It is to be noticed, that in words of three syllables, when the first only is açcented, that the two others are light ones, and that the accent is always put upon the vowel of the emphatic syllable. The Tonga language may be divided, like most others, into eight or nine parts of speech, and if nicer distinctions could aid in rendering the subject more clear, two or three might be added. But we apprehend that the usual number will be found quite as many as will suffice for our purpose: and as these are not always properly defined, the noun, adjective, verb, and participle, being often one and the same word, distinguished only |