These, it is presumed, will be found sufficient to give the reader a just idea of the nature and genius of the Tonga language; and will sufficiently enable him to compare it with others, to which it may be supposed to have some affinity; as the Malay, for instance, or hereafter, perhaps, with those of the Fiji, the Sandwich, and the Society Islands; of each of which places we ought, in a few years, to have some better account than we have hitherto had; for there are English and American people who have been resident at those several clusters of islands for a number of years, and, of course, ought to be perfectly acquainted with the customs, and tolerably well versed in their language. There is no doubt but the farther inquiry is carried into the history of the South Seas, the more clearly it will appear that a very strong relationship exists between the natives of the different islands, notwithstanding the distance of their geographical situations. Affinities between their several languages have been already shown by Cook and other navigators, but under a very disadvantageous circumstance, the want of a free communication of ideas; in consequence of which many wrong words have been given; thus, lille is the Tonga word for good, but Cook gives my fogge (my foki), which means, give it me if you please: for a bead he gives, attahoa, which should be cahooa: he gives koooma (co-ooma) for the burnt circular marks in the skin; but this word means why? for what? whilst the proper word for those marks is lafa. For to sneeze, he gives efango (fafango), signifying, to blow the nose; the word for sneezing being mafatooa: for the head, ooloo pokko (oolooboco), which means the skull: for the number 100,000 he gives laoo noa flow-noa), which literally means nonsense, or foolish discourse! From at least fifty to a hundred other instances of this, out of the same Vocabulary might be quoted, and the same with Labillardiere's Vocabulary, of which, indeed, we have already noticed a few remarkable instances.

With respect to the Malayan language, Mr Mariner has, with great diligence and attention, looked over the whole of the English part of Marsden's Malayan Dictionary, and has selected the following list of above sixty words, which bear a considerable resemblance to the corresponding Tonga words. It is here very worthy of remark, that those Tonga words which contain the sound of the letter f, have in its pace the letter por b in the Malayan and the above author notices, in his Preface to the same excellent work, that the Malays not having the sound ƒ in their own language, generally substitute p for it in those adopted Arabic words where it occurs. •

:

* The transition from the f to the p, is perhaps more natural

than may at first sight appear.

louse

milk; also the breast
misfortune

to mix mosquito

the nipple of the breast

old

ordure

to choose

yams

to spring or grow up, as plants shaggy, hairy

shame-faced

Some nations confound the f with the v; others the v with the b, and others again the b with the p. The Germans make little or no distinction between the sounds off and v: the Spaniards have an intermediate sound of v and b, and the Tonga people of b and p. The word for land or country, is sounded by the Tonga people fonnooa; the word for the same idea among some of the Fiji people is vonnooa, whilst others of the same nation pronounce the first letter like the Spanish sound between v and b, and others again distinctly call it bonnooa, from which the transition to ponnooa would evi dently be very easy. In searching for analogies between the languages of the South Pacific Ocean, as they regard each other, and as they may have a relation to those of the Asiatic nations, it seems necessary to pay particular attention not only to the mutations of sound above noticed, but also to those between the 7 and 7, the h and s, the hard g, k, and t, and probably some others: without such attention the eye and ear may be easily deceived, and overlook some very strong coincidences. My authority for the Fiji pronunciation above given, is Jeremiah Higgins, who was at those islands thirteen weeks.

The following are nearly alike in sound, but have some little shade of difference in their meaning.

A

VOCABULARY,

TONGA AND ENGLISH.

(For the Rules of Pronunciation, see the Grammar.}

Amoochia. See Hamoochia.
Ana. A cavern; a ship's cabin.

His own it can only

be used in composition with angi, to give to him, as angi ia ma ana, give it to him, or literally, give it for his own. Anga. A shark.

Place or situation of

A'nibó. [forcibly. Anife.

To snatch, to pluck