Since these vocabularies were laid before the Society, a "Journal of
a Cruise among the Islands of the Western Pacific," by Capt. J. E.
Erskine, R, N., has been published. This shows the sources of the
preceding lists; since the bishop of New Zealand accompanied the
expedition, and succeeded in taking back with him, on his return; some
youths for the purposes of education.
The class to which these vocabularies belong has never been,
sufficiently for the purposes of publication, reduced to writing, nor
is any member of it known to scholars in general, in respect to its
grammatical structure. This, however, will probably not be the case
much longer, since Capt. Erskine has placed the materials for the study
of the Aneitum (Annatom) language in the hands of Mr. Norriss, who
is prepared for its investigation. Neither has the class been wholly
neglected. A grammar of the Tanna (an allied language) was drawn up by
Mr. Heath, but it has not been published, and is probably lost. Dr.
Pritchard, who had seen extracts from it, writes, that it contained a
_trinal_ as well as a _singular_, a _dual_, and a _plural_ number. The
present list elucidates this. The _trinal_ number (so-called) of the
Mallicolo is merely the personal pronoun _plus_ the numeral 3; each
element being so modified as to give the appearance of an inflection.
The following tables exhibit the numerals of certain other islands
in the neighbourhood. They are taken from Captain Erskine's work, in
which reference is made to a "Description of the Islands in the Western
Pacific Ocean, by A. Cheyne." This has not been examined by the present
writer.
ISLE OF
ENG. TANA. FOTUNA[29]. PINES. UEA.
_one_ li-ti ta-si ta tahi
_two_ ka-ru rua vo lua
_three_ ka-har lo:u ve-ti lolu
_four_ ke-fa fa beu fa
_five_ ka-rirum rima ta-hue lima
_six_ liti (?) ono no-ta tahi
_seven_ ka-ru (?) fitu no-bo lua
_eight_ ka-han (?) varu no-beti tolu
_nine_ ke-fa (?) iva no-beu fa
_ten_ ka-rirum? tanga-fieru de-kau lima