DIALECTS OF THE PACIFIC.

WHILE voyaging, and as other opportunities offered, I have collected specimens of the dialects spoken in the Pacific. The following, from my jottings and vocabularies, may be of use to many who are interested in the study of ethnology. (See APPENDIX, One Hundred and Thirty-Two Words in Fifty-Nine Polynesian Dialects.)

IN the pronunciation of native words observe the prevailing Continental sounds of the vowels.

The comma which separates some of the vowels represents the break which is peculiar to some of the dialects of Central and Eastern Polynesia, and is a fragment of the te which is common to many of the dialects.

The consonants are as in English.