Vocabulary of the language of Otaheite, with remarks SYDNEY PARKINSON, Draughtsman to JOSEPH BANKS, Esq. on his late Expedition with Dr. SOLANDER, round the World. (London, 1773).
"REMARKS on the Otaheitean Language.
The language is very soft, having a great number of vowels, diphthongs, and triphthongs. Every word, almost, begins with a vowel, which they most commonly drop.
It is also very metaphorical, as I have observed in many instances; as Matapoa, a person blind of an eye, which literally is Night-eye. Mataavai, the name of the bay we anchored in, literally signifies Watery-eye; which appellation is not unapt from the great quantity of rain which falls in the bay. Tehaia, a woman's name, who being lost when a child, her friends went about, crying Tehai? which means, Where is she? The natives could not repeat, after us, the sounds of the letters, Q, X, and Z, without great difficulty; G, K, and S, they could not pronounce at all. Many of the names of the people of our ship having the G, K, or S, in them, they could not approach nearer the sound of them than as follows:
Toote, for Cook.
Matà for Monkhouse.
Opane - Banks
Petrodero — Pickersgill
Tolano — Solander
Tate — Clark
Treene — Green
Poline — Spoving
Hite — Hicks
Taibe — Stainsby
Towara — Gore
Patine — Parkinson
"They have various sounds peculiar to themselves, which none of us could Imitate; some of them they pronounced like B and L mingled together; others between B and P, and T and D. Some like Bh, Lh, and Dh. When they mean to speak of a thing somewhat small, they often double the word, as Oorè oorè, a smallish nail. They also double the word for the superlative, as teá teá, very white. Mai, when placed after a verb, signifies that the action was done to you.
Mai, when added to an adverb, signifies several things, as Mai Maroo, somewhat soft, or inclining to be soft. They have a whoop, when they call after any person, which they pronounce like Ahu! raising their voice very high at the last syllable."