so unphonetic as the English, in which the vowels especially
have such uncertain and variable values, the results of this
want of system have necessarily been very unsatisfactory and
often grotesque. Maori words, on the other hand, have been
written down on a simple and consistent system, adopted by the
missionaries for the purpose of the translation of the Bible.
This system consists in giving the Italian sound to the vowels,
every letter--vowel and consonant--having a fixed and
invariable value. Maori words are often very melodious. In
pronunciation the best rule is to pronounce each syllable with
a nearly equal accent.

Care has been taken to remember that this is an Australasian
<i>English</i> and not a Maori Dictionary; therefore to exclude
words that have not passed into the speech of the settlers.
But in New Zealand Maori is much more widely used in the matter
of vocabulary than the speech of the aborigines is in
Australia, or at any rate in the more settled parts of
Australia; and the Maori is in a purer form. Though some words
and names have been ridiculously corrupted, the language of
those who dwell in the bush in New Zealand can hardly be called
<i>Pigeon English</i>, and that is the right name for the
"lingo" used in Queensland and Western Australia, which, only
partly represented in this book, is indeed a falling away from
the language of Bacon and Shakspeare.

IV. LAW OF HOBSON-JOBSON.

In many places in the Dictionary, I find I have used the
expression "the law of Hobson-Jobson." The name is an
adaptation from the expression used by Col. Yule and
Mr. Burnell as a name for their interesting Dictionary of
Anglo-Indian words. The law is well recognised, though it has
lacked the name, such as I now venture to give it. When a word
comes from a foreign language, those who use it, not
understanding it properly, give a twist to the word or to some
part of it from the hospitable desire to make the word at home
in its new quarters, no regard, however, being paid to the
sense. The most familiar instance in English is
<i>crayfish</i> from the French <i>ecrevisse</i>, though it is
well known that a crayfish is not a fish at all. Amongst the
Mohammedans in India there is a festival at which the names of
"Hassan" and "Hosein" are frequently called out by devotees.
Tommy Atkins, to whom the names were naught, converted them
into "Hobson, Jobson." That the practice of so altering words
is not lim