Polynesian Sentence Examples

In all, there is a wonderful amount of specialization, though perhaps in a very straight line from generalized forms; but the affinity to Australian or Polynesian types is in many cases clearly traceable, and it cannot be supposed but that these last are of cognate origin with those of New Zealand.

In the low and sub-mountainous lands the flora is a mixture of Malayan, Australian and Polynesian forms. There are, according to Muller, twice as many palms known from New Guinea as from Australia.

Such an explanation of the Polynesian's origin does not preclude a relationship with the Malays.

Polynesian society is divided into the family and the clan.

The natives, a pure Polynesian race, are usually described as physically the finest of all South Sea Islanders.

Borings and soundings taken at Funafuti in 1897 indicate almost beyond doubt that the whole of this Polynesian region is an area of comparatively recent subsidence.

Apart from tradition, Samoan is the most archaic of all the Polynesian tongues, and still preserves the organic letter s, which becomes h or disappears in nearly all the other archipelagos.

Crime is infrequent, and morality, always above the Polynesian average, has improved.

John Crawfurd, in the Dissertation to his Dictionary of the Malay Language, published in 1840, noted the prevalence of Malayan terms in the Polynesian languages, and attributed the fact to the casting away of ships manned by Malays upon the islands of the Polynesian Archipelago.

None of the colossal structures hitherto described appears to have been erected by the present Melanesian or Polynesian peoples, while their wide diffusion, extending as far as Easter Island, within 400 m.

The dolmen-builders of the New Stone Age are now known to have long occupied both Korea and Japan, from which advanced Asiatic lands they may have found little difficulty in spreading over the Polynesian world, just as in the extreme west they were able to range over Scandinavia, Great Britain and Ireland.

To Neolithic man, still perhaps represented by some of the more light-coloured and more regularfeatured Polynesian groups, may therefore not unreasonably be attributed these astonishing remains, which assume so many different forms according to the nature of the locality, but seem generally so out of proportion with the present restricted areas on which they stand.

It was a deep-seated belief that those who took part in religious functions were liable to communicate this " holiness " to others (compare the complex ideas associated with the Polynesian taboo).

There is much less moisture, and the flora is of a less tropical character than farther north; it has some Polynesian and New Zealand affinities, and on the west coast a partially Australian character; on the higher hills it is stunted; on the lower, however, there are fine .grass lands, and a scattered growth of niaulis (Melaleuca viridiflora), useful for its timber, bark and cajeput oil.

They are Melanesians of mixed blood, of two fairly distinct types, one sub-Papuan and the other Polynesian.

There is nowhere a real defining line between the two (many New Caledonians having black skins and woolly hair with Polynesian superiority of limb), but the Polynesian type is generally found among the chiefs and their kindred.

Members styled themselves descendants of Oro-Tetifa, the Polynesian god, and were divided into seven or more grades, each having its characteristic tattooing.

There are about one thousand species of flowering plants, of which about three-fourths are endemic. Most of those not peculiar to the country are Australian; others are South American, European, Antarctic; and some have Polynesian affinities.

In their natural state the islands were without land mammals, and the Polynesian immigrants brought but two in their canoes - a dog, now extinct, and a black rat, now rarely seen.

Of the Polynesian Islands, the Hawaiian chain presents the type of a volcanic group through which coral reefs are not equally distributed.

The class of traders who made a living by disreputable means and attempted to keep a monopoly of the island on which they settled, became notorious under the name of " beachcombers," and for each of the many dark chapters in Polynesian history there must have been many more unwritten.

The traditions of many of the Polynesian islanders refer to a black indigenous race which occupied their islands when their ancestors arrived, and the black woolly-haired Papuan type is not only found to-day in Melanesia proper, but traces of it occur throughout Polynesia and Micronesia.

In this connexion it is a curious fact, and one which deepens the mystery, that, unlike the Polynesian peoples, who are all born sailors, the blacks are singularly unskilful seamen.

Careful investigations have supported the theory that Micronesia was peopled largely from the Philippines or some portion of the Malay Archipelago at a much later period than the Polynesian migration.

The Micronesians then are probably of Malay stock much modified by early Polynesian crossings, and probably, within historic times, by Papuan and even Japanese and Chinese migrations.

Meanwhile in 1790 a party consisting of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny, eight Englishmen, six Polynesian men and twelve Polynesian women had taken possession of Pitcairn Island and burned the "Bounty."

Their language was allied to that of the Maoris of New Zealand, but they differed somewhat from them in physique, and they were probably a cross between an immigrating Polynesian group and a lower indigenous Melanesian stock.

Prometheus resembles the Polynesian Maui, who went down to fetch fire from the volcano of Mahuika, the fire-god.

The Solomon islanders are of Melanesian (Papuan) stock, though in different parts of the group they vary considerably in their physical characteristics, in some islands approaching the pure Papuan, in some showing Polynesian crossings and in others resembling the Malays.

This group, so named by Abel Tasman in 1643, is also called Leuenewa or Lord Howe, and is densely inhabited by natives said to be of Polynesian origin.

The aborigines are Papuans, but much mixed with Malayan and perhaps Polynesian elements.

Persistent efforts have also been made to introduce Polynesian islanders, as being of a cognate race with the Hawaiians, but the results have been wholly unsatisfactory.

In some islands are people of obvious Papuan blood, while in others are Polynesian or Malayan tribes.

In their uma-luli, or sacred (tabooed) enclosures, rites are performed resembling those of the Polynesian islanders.

Nias has an interesting native population, apparently of pre-Malayan origin; and the Mentawi islands (q.v.) are inhabited by a race generally held to be a Polynesian settlement which has escaped fusion with Malayan stock.

It was subsequently visited by La Perouse (1776), Kotzebue (1816), &c. At the time of Roggeveen's discovery the island probably contained from 2000 to 3000 inhabitants of Polynesian race, who, according to their own tradition, came from Rapa Iti (Little Rapa) or Oparo, one of the Tubuai or Austral group. In 1863 a large proportion of the inhabitants were kidnapped by the Peruvians and transported to work at the guano diggings on the Chincha Islands.

By, some the term Polynesian has been treated as a synonym for Malayo-Polynesian, and has been made to include all the brown races of Malaysia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

The absence of San skrit roots in the Polynesian languages appears to indicate that this migration was in pre-Sanskritic times.

He has studied the folk-lore of those islands exhaustively, and from this source comes to the conclusion that the Polynesian migration from the Indian Archipelago may be approximately assigned to the close of the 1st or to the 2nd century.

The traditions of many of the Polynesian peoples tend to make Savaii, the largest of the Samoan Islands, their ancestral home in the East Pacific, and linguistic and other evidence goes to i Account of the Polynesian Race (1878), i.

We can, however, account for the presence of Polynesian blood in Fiji in another way, viz.

Where they have from early years enjoyed the advantages of a good education, Polynesian youths have proved themselves to possess intellectual powers of no mean order.

The word wife is not used more exclusively among us than among some Polynesian people.

They manufacture several wooden utensils for household use, See a remarkable example in Fornander's Account of the Polynesian Race, ii.

Some writers have connected Polynesian cannibalism with religion.

The Polynesian race has been continuously, and in some places rapidly, decreasing since their first contact with Europeans.

Moerenhout, Voyages aux Iles du Grand Ocean, &c. (Paris, 1837); Abraham Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race (1878).

The Micronesian islanders form in the main a branch of the Polynesian race, but distinguished from it by well-marked differences in appearance, language and institutions.

The traditions of the Gilbert Islanders tell us that their islands and South Polynesian islands on the south and south-east, suggests, what in fact is found, a combination of races.

In the Gilberts the traces of Polynesian (Samoan) influences are evident, and are confirmed by tradition.

They have the chief characteristics of the Polynesian, with Malay affinities, and peculiarities such as the use of suffixes and inseparable pronouns and, as in Tagal, of the infix to denote changes in the verb; in the west groups there is a tendency to closed syllables and double consonants, and a use of the palatals ch, j, sh, the dental th, and s (the last perhaps only in foreign words), which is alien to the Polynesian.

These letters are wanting in the Gilbert language, which differs considerably from all the others, and has much greater affinities with the Polynesian.

In some of the dialects there appears to be no true article, but in the Gilbert Islands the Polynesian to is used for both definite and indefinite article.

The custom of tabooing words is also found there as it is in the Polynesian languages.

The religious myths are generally identifiable with the Polynesian, but a belief in the gods proper is overshadowed by a general deification of ancestors, who are supposed from time to time to occupy certain blocks of stone, set up near the family dwelling, and surrounded by circles of smaller ones.

The primitive notion that perhaps comes nearest to our " sacred," whilst it immediately underlies the meanings of the Latin sacer and sanctus, is that of a taboo, a Polynesian term for which equivalents can be quoted from most savage vocabularies.

The guinea-fowl, however, has long been in this condition in Jamaica and St Helena, and the fowl in Hawaii and other Polynesian islands.

Their languages, which exhibit considerable difference among themselves, have features which mark them off clearly from the Polynesian, notwithstanding certain fundamental relations with the latter.

Judging, then, by the extirpation and adoption of languages within the range of history, it is obvious that to classify mankind into races, Aryan, Semitic, Turanian, Polynesian, Kaffir, &c., on the mere evidence of language, is intrinsically unsound.

Such words as hand, hands, foot, man, &c., are used as numerals signifying 5, 10, 15, 20, &c., among many savage and barbaric peoples; thus Polynesian lima, i.e.

Meyer, who spent several years in the Malay Archipelago and New Guinea, developed a contrary conclusion in his Die Negritos der Philippinen (1878), holding that the Negritos and Papuans are identical, and that possibly, or even probably, the former are an offshoot of the latter, like some other Polynesian islanders.

The Papuan woman, who is, as a rule, more modest than the Polynesian, is the household drudge, and does the greater part of the outdoor work, but the man assists in clearing new gardens and in digging and planting the soil.

There are several dialects, the construction resembling Fijian, as in the pronominal suffixes in singular, triad and plural; the numerals, however, are Polynesian in character.

It had besides long been thought desirable to possess a station on the route between Australia and Panama; it was also felt that the Polynesian labour traffic, the abuses in which had caused much indignation, could only be effectually regulated from a point contiguous to the recruiting field, and the locality where that labour was extensively employed.

Their non-employment of skins for clothing is a marked distinction between the Malagasy and the South African races, and their use of vegetable fibres an equally strong link between them and the Polynesian peoples.

It is " a far cry " from Vanua Levu to Vancouver Island, and, ethnologically, the Ahts of the latter region are extremely remote from the Papuans with their mixture of Malay and Polynesian blood.

Among these the Maoris of New Zealand, and the Polynesian people generally, are remarkable for a mythology largely intermixed with early attempts at more philosophical speculation.

The Maoris and other Polynesian peoples are perhaps the best examples of a race which has risen far above the savagery of Bushmen and Australians, but has not yet arrived at the stage in which great centralized monarchies appear.

The hymns may be read in Sir George Grey's Polynesian Mythology, and in Taylor's New Zealand.

Max Muller credits him with having anticipated Humboldt, and with making "one of the most brilliant discoveries in the history of the science of language" by establishing the relation between the Malay and Polynesian family of speech.

Of twenty species of birds more than half belong to the sea, where animal life is as abundant as about other sub-tropical Polynesian groups.

No Chinese junk, no Arab dhow, no Polynesian war canoe, ever found a mooring in Lisbon or Limehouse.

The latest theory, however, is that there is a great linguistic group (which may or may not prove to correspond to an ethnic unity) comprising the Munda, Monkhmer, Malay, Polynesian and Micronesian languages, and that the stream of immigration which distributed them started from the extreme west.

Where this home lay it is not easy to say, but the facts recorded by many writers as to the resemblance between the Polynesian and the Malayan races, and the strong Malayan element found in the languages of the former (see Tregear's Maori and Comparative Polynesian Dictionary, London, 1891), have led some students to think that the two races may have had a common origin.

With the gradual subsidence of these areas their culture would necessarily degenerate, although echoes of sublime theogonies and philosophies are still heard in the oral traditions and folklore of many Polynesian groups.

Most observers, such as Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge and Mr Le Hunte, agree that these structures could not possibly be the work of any of the present Polynesian peoples, and attribute them to a now extinct prehistoric race, the men of the New Stone Age from the Asiatic mainland.

Sometimes referred to as the 'Island of Love,' Tahiti is the largest of the French Polynesian South Sea Islands.

Polynesian spas and one-of-a-kind cruises offer rest and recuperation from months of wedding planning and preparation.

With a rich Polynesian ancestry, the Tahitian Islands offer many ways for honeymooners to explore its culture and its past.

As you eat, you will enjoy a Polynesian show.

Tahitian pearls are harvested from the oysters found in the waters surrounding the French Polynesia located in the Polynesian islands.

No other pearls harvested in the Polynesian islands can be marketed as Tahitian pearls.

Polynesian Resort - This unique resort is designed to transport guests to the South Pacific.

The restaurant's exciting Polynesian ambiance features light tropical rainstorms and a top-40 band performing from a thatch-covered barge on the pool, a dance floor built from the remains of the S.S.

While some people use the words pareo and sarong interchangeably, pareos are identified with Polynesian culture and may feature bright, floral prints.

This site has everything you'll need for a Polynesian summer, including cotton pareos in colorful prints.

Though popular today as swimwear coverups, these garments have very old roots in Polynesian, Indonesian, and Asian cultures where they are still worn by both men and women.

These days you can break the rules and dress your daughter in a Barbie Polynesian Princess costume, which features a shimmery, metallic pink dress with tropical blue tulle overlay and tank style sleeves.

This tribal ink was originally inspired by tats done by the Maori tribe, as well as other Polynesian tribes.

This process is very similar to tribal tattoos performed by the Maori and other Polynesian tribes - and continues to this day.

Most of the tattoos commonly thought of today as "tribal" are tattoos that originated in the Polynesian islands.

For instance, while the Maori tribe may have inked their faces in order to show their tribal origins (a process known as moko), other Polynesian islands did not follow the same practice.

The two images seem to be completely disparate - a tribal pattern from the Polynesian islands and dragons from the East, but with the no holds barred beliefs of today's body art enthusiasts, anything goes.

Evidence from more than 3,000 years ago suggests that Pacific and Polynesian cultures have practiced tattooing throughout their histories.

Sparking a fad of tattooing in Britain was the introduction of a Polynesian man who went by the name of The Painted Prince.

Polynesian Adventure Tours - This big company will take you to the outer islands.

At the Midsummer Night's Talent Show, Sharpay and friends perform this Polynesian song, hoping to win the Star Dazzle Award, and for Sharpay, the affection of Troy.

The population is about 2200, the natives being Polynesian, though their language has been classified as Melanesian.

There is evidence in the languages, too, which supports the physical separation from their New Zealand neighbours and, therefore, from the Polynesian family of races.

Their mental faculties, though inferior to those of the Polynesian race, are not contemptible.

In this respect the Society Islands have the advantage of many Polynesian islands.

Apart from the occurrence of Cycas, the Asiatic character of the Polynesian flora is illustrated by the distribution of Meliaceae.

At the least there should be some consideration of four separate systems of discovery - the Eastern, in which Chinese and Japanese explorers acquired knowledge of the geography of Asia, and felt their way towards Europe and America; the Western, in which the dominant races of the Mexican and South American plateaus extended their knowledge of the American continent before Columbus; the Polynesian, in which the conquering races of the Pacific Islands found their way from group to group; and the Mediterranean.

Hawaiki, the name of Te Kupe's traditional home, is identical with several other Polynesian place-names, e.g.

There is some evidence that the "tradition of the six canoes" does not represent the first contact of the Polynesian race with New Zealand.

Among the most industrious of Polynesian races, they have always been famed for wood-carving; and in building, weaving and dyeing they had made great advances before the whites arrived.

The natives, a branch of the Polynesian race, are the most progressive and most intellectual in the Pacific Islands, except the Hawaiians.

It has been suggested that their separation did not take place until after the continent which once existed in the north Pacific had become submerged, and that the Malays wandered northward, while the Polynesian race spread itself over the islands of the southern archipelago.

There is the true Kei Islander, a Polynesian by his height and black or brown wavy hair, with a complexion between the Papuan black and the Malay yellow.

The natives, a mixed Polynesian and Melanesian people of Samoan speech, are the most industrious in the Pacific, and many of the young men go as labourers to other islands.

Here, wedged in among the ruder Papuans, who reappear at the extremity of the peninsula, a very different-looking people are found, whom competent observers, arguing from appearance, language and customs, assert to be a branch of the fair Polynesian race.

This budget concerned only the Asiatic possessions of Holland, not the Polynesian ones, and Dutch New Guinea must, consequently, have its own budget.

Polynesian canoe-men had reached its northern shores in successive voyages.

While their general physique approximates to the Polynesian type, they are often characterized by a stunted form and a dark complexion.