[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

IF -u
ll
:
in
I26 MALEKULA
All these terms are given in the ï¬Årst singular possessive or
vocative forms. What the other forms may be in Nesan and
Uerik is not recorded. In Bangasa, however, the second and
third singular are, it seems, usually denoted by the suffixes -tong
and -tei respectively, except for the term atmrg (child), the second
singular possessive of which is atum, and the third singular am
(It is possible, too, that the terms for siblings may also be thus
conjugated, but of this there is no record) The word lï¬Åwang lanai
(sister’s child, man speaking) is interesting in that in the second
singular it takes the form lï¬Åzuam tong and in the third singular
I014/am lei. From what evidence there is about the kinship terms
of Niviar, it appears that this district resembles Bangasa in this
respect, -tang being in general sufï¬Åxed to denote she second
singular possessive, and -la the third, while the terms for child,
elder and younger brother (man speaking) and brother and sister
(Woman and man speaking respectively) add -/nggu and -n for
the second and third singular. It is noteworthy, too, that the
ï¬Årst singular form of " child " and “ elder brother " is indicated
by the addition of the sufï¬Åx —tna to the word root. What the
signiï¬Åcance of these different ways oi dcnoting the possessive
may be, we cannot, with our lack of data, tell. It is possiblelthat
they imply a distinction between a close and a more distant
possessive, similar to the distinction observed in the kinship
nomenclature of Seniang, but this seems improbable in view of
the fact that we ï¬Ånd mom tong and mom tei, galu tong and gala
tsi for " thy father" and “his father", "thy mother" and
“his mother " respectively, but abum and atn for “ thy child "
and " his child ".
In addition to these lists of kinship terms irorn districts of
the interior, four separate terms have been recorded from Leariï¬Åp.
These are: mama “ father " ; mmdui “ mother â€ù ; banggang
“maternal uncle " ; and muting for “ mother's brother’s son ".
These provide sufficient evidence to justify us in asuming that
in Leartip, as elsewhere in Malekula, there exists the anomalous
classing of paternal cross-cousins with the father and father's
sister, and the maternal ones with the children, for clearly nating
is another form of the word mltimg, meaning “ my childâ€ù in
Uerik and Nesan, and which, under difierent guises, is common
to the whole oi Malekula. Afï¬Ånities with Nesan and Uerik may
also be seen in the terms namiai and mama for mother and