The oceanic languages shemitic
Melbourne: Mason, Firth & M. Cutcheon, printers, 1886. First edition, 8vo, pp. 34; near fine in original terracotta wrappers, side-stapled. A paper read at the Royal Society of Australia 11 March, 1886. It includes sections on personal pronouns, and numerals, with an appendix on Australian and Tasmanian numerals. Macdonald was erroneous in his assumption that the Pacific languages were Semitic, but he did compile in the year following this publication, Three New Hebrides Languages (Efatese, Eromangan, Santo). He went to New Hebrides in 1872 after his ordination at the Presbyterian Church in Melbourne, where he studied and translated the local languages of Oceania. He became Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1896, and retired to Melbourne in 1905, though continuing ministerial work. Wrote articles for the Journal of the Polynesian Society, and several books on Oceanic languages, including The Oceanic Languages: their Grammatical Structure, Vocabulary, and Origin, in 1907, for which this pamphlet appears to have been a seed. Ferguson 11923. OCLC locates three copies in Australia and one at the University of Hawaii. Item #63432
Price: $200.00
