N. B.—We have no sound in Maori to correspond to the o in not, hot, pot, &c.

U

This sound is also uniform in kind, and always corresponds to oo in book, &c. It sometimes, however, experiences a more quick, sometimes a more slow pronunciation.

The following table exhibits two variations beginning with the shorter:—

1.2.
tŭri, a knee.tŭtū, disobedient.
tŭtŭ, same as tupakihi of Ngapuhi.tūtū (manu), a birdstand.
kŭkŭ, a shell.kūkū, a pigeon.
kŭhu.tūtūa.
hūna.
ŭtŭ, to pay.ūtu, to draw water.

In pronouncing u the speaker will have to guard against the error of those who prefix the aspirate when no aspirate is admissible. According to them u, utu, &c., are pronounced as if spelt hu, hutu.

He will also have to beware of the more common and stubborn error of giving u the dipthongal sound of u in cube, tube, mute, &c.—tonu, ketu, tonutia, are, in this way, pronounced as if spelt toniu, toniutia, ketiu.

U, again, is sometimes, by careless speakers, confounded with o, and vice versâ. Thus ihu, nose; niho, tooth; have been erroneously pronounced as if spelt iho, nihu.

OF THE DIPTHONGS.

This portion of Maori literature has been as yet but little explored; and as each person's notions will vary with the acuteness of his ear, and the extent to which his judgment has been exercised, we may be prepared to expect a considerable discrepancy of opinion.