Lahainaluna
The design of this work is primarily to aid Hawaiian youth of intelligence in acquiring a knowledge of the English language; and it is intended, in connection with the grammar, to furnish them adequate help, under the direction of the living teacher, until they can use the English Dictionary with English definitions. The present is mainly a translation of Webster's Abridgement still more abridged. Many words are thrown out, which are rarely used, and which will never be needed, till the student is able to learn their import from the English Dictionary. Others are omitted to avoid swelling the size of the volume, and because the student, if well drilled by his teacher in the construction of compound and drivative words, will soon learn their import, by knowing the meaning of their primitives, and the force of peculiar terminations appended to them. It is hoped also that the English student of the Hawaiian language will find some help from the present work, while seeking to enlarge his stock of Hawaiian words. With this object in view, two or three or more native definitions have sometimes been introduced as conveying the meaning of an English word, when, for the benefit of the Hawaiian only, one would have been sufficient. But it hardly need be said to one accustomed to the study of languages, that the different idioms of the two languages will often make the Hawaiian definition of words appear prolix, if not altogether unintelligible. The same difficulty often occurs in finding English words to convey the idea expressed perhaps by a monosyllable in Hawaiian. These difficulties however will vanish as a knowledge of the language increases. An apology for the many defects in the present work seems due to ourselves and the public. The preparation of the work has been carried on together with other employments, which of themselves were sufficient to occupy all our time. Proof sheets have often been read when sleep would have been a more appropriate employment, and of cou
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