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The present book-one of the first textbooks of Tahitian ever published in English-fills a serious gap in the literature on Polynesian languages, and will enable interested persons to acquire a sound practical knowledge of this important language of the Pacific. I can speak with feeling on this, having been in the position of trying, with little success, to learn Tahitian away from Tahiti while utilising
the existing textbooks. Their shortcomings, especially on the phonetic level, are so great as to render this task nearly futile. I am very pleased to see that this publication has resulted from the work carried out in the Department of Linguistics in the Research School of Pacific Studies of the Australian National University, and I welcome it as the fulfilment of a dream conceived during my first visit to Tahiti four years ago.