The duplication of words, as 'lumee lumee', 'poee poee', 'muee muee', is one of their peculiar features.

But another, and a more annoying one, is the different senses in which one and the same word is employed; its various meanings all have a certain connection, which only makes the matter more puzzling.

So one brisk, lively little word is obliged, like a servant in a poor family, to perform all sorts of duties; for instance, one particular combination of syllables expresses the ideas of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning, and all other things anywise analogous thereto, the particular meaning being shown chiefly by a variety of gestures and the eloquent expression of the countenance.
The intricacy of these dialects is another peculiarity.

In the Missionary College at Lahainaluna, on Mowee, one of the Sandwich Islands, I saw a tabular exhibition of a Hawiian verb, conjugated through all its moods and tenses.

It covered the side of a considerable apartment, and I doubt whether Sir William Jones himself would not have despaired of mastering it..