OCR Text |
Show 60 ON TilE DISTRIBUTION AND point, or the departing from a point; of position in a place, toward a place, or ncar a place. The same poverty is observable in tho conjunctions: copulative particles being employed frccrucntly to render the idea of possession and of rclationsllip ; those which express the idea of connexion being often replaced by pronouns or by definite particles. Per contra, African languages, as well as the Semitic, are extremely rich in respect to the changes (voies) of the verb, that is to say, in forms indicating the manner in which a verb may be employed. These changes-which are so numerous, notablyinArabic-are not tho less so in the m~ority of African lauguagoa; beyond all, in the principal group that extends from the Mozambique coast to Ca:flhria on ono side, and to Congo on the other. Although these changes are composed, in the major portion of such tongues, by the addition of prefixes, they form themselves in others through the aid of suffixes. 'l'he number of these changes varies singularly according to tho to~gu~s. Thus, in the Secl~uana language, and in the Temnelt, there ex1st stx changes; in the SooaMeli seven, in the Oaffr eight, and in the Mpongwee eleven. To give an id.ea of t~e opulence of these changes in a single verb, we borrow an IllustratiOn from the language of Congo. Sala, to labor,· salila, to facil-itate labor; salisia, to labor with somebody; salanga, to be in tlte ltabit of lab01·ing; salisionia, to labor tlze one for anotlter; salanyana, to be slcilful at laboring. All verbal roots are susceptible of similar modifications through the help of certain particles that may be added to them. In this method, by the ~ole use of tho verb, an expression is attained indicating wl:ct~cr the ad10n be rare, frequent, difficult, easy, excessive, &c. And th1s riChncs.s of changes d~es not. prevent the language from being, as regards 1ts v:rbs, and VIewc~ ~n respect to their number, of great ~oorness. For mstance, -the IdiOm of Congo, from which wo have JUSt borrowed the proof of such a great richness of changes, docs not poss.css any word to express tho idea of "living," but is obliged to say m place, to conduct one's soul, or being in one's lteart. Anoth?r very characteristic trait of the majority of African tongues Is, that they do not recognize the distinction of genders a~te~· the. manner of the Semitic idioms or the Indo-European. The; d1stmgmsh, on the contrary, as two genders, the animate and the inani~ atc; and in the class of animate beings, the gender man or in~ ellt!'ent, an.d ~ho gender brute or animal. Others of these languages, m heu o~ ~1s~1~guishing numbers after the fashion of Indo-European and Som1t10 IdJOms, recognize only a collective form which takes no heed of genders, and a plural form that applies itself to beings of the CLASSIFICATION OF TONGUES. 61 same genders. This is a particularity that we shall again encounter in tho cliclcing languages, or the IIoLtcntot. Wo do not possess sufficient clements as yet to give a complete classification of the languages of Africa. It is only since tho recent publication of tho Polyglotta Aj?-icana of MR. S. W. KOELLE that we have acquired an idea of tho reciprocal affinities which link together tho tongues of Western Africa. Tho classificatiou proposed, however, by KoELLE is freely introduced into the following schedule. I.-ATLANTIC languages, or of the north-west of Africa. These tongues have, with those of southern Afl'ica, for a common characteristic, the mutation of prefixes. They comprise the following groups, viz: lst.-The Fouloup group, wLich embraces tho FouLOUP or FMUPE, properly so called, spoken in the country of the same name, -tho FrLITAM, or FrLHoL, spoken in the canton which surrounds tLc ciLy of Buntoun; this town is situate upon the river Koya, at about three weeks' march from the Gambia. 2<1.-Thc Bola group, which comprises the BoLA talked in the land of Gole and t1wt of Bow·ama,-tbe SaRAR, idiom of the country of this name slrctching along the sea to the west of Balanta and to tho north of the district where tho Bola is sroken,-tho PEPIJ, spoken in tho isle of B ·iscltlao or Bisao. 3d.-The Biafada group, or Dchola, spoken at the west of N'lcabou and north of Nalou,-tho PADSCHADE, which is an idiom met with at the west of Koniadsclti and cast of Kabou. 4th.-The Bulom group, comprehending tho BAGA, a tongue spoken by one of tho popoulations of this name which inhabits the borders of the J[alum-Baga, eastward to tho islands of Los/1 - the TIMNE talked at the east of Sicrra-Leone,-tho BuLoM spoken in tho country of this name that bounds on Tirnne,-tho MAMPUA, or MANPA BuLoM, called also SClmRno, idiom of the region extending westward of tho Ocean, between Sierra-Leone and the land of Boum,-the K:rsr, spoken west and north of Gbandi, and cast of Mende. TI.-MANDINGO family-spread over the north-west of Upper Soodan. ~2 It is unknown to what family of tongues belong the idioms of the other populations termed Boga, who dwell upon the banks of tho Rio-Nunez and Rio-Pongas. |