be the confusion confounded of nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adverbs being used convertibly the one for the other.

The repetition of the signs of nouns gives precision to the sentence. These signs impart force and clearness to each member of a proposition, and prevent any mistake about the antecedent. By a single letter or syllable a recurrent allusion to a subject spoken of can be made, without such circumlocution as "The said defendant" " Said subject matter" used by our lawyers. The sign in Sichuana is employed in the same manner as the Greek article; but always comes after the noun. It certainly is strange to us to say "dog a" or "moon the" but so speak the Bechuanas; enca e for the one; and ñueri e for the other1.

These signs are arranged by Dr Livingstone into three classes which embrace all the nouns in the language; the following is a conspectus of these classes.

mashume a hera menuana meberi le a coa ka go hera menuana meberi. The people who live on the Zambesi make counting still more complicated by counting in fives, viz. five of left hand, five of right hand, five of left foot, five of right foot; so that it soon becomes so long in the description there is no following it."

Those who speak this language have a curious custom of putting Ma and Ra before the name of the eldest son, and of calling his parents by these newly compounded names respectively. Thus they call Mrs Livingstone Ma-Robert, i. e. the mother of Robert. They would call the father of Sekeletu, if he were alive, "Ra-Sekeletu."

A little attention to the following rules will enable the reader to pronounce accurately any of the difficult words occurring in the book of Travels.

The best way is to compare the language with our own; calling in the aid of any others with which we may be acquainted whereby to supply rules on points wherein the English may fail.

All the vowels are sounded in Sichuana, for example the final e, which is a point of difference from our own. Probably the best rule to follow for pronunciation is that of the Italian, even including c, giving to ñ the ringing sound of the Spanish n; or putting an i before it, as ing.

In the following table, compiled from that of Dr Livingstone', combined with some remarks of Mr Moffat's, for the sake of brevity, those letters or diphthongs are only noticed which differ in sound from our own: those which are not here particularized can be read as the English.

axe.

C, sounded as ch, in Church. Ex. caka (chaka) a battle-
Cisa (cheesa) to cause to dry up or burn.

1 Analysis, pp. 6—8.

2 Missionary Scenes and Labours, &c. p. 226, note,

é, with acute accent, as in clerical, friend, lemon. Ex. Seka, to judge; reka, to buy.

f, softer than the English f; like in vat.

=

g, guttural, as ch in loch (Scotticé) dag (Dutch) X. Ex. gana, to refuse; gapa, to "lift" cattle; goga, to draw. There is no hard g in Sichuana.

h, is always a Spiritus Asper, never forms ƒ with P as in English; when joined to another consonant, the latter is enunciated with a hard breathing only. Ex. phare, a cucumber = råpe; thogo, a curse.

i, as in diminish, or as English e in peep, or German sieben. Ex. pitse, a zebra; kika, a mortar; pino, a dance; pico, an assembly.

K

k, as in English, κ in Greek. Ex. kapa, to catch with the hands (Scotticè kep). Kh is the k strongly aspirated, as in khakala, far; kopa, to beg; khopa, to stumble.

ñ, with circumflex over it, = Spanish, sounds as ing in king, ring; only in Sichuana it sometimes forms the initial sound of words: mañ eo? (mang eo), what is this? (comp. man hoo in Hebrew); ñoñola, to deride; ñapa, to pinch; ñoñorega, to grumble.

t, soft, and th aspirated; soft as in tool, tin; when written with h, as th, the breath is forcibly expelled from the mouth, while the teeth are held in the position for saying t. It is never sounded as in Sichuana. Attention to the aspirates is of vital importance in the correct enunciation of Sichuana. Ex. ruta, to teach; rutha, to beat or thrash.

ae, as English i, in high, lie. Ex. tsamaea (tsama, a staff; ea go), go or travel; bolaea, to kill; apaea (apia), to

cook.

oe, and ue, as wa in wait. Ex. œla (weyla), to fall towards; uetsa, to finish; œ and ue, as terminals, as que in English, Ex. leshue, filthy; senkhue, bread (singque).

ts, as Hebrew tsaddai, Y. Ex. tsela, live, pour, or ford a

river, also a path; tsaro, a date-tree; tsaea, take; tsasa,

smear.

tl, the t in this combination is aspirated, and the pronounced at the same time. Insert t instead of k in klick, and the tl sound is easily pronounced. Ex. tla, come and shall; ki tla tla, I shall come.

To apply these rules to some of the proper names occurring in the book of Travels.

Sichuana, Bechuana, and Sechele, would, according to the above rules, be Seetchuahna, Betchuahnah, and Setchala; but in pronouncing them himself our traveller rather gave cha k sound. These may be exceptions.

All words in this language end in a vowel, except a few in. The emphasis is always put on the penultimate, except in words ending in ñ; in these the ultimate receives the emphasis. In sentences the last word generally has the emphasis1.

IMPORTANCE OF THE SICHUANA LANGUAGE.

It would be difficult to overrate this. Sebituane's conquests have made it both the common vernacular and court language among the tribes of a large part of central South Africa.

In addition to this it is understood more or less by the members of the whole of the great Bechuana family of tribes. Dr Livingstone shews this at page 1 of the Analysis as follows;

"There exists the

1

closest relationship between this, Analysis, p. 9.

primitive and almost perfect South African language and the dialects spoken by the Caffres, Zulu, Matebele, Malokuane, and Basuto. Indeed, the structure of all these is essentially the same. The Bakhoba or Bayeiye of Lake Ngami; the Bashubea, Barotse, and Batoka of the Leeambye or Zambesi; the Bashukulompo, who live far to the north-east of that river; and the Balojazi, who inhabit countries far to the north-west of S. lat. 14o; with the Bamoenye, Ambònda, Banyenko, Balonda, &c. &c., all speak dialects which contain nearly as many Sechuana roots as the English does of Latin. The list of words furnished by Captain Tuckey in his 'Voyage up the Zaire or Congo River,' and the communications of the missionaries in the country adjacent to Mombas, with vocabularies furnished by the Baptist and Church missionaries at Fernando Po and the West Coast, render it almost certain that the groundwork of all south equatorial African tongues, except the Bush or Hottentot, is of the same family as that under consideration."

In a commercial, scientific, and philological point of view, this statement is of vast importance, but transcendentally so when considered with reference to morals, philanthropy, and religion. It affords a key to active intercourse with the inhabitants of the Southern half of the Continent.

We must connect the facts of this language being cognate with so many South African dialects, and of its present wide diffusion, with another great fact providentially furnishing a link in the complete chain wanted for successful permanent missionary work.

Independently of Sebituane's conquests, and of Dr Livingstone's explorations, Mr Moffat has translated the whole Scriptures into this language. This translation has secured a large number of words which would otherwise have been lost.