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Full text of "Outlines of a grammar of the Vei language, together with a Vei-English vocabulary. And an account of the discovery and nature of the Vei mode of syllabic writing"

i!3'. «v J'^S ^' 



OUTLINES 



OF A 



GRAMMAR OF THE VEI LANGUAGE, 



TOGETHER WITH A 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 



AND AN 



ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY AND NATURE OF THE VEI 
MODE OF SYLLABIC WRITING. 



BY S. W. KOELLE, 



CHURCH MISSIONAUT. 



LONDON 
CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, 

SALISBURY SQUARE. 

1854. 



Republished in association with the African 
Languages Review of Fourah Bay College 






ettoirjtre re e| evoq mjutaro^ 

irav edvo<; avOpioviov 
KOToiKeiv eTTt Trav to Trpoffwirov tjjs «y»)f. 

St. Paul^AcIs xvii. 26. 




S. B. N. - GB: 576.11611.4 

Republished in 1968 by 

Gregg International Publishers Limited 

1 Westmead, Farnborough, Hants., England 

Printed in Germany 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface i — vi 



CHAPTER I. 

§. 1. Ethnological Relationship of the Vex Language, 1 
I. Affinity with Indo-European, Semitic, and Afri- 
can Roots 1 

II. Languages belonging to the Manden'ga Stock . . 10 

III. Illustration of peculiarities of the Vei Language. . 11 

CHAPTER II. 

§. 2. Sounds and Orthography 14 

CHAPTER III. 

Etymology of the Parts of Speech. 

•^. 3. General 19 

§. 4. Etymology of Substantives 19 

§. 5. Etymology of Pronouns 23 

I. Personal and Possessive Pronouns 23 

II. Reflective Pronoun 24 

III. Demonstrative Pronouns 24 

IV. Interrogative Pronouns 26 

V. Reciprocal Pronoun 26 

^. 6. Etymology of Adjkctives 26 

^. 7. Etymology of Numerals 27 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

§. 8. Etymology of Verbs 32 

§. 9, Etymology of Adverbs 35 

§. 10. Etymology of Postpositions 38 

§. 11. Etymology of Conjunctions 39 

§. 12. Etymology of Interjections 40 

CHAPTER IV. 

§. 13. Convertibility of Words 40 

CHAPTER V. 

§. 14. On the Accent 43 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Law of Euphony. 

§. 15. Physical Law of Euphony 45 

§. 16. Psychical Law of Euphony 56 

CHAPTER VII. 

On Composition and Decomposition. 

§. 17. Composition 58 

§. 18. Decomposition 59 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Figures of Speech and Figurative Language. 

§. 19. Figures of Speech 62 

^. 20. Figurative Language 64 

CHAPTER IX. 

V- 21. On Propositions 73 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

§. 22. Peculiar Suffixes 78 

I. Ni 78 

II. Wi 81 

III. We 82 

lY. Ke 83 

V. Wa '. 85 

VI. 0,u, ou 85 

VII. I. 86 

VIII. Affinity between some of them 87 

IX. Ro 88 

X. Re 90 

XL A, ra, da 91 

XII. Na 93 



CHAPTER XI. 

Syntax of the Parts of Speech. 

^. 23. Syntax of Substantives 94 

§. 24. Syntax of Pronouns 97 

I. Personal and Possessive Pronouns 97 

II. Reflective Pronouns 105 

in. Demonstrative Pronouns 106 

IV. Inten'ogative Pronouns 109 

V. Reciprocal Pronoun 110 

§. 25. Syntax of Adjectives Ill 

§. 26. Syntax of Numerals 112 

§. 27. Syntax of Verbs 116 

§. 28. Syntax of Adverbs 128 

§. 29. Syntax of Postpositions 131 

§. 30. Syntax of Conjunctions 133 

§. 31. Syntax of Interjections 140 



Vei-Enolish Vocabulary 143 



CORRIGENDA. 



PAGE. 


LINE. 




11 


5 read Mande /or Mani. 


11 


23 dele the 


13 


5 & 13 read for "". 


17 


17 


and for and o. 


21 


16 


donna and don* /or donna and don. 


21 


32 


ba /or be. 


22 


4 & 5 . 


kori /or kori. 


22 


23 & 24 . 


ko /or ko. 


32 


last 


mboro/or mboro. 


37 


4 


ke for ek. 


37 


22 


kbmu/or komu. 


38 


24 


ko /or ko. 


47 


14 


food /or foot, and dom-fen /or dom-fon. 


50 


7 


kurira /or korira, and kuri /or kori. 


51 


1 


thee;" keima/or keima. 


51 


6 


aroitonge /or arbiton- ge. 


51 


25 


akene /or akena. 


60 


4 


ko /or ko. 


85 


20 


come /or gone. 


103 


9 


here for here. 


105 


16 


denu /or dinu. 


106 


bottom . 


ke/or ke. 


118 


33 


the verb substantive for the verb, th 
substantive. 


149 


24—26 . 


ho for bo. 


157 


26 


don /or don. 


156 


1 & 2 . 


lawful /or natural. 


165 


1 & 2 . 


proper /or natural. 


166 


10 


anliegen /or verliegen. 


175 


30 


to be white /or to white. 


176 


28 


gbere/or gbare. 


179 


bottom . 


civet-cat /or cive-tcat. 



Introduction 



THE TERM 'VAT 



The term 'Vai' was first recorded, in the form 'Vey', by Dutch sources 
of the first half of the seventeenth century. In these sources, it seems 
to denote a political unit near Cape Mount, i.e. within modern Vailand'. 
Although the lengthy account of this area drawn up presumably by Dutch 
traders and published by Dapper in 1668 was much plagiarised by later 
writers, virtually no new information about this area appeared in print 
for nearly one hundred and fifty years. Around 1800, reports from the 
British settlement at Sierra Leone contained occasional references to the 
'Foy' people of Cape Mount; and from the 1820s the Americo-Liberians 
of Monrovia came into increasingly close contact with the 'Vei'^^. It 
was perhaps only in the nineteenth century that all sections of the ethno- 
linguistic unit came to accept the name Vai, but as the earlier usage is 
obscure, for convenience we shall employ the term to describe the whole 
unit in earlier centuries. 

The 1668 account contained a vocabulary of the Vai language, but under 
the name 'Kg^uoja'; and the first words to appear in print under the name 
Vai did not appear till 1840, These first words were merely the numerals 
(collected in the United States from an African sailor) and no further 
material appeared in print before 1849. Thus when, in the latter year, 
the missionary Koelle began work on Vai, he was undertaking the study 
of an almost unknown language. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF VAI 

The early history of the Vai people and language is known only in outline. 
The 1668 account had a great deal to say about the recent history of the 
Cape Mount area, but the involved dynastic sagas therein related require 
the most careful interpretation and as yet have had insufficient study by 
historians. The one event recorded in this account which fits into our 
limited knowledge of the history of neighbouring areas is the invasion of 
the coastal areas to the West, up to and even beyond the Sierra Leone 
peninsula, at a date several generations earlier than the date of collection 
of the information (which was probably the 1630s or 1640s), by armies 
under the command of members of dynasties froni the Cape Mount area. 



This was almost certainly the 'Mani' invasion of Sierra Leone around 
1550 contemporaneously recorded in Portuguese and English sources^. 
Since the 'Kquoja' vocabulary was collected in the Cape Mount area and 
is certainly Vai, we can be reasonably certain that the 'Mani' leaders 
were Vai, and that Vai-speakers wejre living in the Cape Mount area by 
the middle of the sixteenth century. Earlier than this, however, there 
is no documentation of the Vai (and very little of Cape Mount); and the 
Vai oral traditions which purport to relate to an earlier period are, taken 
by themselves, vague and unconvincing. The only strong clue to the his- 
tory of the Vai before European documentation is provided by the Vai 
language. 

Vai is one of the Mande languages. This was realised as soon as Vai 
became known to scholars, and Koelle (in the present work) commented 
pertinently in 1851 on the geography of the Mande group: "The Mande 
family of languages .. . seems to have nowhere descended into that narrow 
strip of lowland, which from Senegambia right down to Cape Palmas, 
forms an intermediate step between High Sudan and the Atlantic, except 
in Vei country, and in part of the present Mande [misprint for MSnde, 
i.e. Mendel territory" (p. 11). Vai is indeed the only Mande language 
entirely on the Guinea seaboard (although Malinke stretches down the 
Gambia, and the advancing flank of Mende has touched the sea near 
Sherbro Island probably since around 1800). Vai is therefore neighboured 
largely by languages of other stocks (Bullom and Gola of 'Mel'; Bassaof 
'Kru'). Its only Mande neighbour, Mende, is, as Welmers has recently 
shown, a rather distant relation^ . On the other hand, in the interior 
behind Mende and Gola, lies the Kono language which is very closely re- 
lated to Vai; andKonoand Vai are together closely related to the interior 
nuclear language, Malinke. Welmers considers that Vai represents a 
recent derivation from Malinke, and suggests a time of separation of the 
order of five hundred years. Thus, comparative linguistics suggests 
that, in fairly recent historical times, a group from the Malinke -speaking 
area (roughly on and around the Upper Niger) made its way to the South, 
passing over or between older Mande dispersions (e.g. Kpelle, Mende) 
and languages of other stocks (e.g. Gola) : the 'tail' got no further than 
Konoland and broke away, but the remainder reached the coast at or near 
Cape Mount, and became the Vai. The Vai traditions of origin - noted 
and commented on shrewdly by Koelle, transcribed again in later ver- 
sions by Klingenheben* - canberead as confirming this general picture, 
though it is doubtful whether the folk-etymologies of 'Vai' and 'Kono' and 
the details of leadership supplied therein have much historical value. 
The 'Mani' invasion of Sierra Leone may have marked the arrival of the 
Vai on the Atlantic coast, but it is perhaps as likely that it marked the 
end of a period of consolidation of initial settlement in the area. 



THE LATER HISTORY OF VAI 

The nnajor events in Vai history after those recounted by Dapper in 
1668 were the spread of Islam, apparently beginning only in the early 
eighteenth century: the contact with Christian missionaries which began 
in the early decades of the nineteenth: the invention of the Vai syllabary 
around 1830 : and the assumption of political control over Vailand by - 
and hence its division between - Liberia and the British colony of Sierra 
Leone, a process completed by 1885. The advantages to the Vai of the 



last event perhaps outweighed the disadvantages : though politically power- 
less in both territories, the Vai found that their culture was to sonne 
extent respected by both central governments because it also existed 
across the territorial frontier. Today, there are about 8, 000 Vai- 
speakers in Sierra Leone (1963 Census), and probably about 50,000 in 
Liberia. Vai is therefore one of the many very small ethnolinguistic 
units of West Africa, and is vastly outnumbered in population by, for 
instance, such other Mande languages as Mende, Kpelle, Loma, Susu, 
Malinke and Bambara. There is no reason to suspect that Vai was ever 
much larger. 

Vai is however more widely known than its mere size would indicate, 
indeed it enjoys a measure of fame, which is due of course solely to its 
possession of an indigenous syllabary - the earliest script devised and 
propagated by natives of sub-Saharan Africa (if not entirely, at least 
largely, without outside assistance). Though invented late in history, the 
Vai syllabary has interested students of the art of writing who have hoped 
that the history of its development in recent times might throw light on 
the obscure early history of writing. Unfortunately that developnnent 
has not itself been adequately studied until very recently'' ; but intensive 
studies are now in progress and several papers are in process of publi- 
cation.'' ® Reference may be made to these papers for details of the 
script and Koelle's contribution to its analysis. As to the invention of 
the syllabary, it is becoming clearer that this was a by-product of the 
events listed in the last paragraph, the advent of Islam and of Christian 
missionaries, and the .idvancing political and cultural influence of Free- 
town and Monrovia. 



KOELLE AND VAI 

It was the Vai syllabary which drew Koelle to the study of Vai (as he 
describes in the Appendix of this volume). S. W. Koelle, a German but 
a missionary of the English Church Missionary Society, arrived in Free- 
town in late 1847. He was aged twenty four and this was his first posting: 
he was directed to act as tutor at the missionary higher institute at 
Fourah Bay, and instructed to devote part of his time to the study of 
African languages, a study which had already been pursued, devotedly 
but somewhat erratically, by Freetown missionaries for four decades'. 
In January 1849, a British naval officer brought news of the employment 
of an indigenous script at Cape Mount (the script had in fact been reported 
in print by American missionaries fifteen years earlier, but neither the 
British 'discoverer' nor Koelle knew this). The Freetown missionaries 
were excited at this further evidence of African ability - so useful as 
ammunition in their campaign against those who derided missionary 
efforts - and within a week Koelle had been despatched to Cape Mount to 
investigate and report. 

As Dalby justly remarks, "Koelle's account of his adventurous search 
for the inventor of the syllabary, and of their dramatic meeting in the 
Liberian hinterland, has a 'Stanley and Livingstone' flavour"'. Koelle 
wrote this account in June 1849, in Freetown, shortly after his return 
from seven weeks stay in Vailand, and it was published in London, in 
pamphlet form, in September''. In mid- 1850, Koelle spent a few weeks 
in the Gallinas district of Vailand, and from November 1850 to March 



1851 he worked again in the Cape Mount district. The Gallinas visit 
came about because the mission considered establishing a station in 
Vailand : the later trip was carried out mainly to enable Koelle to complete 
his academic inquiries : on both occasions he concentrated his attention 
on the language rather than on the script. Working at his usual extra- 
ordinary speed, Koelle apparently completed his manuscript of the Vei 
grammar and vocabulary by July 1851 (the date on the Preface), But the 
work was not put to the press until 1853, when Koelle returned on leave 
from Africa, He revised the manuscript in some particulars (cf. p. 10), 
but both between 1851 and 1853 in Freetown, and in 1853 in London, he 
had so much other work in hand, that it is highly unlikely that he had the 
time to make any radical changes. Hence, Koelle's Vai grammar and 
vocabulary represent the work of a young student who wrote thenn only 
eighteen months after first becoming acquainted with the language - during 
which period he spent some seven months among Vai-speakers in Vai- 
land, and the remaining eleven months in Freetown where there were 
only a handful of Vai (according to his Polyglotta Africana , p. 3) and 
where he had to attend to many duties other than the study of Vai. These 
duties included the study of Kanuri, on which he had been engaged since 
1848, and the collection of vocabularies for the Polyglotta Africana : 
though these doubtless afforded some experience in the handling of Afri- 
can languages, the Vai study was the first linguistic work completed by 
Koelle, just as the text was (as far as we know) his first lengthy piece 
of writing. 

Little detailed study has yet been made of the formal approach of early 
students of African languages to the languages they studied. Preceding 
Koelle's grammar of Vai, two works had been published on Mande lan- 
guages : Brunton's Susu grammar ( 1802) and MacBrair's Mandingo gram- 
mar (1837) : but though both of these were by missionaries and in English, 
no evidence has yet come to light that Koelle was aware of their existence. 
The works cited by Koelle in the grammar were in the main by German 
scholars and on non-African languages, the most frequently cited being 
Ewald's writings on Hebrew. While Koelle was clearly acquainted with 
contemporary German linguistics, including comparative studies, the 
pages (5-10) in his grammar of 'Vei roots compared with Indo-European 
and Semitic roots' will disappoint the modern scholar - almost to the 
same extent that he will be surprised by the reason given for the exer- 
cise, "exposing the entire groundlessness of that anti-biblical assertion, 
that our black brethren in Africa have an unadamatic origin". 

Evaluation of the Vai grammar and vocabulary is seriously hampered by 
the shortage of published studies on Vai of later date. The grammar, 
including the phonology, must certainly be corrected or nnodified at those 
points where more accurate or fuller information has been supplied in 
the brief analysis published in 1933 by the late Professor Klingenheben'° ; 
the texts published in the same year by Damnnann" , together with those 
published by Klingenheben in 1925-6, supplement those in Koelle. Unfor- 
tunately, though Klingenhaben worked in Vai for over forty years and 
published a number of articles*'"'^, his research and publications in 
other African languages deflected him from the full-scale publications 
in Vai which had been hoped for from him, above all a Vai dictionary. 
His death in 1966 prevented the realisation of these hopes, and we must 
therefore expect to wait nnany years yet before Koelle's book, despite 
its innperfections, is fully superseded. It has been stressed above ^hat 



Koellewas inexperienced when he carried out his Vai research, and that 
he completed it in a very short period of time : nevertheless, his later 
publications show that he was capable, at his best, of a very high standard 
of analysis (relative of course to the knowledge of his day). The vocabu- 
lary is still the longest available, and despite obvious defects (especially 
the failure to distinguish phonemic contrasts in the bilabial/labio-velar 
series b, 6, m6, kp, mgb, gb), some of which can be corrected from 
material in Klingenheben or Dammanri, it appears to be the most accurate 
formal vocabulary in print, 

Koelle's book incidentally contains much of interest on many aspects of 
Vai culture : information, for instance, on terms borrowed from Ar9.bic 
and from European languages (pp. 12-13), on the method of counting 
(p, 31), on the women's secret society (p. 209), A year after its first 
publication, it was re-issued, with the 1849 account of the discovery of 
the Vai script and its principal inventor added as an appendix : it is this 
edition which is here reprinted. The account itself remains of great 
interest to the historian, ethnographer and linguist: but scholars should 
be warned that there are small but significant differences between the 
text of the 1849 pamphlet and the text of the 1854 appendix. 

The 1854 printing apparently sold slowly. Around 1902, the remainders 
v/ere in the possession of Kegan Paul the publishers, who rebound them 
and gave them a new title-page : my own copy was one of a handful re- 
maining unsold on Kegan Paul's shelves in I960, over a century after 
the first issue. The manuscript of the book is not in the C, M, S, Archives 
and may not be extant (but the manuscript of the 1849 report is in the 
Archives) : a manuscript of Vai vocabulary in Koelle's hand, inscribed 
"Sandbeach near Cape Mount, November 24th 1850", is in the Grey 
Collection of the South African Public Library, 



P. E. H. HAIR 



1 P, E, H. HAIR, 'An early seventeenth century vocabulary of Vai' , 
African Studies , 23, 1964, pp. 129-139. 

2 P. E, H, HAIR, 'The Sierra Leone settlement- the earliest attempts 
to study African languages ', Sierra Leone Language Review , 2, 1963, 
pp, 5-10. 

3 P, E, H. HAIR, 'Notes on the discovery of the Vai script, with a 
bibliography'. Sierra Leone Language Review , 2, 1963, pp. 36-49. 

4 W, RODNEY, 'A reconsideration of the Mane invasion of Sierra 
Leone', Journal of African History , 8, 1967, pp. 219-246. 

5 W, E, WELMERS, 'The Mande languages', in W, M, Austin, ed, , 
Report of the Ninth annual meeting on Linguistics , Monograph series 
No. 11, 1958, Georgetown University, [i960], pp, 9-24, 

6 A. KLINGENHABEN, 'Vai-Texte', Zeitschrift fUr Eingeborenen- 
Sprachen , 16, 1925-6. pp. 58-133. 



7 D. DALBY, 'A survey of the indigenous scripts of Liberia and Sierra 
Leone : Vai, Mende, Loma, Kpelle, and Bassa', African Language 
Studies , VIII, 1967, pp. 1-51 [and a second part of this survey will 
appear in 1968J. 

8 G. STEWART, 'Notes on the present-day usage of the Vai scriptin 
Liberia', A frican Language Review , 6, 1967 [in press], 

9 P. E. H. HAIR, 'Koelle at Freetown. An historical introduction' 

[to] S. W. Koelle, Polyglotta Africana (1854), reprinted Freetown 
and Graz, 1963. 

Po E. H. HAIR, The early study of Nigerian languages , West African 
Language Monograph Series No. 7, 1967. 

10 A. KLINGENHEBEN, 'Der Bau der Sprache der Vai in Westafrika', 
Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu GQttingen , 
Philologische-Historische Klasse , Berlin, 1933, pp. 374-404. 

11 E. DAMMANN, 'Vai-Erzahlungen', and 'Vai-SprichtwOrter', Zeit- 
schrift fUr Eingeborenen-Spr a chen, 23, pp. 254-78, and 24, pp. 76-79. 

12 A. KLINGENHEBEN, 'Tempora Westafrika und die semitischen 
Tempora', Zeitschrift fUr Eingeborenen-Sprachen , 19, 1929, pp. 
241-268. 

A. KLINGENHEBEN, ' Zur psychologischen Struktur der Vai-Sprache', 
Comptes-rendus, Congrfes de I'Institut International des Langues at 
Civilisations Africains (1931), Paris, 1932, pp, 88-99. 

A. KLINGENHEBEN, 'The Vai script', Africa , 6, 1933, pp. 158-171, 

A. KLINGENHEBEN, 'Die Mande-Valker und ihre Sprachen', Zeit- 
schrift fUr Eingenborenen-Sprachen , 34, 1944, pp. 1-23. 

A. KLINGENHEBEN, 'Influence of analogy in African languages'. 
Journal of African Languages, 1, 1962, pp. 30-42, 



PREFACE. 



The following Outlines and Vocabulary are the result of a five 
months' residence (from November 1850 to March 1851) in the 
Vei country, both at Wakoro (Cape Mount) and Dshaiaro (the 
Gallinas), But with the best will, one cannot do in "Western 
Africa what he might do elsewhere. The intense and perse- 
vering exertion required for the cultivation of an unwritten lan- 
guage, cannot but bruig on fever in this land of fevers. My 
work was twice interrupted by fever during the five months, and 
I here gratefully acknowledge the goodness of God that it has 
been only twice. Besides this, a civil war was raging in the 
country, which, during the first half of my residence, proved a 
hindrance to my object. For a foi*tnight I was left alone with my 
servant in a hut, all the natives of the place havmg fled, from 
fear of a daily-expected attack of the enemy. In addition to 
this comes the great unfitness of unlettered natives for literary 
pursuits, and the difficulty to keep them employed in ?uch a work 
for any length of time. As one of them said to me, " A black 
man is not able to sit down a whole day in one place, and to do 
nothing but book-palaver." This statement will, I feel assured, 
bespeak the indulgence of the Reader to the degree of imperfection 
in which the Vei Grammar appears. Yet -the study of a language 
in the very country where it is spoken, has always its decided advan- 
tages ; and the above statement can therefore be considered, at the 
same time, as an invitation to expect from the following pages at 
least a little more light on the stUl dark field of African languages. 
The plan which I consider safest and speediest in reducing 



11 PREFACE. 

languages is this: — first, to write from the mouth of natives a 
certain amount of stories, songs, descriptions, &c. ; then to 
translate them with the aid of one who understands some En- 
glish; and next to deduce the grammar from it. This is the 
plan I pui'sued in Vei. I wrote and translated 170 pages, 
30 of which were dictated by a young man who understands 
English pretty well; 30 by Momoru Doaru Wonye, or John 
Sandfish, the same who had been employed by Captain Forbes, 
and who also speaks English a little; 70 by Kari Bara Ndore 
Wano, the author of one of the manuscripts referred to in 
the narrative of my Vei journey of 1849, who speaks only a 
few words of English; and the remaining 40 by three elderly 
men, who do not understand a word of English. When I thus 
wrote, I did not understand what I was writing, but merely 
entrusted to the paper, in simple and consistent orthography, the 
sounds which I was hearing. Hence it often happened, that, in 
writing, I had separated into two words what was only one, or 
united into one what really were two. But this mode of proceed- 
ing enabled me, easily to discover phonetic changes, with which 
I should, perhaps, not have been struck, had there been in my 
memory a distinct image of the individual word before I heard it 
used in the context. 

I have made these remarks respecting the source from which 
I drew my grammar, in order to account for the examples on 
which the rules are based, and the contents of which may some- 
times create a little surprise, and, more especially, to place the 
force of these examples in the proper light. They are not 
phrases which have first been formed in English for the purpose 
that an interpreter might give the corresponding phrase in Vei, 
and that thus a certain rule might be established ; but they are 
takeri, with very few exceptions, from the context of native 
speeches, made without reference to any particular rules. Rules 
have not produced them, but they have produced the rules. 



PREFACE. iii 

The signification of the words in the Yocabulaiy was obtained 
in the same way ; and every one must see how much safer that 
is, than the easier and more convenient method of merely asking 
an interpreter what a given word means in his own language. 
From pursuing the latter plan, mistakes have been committed 
like the following; "Give me a little" has been represented as 
" some ;" " these people" as " they ;" " a black man" as " body ;" 
" I want some " as " more," &c. 

The territory over which the Vei language is spoken is small, its 
most northern part being what has been called the Gallinas, and its 
southern boundary. Half Cape Mount, being about a day's walk to 
the south of Grand Cape Mount, and stretching not farther inland 
than two days' journey, or about forty or fifty miles. At the 
Gallinas, according to information received there, the Vei terri- 
tory did not extend farther inland than fifteen or twenty miles, till 
about twenty years ago, when the chiefs were instigated by Spa- 
nish^lave-traders to give it its present extent. To the north the 
Vei language is bordered on by the Kirim language, from which 
it is entirely different; and to the south by the relics of the 
Dewoi' language, with which also it has no particular affinity, and 
by the English of the Republic of Liberia. 

This shews that the Veiese must have come originally from the 
interior, and taken possession of the above-described line of coast 
Similar inroads appear to have been made on other parts of the 
coast ; for the interior tribes are always jealous of the advantages 
of those close to the sea, from whom they have to obtain by barter, 
sea-salt, European commodities, &c. But in addition to these 
general reasons, there is still a direct tradition among the Vei people 
themselves, to the eflfect that they emigrated from a district of the 
Mani country, under the command of the two brothers, Fabule 
and Kiatamba, conquered part of the coast, and settled where 
they now are. 

The question therefore arises. Whence did they get the name 

b 



IV PREFACE. 

of Vei? With regard to this point I did not get any satisfactory 
answer from themselves : they appeared to have no opinion wliat- 
ever on the subject. One of two things, therefore, is hkely to 
have happened : either they retained the name, not, indeed, of tlie 
country, but of the district from which thoy emigrated, or they 
assumed the national name of those whom they conquered. The 
former does not appear to have been the case ; for the name of that 
part of Mani where they came from was mentioned to me, but I re- 
gret to say, nothing more remains in my memory regarding it, than 
the mere impression that it is very different from the word " Vei." 
I therefore suppose the conquering Manis appropriated to them- 
selves, not only the country, but also the name of the people 
whom they had conquered. This would be the more natural if 
their emigration had been caused by internal dissension at home, 
a thing which often takes place among African tribes ; for thus 
they would have more fully established their distinction from, and 
independence of, their mother-country. 

As to the time, also, when this conquest may have taken place, 
I could gain no accurate information. A very old chief, probably 
ninety or more years of age, was pointed out to me as the son of 
one of the great conquerors ; but the word " son " being used for 
grandson and descendant also, this is not decisive. If we compare 
the dialects spoken by the Manis and Veis, we discover a diffe- 
rence which can scarcely have arisen in less than a couple of cen- 
turies. So far back we shall therefore be compelled to date that 
conquest, on the assumption that the language of the emigrating 
and remaining Manis has been quite identical. But as it is possible 
that slight dialectic differences may have existed before the emigra- 
tion, the present difference of language cannot be looked upon as a 
positive proof that such a conquest did not take place later. But, 
at any rate, it cannot have happened later than a century ago, for 
circumstances connected with it have already assumed the full cha- 
racter of fables. Near the town of Datia, e.g., at the foot of the 



PREFACE. V 

Kong behind Cape Mount, there is a piece of water which they call 
" Zontori," and the reason why it bears that name is as follows: — 
At the time of the conquest, when Zong, the king of the place, had 
lost his warriors in the battle, he fled into the forest with Tori, his 
queen : there they met a benign being of the other world, who 
showed them a way down into the regions under the water, the 
happy abode of the departed. Thither all the warriors followed them, 
and the rest of their subjects. There they now enjoy an existence 
free from care and full of pleasure, and the sound of their songs, 
or the noise of their feasts and frolics, are sometimes heard by the 
living during the silence of the night But when this happens, 
they consider it an evil omen, generally prognosticating the death 
of some person : if the noise is very great, the death of a chief; 
or, in case the songs sound like sdnde songs, the death of a 
woman. It therefore always spreads alarm when the Zontori 
people make themselves heard in their wide dominions under 
the water. 

It is right here to state, that I had a forerunner in writing 
on the grammar of the Vei language. I allude to the gramma- 
tical remarks of E. Norris, Esq., in a pamphlet entitled, *' Des- 
patch communicating the discovery of a native-written character, 
&c., by Lieut. F. E. Forbes, R. N." And I gladly embrace this 
opportunity to express my high esteem of that gentleman's phi- 
lological skill, of the perseverance he displayed in the very dif- 
ficult way in which he had to gain his acquaintance with the 
Vei language ; and, considering the poor and insufficient means at 
his command, of the success, also, which accompanied his praise- 
worthy endeavours. He has the honour to have discovered 
before me the absence of declension in the noun, the use of some 
particles, e.g. ni, after the verb, and some peculiarity in the use of 
pronouns, &c. But, of course, it was altogether impossible, with his 
imperfect means, to obtain a clear view of many things which the 
following pages will explain. 



VI PREFACE, 

Neither can I let this opportunity pass, without bearing testi- 
mony to the credit due to Lieut. F. E. Forbes for his discovery of 
the fact, that the natives at Cape Mount possessed a mode of writ- 
ing of their own. I have myself seen the few indistinct characters, 
Avritten with charcoal on the walls of a house, which had first 
attracted his notice : at present, I regret to add, they are no longer 
visible, the house having been whitewashed. It required an ob- 
serving eye, of no common order, to be struck with these new and 
indistinct characters. Many Englishmen had passed that house, 
but it appears none stopped to examine these strange signs, except 
Lieut. Forbes. 

And now, may the following pages, the result of many an 
hour's lonely labour in tropical Africa, be not found altogether 
useless, but may they contribute a mite to the furtherance of 
the cause of Him who has declared himself to be the King of 
Truth! 

S. W. KOELLE. 

FouuAH Bay, Sierra Lkone, 
July 26, 1851. 



CHAPTER I. 

ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE VEI LANGUAGE 



§. 1. 

The Bible teaches us that once "the whole earth was o/'one language 
and q/"oNE speech;" and likewise, that in a miraculous way "the 
Lord did confound the language of all the earth." This accounts 
both for the features o/" affinity and the deep-going difference 
betiveen the languages of mankind. 

I. In illustrating the affinity of Vei roots with roots of other 
languages, it must of course be presupposed as generally 
acknowledged, that one and the same root may appear in dif- 
ferent languages as a different part of speech ; it may, e. g., be 
a noun in one language, a verb in another, a preposition in a 
third : that the consonants are the more important and stable 
element of language, whereas the vowels are subordinate and 
easily changeable : that, frequently, the first consonant of a root 
is the first in rank, and the others become of less importance, in 
the same proportion as they are distant from the first : and, 
lastly, that certain consonants are so closely allied, that they 
may be substituted, one for the other, without affecting the 
meaning. Besides these general principles, some peculiarities 
of the Vei lan^uase must be taken into consideration. Its 
extreme tendency to simplicity and shortness, by means of 
which most of its words are either monosyllables or dissyliables, 
must greatly enhance the value of the single consonant which 
Vei monosyllables may have preserved from polysyllabic roots. 
The law re^ulatiue: the distribution of consonants and vowels, 
according to which each radical consonant is uniformly fol- 
lowed by a vowel, must affect certain roots, either by the 
ejection of consonants, or the insertion of vowels, in order to 



4 ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

avoid the direct meeting of two or more consonants. The 
aversion of the language to begin words with r or ^ produces a 
regular change of these letters into d; and its aversion to begin 
words with vowels causes the general loss of initial vowels. 

Now an attention to the principles here laid down will doubt- 
less enable the reader to see, what has often struck me during 
the study of the language, viz. that a number of Vei roots are 
identical or cognate with the Indo-European and Semitic roots. 
I am not aware whether attempts have ever been made to iden- 
tify the roots of Negro languages with those of other lingual 
stocks. However that may be, I hope that the subjoined catalogue 
of compared roots will make the impression, that the sameness or 
affinity of sounds therein exhibited cannot be accidental, but 
must have a broader and surer basis. What else can that basis 
be. but the common humanity which the Negro shares with 
the Caucasian. The lingual world is just beginning to point 
out that the Grammar of the Negro languages betrays the same 
rational principles, the same general laws, the same regularity 
and organism of structure, as the Grammar of other languages. 
Can we be surprised, if we find a corresponding comprehensive- 
ness in the vocabulary, and even some affinity in the roots? 
Professor Pott, an eminent German scholar, somewhere says : 
" Linguists, without being able to come up to the warmth and 
vivacity of Mrs Beecher Stowe's writings, will yet obtain 
the merit, by elucidating the reasonableness and general 
human feelings in the idioms of torrid Africa, of contributing 
greatly towards dispersing those prejudices, which consider the 
mental qualification of the Negroes as much below the usual 
standard of mankind, and their destination to approach closely 
that of beasts of burden, so that it appears no great injustices 
for the white man to force their arms and limbs into uncon- 
ditional servitude, and to dispose of them in an arbitrary 
manner." We trust that the following Grammar will not be 
without some contribution of this kind, although the Vei lan- 
guage is by no means one of the most developed, but decidedly 
one of the least developed of Negro languages. And even the 



VEI LANGUAGE. 5 

Comparison of Roofs we subjoin, in the hope that it will con- 
tribute a little towards exposing the entire groundlessness of 
that anti-biblical assertion, that our black brethren in Africa 
have an unadamitic origin. 

Vei Roots compared with Indo-European and Semitic Roots. 

The Interjections are the same in the Vei as we find in most 
other languages, as — a, e, o, ho, eio, hoio. 

The Vei contains four Demonstrative Roots, all of which can 
be easily recognised in both the Semitic and Indo-European 
languages. But we must bear in mind that one and the same 
demonstrative root frequently fixed itself in language, either as 
a real demonstrative pronoun, or as an interrogative and re- 
lative pronoun, or as an adverb, or even as a conjunction. 
(Comp. §§. 102 — 105 of Ewald's " Ausfiihrliches Lehrgebaude 
der Hebraisehen Sprache.") 

First Demonstrative Root. 
Vei: me, this; mu, this, it; mz'na, which .^ mhe, which? what.^ 
me, adv. here, there; mhe, why? mtna, where? 

Semitic: '^^, who? H^, what? ^J>«, quis? U, quid? 

ns, here; HD^b^, where? 
Indo-European : ttoio^ ? irorepov ? ttw? ? Germ, wer ? wo ? Engl, 
who ? where ? 

Second Demonstrative Root. 

Vei : nie, adv. here ; nu, yonder. 

Semitic : n3n (for Ti^i-::!), fc^r, ^l 

Indo-European : Sansk. f{, stirps demonstrativa ; Gr. vvv-vv ; 
Lat. en. 

Third Demonstrative Root. 
Vei : he, this, that ; dso, who ? k&ma, what ? how much ? 
ke, adv. there, then, thus ; kdma, how? 
ke, conj. then, that, whether. 

Semitic : T\\, this ; \h, is ; T\%, thus ; "^3, conj. that. 
Indo-European : Sanks. foifw , quid (r. ■^) ; Hindust. ^ ( = dso) 



6 ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

who? ^•S, who? which? Gr. kCos? Ko-repov? Lat. 
quis ? quid ? 

Fourth Demonstrative Root. 
Vei he, heye, here, there ; hi, if, and. 

Semitic: t^n, nSH, ■rT?b^'in; \j& , yb, from Jfc +j. 
Indo- European : ^, hie ; ff, particula interrogativa ; G. 6, o?; 
L. hie ; G. hier, hin, her ; E. he, here. 
The Personal Pronouns do not exhibit so striking a similarity 
yet some may be discovered, and we feel inclined to compare 

n, na, (I, my ) with H. ^:i^ ; A. Gv 

i, yd, (thou, thy,) with the suffix i, which, in Sindi, is the 
possessive pronoun of the second person singular. 

a, a, ua (he, his) with H. "i (suff.), b^*n ; A. ^, which 
Fiirst supposes to be a compound of two separate de- 
monstrative roots, ha and iva. 

mu (we, our) with S. ^^, nos; G. rjixeT^; L. nos ; G. mir ; 
E. we. Compare also the singular G. mich ; E. me. 

uu (ye, your) with S. ^^^, vos ; Gr. vixeTs ; L. vos ; Fr. 
vous. 

Of the Numerals, only two admit of a comparison with Indo- 
European roots, viz. — 

/era, two, with S. ij^ alius; Sindi ■3, duo; L. par, bis, 
bini ; G. paar ; E pair. Compare also the Vei pere 
also, too. 

tan-, ten ; with S. ^^PT . decem : Gr. §€Kor; L. decem ; Goth, 
taihun ; G. zehn ; E. ten. 

The remaining words which we should like to compare, may 
here follow in alphabetical order. 

be, to live, to exist, be ; here, to be not ; we, to be (as copula) ; 
were, to be not, cannot, may not. 
S. w, esse; Gr. ^vm; L. fu-i, fu-turus, fo-re ; G. bi-n ; 

E. be. 
In Hebrew we might compare 7TT\ and n^H for 
rnn and rnn, of which the first and last aspi- 
rates may be easily lost, so that only iv or b remains ; 

L L 
and the negative bere, tvere, may remind us of ,2 '^(r^- 



VEI LANGUAGE. 7 

bera, to fall; S. xj"^, cadere, xr^ findi, dirumpi ; Hindust. 
\j>j>^, cadere ; Gr. (r<^aAAa) ; L. fallo ; G. fallen ; E. fall ; 

H. rh^, h^^ ; A. 5^. 

here, to pass; S. ^ and xnr, trajicere ; Gr. irepdo), iropo^ ', 
L. per ; G. fahren, Fahrmann ; E. ferry, fare ; H. 113^ ; 

K.jsS'. Compare also Vei fere, to barter. 

bq, to come out of ; H. i^il ; A. ^b ; S. m, ire ; Gr. firj, 

f3il3r]/jLi, ^aivci. 
bun; to bend, bow ; S. m^, flectere, curvare ; Gr. (pevyoi ; 

L. fugio (a vertendo dicta) ; G. biegen, beugen, Bogen ; 

E. bow, bend. 
di, light, flame ; S. f^, splendere ; f^, coelum ; Gr. Ai-og 

(ZeCf) ; L. dies, sub divo. Compare also H. "^it^ and 

T T 

dia, quick ; S. ^TT, celer ; '^, ire, to which Bopp remarks 
Goth, aims mihi ortum esse videtur ex primitiva hujus 
radicis forma ^^ ; Hib. ria = he will arrive, ria = run- 
ning, speed. 

dse, to see ; dsa, eye ; S. ^T^, oculus ; ^, videre ; fan, scire ; 
Hib. ci, to see ; Gr. ocrcro, okko ; L. oculus ; G. Auge, 
E. eye. 

dsi ( = gi), water; S. aT^, aqua; Hib. gfiZ=aqua ; L, gelu; 
Goth, A:a/d's = frigidus ; Lith. szala = gelascit. 

duma, earth, soil ; H. rTT^lb^ ; A. \jji>. 

fa, father ; pa, Mr., Sir ; S. fm^, -qw, pater, which Bopp 

derives from tjT, servare, nutrire, and sufF. w; Gr. TtaTrjp ; 

' s t 

L. pater ; G. Vater ; E. father ; H. li;^ ; A. l-.>1 
fa, to die, kill, death ; S. ^tT, occidere, perdere ; Gr. (poveoi, 

(povog ; L. fendere, funus ; E, funeral. 
fa, full, to fill ; S. Ti, ^^, implere, satiare ; G. Trtjx-TcXrj-fjLi ; 

L. impleo, plenus; G. voll, f iillen ; E. full, fill ; H. t^"!)?! 

b^\^, ^^7^, to be full ; A. ^jj*>, fjjy 

fira, wind, breath ; fe, to blow ; banda, sky, time ; S. ^, 
flare, spirare ; ^5^, ventus ; Goth, w, flare ; Gr. avpa ex 
aFpa, ovpo£ ex oFpog ; L. ventus, aura ; G. Wind ; E. wind. 



8 ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

fo, to say ; fo, adv., clean, pure, truly ; S. tj, purificare, 
lustrare : m, splendere ; Gr. <p}]-fJii, erTrw ; L. purus, verus; 
fa-ri, Old G. bar; E. pure, bare. 

fono, to vomit ; S. ^»? vomo ; Gr. l/xeo) ; L. vomo ; E. 
vomit. 

fura, to bore ; H. "It^S, "^i^S ; A. j\s ; L. forare ; G. bohren 

E. bore. 
hari, all ; S. ^, quivis, omnis ; Pers. Jd ; Gr. oKog ; Goth. 

alls ; G. alle ; E. all. 
kdmba, grave; G. grab, grube, graben ; E. grave ; H. *^5p. ; 

kari, to break ; kere, war ; S. oS. offendere, ferire, occidere : 
G. Kepaoi, KtpvY]{xi ; G. krieg ; L. cul-ter ; H. V^l ; 

^ y y' 

A. ^. 

here, or kele, to call ; koari, to speak ; hire, word ; S. '^, 
oFcJ, T, sonare ; «FtT. vox; iT%, elamare, crepare ; Gr. 
KuXeu), aY-yeAAco; L. garrire, eanere, gallus ; G. gellen ; 

E. cry, call, nightin-gale ; H. ^^"^1^, ^^P ; A. Jy, J^* 
ki, to sleep ; ku, ken', house ; S. ^, domire ; Gr. Koi-rrj, 

Kio-fxa ; L. quies ; Goth, hei-wa, domus ; Old G. hi-wo, 

conjux, hi-wa, uxor; G. hei-m ; E. home. 
koro, old; S. 'qxT, adv. olim, antequam ; tt^, gravis, vetie- 

randus ; Gr. yepcov ; G. Greis, grau ; E. grey. 
koso-koso, to cough; S. oirnB, id.; Lith, kostu ; G. husten. 
kuri, to go round, to carry round ; Gr. KipKo^ ; L. circus ; 

G. Kreiss ; E. circle ; H. "133 for 13n3 ; A. J^- 
kuru^ hinder-part, back ; ktlnu, yesterday ; H, "^inb^ ; 

kuru, kerema, ha, great, big, large. Here a transmutation 
of a labial into a guttural seems to have taken place, 
a change occurring even in the Vei language itself, 
e.g. kurv and tvun', when ; kiinda and bunda, to bend. 
On the assumption of such a transmutation we recog- 
nise the Vei root in S. 'q^, multus ; Gr. irokv^ ; L. plus 
raul-tus ; Hib. mor, great, big ; G. viel. 



VEI LANGUAGE. 9 

ma, not ; S. ^}, id ; Gr. fxt] ; H. tin^, to deny ; A. U, idem. 
ma, to make ; S. jt?^ parare ; Gr. M^X°?' H-VX'^^V 5 Gr- machen, 

mogen ; E. make, might, may. 
mdma, grandmother, probably = mother's-mother; ba, mother, 

S. »n^, mater, of which Bopp says, "ut mihi videtur a r. 

m ; Gr. f^ar^p ; L. Mater ; G. Mutter ; E. mother ; H. 

D^; A. ^\. 

mi, to drink ; H. iD, '^72, water ; A. lU, id.; S. xn, bibere ; 

Gr. TTtvoi ; L. bibo ; G. bier ; E. beer. 
pene, all, whole ; Gr. -nag, Trav-rog ; L. finis ; E. finish. 
ro, to say, to think ; Gr. e'lpoo ; L. loquor ; S. i^, to which 

Bopp remarks "hue trahimus etiam Gr. peco, prj/xa, ab- 

jecta litterata initiali, sicut |oew=fluo, and apeoi, (TpeFo>= 

^^ifT." Compare also, S. xz, loqui ; Old G. redson ; 

G. reden ; Goth, razda = sermo. 
sen; to say ; G. singen, sagen ; E. sing, say. 
sere, to rise, ascend ; sere, very ; S. tb, ire, progredi ; ^TR, 

eximus, optimus ; G. hehr, sehr ; E. rg^r. 
SI, to sit, set ; S. th5, sidere, sedere ; Gr. eSog, eCo/xa/ ; 

L. sedere, sidere ; G. sitzen, setzen, sinken ; E. sit, set, 

settle, sink. 
so, to stand ; S. WT, stare ; G. icrTijfxt ; L. sto ; G. stehen ; 

E. stand. 
sunda, to send ; G. senden ; E. send. Perhaps S. tt^, id. 
sun', to gather, collect ; S. trh , cum ; ^, colligare ; Gr. aui/j 

|w ; G. sammeln, sammt : L. cum ; E. sum. 
susu, breast, teat ; S. '^^'F* papilla ; Gr. rirdrj, titBos ; G. 

Zize ; E. teat. 
ta, fire; ta, to cook; S. ^% calor, ignis; ^, urere ; 

Gr. daiui ; Old G. taht, daht. 

ta, go ; H. nr\ijl, to come, to go ; A. \j\ ' S. ^7, ire. 
tdra, to tear ; S. ^, lacerare, dissecare ; Gr. Bepo) ; L. tero 

Si 

G. zerren ; E. tear. 
teri, or fell, tale ; G. zahlen, erziihlen ; E. tell, tale. 

tcre or tele, sun; S, ^, id.; Gr. rjAios; L. sol; G. Sonne; 
E. sun. 



10 ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

vdnya, vein ; L. vena ; E. vein. 

wuru, to will, like, wish; S. ^. ^» optare, desiderare; 
Gr. ^6v\ofj.ai ; L. volo ; G. wollen, wahlen ; E. will ; 

H. TXyi, to cut out, to choose ; A, ^JJ>. 
wvru, to bear, to beget ; bira, to take ; boro, hand, arm ; 
S. *T, ferre ; HTT, onus; Gr. (pepoi; L. fero, pario, porto ; 
G. Bahre, ge-baren ; E. to bear, bier ; H. rTlS . 

Note. — This comparison of African roots could also be ex- 
tended to the American languages. As an instance, we will 
merely give the demonstrative roots of the Greenlandish, 
which entirely coincide with the first three Vei demonstra- 
tives mentioned above. They are taken from S. Kleinsch- 
midt's " Grammatik der Gronlandischen Sprache," and are 
as follows : 
ma, " here." mana, " this." uv, " here, there." 

na, nav, " where ?'' suna, " what ?" kina, " who ?" 

ik, " three, yonder." inga, " that, this." kia, kina, " who ?'"' 

3. There is a very great difference between many of the 
African languages ; and if once fully brought to light, they 
are likely to separate into several distinct stocks of languages, 
differing, perhaps, as widely from each other as do languages 
of the Indo-European and Semitic stocks. The languages 
spoken to the south of the Moon-mountains seem to form one 
such stock — the South African; but the North- African lan- 
guages are not yet sufficiently known to be thus classified. 

I had here given a list of roots which are common to the 
Vei and to other North- and South-African languages not be- 
longing to the Mande stock. But as the publication of this 
Grammar has been delayed so long, that my " Polyglotta 
Africana" will be out about the same time, the list is now 
omitted, because the Polyglot furnishes a comparison of Vei 
roots with roots of a great many other African languages. 

II. Besides this radical and general aflfinity of the Vei with 
European, Asiatic, and African languages, it also stands in a 
more particular and immediate relationship with a number of 



VEI LANGUAGE. 11 

African languages, with which it forms one common stock oi- 
family — the Mande family. For an illustration of this closer 
or family connexion of the Vei language we again refer to 
the " Polyglotta Africana." 

The Mani family of languages seems to occupy almost the 
whole western part of High Sudan, between the 16th and 8th 
degree of northern latitude, extending eastward to about the 
longitude of Timbuctu, or the meridian of Greenwich. To- 
wards the west it seems to have nowhere descended into that 
narrow strip of lowland, which, from Senegambia right down 
to Cape Palmas, forms an intermediate step between High 
Sudan and the Atlantic, except in the Vei country, and in 
part of the present Mande territory. The lowland between 
High Sudan and the sea is occupied by languages widely dif- 
ferent from those of the Mande stock ; viz. the Kirim, Bulom, 
English, Timne, Baga, Nalu, Bidsogo, Balanta, Pepel, Fulup, 
Wolof, &c. 

HI. Besides those already mentioned, there is another 
class of words which the Vei has in common with Indo-Euro- 
pean and Semitic languages (doubtless also with African 
though I am not able to point them out). They have not 
originally been part of the Vei language, but were adopted 
through the intercourse with Europeans and Muhammadans. 
This adoption, however, could not be effected without subject- 
ing the words to considerable changes. A comparison of the 
form of these words before and after their adoption must 
afford a striking illustration of the difference of the Vei from 
those languages from which the words are borrowed. 

The alteration to which these words had to be subjected 
before they could easily flow in the Vei speech, invites us, at 
the same time, to reflect on the still greater changes which, 
in different ways, one and the same root may have had to 
undergo, at that remarkable era of the world when an omni- 
potent will had produced in the human mind such an asto- 
nishing variation and diversifying tendency in conceiving 



12 ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIP OF THE 

and expressing thoughts, as must have existed in the epoch 
of the " separation of tongues," and when that " propensity 
to variation was still in the greatest activity." Such reflec- 
tions may free one from many a doubt and suspicion which a 
first glance at the above identification of roots may have 
awakened, and dispose the mind to that degree of faith 
which even philology often requires, before she opens herself 
for insight and comprehension. That they may serve this 
purpose is an additional reason for introducing in this place 
the following: collection of words which have become natural- 
ized in the Vei language. 

From the English the following words are adopted, and more 
or less generally understood : — Bed, V. beri or beli ; bowl, 
V. boli and bori ; lamp, V. dampo ; ring, V. din-, i.e. finger- 
ring or ear-ring ; jacket, V. dseti ; English-man, V. Dsengise- 
mo ; French-man, V. Fasi-mo ; factory, V. fetere, and some- 
times contracted into fete ; fork, V. furokia ; governor, V. go- 
raere ; hundred, V. hondoro ; carpenter, V. kamundere and 
kam'dere ; candle, V. kendere ; Curtis, a proper name, V. Koisi ; 
coat, V. koti ; queen, V. kuini ; cucumber, V. kumbosu ; Ame- 
rica, V. Mereke ; million, V. milen ; Monrovia, V. Mondovia ; 
Parker, proper name, V. Paka ; pillow, V. puro and pulo ; 
Sierra Leone, V. Saro* ; saucy, V. sasi ; sailor, V. sera and 
sela ; sugar, V. suru and suga ; timber, V. timbere ; tumbler, 
V. tomburu ; trunk, V. torongu ; wine, V. waini ; waistcoat, 
V. weskete. 

Portuguese words are found sparingly : — Pote (pot), V. boda ; 
janella (window), V. dsindera ; batel (boat), V. baa ; cebolla 
(onion), V. sibara and siba ; verruma (gimlet), V. buruma ; 
trazado (sword), V. tasaro ; pagar (pay), V. pawa and pa ; 
tabaco (tobacco), V. tawa and ta ; Poro, doubtless a corrup- 
tion of Portuguese, the first Europeans seen by the natives, 
and now used for all foreigners of a white complexion. 

The Spanish words are also few in number : — Barra (bar), 
V. bara ; bendera (banner), V. bendera ; plata ? (silver), 
V. patawa (dollar) ; mesa (table), V. masa. 



VEI LANGUAGE. 13 

French and German words are these three : — Kiito', couteau, 
knife ; feti, Flote, flute ; Bonobazi, Buonaparte. 

The Arabic words are chiefly (but not exclusively) used by 

the Muharamadan Veis : — Alia, i.e. t^\, God; aldsena, i.e. 

&i:sr', garden, paradise ; Buraima and Buranyima, i.e. ^\ji\, 

Ibrahim, Abraham ; Darabu, i. e. l^.^j«5U Arab, Arabic; dsaha- 

nama and dsanarama, i.e. J^, hell; dunya, i.e. Uiti, world; 

kara (to read, to learn), i.e. \^y to read ; Madina (proper name 

of a town), i.e. &jjk>\«, town; maraka, i.e. tiiii*, angel; Mina 

(proper name of a town), from ^^^ , Amen. [This name was 

given to the town, because, when once a number of Muhamma- 

dans were permitted to reside there, they often repeated ^^\ 

(V. mma). Amen '.] Momoru, i.e. iX**^, Muhammad ; sara, and 

saraka, and sadaka, i.e. aS^x^, quicquid datur deo sacrum ; 

setana, i.e. ^J^^ua, Satan; sala, i.e. 'i^ or 'i"^ ., prayer; 

tasabia, i. e. ^J^ , rosary, &c. 

Note. — But the language has not, in all instances, so pas- 
sively received new names : it has made an endeavour, out 
of its own resources, to provide appellations for the new ob- 
jects which intercourse with Europeans and Americans has 
brought before their eyes. And it has thus indicated what 
will be a natural course for translating books, especially the 
Bible, into African languages : expressions must be sought 
for many new ideas in the deep mines of these languages 
themselves, and this as much as possible ; recourse may then 
be had, as far as necessary, to the adoption of words from 
other languages. 

Newly-formed Vei words of the description alluded to are 
the following :— Te-bira-fen-, i e. sun-catch-thing, or merely 
tere-bira and te-bira, sun-catch, i.e. parasol, umbrella; kan- 
kiri-gbasa, neck-tie-kerchief, i.e. neckcloth ; Poro-kunde, Eu- 



14 SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 

rope-fowl, i.e. duck; Poro-kondse, Europe-nut, i e. cocoa-nut ; 
Poro-bana, Europe-plantain, i.e. banana; dende-mandsa, ves- 
sel-chief, i.e. captain; sisi-dende, smoke-vessel, i.e. steamer; 
bu, gun ; dua and duba, cannon ; bambanden, bell ; karan-ken, 
learn-house, i.e. school ; karan-den, scholar ; karam-mo, school- 
master; tawa-fumu or ta-fumu, tobacco-powder, i.e. snufF; 
e.y. na ta-fumie sa, I take snuff; tawara, pipe, from tawa, 
tobacco ; ken-giira (cf. G. Beinkleiderl, leg-cloth, i.e. trowsers; 
masama-mie, an on-the-table-knife, i.e. a table-knife ; masa sa, 
to lay the table; fereke-fen, a behold-thing, i.e. spectacle, 
telescope. 



CHAPTER II. 

SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 



§. 2. 

On the most natural principle of Orthogi^a'phy, ^^ write as you speak,^' 
the sounds of the Vei language can he represented with sufficient 
accuracy hy the following letters : 

a, b, d, e, e, f, g, h, i, k, m, n, n, o, 9, 6, p, r, r, s, t, u, v, 
w, y, z ; ds, gb ; au, ai, ei, ei, ou ou. 

I. What our material body is, compared with the soul, much 
the same are letters compared with sounds. Never will this 
earthy body, be it ever so disciplined and refined, perfectly 
correspond to the personal soul which it animates ; and never 
will any system of orthography be developed into a full iden- 
tity with the speech which it is to represent. We therefore 
content ourselves with writing merely the chief and easily- 
distinguishable sounds, leaving the more minute modifications 
and finer transitions of sounds, which will always result from 
the living flow of speech, to be acquired by practice, where 
the language is spoken. 



SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 15 

Deference to the national principle in orthography will at 
least raise the question, whether, in writing the Vei language, 
the Vei characters ought not to be made use of; the more 
so, as, among the large number of Negro languages, Vei is 
the only one which can boast of a national orthography. But 
the fact of its being a syllabic mode of writing will at once 
prove that it cannot be suited for the present era of the 
world. And much credit as it does to the modest inventor, 
and the Vei tribe in general, a comparison of words written 
in it with those written in a proper alphabetic orthography 
will show that, as must be expected, it bears quite the cha- 
racter of a first attempt, and is not developed in a sufficient 
degree of completion and accuracy. Besides, the wars which 
had broken out not long after its invention, and which have 
been devastating the country for about twenty years, up to 
the beginning of the present, could not but prevent its spread 
among the bulk of the people. At the Gallinas the fact of 
the invention is scarcely known ; and the jealousy between 
both places would raise a strong objection amongst the people 
of the Gallinas against whatever has been invented near Cape 
Mount. And of late the natives have learnt that it is so 
much to their advantage to speak and write English — during 
my present stay here the whole country round Cape Mount 
has been purchased by the English-speaking Liberian Go- 
vernment — that it is very unlikely the Vei mode of writing 
will ever see a revival. 

Even independent of the question of desirableness, the 
state of obscurity in which the African languages are still 
buried, and the impossibility of tracing their gradual deve- 
lopment, at once exclude an application of the etymological 
principle of orthography in any greater extent, than merely 
to let it appear when vowels or consonants have been 
dropped. 

It is scarcely necessary to remark, that whenever the same 
letter occurs, it always expresses one and the same sound, 
those slight modifications excepted which take place in the 



16 SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 

organic flow of speech, but which are of too spiritual a nature 
to be expressed in writing. The vowels have the same value 
as in German, i. e. a as a in " father ;" e as a in " way," or a 
in Vater ; e as e in " bed ;" i as i in " sit ;" o as o in " note ;" 
as a in " water;" o as intermediate to the o in "note" and 
00 in " book," or " o chiuso" of the Italians ; m as oo in " book." 
The consonants 6, d, f, h, k, m, n, p, s, t, v, w, z, have the same 
value as when sounded in English ; g has always the sound as 
in "go;" y as in "yet" (although this use of y is "histori- 
cally incorrect," it has been retained in preference toy, lest 
English readers should be puzzled). Ds and n' are letters not 
contained in the English alphabet : they represent respec- 
tively the sounds of^ in "jest" {ch in "church"?) and ng in 
" king ;" and they were chosen because it is against the fun- 
damental law of orthography to represent a double sound by 
a simple sign, or a simple sound by a double sign. The 
nasalization of vowels is uniformly expressed by a dot on the 
right hand ; and the sound of ng in " king," and a certain 
modification of r, apparently a gutturalizaticn of r, are respec- 
tively represented by vc and r. 

It must be of much service for foreigners to have the 
quantity of the vowels marked, but of still greater importance 
to see which one has the accent. Both purposes have been 
answered in the usual way. In marking the quantity the usual 
difficulty was experienced from the fact of there being so 
many degrees between the shortest short and the longest long 
quantity, and from its variation in the context. For simpli- 
city's sake all degrees of shortness have been left unmarked, 
and all degrees of length marked by ( ' ). Extreme short- 
ness is sometimes represented by ( " ). 

There would be less advantage and more inconvenience 
in separating the syllables from each other. Desirable as it 
may be in some languages, it is quite superfluous in the Vei, 
where the syllables, with so great a uniformity, consist or 
only a consonant and vowel, with sometimes the appendix of 
another consonant. 



SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 1 7 

II. The number of sounds in the Vei language needful to 
be represented by distinct letters appears from the above, and 
it now only remains to make some remarks respecting the 
nature and relation of some of them. 

The sound of e is frequently a mere modification of e. 
Sometimes one person may have a tendency to sound as e 
what another sounds as e : and even the same individual may 
pronounce the same word at one time with a vowel ==e, or 
a sound closely approximating to e, and at another with e, or 
a sound closely approximating to e. This would have inclined 
me to discard the sign altogether ; but as the sound may arise 
from a-\-i, and also as the meaning of words sometimes de- 
pends upon the distinction between these two closely-allied 
vowel-sounds, it was retained. In cases where the pronun- 
ciation fluctuates between e and e I have written that sound 
which appeared to me to predominate. 

The sounds o and o are, on the whole, pretty distinct, but 
yet what has been said of e and e in some degree refers to 
them also. Between o and u the natives strictly distinguish, 
and by mistaking the one for the other, one is rendered un- 
intelligible ; but in connection with other words, especially 
when preceding b, m, r, the o is often plainly changed into u. 
The difference of sound is also often enough marked to require 
the different diphthongal signs, au, ou, ou. 

Amongst the consonants, gb appears to be confined not in- 
deed to the Vei, but to the African languages in general. In 
the Vei it is nothing but a modification of the simple 6-sound, 
and the same individual may pronounce it in the same word 
either as a simple 6, or as a simple b only in a small degree gut- 
turally qualified ; but frequently it is pronounced in a manner 
which makes the guttural and labial element so distinctly heard, 
that the sound can no longer be called a simple one, and that 
the above representation is required. Of these three modes 
of pronunciation, the first two preponderate when the word is 
used alone, the last when it stands in a sentence. It seems 
that all words beginning with b separate into two classes ; one 

D 



18 SOUNDS AND ORTHOGRAPHY. 

in which gh never appears when the word stands alone, but 
sometimes when it occurs in a sentence ; another in which gh 
often appears in words standing alone, and generally also when 
they are in connexion with other words. The first class is 
to be found in the vocabulary under 6, the second under gh. 
Were I fully convinced that all of the first class are some- 
times sounded as gh, and that all of the second can be sounded 
as 6, both classes might appear in the dictionary under 6. But 
as the first class in the context change a preceding ri and n into 
m, and the second m and n into n', the place which they each 
occupy in the dictionary appears to be really the proper one. 

Ds, like gh, is a compound sound. Both of them are 
amongst consonants what diphthongs are amongst vowels. It 
would be just as improper to represent the sound ds by the 
simple sign j, as it would be to write diphthongs with one 
vowel only. And yet it seems to have arisen in the Vei 
from a single sound, viz. either from y ov k : thus I heard dsi 
several times pronounced so that it might have been written 
gJii; and when mdndsa was the antecedent of a compound 
term, Kari Bara often pronounced it " ma'ya." 

The sound h occurs as initial in a few words only. 

When k begins a word, it sometimes appears as if a slight 
w-element were uttered before it. 

N' at the end of words is very frequent, but in many cases 
does not appear to me original. It may often have been a 
sort of substitute for dropped consonants ; and often merely 
chosen because it forms a convenient termination. The na- 
tives pronounce it very musically, and sometimes sound it as 
long as a liquid can be sounded. 

The letter r never commences a w^ord. Its relations to 
d and I are peculiar. A preceding n uniformly changes it 
into d. But it is so closely allied to I, that in all words 
where it is usually pronounced as r it is still sometimes 
sounded as I, and vice versd ; and I cannot consider this 
change as arising from a different position in the context : 
the change takes place in the same word altogether out of the 



ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 19 

context. Yet it is true, that in some words the /-sound is 
the usual one, in others, that of r ; and therefore they might 
be expressed respectively by I and r, instead of by one letter 
only. I did this first myself, before I was sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the language ; but when I afterwards perceived 
that the interchange is unlimited, I considered it best to repre- 
sent both sounds always by r, and to let it be learned in prac- 
tice which words have a predilection for /, and which for r. 



CHAPTER III 

ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 



§. 3. 

The Vei language is distinguished hy an almost entire absence of 
injlection, which circumstance renders its Etymology simple, but 
increases the importance of certain adverbs or particles by which 
that want is supplied. 

§. 4. 

ETYMOLOGY OF SUBSTANTIVES. 

The Substantives are mostly original : comparatively few are derived. 
They can assume a plural termination, but have no signs for cases. 

I. a. Most of the proper names of persons are of foreign origin, 
especially Arabic. For though the name which people receive 
in infancy is generally Vei, yet the one which they get in 
the Beri {vide Vocabulary) is frequently, and the one which 
they get when embracing Muhammadanism is always, Arabic. 
This win be seen from the following list of names ; the last 
in order being always that received in infancy, the one be- 
fore, that received in the Beri, and the first, if there be three, 
that which indicates the Muhammadan.^ 

1. Proper names of men— Uomorn Doaru Bukere (bu-kere, 
gun- war, i.e. war in which guns were used. This is the 



20 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

name of the inventor of the Vei characters, and he himself 
gave me this interpretation of it before his death). — M6- 
moru Doaru Wonye (name of Lieut. Forbes' interpreter. 
Wonye means a large kind of ant. He himself told me re- 
specting the origin of his name : " My mother had several 
children before me, all of whom died. When I was bom, 
people said to my mother, * You must give a bad name to this 
one, else he will die also.' Hence she called me Wonye, and 
I lived"). — Momoru Fa' Kondo (kondo, a flying squirrel). — 
Momoru Kari Kai (kari [^Mdnde], serpent ; kai, man). — Siafa 
Fama Dsani (Dsani, John). — Buraima Bai Zina (zina, twin). 

2. Proper names of women — Kefui Zina. — Taro Zo (zo, chief) 
— Sedia Dsenaba. — Goanya Dsoe (dsoe, a night bird). 

It is not often the case that English proper names are 
mixed up with Vei or Arabic ones. Individuals who have 
English names have them generally unconnected with, and 
independent of, their " country-names," and use them almost 
exclusively with English-speaking people. Thus I met the 
following names : Sandfish (pronounced Sanfish), Freeman 
(pronounced Feeman), Nelson, Rodgers (pronounced Rodses), 
James (pronounced Dsemi), John (pronounced Dsani), Tom 
(pronounced Tami), Mary, Hana, Susana. 

3. Proper names of places are sometimes formed by a com- 
position of substantives ; e.g. Dsondu, from dson, slave, and 
du, house. — Bombudsa, from bombu, a man, and dsa, home. 
For those proper names which are formed by postpositions 
vid. §. 29. I. 

6. By the addition of ya or dsa (cf. §. 15. II. 2.) abstract 
substantives are derived from — 

Concrete : Boya, friendship, from bo, friend ; sundadsa, 
strangership, from sunda, a stranger ; dsondsa, slavery, 
from dson, slave ; mandsadsa, kingship, from mandsa, 
king ; modsa, relationship, from mo, person, relative ; 
zodsa, chieftainship, from zo, chieftain. 

Adjectives and verbs : dsandsa, length, from dsan , long ; doya, 



SUBSTANTIVES. 21 

smallness, scarcity, from do, to be little, to be scarce ; ku- 
ruiidsa, plenty, from kurun-, much, many ; dsaya, hatred, 
from dsa, to be red, to hate ; wuruya, shortness, from 
wuru, short ; wurudsa, parentship, from wuru, to beget. 

c. Na has now only a formative character, although it 
may very likely have been originally a noun, as it still is 
in Bornu. It is suffixed both to transitive and intransitive 
verbs, and then expresses the place where the energy of the 
verb has been exercised ; e.g. sina, seat, situation, from si, 
to sit ; nuna, hiding-place, from nu, to hide ; fana, death-bed, 
place of dying, from fa, to die ; suye-fana, slaughtering-place, 
from suye fa, to kill animals ; ferekena, observatory, from 
fereke, to observe ; siekena, place of sacrifice, altar, from 
sieke, to sacrifice ; m5-tauna, burying-ground, from tau, to 
bury ; dsikona, place where water is drawn, from ko, to draw 
(water) ; donna, entrance, from don, to enter ; koro-tuna, 
place where rice is beaten, from tu, to beat. 

d. Kiri forms abstract nouns from verbs. It is likely to 
have arisen from kira, way, manner; e.g. dende-wurikiri 
menu, "This is the way to pull a canoe," or, "This is pulling a 
canoe ;" moa sokekirime nie, " This is our work here ;" ima 
sokekiri so, " Thou dost not understand working f"" w^ara-dekiri, 
the knitting of mats ; sekiri, for sikiri {vid. §. 15. III. 2.), settle- 
ment, arrangement ; makiri, preparation, means, work, eflfect ; 
sa-dumakiri, surrender ; taukiri, burial. 

II. The Plural is uniformly expressed by the termination 
nu, which has perhaps arisen from the personal pronoun 
3d pers. pi. dnu. It is affixed to words in various ways, which 
can be classed as follows — 

a. Words terminating in a and e take nu without a connect- 
ing vowel, but lengthening only the final vowel of the roo*^ ; 
e.g. fanu, fathers, from fa ; banu, mothers, from be : mandsanu, 
chiefs, from mandsa ; sandsanu, towns, from sandsa ; dumanu, 
shirts, from duma ; kanu, serpents, from ka ; tienu, fowls, 
from tie ; nyienu, fish, from nyie ; sesenu, switches, from sese. 



22 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

b. Words terminating in i take the nu by means of the con- 
necting vowel e, and sometimes e, and then not uufrequently 
contract i and e into either i or e ; ni, bullock, pi. nienu and 
ninu ; keri, egg, pi. kerienu and kerinii ; kori, leopard, 
pi. korieuu and korinu ; seri, witness, pi. serienu and serinu ; 
fari, alligator, pi. farienu, farenu, and farinu ; mari, water-cow, 
pi. marienu, marenu, and marinu ; bini, porcupine, pi. binienu, 
binenu, and bininu ; bori, medicine, pi. borienu and borinu ; 
kisi, termite, pi. kisienu ; kai, man, pi. kaienu and kaienu. 

c. Words terminating in o and o, and being monosylla- 
bles, assume the plural termination either by the connecting 
vowel e, sometimes e, or by merely lengthening their own 
final vowel : mo, person, pi. moenu and monu ; bo, friend, 
pi. boenu, boyenu, and bonu ; zo, chief, pi. zoenu and zonu ; so, 
firewood, pi. soenu and sonu ; so, horse, pi. soenu and sonu. 

But if they be polysyllables, they either follow the same rule, 
or change o and o into e. The latter case is the more usual. 
Dapo, shoulder, pi. dapoenu and daponu ; koro, cask, pi. koronu 
and korenu ; boro, hand, pi. boronu and borenu ; boro, cap, 
pi. boronu and borenu ; toro, ear, pi. toronu and torenu. 

d. Words terminating in o likewise assume nu, either by 
means of e and e, or merely by lengthening their own final 
vowel : dsombo, old farm, pi. dsomboenu and dsombonu ; ko, 
matter, word, pi. koenu and konu. 

e. Words terminating in u either assume the syllable ye 
before the sign of the plural, or change their final u into ie. 
The former is always the case with monosyllables, rarely with 
polysyllables ; the latter generally with polysyllables. But be- 
sides this, both monosyllables and polysyllables may also take 
the plural termination by merely lengthening their own final 
vowel : dii, house, pi. diiyenu and dunu ; bu, gun, pi. buyenu 
and biinu ; bii, sack, pi. buyenu and biinu ; su, night, pi. su- 
yenu and siinu ; musu, woman, pi. musienu and musunu ; 
wuru, aog, pi. wiirienu and wiirunu ; tendu, messenger, 
pi. tenduyenu and tendiinu ; dsuru, rope, pi. dsurienu and 
dsurunu ; duru, mist, pi. durienu and durunu. 



PRONOUNS. 



23 



/. Words tei'minating in n* may assume the plural termina- 
tion either without connecting vowel or by means of e (some- 
times 0, from symphonic influences). If a connecting vowel 
is used, the n' which then stands between two vowels is often 
ejected, and the two vowels {e + e or o-^o) contracted into 
one (e or o), cf. §. 15. IV. 5.; e.g. den-, child, pi. dennu, or 
denenu and denu ; fen*, thing, pi. fenenu and fenu ; dson*, 
slave, pi. dsonnu, or dsonenu, and ds6nonu = ds6nu ; kun*, head, 
pi. kunnu and kunenu ; sun*, nose, pi. sunnu and sunenu. 



§. 5. 

ETYMOLOGY OF PRONOUNS. 

The Vei language has distinct forms for the Personal, Reflective, 
Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Reciprocal Pronouns. 

I. The forms for the Personal and Possessive Pronouns are 
identical. We may distinguish a short, a long, a compound 
and compound-emphatic — 



SHORT FORM. 

n(resp.n',m) 



1 
a 

mu 
wu 

anu 



LONG FORM. 

na 

a 

miira,m6n,ma 

vura, woa, wa 

inura, an'da, 

anoa, a 



COMPOUND FORM. 

nga 

iwa 

awa 

moanu * 
woanu, wanu 
anuranu, an'danu, 
aiioanu 



CORRESPONDING 
ENGLISH. 

[, my. 
thou, thv. 
he, she, it, his, 

her, its. 
wo, our. 
you, your, 
they, their. 



SINGULAR. 



COMPOUND-EMPHATIC FORM. 



mbei-e 
ibere 
a here 



I myself, 
thou thyself, 
he himself, she her- 
self, it itself. 



PLURAL. 



mubere 
wubere 
anu here 



we ourselves, 
ye yourselves.' 
thev themselves. 



* Manu miver occurred to me, though it may exist. 



24 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

By the operation of the law of euphony (cf. §. 15., also for 
an explanation of several others of these forms) n' occurs 
much more frequently for the first person than n; but that 
the latter is the radical form, and n* and m mere modifica- 
tions of it, appears clearly from the corresponding long form. 
The compound form consists in the singular of the corre- 
sponding short forms + the syllable wa, and in the plural of 
the same + dnu ( = 3d pers. pi.). For the forms n'ga and 
an da cf. especially §. 15. II. 2. 

The Emphatic form is compounded of the short form and 
" here ;" which latter had probably been originally a sub- 
stantive. 

II. The Reflective Pronoun is composed of the short form 
of the personal pronoun and the termination " wanga." 



n'ganga 

iwanga 

awanga 

muwanga 

wuwanga 

anuwanga 



I myself. 

thou thyself. 

he himself, she herself, it itself. 

we ourselves. 

ye yourselves. 

they themselves. 



III. The Demonstrative Pronouns stand in no etymological 
relation with the personal pronouns, and have all of them the 
character of suffixes. They are as follows — 

1. Me, "this." It is always suffixed without changing the 
forms of words; e.g. kame, this serpent; musiime, this wo- 
man ; demme, this child. It might be said that me some- 
times takes the suffix ke, in order to increase its demonstra- 
tive force; e.g. demmeke, this child ; but ke being also used 
as an adverb, it is better likewise to consider it such here. 
The same applies to the case when me is suffixed to ke ; me 
may then also be considered as an adverb ; e.g. demmeke, 
this child here ; kaikeme, that man there ; denekeme, that 
child there. 

2. Ke, " that." This word also, like me, is generally suf- 
fixed ; but, unlike me, it sometimes stands by itself. The 



PRONOUNS. 25 

various ways in which it is suffixed may be thus clas- 
sified : — 

a. After words terminating in a, e, and e, it produces no 
change, except that it generally lengthens the final 
vowel; e.g. mandsake, that chief; kake, that serpent; 
dumake, that shirt ; mieke, that sword ; seseke, that 
whip ; dendeke, that canoe. 

6. It is added by the connecting vowel e — 

aa. After words ending in i : serieke, that witness ; 

sisieke, that smoke ; nieke, that bullock. 
hb. After monosyllables in o ; zoeke, that chief ; soeke, 
that horse. 

c. By the connecting vowel e — 

aa. After words ending in o, and changing that o 
into o; e.g. soeke, that firewood (from so). 

hh. After words ending in n' : deneke, that child ; 
feneke, that thing; dineke, that ring. 

d. By the connecting letters ye. or ye after monosyllables 

in u ; e.g. buy eke, this gun ; duyeke, this house. 

e. By changing the final o of polysyllables into e : gbore- 

ke, that skin ; kuteke, that pocket-knife. 
/. By changing the final u of polysyllables into te or ~ie : 
musieke, that woman ; durieke, that mist ; wurieke, 
that dog. 

3. Biri, "the same," "that.'' Like me, it does not further 
affect the words to which it is affixed, than so far as the com- 
mon law of assimilation is concerned ; e. g. dembiri, that 
same child ; kembiri, that same house. 

4. Mu is suffixed in the same way as me, with which it 
appears to have had a common origin. But its force is 
peculiar, for which see the Syntax. 

All these demonstrative pronouns can assume the plural 
termination ; e.g. demmenu, denekenu, derabirmu, dem- 
munu. 

£ 



26 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

IV. The Interrogative Pronouns are not suffixes, but inde- 
pendent words. They are as follows : — 

Dsd? who? which? Only used of persons. 

Mbe ? which ? what ? what sort ? It inquires after the 

distinguishing qualities of things or persons. 
Mina ? which ? which one ? It inquires after a person or 

thing out of a whole number. 
Kama? what? how much? how many? Only used of 

things, and inquiring after a thing as such, without 

regard to others. 

None of the interrogative pronouns appear to assume the 
plural termination. 

V. There is only one Reciprocal Pronoun : nyo, each other, 
one another. It can take the plural termination nyonu. 

§. 6. 

ETYMOLOGY OF ADJECTIVES. 

The Adjectives are either original or derived : they may take the sign 
of the Plural, hut have no distinguishing forms to express degrees 
of comparison. 

I. Adjectives are derived from other parts of speech by the 
syllables ma and re. 

1. Ma forms Adjectives — 

a. from Substantives : kai, man, kaima, male ; musu, 

woman, miisuma, female. 
h. from Verbs : do, to be little, doma, little ; gbe, to 

be white, gbema, white ; fin, to be black, fima, 

black, for finema or finima. 

2. Pe forms Adjectives — 

a. from Substantives in ya ; e.g. doyare, small, from 
doya, smallness ; wuruyare, short, from wuruya, 
shortness. 

6. from Verbs, corresponding to the passive participle in 
other languages : tere, broken, from te, to break ; 



ADJECTIVES. 27 

basare, mixed, from basa, to mix ; tiere, cut, from 

^ ^ _ 

tie, to cut ; dsare, red, from dsa, to be red ; sande, 
bought, from san-, to buy ; bunde, covered, from 
bun*, to cover ; bande, finished, from ban, to finish. 
Sometimes the verbs are contracted before they as- 
sume this termination ; e.g. gbara, to dry, gbare, 
dried ; sen, to say, sere, said ; e.g. kaime seremu, 
this is the said man. 

II. When adjectives assume the plural termination, they 
always first lengthen their final vowel ; e. g. ba, great, mandsa 
banu, great chiefs ; musiima, female, dem musumanu, female 
children, i. e. girls ; kai kirare, a sick man, kai kirarenu, sick 
men. 

III. The method of supplying the want of formfe for the 
degrees of comparison will be seen from the Syntax. 

§. 7. 

ETYMOLOGY OF THE NUMERALS. 

There u a developed system for the Cardinal Numbers only. It con- 
sists of distinct words for the first five, the tenth, and the twentieth 
numbers, all the rest being compositions of these. Traces are also 
left of distinct forms for other sorts of Numerals. 

I. The Cardinal Numbers are as follows : — 



1, dondo 

2, fera 

3, sagba 

4, nani 

5, s5ru, 

6, sundondo 

7, slimfera 

8, siinsagba 

9, sunnani 

10, tan- 

11, tan dondo 



12, tam fera 

13, tan sagba 

14, tan nani 

15, tan soru 

16, tan sundondo 

17, tan sumfera 

18, tan siinsagba 

19, tan siinnani 

20, mo bande 

21, mo bande ako dondo 

22, mo bande ako fera 



28 



ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 



23, mo Lande ako sagba 

24, mo bande ako iiani 

25, mo bande ako soru 

26, mo bande ako sundondo 

27, mo bande ako sumfera 

28, mo bande ako sunsagba 

29, mo bande ako sunnani 

30, mo bande ako tan* 

31, mo bande ako tan dondo 

32, mo bande ako tam fera 

33, mo bande ako tan sagba 

34, mo bande ako tan nani 

35, mo bande ako tan soru 

36, mo bande ako tan sun- 

dondo 

37, mo bande ako tan sumfera 

38, mo bande ako tan sun- 

sagba 

39, mo bande ako tan sunnani 

40, mo fera bande 

41, mo fera bande ako dondo 

42, mo fera bande ako fera, 

&c. 

50, mo fera bande ako tan 

51, mo fera bande ako tan 

dondo, &c. 

60, mo sagba bande, &e. 

80, mo nani bande, &c. 
100, mo soru bande, &c. 
120, m5 sundondo bande, &c. 
140, mo sumfera bande, &e. 
160, m5 sun sagba bande, &c. 
ISO, m5 sunnani bande, &c. 
200, mo tam bande, &c. 
220, mo tan dondo bande, &c. 
240, mo tam fera bande 



260, mo tan sagba bande, &c. 
280, mo tan nani bande, &c. 
300, mo tan soru bande, &c. 
320, mo tan sundondo bande, 

&c. 
340, mo tan sumfera bande 
360, mo tan sun sagba bande, 

&c. 
380, mo tan sunnani bande, 

&e. 

400, m5 mobande bande 

401, mo mobande bande ako 

dondo, &c. 

415, mo mobande bande ako 
tan soru, &c. 

420, mo mobande bande ako 
mobande, &c. 

450, mo mobande bande ako 
mo fera bande ako tan*, 
&c. 

500, mo mobande bande ako 
mo soru bande, &c. 

600, mo mobande bande ako 
mo tam bande, &c. 

700, mo mobande bande ako 
mo tan soru bande, &c. 

800, mo mobande bande ako 
mo mobande bande, or, 
mo mobande bande fe- 
ra, &c. 
IIGO, mo mobande bande nani, 

&e. 
1200, mo mobande bande sag- 
ba, &e. 
2000, mo mobande bande so- 
ru, &c. 



NUMERALS. 29 



2400, mo mobande bande sun- 

dondo, &c. 
4000, mo mobande bande tan*, 

&e. 



5000, mo mobande bande tan 

s5ru, &c. 
8000, mo mobande bande mo 

mobande bande. 



This list of numerals shews that it is a composition, not, 
as is the case, e.g., in Indo-European languages, of decades, 
but of quints, and this in a manner which regularly unites 
two quints into a decade, and then again two decades into a 
score. Such a mode of numeration is perfectly natural to 
uneducated and uncivilized persons, who have to call in the 
assistance of their five fingers when they want to count.* 
And it is nothing but what we may naturally expect, when 
we see the bare-footed African making use for this purpose, 
not of his fingers only, but also of his toes ; for he, not in the 
habit of using chairs, squats on a mat upon the floor, and there 
has his toes as conveniently at hand, for the purpose of count- 
ing, as his fingers. The Vei people, and many other African 
tribes, when counting, first count the fingers of their left hand, 
beginning, be it remembered, from the little one, then, in the 
same manner, those of the right hand, and afterwards the 
toes. This circumstance furnishes a key to the etymology 
of the numerals, dondo, tan*, mdbande. It has long been my 
opinion, that dondo is a compound word, before I was struck 
by its connexion with the verb do, to be small, to be few ; but 
now it is my clear conviction that it stands for dodo, n being 
an evolved consonant, just as, e.g., in feranden*, a twin (from 
fera, two, and den', child). Whether fera, sagba, nani, and soru, 
have also originally been appellations of fingers, is at least 
possible ; but it is not very probable, as at present the fingers 
have different names. Tan* may have been the original word 
for finger or hand (at present only one word is used both for arm 

* They are so dependent upon this auxiliary, that I have met with in- 
stances among the Negroes where a man was immediately confounded when 
required to count without using his fingera, whereas he could do so most 
rapidly when allowed to use them. 



30 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

and hand, boro).* If " hand" or " finger" has really been the 
primitive meaning of tan, the hands were considered as equal 
to ten fingers, and then the name of the (ten) fingers was 
fixed to express the numeral ten. That the Vei people are 
not aware of the proper meaning of m5 bande is surprising, 
its etymology being so obvious ; but I consider it confirma- 
tory of my view, that whenever I told it them, they at once 
took to it, and considered it as evidently correct. For when 
both the fingers and the toes were counted, they said, "A 
person (mo) is finished (bande)," and hence mo bande came 
to mean twenty. The phrases for 40, 60, 80, &c., are quite 
of a regular construction, and mean respectively, " Two men, 
three men, four men, &c., are finished." 

Dr. Latham says in his work on the English language, 
§. 204. : " When languages separate from a common stock, 
before the use of certain words is fixed as absolute, there is 
room for considerable latitude in the choice of numerals. 
Whilst with one tribe the word ' pair' is equal to two, ano- 
ther tribe may use the word ' couple,' a third, ' brace,' and 
so on." Now just so it seems that the original meaning of 
/era has been a more general one, viz. that of simple addition 
or conjunction, such as, e.g., that of our " both, pair, couple," is 
now. Hence the word fixed itself, in the present Vei lan- 
guage, in a twofold capacity ; first as the numeral for " cwo," 
and then also as a conjunction := " with," Cf. §. 30. I. 1. 

The word dko, which is used in joining numerals to mu 
bande, and sometimes also to tan, is not a conjunction, as 
might be supposed, but the verb ko, to give, and the 3d pers. 
sing, of the personal pronoun, and it consequently means, 
" give it !" or " add to it !" (vide the construction of ko, 
§. 27. IV. 6.) 

Up to 100 the people usually count in this way. I caused 
the Vei men to count beyond it, and up to 400 ; and it is 

* May not the same root be recognised in the Greek Suk-tuXos ? which 
would form a striking parallel to an obsolete "tan'-doli" for the present 
" boro-doli." 



NUMERALS. 



31 



likely that in by-gone years the system has been in use to 
this extent. Whether it has ever been used higher than 
400 is doubtful. Up to 8000 I have carried it myself, merely 
to shew how capable of development the system is. If it has 
ever been developed thus far, or farther, it must now be con- 
sidered as forgotten and obsolete, down to mo soru bande, and 
as entirely lost, down to mo mobande bande. Instead of count- 
ing higher up than m5 soru bande in their own way, the Vei 
people find it much more convenient to mix up with it the 
English mode of counting, saying, hondoro dondo for mo soru 
bande, and then proceeding in the following manner: — 

101, h6nd5ro dondo ako dondo | 120, hondoro dondo ako mo- 



102, hondoro dondo ako fera 

103, hondoro dondo ako sagba 

104, hondoro dondo ako nani 

105, hondoro dondo ako soru 

106, h6nd5ro dondo ako sun- 

dondo 

107, hondoro dondo ako sum- 

fera 

108, hondoro dondo ako siin- 

sagba 

109, hondoro dondo ako sunnani 

110, hondoro dondo ako tan* 
ll'l, hondoro dondo ako tan 

dondo 
112, hondoro dondo ako sam- 
fera, &c. 



bande, &c. 
140, honddro dondo ako mo 

fera bande, &c. 
160, hondoro dondo ako mo 

sagba bande, &c. 
180, hondoro dondo ako mo 

nani bande, &c. 
200, hondoro fera, &c. 
300, hondoro sagba, &c. 
400, hondoro nani, &c. 
500, honddro soru, &c. 
600, hondoro sundondo, &c. 
700, hondoro sumfera, &c. 
800, h6nd5ro siinsagba, &c. 
900, hondoro sunnani 
1000, tousen dondo 



"Milen dondo" they believe to be =10,000, and us» it for 
any countless number. They employ "tousen" in like manner. 

II. Of real Ordinal Numbers I only met one instance, 
although I endeavoured to ascertain whether they use more, 
viz. sendse, first. Of its etymology, however, I know nothing 
more than that between dondo, one, and sendse, first, there is 
no etymological relation, which is the case in most languages. 



32 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

III. Besides the cardinal numbers, which are very fre- 
quently used as adverbs, I met only one other Adverbial Nu- 
meral, viz. donddri, at once. It is evidently derived from 
the cardinal dondo by the termination ri, which appears to be 
identical with, and is perhaps a more ancient form of, re, one 
of the particles by which adjectives are formed. 

IV. The following may be called Indefinite Numerals, be- 
cause they do not convey the idea of a certain number of units, 
but of a number in general : gbi, all, any, all kinds, all sorts ; 
hari, all, whole ; — this word has perhaps been adopted from 
the Mande language. I found it much more frequently used 
at the Gallinas than at Cape Mount ; — gbere, the whole of 
all ; pene, all, even the last ; mande, other, another, a diffe- 
rent ; babai, alone, only ; ben* and gben, only, solely, alone. 
This is properly an adverb ; but when connected with nouns 
it becomes an indefinite numeral. 

§.8. 
ETYMOLOGY OF VERBS. 

Verbs are either original or derived. For voices, moods, and tenses, they 
possess no distinguishing forms ; neither can it be said that they are 
conjugated. The absence of such forms has to be supplied by the use 
of auxiliary verbs, adverbs, and changes in the form of the subject. 

I. By the suffix ke verbs are derived from substantives ex- 
pressive of — 

1. The production or perforaiance of what the substantive 
signifies; e.g. kereke, to make war, to war; tomboke, to 
dance, to play ; soke, to do a work, to work ; kike, to sleep ; 
serike, to make water. 

2. The use, application, or management of the thing signi- 
fied by the substantive ; e.g. buke, to fire a musket ; dubake, 
to fire a gun ; sinke, to play at sing ; seneke, to farm. 

II. When andsere means, " he turned me back," and adserea, 
"he returned;" kaiea dene tu mboro, "the man left a child in 



VERBS. 



33 



my hand," and dene t5a mboro, "a child was left in my hand ;" 
we are tempted to think that intransitive and passive verbs 
are formed from transitives by the addition of a. But if we 
find that, e.g., the forms dsere and to are, in certain con- 
nexions, also used as intransitives, and that verbs which never 
have a transitive signification, yet sometimes appear with, 
and sometimes without, a (cf. §. 27, I.), our opinion will be 
changed ; and we are led to perceive that the Vei language has 
no characteristic forms for the active, passive, and neuter rela- 
tions of th'e energies expressed by verbs, but that the same 
verbal form can be used to express all these relations. It 
remains a fact, however, that verbs in a have very frequently 
a neuter, intransitive, or passive signification. 

There is also a small number of transitive verbs terminating 
in a and ra, which, however, appear in these cases to be radical, 
and are not to be confounded with the formative a or ra above 
alluded to ; e.g. bira, to take; dsira, to show; tara, to meet, 
find ; sunda, to send ; binda, to burn ; dia, to love ; siia, tosalute. 

III. The absence of both numeral and personal Ivftection 
will be seen from the following instances — 



1st p. na ta, I go 

2d p. ya ta, thou goest 

3d p. a ta, he goes 

1st p. ndserea, I return 
2d p. i dserea,thou returnest 
3d p. a dserea, he returns 

1st p. moa ta, we go 
2d p. woa ta, ye go 
3d p. anoa ta, they go 

1st p. mu dserea, we return 
2d p. wu dserea, ye return 
3d p. anudserea,they return 



SINGULAR. 

na dse, I see 

ya dse, thou seest 

a dse, he sees 

mberea, I surpass 

i berea, thou surpasses! 

a berea, he surpasses 

PLURAL. 

moa dse, we see 
woa dse, ye see 
anoa dse, they see 

mu berea, we surpass 
wu berea, ye surpass 
anu berea,they surpass 



na dia, I love 

ya dia, thou lovest 

a dia, he loves 

lido, I say 

iro, thou sayest 

aro, he says 

m5a dia, we love 
woa dia, ye love 
anoa dia, they love 

muro, we say 
wuro, ye say 
aiiMo, they say 



34 ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

IV. The Vei language possesses a number of short ad- 
verbs of time, which always directly follow the verb. This 
circumstance would have rendered it convenient for them 
to coalesce with the verb into one word, and thus to form 
what are called tenses of a verb — a process which probably 
has taken place in many of those languages which now pos- 
sess real tenses. But such a coalescence would not have 
been of any practical advantage to the Vei language, as 
the adverbs alluded to are already so short, that they could 
scarcely become shorter when united with the verb into one 
word ; and as, so far as their accent is concerned, they can 
be treated as if they were part and parcel of the verb to 
which they are appended, without actually losing the character 
of distinct words. This, perhaps, is the reason why such a 
coalescence never has taken place, and why the Vei language 
is now altogether void of tenses. How the want of tenses is 
supplied by verbs and adverbs is to be learned from the 
Syntax (vide §. 27. II. and §. 22.). 

V. The subjunctive mood is identical in form with the 
indicative ; and the imperative is distinguished from both 
only by the tone, and sometimes by the absence of the 
pronoun; e.g. wa buri Karia ! "fear ye Kari!" wui si ka- 
narama ! "sit on the box!" i done si taro ! set rice on the 
fire !"" tafo, mue saduma, " go and tell that we will not sur- 
render." 

The infinitive consists of the simple verb, i.e. of the verb 
without pronoun. But if it is governed by another verb it 
takes the suffix a, which is indicative of any subordinate rela- 
tion whatsoever, e.g. kn ta Zoduna kerea, "they went to call 
Zoduma." (Cf. §. 22. XI. 1.) 



ADVERBS. 



35 



§.9. 

ETYMOLOGY OP ADVERBS. 

Besides the number of words which are never used except as adverbs, 
there are others which assume the character of adverbs only when 
they are brought into a certain relation to verbs. Many of the 
latter may, with equal right, be regarded as other parts of speech. 
Hence the adverbs separate into two classes — Absolute and Relative 
Adverbs. 

I. When speaking of absolute, or such adverbs as are never 
used in any other capacity, it must be understood that this 
appellation is given with regard to the language as it exists 
at the present day, without reference to its history, and of 
course, also, only with regard to that part of it which came 
under my notice. It is, therefore, very possible that a 
thorough acquaintance with the whole language as it now 
exists, and with its past history, would remove many a word 
from the list of absolute adverbs to that of relative ones, and 
would be able to trace them back to either verbs or nouns. 
As matters are, the list of absolute adverbs stands as follows : — 



burun-, well, very (only used 
in connexion with the verb 
bun", to cover, with which 
it seems to have a common 
origin) 

fo and f9, pure, clean (then, 
after certain verbs, expres- 
sive of emphasis in gene- 
ral, or entirety) 

fo, close, near 

fiia, early, soon 

gba, alone, by itself, distinct 

gba', quite, entirely,thoroughly 
(after certain verbs, em- 
phasis in general) 



gbanda, for nothing, gratui- 
tously, in vain 

gbaro, back, behind 

gbe, awhile, sometime 

gbe, quietly 

gben*, or sometimes gbai and 
gbei, wholly, entirely, fully, 
quite, thoroughly ; just, 
just then 

gbongbon', on, a long time 

gbu, all night 

gburun", loud 

ka, till, until (of time and 
space) 

giro, in future, hereafter 



36 



ETYMOLOGY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 



ka, a while, a short time 

kerei! really! indeed 

kerens continually, constantly, 
on 

kinei, exactly, accurately, dis- 
tinctly 

kunu, yesterday 

kun* and wun*, when 

ma, not 

ni, in time past 

ngare, only 

pbn-, distant, far away 

pu, through 

purun-, further on, for a time ; 
for nothing, without cause, 
at random 

re, where ? when 

sa, hurriedly, suddenly 

Sana, at present, just now, im- 
mediately, instantly, scarce- 



ly (from sa-na, lying-place 

= on the spot ?) 
pipipiri, much, constantly 
Sana and sa, perfectly, tho- 
roughly, well 
sen", slowly, gently 
sei, loud, with a loud voice 
sere, high up, long on, long 

(of time and space) 
sina, to-morrow 
so, fully, altogether 
ten*, straightly, erect 
ti, really, actually (doubtless 

connected with the verb ti, 

to be) 
we, now 
wen, when 
wi, awhile ago 
wu and ii, imitating the noise 

of flowing water. 



It is the less surprising that several of these adverbs 
have both a local and temporal meaning, as the Vei language 
in other instances also uses local expressions to denote time ; 
e.g. kambiri-banda mu ton dem mesenu, " at that same time 
{lit at that place's time [sky ?]) we were (still) little children ;" 
dumam' be, " at the present time {lit. the ground which is) ;" 
anu t5a nuwa, am' Zau kira, " at that time {lit. they were left 
there, and) Zau fell sick f' nie-banda, /'present time {J,it. 
here-time or here-sky ?) ;" niia kea, amo an'da boro ka Karia, 
" then {lit. there it had reached) they despatched Kari." 

Note. — The equivalents to "yes" are «• and e', or, more 
emphatically, hnhh and ehe ; to " no," (jhere and gbereo. — Mho. 
and mbdu is a reply expressive of gratification on receiving a 
pleasing answer, or pleasing information. 



ADVERBS. 37 

II. All adjectives and numerals may be used as adverbs 
without undergoing the slightest formal change. 

Some demonstrative and interrogative pronouns are likewise 
frequently converted into adverbs. They are, eh, there, then, 
thus ; me, here ; kdma ? how ? mbe ? why ? mina ? where ? 

The imperative of verbs is also sometimes used adver- 
bially ; e. g. ka ! " up !" from ka, to rise. 

As we can say in English, to act " with wisdom," instead 
of to act " wisely," so also in Vei may substantives be made 
complements of verbs. But because in Vei relations of instru- 
mentality, locality, &c., are frequently conveyed without any 
alteration of, or addition to, the noun, it is natural to con- 
sider the noun in those cases as an adverb. Nor is it, in- 
deed, an impossibility that those nouns may have been really 
converted into adverbs ; but the analogy of the whole lan- 
guage seems to be more on our side, when we view them 
as uninflected nouns ; so, e.g., nie, " in this place," instead of 
"here" nu, "in yonder place," instead of "yonder, there;" 
da and dara, " to town ;" dsa, " in the home, to the home," 
instead of "home;" duma, "on the ground, to the ground," 
instead of "down;" were and wereme (cf. Lat. ho-die), "on 
the present day,'' " to-day." Words also like kando, komu, 
may be better regarded as nouns with suffixes, than as 
somewhat similar to the "adverbs of deflection" in other 
languages. 

There are also some entire phrases, of frequent occurrence, 
which are now virtually turned into adverbs, and may there- 
fore be termed phraseological adverbs ; e. g. ya kune ? lit. " art 
thou awake?" but now used at any time of the day or night 
as a general salutation : hence the English-speaking Veis in- 
variably interpret it by, "How do you do ?" It may also be 
stated in this connexion, that when the natives salute they 
always first utter the name or title of the person whom they 
wish to salute ; e.g. if a man of the name of Kari salutes his 
father, he says, Mfa, ya kune ? "My father, art thou awake .?" 



3S ETYiMOLOQY OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

The father replies : E ; Kari, ya kune ? " Yes; Kari, art thou 
awake;" — ko bererau, "good! well! all right! {lit. the matter 
is good);" — kiina ma, " never mind ! {lit. it is no matter)." 

§. 10. 

ETYMOLOGY OF POSTPOSITIONS. 

What Prepositions are in other languages Postpositions are in Vei. 
They are either original or derived. 

I. List of Original Postpositions — 



fe, after 

koro, under 

ma, on 

mani, by, at, on, about, around 



ro, in, within, inside ; among ; 

during 
ve, for, to, ao[ainst 



•o" 



II. List of Derived Postpositions. They are either derived 
or converted from substantives — 

gbaro, "hind-part, seat;" as postpos. " behind, after ;" e.g. 
moen'da gone-da tau raii gbaro, " the people shut the 
stockade-gate after us ;" ya mbe kb fo aye mu gbaro ; 
" what didst thou tell him behind our back ?" 

ko, " word, thing, cause, reason ;" as postpos. " on account 
of, in behalf of, &c. ;" e.g. mbe koa ? " on what account ? 
why? wherefore ?" mu ma ki na dem mesenoa koa, " we 
did not sleep on account of my little children ; " yiibira 
na koa? "hast thou seized him on my account?" mfa 
kunni ekere moa ko-f5 koa? "when did my father call 
thee, in order to speak of our case." 

ko, "back;" postpos. "after, behind ;'' anu kiako nani, "they 
slept after it ( = afterwards) four times ; " a be keneko, 
" it is behind the house," 

bara, "place;" as postpos. "to;" e.g. i na mbara! "come 
to me !' ata M6re-m5 dondo bara, " he went to a cer- 
tain Muhammadan.'' 

tina, " place ;" as postpos. " to {" e.g. mu tawa soe tina ! "let 
us go to the hole ! " 



POSTPOSITIONS. CONJUNCTIONS. 



39 



Some substantives, with the suffix ro, might possibly be 
considered as somewhat like postpositions of deflection ; e.g. 



bu, "belly, bowelsf a be kene- 
buro, " it is within the 
house'' 

dsa, " face, front ;" sene be 
na kene-dsaro, "there is a 
stone before my house : " 
wu ta ndsaro! "go ye be- 
fore me ! (temporal)" 



kan", " neck ;" Subahanalai abe 
tere-kando, " Subahanalai 
was above the sun'' 

dsi, "descent;*" Walahaula abe 
tere-dsiero, "Walahaula was 
under the sun" 

kb, "cause;" na koro akoro, 
" on account of my rice " 



But they are better looked upon, as is already intimated, as 
substantives with suffixes. 

§. 11. 
ETYMOLOGY OF CONJUNCTIONS. 

The Vei language is comparatively/ rich in Conjunctions, which may 
he divided into Absolute and Relative. 

I. The following are Absolute Conjunctions : — 

o — o and ii — u, either, or whe- 
ther, or as well as, both, 
and 

pere, too, also, even 



be, and 

fera, with, and 

hi, and, if 

zi, but, however 



II. List of Conjunctions which are but relatively such : — 



gba, or; from gba, adv. sepa- 
rately 

ke and kere, but, then, that, 
whether, else ; from ke, 
pron. this, adv. then 

kun-, if ; from kun-, adv. when 

kunni, if, as ; from kunni, adv. 
when 

bema, because, for; from be, 
to be, and ma, on = on the 
being 



amu, and, then; from a, it, 

and mu, it was = it was, it 

had taken place 
komu, therefore ; from kb, 

reason, and mu, it is 
kirimu, as, forasmuch as ; from 

kira, way, manner, and mu, 

it is 
somu, at the same time, but, 

however ; from so, time, 

and mu, it is 



40 CONVERTIBILITY OF WORDS. 

§. 12. 
ETYMOLOGY OF INTERJECTIONS. 

In Vei, as in most languages, the Interjections, for the most part, consist 
of a vowel, or a combination ofvoicels. They are asfoUoivs — 

a ! e ! ea ! eio ! ko ! o ! ho ! oya ! hoio ! kuo ! yambao ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONVERTIBILITY OF WORDS * 



§. 13. 



The Convertibility of Words being in the same ratio irith their warit 
of inflection, we mtist be prepared by the preceding chapter to find 
it in the ividest extent in tlie Vei language. 

I. It is probable that all intransitive Vei verbs may be used 
as adjectives and substantives. As a natural consequence of 
the entire absence of inflection, it must follow, that whenever 
any thing is predicated of a subject without the use of a 
separate copula, the predicate can with equal right be con- 
sidered as either verb, adjective, or substantive. With re- 
gard to form, there is generally no difference whatever in 
Vei; and with regard to meaning, I suppose the natives do 
not distinguish between verb and adjective on the one hand, 
and an abstract substantive on the other : a walk is to them 
"the walking;"" one's fall, "his falling;" the grandeur of a 
thi^ig, " its being great." The close affinity between verbs 
and adjectives is so obvious as to strike one in any language ; 
and James Harris said a century ago, " Some verbs appear 
to denote nothing more than a mere simple adjective joined 

» This term, as well as some others, has been adopted from Dr. R. G. 
Latham's work on the English language. 



CONVERTIBILITY OF WORDS. 41 

to an assertion; thus, tad^etv in Greek, and 'equalleth' in 
English, mean nothing more than Icrog eari, ' is equal."' So 
alheo, in Latin, is no more than ' albus sum'"" (vide Ch. IX. of 
" Hermes, or a Philosophical Inquiry concerning Universal 
Grammar," by James Harris, Esq.). The sameness of form 
between adjectives and verbs is so complete in Vei, that here, 
if in any language, it may be asked whether they are not 
really one part of speech. 

II. The parts of speech between which conversion usually 
takes place are the substantives, adjectives, and verbs, on the 
one hand ; and the pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions, on 
the other. 

1. The following instances will illustrate the conversion 
between, or (as it might be termed) the identity of substan- 
tives, adjectives, and verbs — 

Dia : na i dia. " I love thee ;" mfa ndia, " my father loves 
me;" dia-mo, "love-person, friendship-person,"^ ie." lover, 
friend f mu nyo-dia ma ! " let us make mutual friend- 
ship !" anu be nyo-diawaro, " they are in love with 
each other -^"^ a dia, " he loves, is loving." 

Dsa : an'da nyo dsa, " they hated each other f ya ndsa, 
" thou blackenedst {lU. reddenedst) me ;" dsa-mo, " ha- 
tred-person," i.e. "enemy;" a dsa, "it (is) red, yellow, 
loathsome." 

Fa : a nie fa, " he killed a bullock ;" mboea fa, " my friend 
has died ;" an'da fa ma, " they made a funeral ;" ita 
fa-kb fo ! " go and tell the death news !" nyanan' do : 
ya na faro, " the spirits said : Thou hast come into 
the kingdom (or region, dominion) of death ;" an'da 
kiira bun anoa fam.a, " they covered their dead with 
cloths." 

Nxfi: i nyi, "thou art handsome; ndia-mo nyi gba, "my 
friend is very handsome ;"" anMa sana nyia, ' they pre- 
pared the bed ;" kore nyia kurumba, " the i-ice yielded 
very much ;" a nyia ta, " his beauty is gone." 



42 CONVERTIBILITY OF WORDS. 

2. Pronouns may be converted into adjectives and con- 
junctions. 

As the English adverbs " then " and " there " are certain 
cases of an Anglo-Saxon demonstrative pronoun (vide Latham, 
"The English Language," §. 182.), so it cannot be surprising if 
in Vei, which has no traces of inflexion, the same form 
stands both for a demonstrative pronoun and an adverb. This 
is the case with the words me, ke, and also with the indefinite 
numerals yhi, gbere, pene, which partake of certain peculiarities 
of the pronouns. 

Me has generally an adverbial force when suffixed to a 

noun which is unconnected with verbs (cf. the use of 

H. n3n);. e.g. siname, "here is a seat;" kaieme siro, 

" here is the man sitting ;" wa domme, " here is your 

rice ;" mfa ngame, " my father, here am L" In order 

to increase its demonstrative force, nu is frequently 

added to me (cf. the German diess da, dahier) : ya 

musiemenu, "here (or "this here") is thy wife;" mbira- 

musiemenu, " here is my mother-in-law ;" fameniiye, 

" the dead is here." 

Ke may be considered as an adverb when suffixed to me ; 

e.g. demmeke, "this child here." The proper meaning 

of melee and kerne seems to be respectively, " this here " 

and " that there ;" but in the praxis of the language 

this difference is not observed, both being used for 

" this here '' and " this there ;" only with regard to 

their connexion there is this difference, that meke is 

generally a suffix, whereas k'eme is generally not ; e.g. ke- 

mero, " this here said ;" keme kone bira, " this here 

took a stick ;" musumeke mmadse, " this woman here I 

have not seen ;" na suye demmeke ai toa pfuruar5wa, 

" this my little animal here, it will be left in the trap." 

Ke is also frequently converted into a conjunction (just as 

Grimm derives the corresponding conjunctions, German 

"doch," and English "though," from the demonstrative 

pronoun, vide his Grammar, Vol. IIL p. 176): ke wu ta 



( 43 ) 

fo! "then go and tell itf' ke ngbasi! "then whip me!" 
na kaie ma ndiaro, ke dem musuma demme, " my hus- 
band does no longer love me, but this little girl." 
Gbi : an ni a mamani gbi, " they apply it all over him." 
Gbere (cf. the adverbial use of Heb. 73) : anu kunni bo afoa 
gbere, " when they have gone out to tell it every- 
where." 
Pene : kowe mbe fen dom pene ! " let me eat first !" iwu- 
roa ini mbere dsau, " thou wantedst to abuse me first." 



CHAPTER V. 
ON THE ACCENT. 



§. 14. 



The Vei language is so eminently musical, that the alternation of 
intensity and moderation in sound is much more uniform, and 
much less interfered with hy the logical element, than in many other 
languages. 

I. The accent in all isolated words lies on the first syllable '■> 
e. g. dende, firi, anu ; Doaru, koari, mdanu ; barawara. This 
will appear the more natural, when we consider that the 
greatest portion of words are monosyllables, that a smaller 
number are dissyllables, and still fewer, trisyllables or poly- 
syllables. In foreign words, however, the accent is generally 
suffered to remain unchanged ; e.g. Mondovia, Setana, dsaha- 
nama. 

It is striking, that often the mere consonant of which the 
first person of the singular pronoun consists may receive the 
accent; e.g. nko, "give me;" mfa, "my father;" ihbara, 
" my place;" nton-, " my name ;" nta, "I go." If these forms 
are considered as one word, the case is identical with the 
general rule, the consonant n and its equivalents being treated 
as a distinct syllable. But the language has not been con- 



44 ON THE ACCENT. 

sistent in this respect, for we meet even more frequently forms 
like mmama, "my grandmother;" mfara, " my liver (heart) ;" 
nkuru, " my bone ;"" nkun*, " my head/' One thing, however, 
seems to have been the case, viz. that monosyllables have more 
readily ceded their accent to the pronoun than dissyllables. 

II. In a sentence, the accent of individual words gives way 
to the regular undulation, in which the general flow of speech 
moves on. The law for this undulation is, that one accented 
syllable is followed by one or two, rarely three, not accented ; 
e. g. na i dia, " I love thee ;" amo anu dunda firaro, " and 
they entered into the forest f amo a boro don* akoro, "and 
he put his hand under it;" anu ma nani kerereiwabara = 
kerera iwa, " they did not bring war to thy place ;" ndo mbe 
ko be nie ? "I said, What are the news here .^" nkomuimusu 
here, i.e. nkomu i musu bere, " this is my reason (for say- 
ing) &c." ; or " therefore give up a woman." The accent seems 
to serve merely a musical or euphonic purpose in the con- 
text, and not the logical one of distinguishing one word 
from the other. Hence the circumstance, which appears 
rather strange at first, that the verb, in a logical point of 
view the most important part of a proposition, so often occurs 
in the capacity of a mere enclitic ; e. g. anu banda dsi tia, 
"they had finished crossing the water;" a gbi tedun', "she 
divided all ;" an'da diiyenu, " so they built houses." The 
want of being able to distinguish one word from another by 
means of accent is made up by certain affixes expressive of 
emphasis {vide §. 22.). 

In imperative prepositions the accent generally falls on the 
verb, which circumstance may have so much influence on 
what follows, as to cause several subsequent words to move in 
the iambic measure. But, as if not fitting them well, they 
always soon exchange it again for trochees or dactyles ; e.g. 
ina moa gbatie bo, " come and remove our difficulty ;" ina 
mome buro fere, " come, inspect this person's bowels !" 



( 45 ) 
CHAPTER VI. 

THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 



§. 15. 
PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 

The Physical Law of Euphony is the tendency of a language to avoid 
difficulty in the transition from one position of the organs of speech 
to another. It accounts for several phenomena in the Vei language. 

I. The great influence which Phonetism exercises in every 
language. Max Wocher first systematically exhibited in his 
" Allgemeine Phonologic." He also suggested the appella- 
tion of Physical and Psychical Laws of Euphony. I was 
much gratified, after a little application, at once to recognise 
the above laws in most of the euphonic changes in the Vei 
language. In a written language, and among a literary people, 
the free operation of the law of euphony may, in some de- 
gree, be impeded ; but in the unwritten languages of Africa, 
which have never attained to an objective existence, but have 
been transmitted to us merely by the mouths of numerous 
generations, due attention to their phonetism is especially 
needful, in order to understand the form in which they present 
themselves to us at present. I have found Wocher's advice 
of great practical utility in ascertaining which combination 
of sounds is accompanied with least difficulty to the organs of 
speech, and give here the chief of them, with the full confi- 
dence, that whoever makes use of them will easily see that 
" the secret operation and formation of language " which 
resulted in the changes to be mentioned below, was influenced 
by the tendency to avoid difficulty in changing the position 
of the organs of speech. Wocher says : " In order to obtain 
some certainty in ascertaining the degrees of ease and diffi- 
culty in the transition from one position of the mouth to 
another, not only a fine taste in general is required, but the 



46 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

same must also be improved by much and long exercise. 
Advantages for such an exercise are, 1. Frequently repeated 
pronunciation of the whole combination of sounds in question 
alternately with this or that vowel or consonant in question ; 
2. Combining silent and vocal pronunciation ; 3. Assuming as 
indifferent and lazy a position of the mouth as possible, in 
which case every inconvenience and harshness is most easily 
felt: the chin may, e.g., be supported by the hand during the 
attempt ; 4. On account of the intimate connexion between 
the organs of speech, and the mutual influence of one on the 
other, it will be of great advantage, in difficult cases, closely 
to observe even the external visible position of the mouth, 
by means of a looking-glass." 

II. Euphonic changes in the symphony of consonants. 

According to the nature of the Vei language, consonants 
can only meet, 1. when the pronoun of the first person sin- 
gular is prefixed to a word ; 2. when a word, terminating in 
n' is followed by one beginning with a consonant ; 3. when 
the elision of a vowel has taken place, rendering an m or n 
final. Hence it appears that only m, n, and n' can come 
into immediate contact with other consonants. It then de- 
pends on the nature of the latter v^^hether the former i^vill 
exercise an assimilating influence, or be assimilated them- 
selves. 

1. Cases when m, n, and n' are changed by a following 
consonant — 

a. m and n are changed into w by a following 

g\ an' Goturu na, for: am' G-, "andGoturu came;" m' 
gone daka, for : in' g-, " that thou open the stockade- 
gate." 
"k: mon' kura bi, for : mom k-, "the person who took the 
cloth;" mun' kaduma, for: mun' k-, "let us get up." 
vo : nwuro, " I want, " for nwuro ; but then cf. 2. a. 
h- m and n are changed into n by a following 

d: an' difi na, for: am' d, "and darkness came;" fen 



PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 47 

dondo, for: fend-, " one thing;" dondori, for: dendori, 

" an infant." 
h : an nyana na, for : am' ny-, " and a ghost came ;" 

tan nanif for : tan' n-, " fourteen." 
s : an' sandsa, for : am' s-, "and the town ;" kon-suru, 

for: kon-s-, "tree-root;" tan sagba, "thirteen." 
t : an tere bera for : am't-, " and the sun set;" kun ti, 

for : kun ti, " when it is ;" ken tan-, " ten houses." 
c. n and w are changed into m by a following 

b : ihba, for : nba, " my mother ;" mboa, " I come out ;" 

femba, " a great thing, devil ;" a sem bi, " he took 

a stone." 
f: mfa, "my father;" ya mfiri, "thou hast thrown at 

me ;" dom-fen, " foot, pp. eat-thing ;"" dom-fon, " ap- 
parel.' 
p : mPoro-bana, " my banana ;" rapoe, " my eagle ;" 

fem peneme? "are these all the things ?'"' 
V '• mvovo, " my lungs ;" mvanya, " my vein ;" a torn 

Vani, " his name was Vani." 
<^. n* is changed into n by a following 

y: denye, "to the child," for: denye; but this is rare, 

and for the more common change vid£ 2, b. 
r: kunro, for: kunro ; but then cf. 2, b. 
2. Cases when (m) n, n, change a following consonant — 
Q. n changes a following 

rintod; ndo, " I say," for: nro; an'da, "they," for: 

an' ra; moen'do, " the people said," for: moen'ro. 
y into ds: iidse, "for me," for: nye ; dendse, "to the 

child." 
and sometimes into y : anu singe, for : senye, " they 

told me." 
d into n : banna = banda, " time ; " but this change is 

very rare. 
b. Ti changes a following 

h into y : ken-gura, for : ken-kura, " trousers ;" anum' 

here ken-go, for: ken-ko, "they pass behind the house." 



48 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

w into g : akun* guru, " if he want ;" ya a gbasi pu- 
runga, for : puruirwa, " thou whippest her for 
nothing ;"" ai goro-konga tia, " he is to cut palisade- 
pales ;" nguru-ba be nu, for: nwuru-ba, "my parent 
(mother) is here." 
But if n — g or n — w are not conversant enough, they are 
changred into 

Either, m — b : mbem fa, " when I die ;" mbe, " I shall ;"' 
liibere, "I shall not," for: ri-we, liwere, or nge, ngere. 

or, n—d : awe ngbasia purundau, " he is whipping me 
for nothing " (purundau = purunwau, or purungau). 

3. It must be observed, that the above changes do not 
always take place when they have become possible. The 
preceding rules show only what is generally the case. Some- 
times the euphonic change is purposely avoided, perhaps 
from reasons arising from the symphony of the sounds of a 
whole phrase, or from the law of a regular undulation in the 
accent; e.g. an'dakun tie, "they cut his head;" but, an'da- 
kune bi, "they took his head." 

The m of drn, the apocopated form of amu, quite distin- 
guishes itself by its resistance to assimilation. Forms like 
am' Doalu, am' so, are more common than those euphonically 
changed. 

4. An accumulation of three consonants without an inter- 
vening vowel is what the Vei language does not admit of. 
Whenever it would occur in the common collocation of words, 
it is avoided by what is best looked upon as contraction ; for 
the first two of them are in such cases always identical. 
These two then so flow together in pronunciation, as to 
sound as one. (Perhaps, also, in English this view would 
be more correct than when it is said, " that in the mouths 
even of correct speakers, one of the doubled consonants is 
often dropped.^') To account for the disappearance of one of 
those consonants, either by apocope or aphaeresis, would be 
considerably more difficult. The forms referred to are, 
therefore, to be written as one word ; e.g. adsanda, " he 



PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 49 

took leave of me;" kiimbe ta, "therefore I shall go;" a don- 
sundo, " it enters into my nose ;" na kummawake, " as to 
my thing which I have done ;" woanu tombenu, " ye are my 
uncles {lit. your names are my uncles);" (dsanda, from 
dsannda= dsan nda; kumbe, from kum'mbe = kumu mbe ; 
donsundo, from donnsundo = don nsundo ; kumawake, from 
kum' 'mawake = kumu mmawake ; tombenu, from tommbenu 
= ton mbenu). 

III. Euphonic Changes in the Symphony of Vowels — 
1. Two vowels can only meet when a word terminating 
in a vowel is followed by certain pronouns (e, a), or takes 
a vowel affix. (Some interjections, and a few other words, 
within which two vowels meet, cannot here come into con- 
sideration, their forms being already euphonieally fixed.) 
The hiatus thus arising is removed in the following ways — 

a. By Crasis. This is the case only if the second of two 
meeting vowels be i. They then either coalesce into 
one vowel, or form a diphthong : the first we call per- 
fect, the second imperfect, crasis. 
The Perfect Crasis unites a and a, a and i, e and i, e and i, 
i and i, o and i. 

a + a = a: aferaba = a fera aba, "she and her mother;" 
abiiro-dem berendse = a aburo-d., "he gave up his 
own child to me ;" fembabi = femba a bi, " the big 
thing (devil) took her ;" anu fanu tusa=anu fa anu 
tusa, "their father asked them;" moe tanu dsa = 
moe ta anu dsa, " the people went to their home ;" 
amo anu tusa = amo a anu t., " and he asked them."" 
a \-i = e: a bunded saro = a bunda idsaro, " it came down 
into thy face ;" mbe a sendeye = senda lye, " I am 
telling it thee;" wu ferenyomo = fera iny., "thou 
and thy brother;'' akom' moekere=m6a ikere, 
" therefore we called thee C miii bereeko = berea iko, 
" we will go behind thee, I e. go over to thee." 
(This e may sometimes be pointed into e.) 

H 



50 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

e + i = e: mbegbasi = mbe igbasi, " I shall whip thee." 

e + iz=e: na bereye=na here lye, "I gave it up to 
thee ;" ya dseton dem mese=dse iton, " thou seest 
thou art a young boy ;" ya dsewa torn m6ba=dse 
iwa. " thou seest that thou art a grown up person."" 

i + i=z: himabi=hi imaabi, "if thou do-not take it ;" anu 
kun korira = kori ira, " when they surround thee." 

i + iz=e: a f6aweye==f6awi iye, " he has told thee ;" ya den* 
kunnekere=kunni ikere, "if thy child has called thee". 

o + i (perhaps first = oi = ai, and then) = e : aredon nie 

= aro i don, "he said, Enter thou here;" aresa = 

arc isa, " he said, Lie down ;" arewa fo = aro iwa fo, 

" he said, Thou saidst ;" den* kaimaregbara nie, " the 

boy said, Draw near here ;" kaimaro igbara. 

But the e, thus arising, is sometimes pointed into e : 
arekie = aro ikie, " he said. Sleep thou ;" mfarena 
= mfaro ina, " my father said, Come thou." 
The Imperfect Crasis joins a and i, a and u, e and i, o and 
i, and u and i. 

a + i = ai: mfaina, "come, my father" mfaikere, "my 
father calls thee ;" wu ferainyomo, " thou and thy 
brother.'' 

a 4 i = ei ; kaneina = kana ina, " come, guana ! " kerei- 
sene = kera isene, " deer, be welcome '" ndo neiso = 
ndo na i s6, " I said, I know thee ;" iita dsireira = 
dsira ira, " I will go and show thee ;" niu meikere, 
" we did not call thee." 

a + M = CM ; a ma dsam moe dondo pereau = pereau, " he 
did not take leave even of one person." 

a + u = ou: anu ma nii kou=kau, "they do not sell 
that place ;" anu muniwa moou = moau, " they 
turned from us." 

e + i = ei: keiwa mugbi wuru, " but thou hast begotten 
us all ;" keibere, " but thou thyself." 

e + i = €i: tirinei ta mina ? " which way is the fight 
going?" m6mu kun* kerekeira, "if any man make 



PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 51 

war with, thee;" keima, for keima, from kerima, 

"lately." 
o-\-i = oi : nni a foiye, " I must tell it thee ;" deneroina 

= denero ina, " the child said, Come thou !" = i ma 

foinyomoenuye, " do not tell thy brothers ;" amo 

arbiton- ge dso ? " he said, What is thy name ?"" 
o-{-i = ei: areidon! = aro idon, "he said, Enter!" mfareita 
= mfarolta, "my father says, Go;" borei, "in the hand." 
It -\-i=:ui: tamara-momuira = momu ira, " thou art a 

fool ;" mo nyamabamuira, " thou art a very bad 

person ;" kbmuita, " therefore go." 
+ M often = gu :' awere a denu kou = kou, " he did not 

give to his children." 

b. Hiatus avoided by a mere accommodation of vowels. 

Certain vowels can so easily follow each other, that they 
leave no hiatus between them, or only a very slight one. If 
such a relation has been produced by a change of one of the 
meeting vowels, that is what is here called accommodation 
of vowels : which of the two meeting vowels is to be 
changed depends on the second ; if that is a, the first is 
changed ; but if i, the second. 

aa. The first of two meeting vowels changed — 

6 and u become o : amo a baro, " and hex: mother said," 
amo anu, "and they;" ano akene dsiran6a = anu 
akena dsira aniia, " they showed them his house ;" 
doaru = ddaru atoa, from to, " it was left;" akoa, 
from ko, " on its account." 
But sometimes u becomes i: mo wuri a gbau, wuri = 
wuru, " somebody wants to see her ;" wumi a fa ; 
wumi = wumu (or = wumui ?), " let us kill him '." 
e becomes e : kike and kikea, " to sleep;" fere and ferea, 
" to look ;" sara be ama ? " is there a law on it ?" 
kaime a bira, " this man seized him;" aro ke akun, 
" he said that he could;" nna were awa dsea, " I came 
to-day to see him;" Momoru here a mo here, "Momoru 



52 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

himself gave up a person;" anu so anufe, an'da tirinke 

anua, "they pursued them, they fought with them.*" 

o becomes o : ke mu here akou, " then we will not be 

after him ;" mma sou, " I do not know.'"" 

Note. — The u in the diphthong au often dissolves itself into 

w when followed by a or i: hue daw anuma, "guns fired on 

them ;" anu kum ban anu nyawa, " when they had finished 

dressing them ;" in' daw iro (and then, according to IV. 5, 

dairo), " thou answerest and sayest." 

66. The second of two meeting vowels changed. 

As has been stated already, this second vowel is al- 
ways i Generally it becomes e, but sometimes 
also the broader e. 
i changed into e: ai e koa, "she will give thee;" 
rnfa kunni ekere, " when my father called thee f 
ini a so ero, " thou knowest it, thou sayest ;"" 
an'do ero, " they said (that) thou saidst,'' 
i changed into e : mui e fara, " we will kill thee ;" 
mui epere ifara, " we will kill thee too." 

c. Hiatus avoided by the ejection of a vowel. 

The ejection can either be an apocope or an aphceresis : 
the former is the more common ; the latter can occur only 
if the. second vowel is a. 

aa. Apocope ofe, e, i, u: mb'a mi=:mbe a mi, "I shall 
drink it ;" ihb'a foiye, " I shall tell it thee ;"■ ya 
ds'a fo ndse:=ya dse a fo, "thou seest he has told 
me ;" ya ds'a were, " thou seest he will not ;'' iwa 
fo mfay' iro = mfaye iro, " didst thou tell my father ?" 
ani ko fo ly'o, am'ma ko fo iy'6 = iyeo, " whether he 
has told thee something, or whether he has not told 
thee something ;"" an'da muro nyeny'ou = nyenyeoa, 
"they scattered us;" ka' inyomo kunni fa = kai iny., 
" man ! as thy brother has died ;" kom' i dsake = 
komu i, "therefore divine!" 

66. Aphceresis : wiii 'nu bira = wui anu, " catch ye 



PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 53 

them '." anu 'ndone don- = anu anu d., " they ate their 
rice ;" f nu bo, " beg them ;" musie, zi, 'ro = zi, aro, 
" the woman, however, said." 

d. Hiatus avoided by the insertion of a consonant. 

r inserted : na ra dse = na a, " I saw it ;" mandsa ra 
mi, " the chief drank it ;" kori ra gbai, " the leopard 
chased it f am' Vani ra fo, " and Vani, he said f 
suye ra koa, " on account of tne meat ;" tie ra don-, 
" the fowl ate it ;" mu ra dan', " we hear it ;" ta 
ranu gbai, " the fire drove them."" 

w inserted : sando wa ton = sando a ton-, " Sando's name ;" 
an'toa waro, "they were left in it;" anda wa fo 
Bomma, " they spake it at Bomma ;" Goturuwa 
nsan- = Goturua, " Goturu has hired me." In some 
of these cases, however, it is uncertain whether the w 
is inserted, or whether it is part of the pronoun. 

y inserted : this is only the case where the first of two 
meeting vowels is i : lya wosa = i a wosa, " bale it 
out ;" i ya dse, " thou seest it ;" i ya nko = i anko, 
" give thou me."" 

2. Besides the mutual influence which vowels have when 
placed in immediate contact, they sometimes also affect each 
other, although separated by consonants. This seems to be 
the case in the following instances : a kure fi nu = a kure f., 
" he threw a word there," i. e. " replied ;" borei, " in the hand," 
for boro ; me-fen-, " drinkables,"" for mi-fen* ; sekiri, " settle- 
ment," for sikiri ; dondori, and donduri, and dundiiri = den 
dori, " a little child ;" fom-fbro, " spoil, booty," for fem-foro ; 
fom fore, " an empty thing," for fern f5re. 

IV. Euphonic Changes in the Symphony of Vowels and 
Consonants — 

1. Mutation of Voioels. — It is sometimes difficult to say 
whether the change of a vowel has been occasioned by the 
influence of another vowel, although separated by consonants 



54 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

(vide IV. 2,), or by the influence of the consonant imme- 
diately following! There appear to be some instances where 
the latter is the case. 

The labials, especially, have a tendency to change o and o 
into u : mbe diambumiiwi = diambomuwi, *' what has been the 
conversation.^" kume = k6me, "this matter;"" kumu = komu, 
"therefore;" burumero = boromero, "in this hand;" ku here, 
" good ;'' mu be ku biriwaro = ko bir., " we were in that 
matter." 

The consonant r also often imparts to vowels an inclina- 
tion to become u: a be mbiiro, for bdro, " it was in my 
hand ;" suro = soro, " in the hole ;" mbe kuro = koro ? " in 
what matter ?'" suro, " sitting," is frequently used for siro, 
than which it flows decidedly easier. 

2. Ejection of Vowels. — The vowels i and u are especially 
liable to ejection. Certain consonants following facilitate this 
ejection, and certain vowels following oppose it: e.g. mun' ta 
dara = muni ta, " let us go to town ;" muni anu nu, "let us hide 
them;" mum' bo nu, "we have come out thence ;" ini a fo, "that 
thou tell it ;" kan'-da'ya, but generally kani-da'ya, " silver- 
bracelet." The u of the conjunction dmu is generally dropped 
before consonants : am' Vani — am' Doaru — am' dende — am' 
moenu, &c. The u of the affix mu is frequently dropped, 
especially before labials : mmirinyarem' Vanira mfa, " my 
father, I am afraid of Vani;" i kom' ma nda, "the thing 
which thou hast done to me ;" nny6m5m' Buraima, " Ibrahim 
is my brother." The u of the pronoun anu, and the plural ter- 
mination, is likewise frequently dropped : an 'ta p6n', " they 
went faraway ;" an' na, " they came;" moro fiman'te, "in the 
midst of black people ;" mu gboren'do, "in our skins ;" a tan'da 
= atanura, "he went with them;" an'da = anura, "they;" an'- 

do = anuro, "they said;" musien'toa, "the women were left." 

3. Insertion of Vowels : i anko, and then iya nko, for 
inko, "give me." 

4. Insertion of Consonants. Of — 

g between n" and w, n' and a : bangu, for banu, " it is 



PHYSICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 55 

finished ;" dongu, for donu, " he put on ;" kangu, for 
kanu ; sandsa den' ga benu = den* a, " there was a 
small town." 

m before b and /; bamba, for baba, " very big ;" kuru- 
mba, for kuruba, " very much ;" siim fera, for soru 
fera, " seven." 

71 ; feranden', "a twin," from fera and den*; sund6ndo = 
soru dondo, "six;" mu an to = mu a to, "we leavehim." 

r (or d) between n" and a: mbe sowa san dara = 
san* ara, " I shall buy a horse with it ;" wiimu dsere 
san da musia, " let us return Sang's wife." 
5. Ejection of Consonants. — The vowels which thereby 
come into immediate contact coalesce by means of either 
perfect or imperfect crasis : — 

n ejected : na se"ye = na sen* lye, " I have told thee ;" 
na baidia = na ban- idia, " I am already in love with 
thee ;" de we kun* koaria = dene w., " the child 
cannot speak ;" a ma* maye = a mana ma aye, " he 
made a growl at him;" a be ka'raro = kanararo, 
" it was in the boxV' anun' kura, bu* ama = bun* a. 
"they cover him with cloth." 

ny and nds ejected : a ma -demu = a ma'ya, or mandsa- 
denemu, " she is the daughter of a chief ;" keima 
= kenyema, " on the sand." 

r ejected : a ma kure fi nu = firi nu, " he did not 
reply f bawara = barawara, " sheep ;" Boa Kairo = 
Boa Kariro, "BoaKari said;" anu bero = berero, 
"they gave again ;" na kuna benu = bere nu, " I have 
nothing to do with it ;" Ai Biibi = Ari Bubi ; Zo 
Duma = Zoru Duma ; hi* Gadsei beni nu bereni. ;' if 
Gadsei had not been there ;" moa so ta mi da = 
tara nu dara, " we met a horse there, in the town ;" 
te dondo blr6 = tere d. biriro, "on that very same 
day." 

w ejected: mu ere dse = mu were idse, "we did not 
see thee;'' mu e saduma = mu ere, or mil were s., 



56 THE LAW OF EUPHONY. 

" we will not surrender;" a ra fa uru = fa wuru, "she 
brought forth his father f akumu na u kere = na wu, 
" therefore I called you;" mu fanoa miiru = muuru = 
mu wuru, " our fathers have begotten us ;" moa na 
u dserea, = na wu, "we came to fetch you back;'' 
anum' fa bouboro = bo wu, " thev take the dead out 
of vour hand." 
y ejected : baramuira = bayaramuira, " thou art a trai- 
tor." 

§. 16. 
PSYCHICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 

This is a tendency of the language to render the combination of sounds 
harmonions and agreeable to the ear. 

I. Wocher says on this subject in his " Allgemeine Pho- 
nologic," §. 10 : " The euphony of the ear is in intimate 
connexion with the euphony of the organs of speech. What 
flows conveniently and easily as to the organs of speech must 
also sound agreeably and pleasantly to the ear, at least to 
that of the speaker himself, when carried along on the stream 
of euphony ; and vice versd, every disagreeable sound is also 
more or less inconvenient to the organs of speech : conse- 
quently, every language which has developed itself into a 
living symphonism, must also satisfy the ear ; in so far, at 
least, as we have entered into its organism. On the plea- 
santness of sounds in a foreign language we may not judge 
correctly until we can move in its organism with some ease, 
and consider all its parts in their peculiar phonetic relations. 
It will not do to compare merely this or that abrupt phrase 
with an expression of another language which we consider 
more beautiful." Accordingly, we must not expect an ab- 
solute difference between what we ascribe severally to the 
physical and to the psychical law of euphony. Th.e difference 
consists merely in a more or less. It is evident, e.g., that 
an accumulation of the same vowel is not only monotonous to 



PSYCHICAL LAW OF EUPHONY. 57 

the ear, but requires also considerable exertion of the organs 
of speech. But in avoiding it, the psychical law may have 
exercised a predominating influence. 

II. The Vei language produces euphony to the ear in 
the following ways — 

I 1. By the thoroughly uniform proportion of the conso- 

nantal and vowel elements, in which it surpasses even Arabic 
and Italian. With great regularity, a consonant and vowel, 
or diphthong, form the syllable ; and one or two, seldom 
more, syllables, the word. The only consonant which can 
conclude a word or syllable is w, or its symphonic modifi- 
cation. In all cases where n and d, or m and b &c., meet 
in the same word, that word is probably a compound. 

2. By the agreeable modulation and variety in the suc- 
cession of vowels. 

In this place may be mentioned the changes in the ter- 
mination of words, when standing in the context. This is a 
very striking peculiarity of the Vei language, and cannot be 
accounted for, except it be to serve such a phonetic purpose. 
Nouns, namely, not terminating in a or e, very frequently 
undergo the same changes at their termination when used 
in the context, as, e.g., when assuming the plural termi- 
nation, and the suffix ro. The following are some of the 
most common of these changes ; but more occur, which can 
easily be learnt from the examples dispersed throughout the 
grammar. 

a. Final o and o interchanged : kone akoa, " on account of 
the famine," (kono) ; a kore-kunge dan, " he smelt the 
scent of the rice,'' (koro) ; a musu donde fere, "he. looked 
at one woman ; hima kaiwore ma, " if thou dost not 
perform thy conjugal duty (kaiworo) ; a k9re bi, " he 
took the throne (koro) ; nnyomoe kum fa, " when my 
brother has diedf dem raese-dongbe kunkuru, musu- 
dongboe kimkiiru, " there was a numerous crowd of 
little children and women;" (dongbo = crowd.)— Awa 



58 ON COMPOSITION AND DECOMPOSITION. 

gbore dse, "she found her skin (gboro); ngbore sa- 
mani, " my hide has been lost ;" musie gbia dan- Dsuba 
bare, " all the women heard that Job had recovered " 
(baro); kerea gbore bi, "war has taken the book." — 
Zuye ton zo-manira, "the chiefs name was Chief- 
Mani ;" amo a poe-ker!e bo akoro, " and he took the 
eagle's eggs from under him." 
b. Final o and u changed : wuri a gbasa bi, " the dog took 
the cassada ;'' musi afo aro : na kani-dimmu, " the 
woman said, It is my silver ring ;" abe musie boro, " it 
is in the woman's hand C kaie a wurle fa, " the man 
killed the dog ;" an' turie ke nu, "they put oil there;'' 
pakennamuye, " it is the spider ;" a kue dan- and a k6e 
dan-, " he heard the word ;" tendiiye ta, "the messenger 
went." 
I have made large collections, to ascertain whether or 
not these changes serve a logical or rhetorical purpose ; but I 
am led to conclude that they are purely phonetic, and may 
therefore be made or omitted according to taste. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON COMPOSITION AND DECOMPOSITION. 



§. 17. 
COMPOSITION. 

Jn compound words a Snbsfantive may define Suhs^tantivea, Adjectives, 
and Verbs, hut a Verb only Substantives. From, the manner in 
which they are joined, the Compounds are divided into Pure and 
Impure Compounds. 

I. Pure Compounds are those whose constituent parts do not 
undergo a formal change by composition. 
1. Substantives define or qualify — 

a. Other Substantives : don'-gbun-, rice-bowl ; gbun-te- 
renu, bowl-pieces ; da-don-, feast-rice ; be-den-, uncle's 



COMPOSITION. 59 

child, i.e. nephew; gbe-kuru, rum-cask; patawa- 
kanara, money-chest ; kani-binda, silver-spoon ; Boa 
Kari-ba, the Boa Kari-mother, i.e. Boa Kari's mo- 
ther ; poe-keri, eagle-egg ; fanie-te, grassfield-ceutre. 

b. Adjectives : bu-fa, lit. belly-full, i. e. satisfied. 

c. Verbs : fira-bo, lit. breath-coming-out, i. e. life ; sandsa- 

bo, town-laking. 
2. Verbs qualify Substantives — 

Sa-banda, lit. lie-down-time, i. e. bed-time ; na-banda, 
come-time, i.e. time to come. 

II. Impure Compounds are those whose constituent parts 
undergo a formal change by composition. 

1. Substantives defining; — 

a. Other Substantives : sandsaro-moenu, lit. the in-the- 
town-people, i. e. the town people ; koro-kama, lit. the 
in-the- water-elephant, i.e. the water elephant; firaro- 
kama, wood-elephant ; daro-kure, mouth- word ; ke- 
rero-kb, war-word. 

6. Adjectives : moro-mande, another-person, = another ; 
moro-fima, black-person, negro. And in proof of 
moro-fima being really considered as one word, mean- 
ing " negro,'^ the form moro-fima-mo, lit. a negro- 
person, i.e. a negro, sometimes occurs. 

c. Verbs : kando-ban, head-being done = confusion, per- 
plexity ; kundo-kiri, head-tying = study, thought. 

§. 18. 
DECOMPOSITION. 

In Decomposites, either the Antecedent or Subsequent, or both Ante- 
cedent and Subsequent, are Compounds. 

I. Decomposites with a compound antecedent. 

1. The antecedent a noun, defined by either substantive 
or adjective — 

Duye-bari-kon, house-roof-rafter ; tie gbema-kundi, 



60 ON COMPOSITION AND DECOMPOSITION. 

white-fowl-feather ; bure gbere-gbowo, the whole 
country's sores ; kambiri-banda, same place-time, 
i. e. at the very same time ; kere-dendero-moenu, a 
war-vessel's people ; gore-ko-kira, palisade-back-way, 
i.e. way at the back of the palisade ; boro-dsire-fem- 
mu, it is a from-the-country come-down-thing, i. e. it 
is something come down from the country ; kando- 
kura berebere-bu, an upland-very fine-cloth-pieee, 
i.e. a piece of very fine upland cloth. 

2. The antecedent a verb with one or more complements. 

Bori-ma-fenu, medicine-make-things, i. e. things to make 
medicines ; ds6n-san-dende, slave-buy-vessel, i. e. 
slaver; koro-suma-fene, rice-measure-thing, i.e. a 
rice measure ; dori-firi-moe, hook-throw person, i.e. 
an angler ; fira-bo-fenenu, breath-drawing-things, 
i.e. living creatures; sandsa-bo-seri, town-take-wit- 
ness, i.e. a witness of taking the town; gban-gbe- 
sie-mo, bamboo-wine-make-person, i.e. a bamboo wine 
maker ; ta-ke-tawararo-mo, fire-put-into-a-pipe-per- 
son, i.e. a person employed in lighting pipes; e.g. 
ya ta-ke-tawararo-morae, " this is a person to put 
fire into thy pipe." 

II. Decomposites with a compound subsequent. 

1. The subsequent consisting of verb and noun — 

A na Mando-si-kerema, " he came to the Mando seat of 
war, i. e. to the seat of war at Mando ;"" a ta Banda- 
koro-tie-da, " he went to the Bandakoro fording-apot." 

2. The Subsequent consisting of two nouns — 

Nyana-daro-kure, ghost-mouth-word, i.e. word of the 
mouth of a ghost ; Moro-kira-fira, Moro-sickness- 
forest, i.e. sickness-forest, or forest into which sick 
persons are carried for recovery at Moro ; dsara- 
susii-dsi, lion -breast- water, i.e. lion's milk. 



DECOMPOSITION. 61 

III. Decomposites with a compound antecedent and subse- 
quent — 

Mano-moenu-ta-dsa-fene, Mano-people-part-eye-things, i. e 
the Mano people's part of goods ; faro-bo-fen-gbe-bii, heart- 
take-out- white- cloth-piece, Le. a piece of white cloth to take 
out the heart, or to effect conciliation ; si-mo-buro-den, wealth- 
person-bow els-child, i. e. the natural child of a wealthy person ; 
mo-buro-fere-mo, people-bo wels-inspect-person, i.e. a person 
to inspect people's bowels. 

IV. Here may also be mentioned a striking phenotnenon 
of the Vei language, viz. the contraction or unition of a whole 
proposition by ejecting or contracting vowels, and by a change 
of accent, in such a manner that the contracted phrase can 
be considered as a decomposite'; a decomposite, however, of 
a different nature from that mentioned above. If the latter 
be logically and grammatically compounded, and form only 
one part of a proposition, the former is merely grammati- 
cally or formally united, and contains itself a whole proposi- 
tion, or even several propositions. The following are instances 
of this phenomenon — 

An'tanu f^ bara, for : anu ta anu fa bara, " they went to 
their father's place ;" mfaikerewi mbea ? for : mfa i kerewi 
mbea ? " why has my father called thee ?" nkumVafowiiye, 
for : nkumu, mbe a fo wuye, " therefore I am telling it you ;" 
mfareita, for : mfaro ita ! " ray father says, Go thou I" arei- 
teina, for : aro ita ina, " he said. Go ! Come I" ibere weitoaro, 
for: iberewa ito aro, "thou thyself wilt be left in it;" nantu- 
sando, for : na anu tusa ndo, " I asked them, I said ;" areitaifa 
femmu kure sundaniime, for : aro ita, ifa, &c., " he said. Go 
thou ! these are the things concerning which thy father has 
sent word." 



( 62 ) 
CHAPTER VIII. 

FIGURES OF SPEECH AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 



§. 19. 

FIGURES OF SPEECH. 

Pleonasm, Ellipsis, and Apposition, are common in the Vei language. 

I. Pleonasm often occurs in the use of pronouns. It may be, 
that originally, when a pronoun was used in addition to a 
substantive, this was done in order to express emphasis; but 
pronouns are certainly now used where they must be con- 
sidered pleonastic ; e.g. akiimu femme an keira, " therefore 
this thing is to concern thee." It is also a sort of pleonasm 
when the pronoun a is prefixed to numerals ; e.g. a. dondo na, 
" one came ;" na aboro bi, " I took some ;" aro mande be 
nie, " there is another one here." 

The verb ro is often used pleonastically , e.g. mfaro aro, 
" my father said ;" moen'do an'do, " the people said." But the 
very frequent pleonastic repetition of ro in repeating the words 
of others has doubtless been occasioned by the unaccustomed 
slowness with which the natives had to speak when dictating 
to me. I never heard, in common conversation, phrases like 
the following, which I wrote from dictation : aro ngawa tani 
Vei, aro, amu mmia nu kaka, aro mbe nanawa, aro amu nkea 
wura baro, i.e. " he said : I have gone to Vei, and remained 
there a good while. When I was coming, I arrived at a 
large forest." 

Mo, " person," is used pleonastically : moro pere keremu 
** be there even war ;" moro pere famu, " be it even death. 



11 



II. Ellipsis. 

1. Ellipsis of the Copula is very common : ^hi" bori biri 
gbere, " if that medicine is stfong ;" i saro, " thou art lying ;" 



FIGURES OF SPEECH. 63 



c - 



a dondoe ton si, " the name of one is buffalo ; si a keremaba, 
" the buffalo is very large." 

2. When a substantive or pronoun governs several verbs, 
the latter are generally without conjunction : mu ta mfa tusa, 
" go and let us ask my father ;" i na nko, " come and give 
me ;" wu na mbi, " come and take me ;" anu ma nabira, 
" lest they come and take her ;" ita fo Momoruye, " go and 
tell Momoru ;" muta dsie ke, " we went and reached the 
water ;" mui ta berea Momoruwako ? ** should we go and 
pass behind Momoru.^" ke kowe mun'ta nu dse, "then permit 
us to go there and see ;" mbe ta dsi, "I shall go and descend," 
i. e. " I shall go down." 

Sometimes a whole proposition is omitted per ellipsin : 
mboa Huroa fen* gbauna, " I come from Huro (supply, " where 
I have been") to seek something ;" aboafana, " he came out 
from (supply, " where he had gone") to kill her." 

III. Apposition. — If the word, explained by another in ap- 
position is to have a suffix, different cases may take place. 

1. The chief word may have the suffix, and that in apposi- 
tion be without it : na bereye More, " I gave it to thee, Mu- 
hammadan ;" i kom' ma nda, iiga dsabundemu, ita denge a 
mairau, iwa Vani, " the thing which thou hast done to me, 
who am a blind man, will thine own children do to thee, 
even thee, Vani ;" anu be muko, mu Vei-monu, " they were 
after us, us the Vei people." 

2. The word in apposition may have the suffix, instead of 
the word which it explains: na here iwa Moreye, "I gave it 
thee. More." 

3. Both the word in apposition and that explained, may 
have the suffix : itareinyomo kerema bara Vani bara, " cap-y 
it to the place of Vani, thy elder brother;" Kanmba boro 
kanua, marekanua, " God sent them, the angels." 

IV. The use of " Abstractum pro Concreto" is not un- 
common. 

Kere, lit, "war," but also "warriors:" e.g. kere sande ma 



64 FIGURES OF SPEECH AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

nabira, " lest the hired warriors come and take her f kere 
sanden' do, " the hired warriors said." 

Sande, lit. " female circumcision," but also = the number 
of females circumcised at one and the same time : sande biri 
a boro kundi gbema bewe anu kundo, " some of that same 
sande have now white hair on their head." 



§. 20. 

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

The Vel language is highly figurative: Comparisons are not rare; 
3IetaphorSf Fables, and Proverbs abound. 

I. In words for abstract and metaphysical ideas the Vei- 
language is exceedingly poor. But, like other uncivilized 
tribes, the Veis are to such a degree identified with nature, 
that in many inward processes they only see a reflection of 
what happens in the world around them. Hence the very 
frequent use of figures. All the Veis use them, more or less 
frequently, in common conversation, and especially when 
settling their palavers ; but individuals are met with who 
scarcely utter a sentence without connecting a metaphor or 
parable with it. What has been dictated to me in the Vei 
country is mostly of such a nature, that this feature of 
the language could not exhibit itself so much ; and yet it 
will be seen, from the sequel of this section, that I did 
not remain altogether unacquainted with it.. This feature 
of the Vei language testifies to the correctness of an observa- 
tion by G. F. Graham : " Figurative language is neither 
the invention of philosophers, nor the result of modern re- 
finement; for it is found to have been especially prevalent 
in the early ages of the world, and in all countries where 
man appears in a rude, uncivilised state." 

II. The following is an instance of a simile or compari- 



FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 65 

son : P6ro-m5 beiro musu gbandawau, " the European is 
like an unmarried woman." The force of this simile is : 
" As an unmarried woman is not bound to any parti- 
cular man, but can keep company with any one (accord- 
ing to Vei ethics), so also the Europeans do not side 
with any one faction in the country, but are friends of 
any one that serves their purposes — to-day of this, to- 
morrow of another." 

III. Metaphors : 

Tungbe-ko, lit. " staflF-matter ;" hence, " court-matter," the 
speaker in a court of justice always holding a staff in his hand. 

Boro don* dsi kimeiro, lit. " to put the hand into cold 
water ;" hence, " to make peace," from the ablution of the 
hands with cold water on such an occasion. 

Kure bon-, lit. "to pour out words ;" hence, "to bring news, 
give information, speak." 

Iweiken donde den*, ikene to dendowa, ini kure bon ! lit. 
" hang one leg of thine : leave thy leg hanging and give in- 
formation," i. e. " thou art not to be longer in giving the in- 
formation than thou canst stand on one leg." 

Ya dsi kimareme, lit. "this is thy cold water" i.e. "this 
is a refreshment for thee."" 

Boro si fen- koro, or boro don fenkoro, lit. "to put the 
hand under any thing ;" hence, " to be pleased with, or con- 
sent to it." They also often say, boro fera— or even — boro 
fera hi kem fera si fen- koro, lit. " to put both hands and 
both feet under any thing," i.e. "to be exceedingly pleased 
with any thing, or consent to it from the bottom of tfie 

heart." 

Tamba-da-dsi, lit. "to put down a spear's mouth," i.e. 
" to stick a spear into the ground before any one, in ac- 
knowledgment of his superiority." 

Boro to kando, lit. "to leave hands up," i.e. "to leave any 
one's hands in a supplicating posture, or to deny his re- 
quest." 

K 



G6 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

M5 si taro, lit. "to lay a person in the fire," ie. to put a 
slip of paper into the fire on which a person's name and some 
incantations are written in Arabic. 

Fira kiri mora, lit. " to tie the breath with regard to or 
from a person,^' i. e. to pester, harass one. 

Kira tie, lit. " to cut or cross a way f hence also, to way- 
lay, to make a way insecure. 

Dsoe sure den* ? lit. " who hanged the bag ?" i. e. who is the 
cause of it ? 

Dsi gbandi-ko, lit. "hot water-concern,'" i.e. marriage-con- 
cern ; because the wife has to make hot water for her hus- 
band. 

Kura kiri musiia, lit. " to tie a cloth on a female," i.e. to 
make her one's wife; unmarried girls not wearing cloths, but 
merely the bere-band. 

Bore-kunde gbai, lit. " to drive away country birds," i. e. 
to drive invaders out of the country. 

Mo dsira terea, lit. "to show a person to the sun," i.e. to 
make him publicly known 

Na kai kon sore dia, lit. " I love the man as a stand- 
ing tree," i.e. I love him just as he is — as he stands be- 
fore me. 

Dsi dondo mi, lit. " to drink one water," i e. to have 
peace. 

Fara sunda, lit. " to send a bamboo splint ;" hence, to 
court a widow, this being done, not by a verbal application, 
but merely by sending a piece of bamboo-rind of about the 
length of a hand. Fara bira, lit. " to take or accept a bam- 
boo-splint," means then, to accept an offer for marriage (as 
said of a widow). 

Keu bun, lit. "to cover with a tortoise," i.e. thoroughly to 
disguise one's intention. 

Dsuru be mokan, lit. "there is a rope at one's neck." i.e. 
he is in want of something:. 

Fara gbere mora, lit. "the heart grows hard with some 
one," i.e. it becomes firmly united with him in friendship. 



FIGURATIVE LAJiGUAGE. 67 

Sandsa bo moye fira, lit. " to bring forth to one the town 
as a forest," i.e. to give him liberty to settle and live in it 
vi^herever he likes. The same is also said of a district or 
country. 

Da ka moma and da ka koma, lit. " to take away the mouth 
from on a person and thing," i.e. to make no objection to a 
person or thing. 

K6-kun dse, lit. " to see the head of a thing, case, mat- 
ter," i.e. to see or get the end thereof; kasi here mo mani, 
also : kasi here komaui, lit. " there is no rust about a person 
or thing," i.e. there is no fault in him or it. They even say, 
and this most frequently too, kasi here kanba raani, i.e. "there 
is no rust or fault in God;" = He has done His part, been 
kind, liberal. So e.g. they often merely say, in reply to in- 
quiries after their health, kasi here kanba mani ; and this 
then is equal to, " Thank God, I am well." 

IV. In a wider sense of the term, proverbs and fables also 
may be considered as illustrative oi figurative language, and 
therefore they find a place here. 

Proverbs : kundi dondo gben" a boa nkundo, ke were nkun'e 
dsau, lit. " one single hair only has fallen from my head ; 
this will not spoil my head," i.e. I have sustained such a 
trifling loss or injury, that it is not worth speaking of. 

M6e kama bira boyara kirawakoa, lit. " one takes the ele- 
phant for a friend on account of the way," i.e. one makes 
a great man his friend, in order to share the benefit of his 
influence. 

Fen dondo were fem feragba bo ; a kunni abo, ke a kuro- 
ake, lit. " one thing does not pay the debt of two things ; if 
it pay it, then it must be large." 

Kumare turi abundowa, lit. " the palm-nut decays in its 
own bunch," i.e. every one wishes to die in his own 

home. 

Moi kereke ya mo ak6a, " a man fights for his people." 
Korimu mua, muwe suye ture don', lit. " we are leopards; 



68 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

we do not eat putrid meat/' i.e. we will not have the help 
of others in order to obtain our wishes. 

Dsa we fen ta san*, lit. " the eye does not buy a rag," i. e. 
one will not be deceived if one first inspects a thing before 
buying it. 

Mo dondo we mo fima-ko fo, lit. "one person may not 
speak the case of a negro (negro-man),"" i.e. a single indivi- 
dual must not decide a case on which a human life depends. 

V. The following two may serve as specimens of Vei 
Fables : — 

KAMA-TERI. 

Kama be suyenu ta sokena, amu sando : wu ta ndsa ! 
Kemaro : gbere ! aro anun' ta nta soeke. Amu sando ! mbe 
sokero dsawa. Amo a ra bana bi, ata sira kirafe. Amo a 
bunda bana sinda. An' suyena na 'nu bunda tomboekea. 
Ke kun tomboeke kjika an'ni si sammani, awe ta sokena. 
Am sokero dsawa, tere biriro : anu ma taro. Am"" kama 
tusake aro : mbe ma, wu ma na sdeke ? Am' sando : na 
fowi ndo wuni ta ndsa ! irowi : gbere ; akomu nga zi, na ya 
sokero dsau. An kamaro : tonyamu. Anu ma soekero tere 
biriro. A ban. 

ELEPHANT- FABLE. 

The elephant and (other) animals went to work, and 
the deer said, " Come to my {sc. work) f The elephant 
said, " No ! they are to go to my work."" And the deer 
said, " I shall spoil the work." And he took his harp, and 
went and sat by the way. And he began to play the harp ; 
and the animals came, and began to work. But when he 
had played awhile, they sat by the deer, they did not go to 
work. And the work was spoiled that day : they did no 
more go. And the elephant asked, " What happened that 
ye did not come and work.^" And the deer said, "I said 
that ye should go to mine ; thou saidest, no : therefore 
have I spoiled thy work."" And the elephant said, " It is 
true."" They did no more work on that day. It is done. 



FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 69 

PAKENNA A TERIMU. 

Pakennawa sira an' konoba na gborero : koro here, o-basa 
bere, bana bere, boro bere, diia-fem bere, dom-fem bere, kono 
keremaba ana borero. Pakenna fera musie, anMa den guru 
kakakaka, den hondoro dondo, Dom-fem bere borero anu 
to denenu koara. Pakenna akira, fania-kira; afo a dsa 
musieye aro : mbe fawai. Am' musiero : ima fau ! mu so- 
eke! Pakennaro: gbereo, mbe fawa ! Amo a fo a musieye 
aro: m bem fa somu, i ma nsa nsi soero, i gbengbere sa 
nkumma, inl bore bon* gbengberema ! Amo a musu daurau. 
Pakenna afau. Musie afo adenuye aro : wu soe sen* ! Amo 
anoa soe sen* ; amo anoa pakenna si soero ; anu ma sau, 
anoa siwake soero ; gbengbere anoa bun soema. An' dse- 
rema keau, pakenna bo soero, ata bbroro pon. A kende 
kende, a ma fa. Ata, musu ba tara, miisu-mandsa : koro 
kiirumba be musie boro, kore be senero kurumba, a be bun- 
dero kurumba, gbasa be dsombero kurumba. Musie ma 
wuruke, dem bere a boro. Pakenna a tusake : mba, va 
denere ? Aro : na dem bere. Aro : mbori be mboro, mbe 
iko ini a mi, ini bu bi, ini wdruke. Musiero : liko borie ; 
mben wureke, iini dene dse, mbe iko koro bundu fare gba", 
nni ko gbasa dsombo fera, nniko bana kurumba. Pakenna 
dau kone akoa ; ata borie boa kirafe ; a na dara. Musiea 
ba fa, a don ta pakennaye ; " Pakenna, ya doneme !" Paken- 
na done don", a bu a fa gba'; a borie ke gbunoro, a dsi ke 
gbunoro, a borie sui ; a fo musieye : ina kurabu dondo ! A 
kiri musie-dsaro, aro : i borie mi, he ! i wunni borie mi, 
iwere ndsearo : nata pon; karo siindondo yd wureke den' 
kaima ; mbe na in' na kere bere, in' na dom-fen gbi bereu. 
Musie a dau, a gbune bi, a borie mi. Pakenna a firi gbunoro, 
musie ra pakenna kanu. Pakenna abe musie-buro. Musie 
a wureke dondorie : pakenna beremu. Musieni ako dsie, 
ani a mi ; musien' done ta bereberebere, am' pakenna ko 
done, ani a don. Pakenna be aburo, adonduiiemu Pakennau, 
musie ma so, ke pakennamu. 



70 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

Suye be firaro, a ton san, a dsirimasoa ; aro : mbe ta 
musie a dene dse, karo sundondo ai musie a done donda. 
Sanana, aro : mba na na ya dene dse. Musie a dene bere 
sandse. Sana dene fere, a pakenna dse ; a dene bere mu- 
sieye, musie a dene bira ; asa kuraro. San* a ta pon sandsaro, 
a sese bi ; a na a kura bi dondoriema, a gbasi gba. Don- 
doriea burike, a ta pon". San* a fo musieye, aro : pakenna- 
muye, aro: demma : pakenna ka'-momu. 

Pakenna ta he ! a musu-bara, a musu a kore gbi arno, a 
tie kurumba, a kora tu, a denu a suye fa ; miisie a done ta, a 
suye ta, a don'e ke gbunoro, a suye ke donoro. Pakenna na 
dserema, a musie tara, ai done donda. A musie-boro dsondo, 
a bere, a soke ; musie a boro firi donero. Pakenna a dsere, 
a musie gbore tu, afo musieye : na fani korokoro, na dsere. 
Miisie a ma koario ; musie a dene a fo : mba, mfamue. 
Musiero : gbereo, areifa afa korokoro. Pakenna a na afo 
musieye : liga pakenna. Musiero : pakenna a fani korokoro, 
Pakenna ka'-momu, he ! D5ndau. 

SPIDER-FABLE. 

There was a spider, and a great famine came into the 
country, (so that) there was no rice, no cassadas, no plantains, 
no palm-cabbage, no meat, no victuals : a great famine had 
come into the country. The spider and his wife had been 
begetting children for a long time : an hundred children. 
There was no food in the country for them to give to the 
children. The spider became sick — it was a feigned sick- 
ness {lit a lie-sickness). He said to his wife, " I shall die." 
And his wife said, " Do not die : we will work." The spider 
said, "No, I shall die." And he said to his wife, "At the time 
when I shall have died, do thou not lay, but set me (upright) 
in the hole, and lay boards on me, that thou mayest put 
the earth on the boards." And his wife consented. The spi- 
der died. The woman said to her children, " Dig a hole." 
And they dug a hole, and they set the spider in the hole : 
they did not lay him, they set him in the hole : with boards 



FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 71 

they covered the hole. And (when) the evening came the 
spider came out of the hole and went to a marsli far away. 
He was still alive : he had not died. He went and met a 
great woman, a woman-chief. The woman possessed very 
much rice, very much rice was in her farm, and very much 
was in the store, and there were very many cassadas in the 
farm. (But) the woman was barren : she had no children. 
The spider asked, "My mother, where are thy children?"" 
She said, " I have no children." He said, " I have a medi- 
cine ; I will give it thee that thou drink it, so that thou may- 
est become with child and give birth." The woman said, 
" Give me the medicine. When I give birth, so that I get 
a child, I will give thee a whole shed full of rice, two farms 
of cassada, and a great many plantains." The spider con- 
sented on account of the famine. He went away to take out 
the medicine by the way, and returned to town. The woman 
had killed a goat and cooked rice for the spider, (and now 
said), " Spider, here is rice for thee." The spider ate the 
rice : he was fully satisfied. He (then) put the medicine into 
a bowl and put w^ater into the bowl, and mashed the medi- 
cine. He said to the woman, " Bring a strip of cloth.'"' He 
tied it round the woman's eyes, and said, " Drink the medi- 
cine, hear! When thou hast drunk the medicine thou wilt 
no more see me : I go far away. In six months thou wilt 
give birth to a male child, and I shall come, that thou mayest 
give me my rice and all my victuals." The woman consented. 
She took the bowl and drank the medicine. The spider 
jumped into the bowl, and the woman swallowed the spider. 
The spider was inside the woman. The woman brought 
forth a baby : it was the spider himself. The woman gives 
it water to drink : she cooks excellent rice, and gives it to 
the spider to eat. The spider had been within her : her 
baby was the spider. The woman did not know that it was 
a spider. 

There is an animal in the forest, its name is deer : it 
is cunning. It said, " I shall go and see the woman's child : 



72 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. 

it has been eating the woman's rice for six months." 
The deer came and said, " My mother, I am come to see 
thy child." The woman handed her child to the deer. The 
deer looked at the child : it saw that it was a spider. He 
handed it to the woman. The woman took the child and 
laid it within cloths. The deer went far away to a town, 
took a switch, returned, took the cloth from on the baby and 
flogged it well. The baby ran, and went far away. The 
deer said to the woman, " It was a spider : it was no child. 
The spider was an impostor." 

The spider went to his Avife, hear ! All his wife's rice 
had become ripe, she had very many fowls, she beat rice, 
and her children killed animals for meat. The woman 
cooked the rice, she cooked the meat, she put the rice into a 
bowl, and put the meat into the rice. The spider came in one 
evening, and met his wife (when) she was eating rice. He 
pushed his wife's hand, passed on, and stood there. The 
wife put her hand into the rice. The spider struck his 
wife's hand again, and said to his wife, " I died long ago, 
and am (now) returned."" The wife did not reply. The 
wife's child said, " My mother, it is my father."" The 
wife said, " No ; thy father died long ago." The spider 
came, and said to the wife, " I am the spider." The wife 
said, " The spider died long ago." The spider is an im- 
postor, hear ! Finished. 



{ 73 ) 
CHAPTER IX. 

ON PROPOSITIONS. 



§. 21. 



It may he sufficient to illustrate the mechanical construction of Pro- 
positions or to point out the proper place of their members. And 
this will afford a nezv proof of the observation, that liberty in the 
collocation of words decreases in a direct ratio with the amount of 

injlexion, 

I.' In a Simple Proposition the subject always stands first, 
then the copula, and last the predicate; e.g. a be sandsaro, 
" he was in the town ;'' dori be nu, " there is an hook ;" 
mandsa here firaro, " the chief is not in the forest ;'' mbe 
siro, "I was sitting;" niei ti tan-, "the bullocks are 
ten." 

When the copula is omitted, or contained in the predicate, 
the subject stands first, and then the predicate: e.^^. tere 
bera, " the sun set ;" difi na, " darkness came f ' dsome ? 
" who is this ? '' 

Even in Interrogative Propositions this order of words is 
retained, and the question is distinguished from an assertion 
by the tone (and sometimes accent only) : yii na? "art thou 
come .^" ita.^ " wilt thou go.^'' i fa be nie ? " is thy father 
here ? " 

Imperative Propositions usually appear in the same form: 
i na, " come thou !" wu ta ! " go ye !" i here ! " pass on f 
and it is not of frequent occurrence to meet with forms 
where the subject is included in the verb, e.g. na, "come;" 
ta, "go;" dse, "see." Only nko, "give me," generally ap- 
pears without expressed subject : I nko, or wu nko, " give 
me," and wuni nko, " may ye give me f are used very 
sparingly. 

L 



74 ON PROPOSITIONS. 

II. Complex Propositions have complements either of the 
subject or the predicate. 

1. Complements of the subject may be adjectives, numerals, 
possessive pronouns, or substantives in apposition. 

The adjectives and numerals always follow the substantives 
which they qualify, e.g. mandsa ba na nie, " a great 
chief came here ;" moro fima fo, ** the black man 
said;" dem mesenu gbi buri, "all the little children 
ran away ;" so dondo be nu, " one horse is there ;" 
dende tan na, " ten vessels came." 

The possessive pronoun always precedes the substantive: 
moe moenu ta pon*, "our people went far away ;" 
mfa ndia, " my father loves me ;" a dene fa, " her child 
died." 

A word in apposition may be placed either before or after 
the noun it explains : a kai, Ghana ka duma, "Ghana, 
her husband, rose up ;" a nyomo Vani na, " Vani, his 
brother, came ;" mo we ti nie Vei, " there is not a 
person here, in Vei." 

But sometimes the apposition of the subject stands 
quite at the end of the proposition : i bani ake wara- 
buro, a beifa, " thy mother, she and thy father are to 
put it into a mat ;" wu buri Boa Karia, wu fera Slafa, 
"shun ye, thou and Siafa, shun ye Boa Kari;" mu 
tawa, mu be Sokorouu, " we went, we and Sokoro's 
people." 

In the same manner the numerals also, belonging 
to the subject, do not follow it directly, but quite at 
the end of the proposition : bu be anu boro dondo, 
" one gun was in their hand ;" kamanu na sagba, "thrfee 
elephants came ;" a moenu fa kurumba, " he killed very 
many people." 

If, in consequence of the contraction of several pro- 
positions into one, a proposition happens to have more 
than one subject, two constructions may occur : either the 
first of them takes the usual place before the predicate, 



ON PROPOSITIONS. 75 

and the others follow it, joined to a pronoun which 
repeats the first subject; or all subjects are placed first 
absolutely, and then are again all comprehended in a 
pronoun which stands in apposition to them, and con- 
stitutes the formal subject of the verb : moe birini na, 
abe a miisu gbere, hi' a den kaimanu, hi* a tomboke- 
moenu, " those people come, they, and all their wives, 
and their sons, and their players ;" musu-dongbo, kai- 
dongbo, m5 here here, mo nyama nyama, anu gbere- 
wai na daro, "a crowd of women, a crowd of men, 
very good people, very bad people — they all come to 
town." 

2. Complements of the predicate are either the negative 
particle or other adverbs, or a next and remote object, or a 
verb, which may again govern one or more objects. 

The Negative Particle " ma "" constantly takes its place 
between the subject and predicate, e.g. a ma na, "he did not 
come ;" mma dan', " I do not understand it ;" a ma ndia, 
" he did not like me ;'' mfa ma mu dia, " my father does 
not like us ; " i ma femme don*, " do not eat this thing!" 

The Adverbs immediately follow the verb : mbe siro gbe, 
" I was sitting still ;" an 'do kerima, " they said lately ;" mbe 
mo so nu, " I shall send people there ;" a ta pen, " he went 
far away." 

The next object usually precedes the verb : a mandsa-dene 
gbi kere, " he called all the free-born people ;" an'da mo so, 
" they sent a person ;" mma Buraima fa, " I did not kill 
Ibrahim ;" ya den- kaima fareme dia ? " dost thou love this 
dead boy .^" ima mieme bi, " do not take the sword." 

If the next object has an apposition, that follows the verb : 
an da mo faniife, kai keremaba, " they killed somebody 
after them — a very great man ;" amo a monu dse, kai 
siin sagba, " and he saw people, eight men."" 

If the next object consists of several words, the first word 
only takes its place before the verb, and all the others 



76 ON PROPOSITIONS. 

follow it, often headed by a pi'onoun, repeating the first 
object : sunamera ngbasi gba mu be na moe gbi, "this 
rain has well beaten me, me and all my people f' an'da 
ni fa, hi* ba kurumba, hi' barawara, " they killed bul- 
locks, and veSry many goats, and very many sheep." 

Numerals belonging to the next object can either 
precede or follow the verb : anda moe dondo bira. 
** they caught one person; moa tie kurumba fa nu, 
"we killed very many fowls there;" an'da mo fanufe 
saofba, " thev killed three men after them ;" an'da mo 
bira mu fe fera sandsaro, " they caught two persons 
after us in the town ;" moa moe bira kurumba, " we 
caught many people ;" moa ni fa nu nani, " we killed 
four bullocks there.'" 
Sometimes the next object itself follows the verb : ta bira 
duyera, " fire caught the house ;" a berea moe gbia, 
" he exceeds all people ;" dsa-fene berea wu sagba, " the 
goods surpass you three." 

The remote object, and nouns used adverbially, follow the 
predicate : na keu dondo sa nnyomoenu sagba, " I had a 
dream of my three brothers ;" a nkerewi diaraboa, " he called 
me for a conversation;" anda sina dsirara, "they showed 
him a seat;" kanmba siiyenu gbi ko dom-fen, "God gives 
food to all animals ;*" arekuru dikea, " he said. Cease from 
weeping;" mboa Huroa, "I come from Huro ;" musTe dunda 
gborero, " the woman went into the skin ;" an' na kere-fem- 
mewa gbia, "they c^me with all these war-things ;" an'da dsi 
tie Bomma, dsie-denero, fitiriro, " they crossed the water at 
Bomma, at the low part of the water, in the dusk of the 
evening." 

If the complement of the predicate is a verb, it likewise stands 
after, and may itself be accompanied by objects and adverbial 
definitions : an' na Boa Kari bara, ferekena kani dsarea, 
" they came to Boa Kari to make trade with gold ;" man- 
dsanu bunda dsone berea Kebn Mas pereye, " the cliiefs began 



ON PROPOSITIONS. 77 

to give up slaves to Captain Marsh also ;" vvu mo so anu 
kerena, " send ye somebody to call them !" 

in. In connecting propositions with each other, the way 
of simple co-ordination predominates. It is often adopted 
where we use subordination ; and frequently propositions are 
so loosely joined, that even co-ordinate conjunctions are 
omitted. 

Den- kaima dondo be nu kuruwamu, am' biiye ra bira, 
amo a bera nu, lit. " there was a boy, he was a war-hero, and 
a gun caught him, and he fell there." A donde a tom Fa' 
Gbese, am' buye ra pere bira, amo an'da bi, an' tara Datia ; 
anu kea kirafe, amo a fara ; amo an' ta farera, amo an'da 
tau, lit. " as to one of them, his name was Fa Gbese ; and a 
gun caught him also, and they took him ; they carried him 
to Datia ; they reached the road, and he died ; and they 
carried the corpse, and they buried him." Mu nani mu 
dsa ; mu tia nuwa, amu Gbakira-dsa-monu, an'da kere nyia, 
an' uara Goronamaro ; am' anu dunda da, " we came to our 
home ; we had been there, and the Gbakiradsa-people, they 
made war ; they brought it to Goronama, and they entered 
the town ;" wu bu here ! wu musu here ! agbaro wun' to na, 
mun' gboroke, "deliver up the guns! deliver up the women! 
Afterwards ye shall be suffered to come, that we may take 
an oath." 

Subordinate propositions always precede the principal ones 
when they are connected with them either by the relative 
pronoun " mu," or by the conjunctions "kun," "re," "hi','' 
or by " mu " and " kun' " together ; but they follow them, 
when standing in an objective relation to the verb of the 
principal proposition : wu kum mo so, mu we ko mara, "if ye 
send somebody, we will not do him any harm ;" a kerea na 
momu akoa sandsa biria to fera, "as to the people on whose 
account his war came, two such towns remain;" wu kun 
dau kereni ban-, mui to nie, " if ye consent that the war be 
done, we will leave here ;" komu be mu daro, muni a fo, 



78 ON PROPOSITIONS. 

" we will tell the word which is in our mouth ;" anu kim- 
kumu fo, mbe wu kundo ka, " whatever word they may tell, 
I shall let you know ;'' wu ma nare sina gbia, wu na namusia, 
" if you cannot bring all to-morrow, bring my wives ;" kure- 
mu kun ti ndaro, hi mbe a foa wiiye, nni a fo, " as to any 
word which may be in my mouth, (come to me) that I may 
tell it, if I will ;"" komu kun tidaro ifou ! " whatever word be 
in thy mouth, speak it '."' hi' mandsamu, ani ni fa, " if it is 
a chief, he kills a bullock ;" wu kunni nkere, nkun na, woa 
nkere kumua, wui fo ! " as ye have called me, and as I have 
come, so tell the matter for which ye have called me !" awai 
ma an' bard, " it makes that he recovers," i. e. " restores him 
to health;" moewe kun den-, awa na, a gbandien"" ta daro, "the 
person then hangs the head over it, that its vapour may go into 
his mouth ;" na a dia ani to mboro, " I like her to be left in 
my hand ;" Kanbawe basaira, ini bo ko biriro, " God will then 
help thee, that thou mayest come out of such a matter." 



CHAPTER X. 

PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 



§. 22. 



There are a number of Suffixes, or Enclitic 3fonosyllahles, which are 
appended not only to Verbs, but also to other parts of speech. It 
may therefore be best to consider them together in a special chapter, 
to avoid the necessity of frequently recurring to them. 

I. Of very frequent occurrence is " ni," and it may be affixed 
either to substantives and pronouns, or to verbs. In the 
first case it appears to have a verbal, in the second, an ad- 
verbial character — 

I. Ni in its verbal character. — When substantives and 
pronouns are subjects of a proposition, " ni " is often affixed 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 79 

to them, and then generally acts the part of our auxiliary 
verbs " have, be, may, can, will, must," &c. : it also, at the 
same time, makes up for the omission of certain conjunc- 
tions. 

a. Ni in imperative and precative propositions — 

Wumun' ta dara, "let us go to town;" muni a to 
firaro, ** let us leave him in the forest ;" wuni a dongo, 
" eat it ;" an' sama, " may he lie on it !'' ifaran' ti 
kanmbaro benda, " thy heart be with God alone !" 
wuni nko iini a mi, " give it me that I may drink 
it ;" wun' dsere, " ye must return ;" wun' ta nda nu, 
" carry me thither ;" wu ma mu ko dom fenda, muni 
a don", mu bum fa, " ye did not give us food, that we 
might have eaten it and been satisfied;'' ita fo Momoriiye 
an' na, " go and tell Muhammad that he may come." 
6. Ni in declaratory and predicative propositions — 

Hi* a mu dia, muni a so, hi' a ma mu dia, muni a so, 
" if he love us, we shall know it , if he do not love us, 
we shall (also) know it ;" amo ani na dara, amo ani ke, 
" and he came to town; and he arrived;" kumu mfa, 
rini a foiye, " therefore, my father, I tell it thee ;" ani 
a gbi pake, " he is to pay for them all ;" musieni a ko 
dsie, " the woman gave him water ;" ihfure here, na 
denem' fa, " if I give up the shell my child must die ;" 
mu tonni kereke-m5, " our name has been * War-peo- 
ple :' " anoanu tonni kurua, " their name has been * War- 
horses.' " 
c. Hence ni is also used in describing what exists, or what 
takes place as a regular and usual thing, where we use 
the simple present indicative. 
Hi* musie-nyomo be nu, an'ni a biri nyau, anun' da'ya 
ke a boro, anun' kura here aye ku rumba, " if the woman 
has a sister, they dress the same, they put a bracelet on 
her arm, they give her very many cloths ;" a kunni fa, 
an'ni a ko, an'ni a ko fo. Anu kum ban a koa, anun' 
turu mamani, anun' wuse sa dsaro. Anu kum ban 



80 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

wuse sa, anun' kura doiido kiria. Ann kum ban- kura 
dondoe kiri ara, anun" kaienu kere, " When she has died 
they wash her and speak concerning her (lit. her case). 
When 'they have finished washing her, they besmear her 
with oil, they put (ornamental) clay on her face. When 
they have finished putting the clay, they tie a cloth 
round her. When they have finished tying the cloth 
round her, they call the men." Kira dondo be nu, a 
tom feo, a kunni mo bira, iwe kum fira boa ; ibu kunni 
fa anibira, dsie kunni fa anibira. Abiri bone be nu : 
anun' kunda si taro, an'ni pakenna-dsara ke aro, an'ni a 
fa, soroa. Ai soro biriwa sa afaro, ani abdro don-, 
" There is a sickness, its name is 'asthma,' if it catches 
any one he cannot draw breath. It catches thee when 
thy stomach is full ; it catches thee when it is flood- 
tide (lit. when the water fills). There is a medicine for 
the same. They put an iron pot on the fire ; they 
put spider-webs into it ; they burn them to ashes (lit. 
kill them to a calcined substance.) He takes that ashes, 
lays it on his heart, and eats some of it." 
2. Ni in its adverbial character. — When ni appears as the 
affix of a verb one might be tempted to look upon it as a 
mere termination, the characteristic of a perfect tense. But 
that this is not its real nature, and that it is rather an adverb 
expressive of long-passed time in general, appears from the 
circumstance that it is sometimes separated from the verb, or 
affixed to the pronoun mu where a verb is not expressed at all, 
but merely understood : an' na kererani Gor'o (for the more 
usual an' nani kerera), " they have (long ago) brought war to 
Goro ;" Buraima wa Poro-momiini, " he has been Ibrahim's 
white man ;'' Mani demmuni, " he has been a Mani-boy." 

In English, however, the force of this adverb is sufficiently 
expressed by the usual past tense, as will be seen from the 
following sentences : na fani korokoro, " I died a very long 
time ago ;" na i koni musu, " I have given thee a wife ;" a 
berewa miisume bereni ndse, " he himself has delivered up 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 81 

this woman to me ;" kaie, zi, sirani gba, " but the man 
has been very rich ;" kai kore kuruani diekea, " the man 
had ceased weeping ;" kemo anyomo kerema mani, " this 
is how his elder brother acted ;" inyomo ma foni, aro : 
ya fa ? " has not thy brother told me that thou art 
dead ?'' anuvve a birawani, " they would have caught him ;" 
momu a binike aton Kari, " the person who has taken it, it 
is Kari." 

3. Connected with the preceding adverbial signification of 
ni is its force when appended to the conjunction kun' or wun'. 
The conjunction then introduces an action which has already 
actually taken place, or a supposition which the speaker be- 
lieves will be actually realized. In the first case the En- 
glish "as" or "because" corresponds to kvnni or wunni ; 
but in the second, "if or "when" does not fully convey 
its import. 

a. Kunni = as, because : a kunni ke ma, mu boro fera 
be akoro, " because he has done this, I am much pleased 
with him ;" mfa, i kunni ntusa, kemo a ma ndau, "my 
father, as thou askest me, this is what he has done to 
me;" kumu nkun" nara i san, "therefore, as I have 
brought him, do thou buy him ;" Zau here kunni fa, 
akumu wu ta, " as Zau himself is dead, therefore go ye ;" 
mu kunni a fa, mu a P6ro-m6e fawau, " as we have 
killed him, we will kill his white man also." 

b. Kunni = when, if: mfa kunni mu tusa, "when my father 
will ask us " (sc. which will certainly be the case) ; 
i wunni borie mi, "when thou shalt have drunk the me- 
dicine ;" sama wunni gbe, "in the morning, when it is 
light ;" beri wunni ti bororo, mo were mo tie, " if beri 
is in the country (sc. which is always the case, from 
time to time), no one will hurt another ;" anu kunni 
mfa re ? "if they kill me, what then.?" 

II. The adverbial suffix wi is of similar import to ni. 
As ni expresses the idea of long-past time, so wi expresses 

M 



82 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

that of lately-passed time, and also of past time in general. 
Ni cannot be used of what has past on the day of speak- 
ing, but only wi ; and this is also the case with suppo- 
sitions of which it is understood that thev are not real- 
ised : mbe diambomuwi ? " what has been the conversa- 
tion.'**" ifibe a dse wu tawawi, "I have seen that ye have 
left ;" mfaikerewi mbea ? " why has my father called thee ? " 
a nkerewi diamboa, " he has called me to a conversation f' 
awe ntusanawawi, " he has been asking me ;" mu tawi firaro, 
" we went into the forest ;" anu fai kumu gbere foawi Kariye, 
an'da gbiro dan*, " all things which their father had been 
telling Kari, they had all heard ;" mfai mbe ko foaweye ? 
" what thing has my father been telling thee ?" mfa berewi 
ko fona ndse, " my father has not been telling me any thing." 
mbewi awa tuna, " I have been pounding it f hi mfawawie, 
" if I had been dead f mu kun tiwi soru, " if we had been 
five ;" hi' an'da birakewi, "if he had caught him ;" iro mun' 
dsi kowiye, " thou saidst we were to draw water for thee ;" 
anda moa momunu gbungie, " as to those of our people whom 
they shot." 

Expressions like musiewi, denewi, lit. " the w^oman just 
now, the child just now,*" are elliptical, standing for "the 
woman who has been here just now, the child which has 
been here just now.^' 

III. We probably stands in an etymological connexion 
with iw. It can be affixed either to substantives, pronouns, 
or to verbs. In the first case it is an auxiliary verb; in 
the second, an adverb. 

1. In its verbal character, we corresponds with the diffe- 
rent tenses of our auxiliary verb, to be. 

Iw' a danda ? " art thou hearing it ,?" awe mfarai, " he 
is killing me ;" awe ngbasia, "he is flogging me ;*" 
muwe kerekewa, " we are to make war ;" a musiewe 
toa nu, " his wife is to be left there f' anu perewe a 
keara, *' they also were fighting him ;" wu kunni a fa, 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. . 83 

ke wuwe mfa ! " if ye kill him, then are ye to kill me 
(also)." 

2. In its adverbial character, we expresses either some- 
thing contemporaneous with the speaking or something prior 
to it. In the first case it can be rendered by " now, at 
present, just, yet ;" in the second, by " then, still, yet." 

a. We expressing contemporality with something pre- 
sent — 
Kowe! "give now, allow ;" Kairewe ? "where is Kari 
now ?''' mua tawe, " we go now ;" wumu dau kereni 
bange, " let us consent that the war be now finished ;" 
mui dsiwawe Wakoro, " we are just going down to 
Cape Mount ;" anu ma tawe, " they have not yet 
gone ;" kere ma bange mute, " the war is not yet 
finished between us." 
6. We expressing contemporality with something past — 
A toaniwe Bumbu berea Dsaniye, lit. " he was left 
then to give up B.," i.e. " he had then not yet given 
up Bumbu to John ;" abororo muniwe Moro-borora, 
" he then changed the Moro country into his country," 
i. e. " he then made the Moro country his own f ' mo- 
menu boa we firaro, " those people came then out of 
the forest ;" anu kure ma tawe kan dondo, " their word 
did not yet go one way," i.e. " they did not yet agree ;" 
abiri bandawe, am' mu na, " then, at that time, we 
came ;" Zoru bewe boro, " Zoru was still in the coun- 
try," i.e. " Zoru was still alive ;" kira bewe dondo ben-, 
"the sickness was still quite the same." 

IV. Ke, like ice, appears in a verbal and adverbial cha- 
racter — 

1. The verbal import of A:^ is, "to do, to make, to per- 
form. Thus it is used in connexion with substantives, viz. 
a. Suffixed to substantives : sinke, " to play, sing :" kereke, 
" to make war :'"' fereke, " to make trade, to trade :" 
pake, " to pay ;" pa, pawa, para, s. = " pay :" sieke, " to 



84 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

become rich," lit. " to make riches," from sle, " riches ;" 
gboro, s. " oath ;" gboroke, " to take an oath, to swear;" 
bu, " a musket ;" buke, " to fire a musket :" duba, " a 
great gun, a cannon ;"" dubake, " to fire a cannon ;" 
tungba, s. " an arrow f tungbake, " to shoot an arrow ;" 
sene, "a farm;" seneke, "to make a farm." 
6. Separated from, but referring to, a substantive : mui a 
ke, " we will fire it" (sc. the gun); amo an'dake, "and 
they fought it" (sc. the battle) ; muni ake, " let us make 
it" (sc. the war) ; wumui keou, " let us be swearing it" 
(sc. the oath) ; moa ke gba', " we fought well ;" ke kere 
ma ke gbanda, " but the war was not made for no- 
thing." 
2. When ke is affixed to verbs, adverbs, and prepositions, 
it has an adverbial character. 

a. After verbs in the present or perfect tense it expresses 
the actual certainty of an occurrence : na wu diake, " I 
do like you ;" na tusake kaka, " I have asked a long 
time ;" dsara kaie dseke, " the lion had seen the man ;" 
ke moa tayeke firaro, " thus we walked in the forest ;" 
mfa nkereake, " my father has called me ;" ko biria 
dongake berebere, " that thing offends me very much ;" 
nai kiriwake, " I have tied thee ;" anyiakehari, " he was 
really altogether beautiful." 

b. After a future tense it expresses the actual certainty 

with which something ivill take place : mbe a foake, " I 
shall surely tell it ;" ka mbe ta tusake ! " up ! I shall go 
and ask ;" awa make, ** he will do it ;" ke dsara idonga 
keni, " then the lion must certainly have eaten thee ;" 
a kum fono, ai fawake, " if he vomit, he will surely 
die." 

c. After the precative and imperative mood, and after ad- 

verbs and postpositions, ke is expressive of emphasis or 
intensity in general : in' tusake ! " do ask !" ibirake ! 
" do take it !" sanake mbe kum basawa, " immediately I 
cannot assist ;" mandsam' be nuke, a torr Kari, " the 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 85 

name of the chief who was in that place was Kari ;" 
momu nagbaroke, " the person who came after him." 

v. The suffix wa is expressive of emphasis, and can be 
added to almost every word. Its force is conveyed in 
English by the accent merely. 

A faniawa fo wuye, " he has told you a lie ;" mii be na 
denewaita, " I and my daughter shall go ;" ke kirawa, " on 
this side ;" mbe a kunga tia, " I shall cut his head off ;"" wa 
fo to'yawa, " ye spoke truth ;" mu be kererowa, " we are 
at war f a berewa musume bereni ndse, ** he himself has 
given this woman to me ;" kewai borosai, " this is quieting 
the country ;"" bore gbi na niewa, " all countries came here Z' 
yagbasi purunga, " thou whippest her for nothing ;" a toa 
nuwa, "she has been left there;'"' mandsanu babaiwa ta, 
** only chiefs went ;" Tuso-moenu sendsewa na nie, " the 
Tuso-people came here Jirst ;" muwe kerekewa, " we will 
now make war /' mu a mawau, " we will do it ;" akumu mu a 
fawa, " therefore we will kill him ;" mbe fawai, " I shall die ;" 
ai dsa-fene dsauwake, "they will surely waste the property;" 
anui berewani muko, " they would have gone over to us ;" 
wu ma makewa, " ye certainly did not do it ;'' muwa zi, 
" but as for us ;" moa moa boriwa bi, " we took our gree- 
grees ;" an'da mu gbaiwake, " they have repelled us f' ima 
tere fero ! " do not look at the sun, but look at the person ;" 
nga musie fa, " / have killed the woman." 

VI. At the end of declarative, exclamatory, and horta- 
tory propositions or words, e or u, or o or qu, as euphony 
may require, is sometimes added, in order to express greater 
emphasis. When u is used, it often coalesces with a pre- 
ceding a into au or qu : 

Denee ! " O child !" mfae ! " my father !'' musienuye ! " O 
women !" a ma suye biu, " he must not take the animals ;" 
kemu a ma ndau, " this it is what he has done to me ;" ke 
kunamau, " but never mind ;" m5a ta siiye fanau, " we will 
go to kill beasts" sundameu, "a stranger is here" aro 



86 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

gbereo ! " he said, No !'' bereo ! — and — bereu ! " give up !'' a 
duma don-gu a nau, " he put the shirt on and came ;" a bori 
here musieyou, " he gave medicine to the woman ;" mu be 
anua gborowakeou, " I and they have taken an oath ;" mbe 
ta kangu, " I shall not go anywhere ;" anMa mu gbaiwa- 
keou, " they have driven us back ;" a boro fawau, " some 
died ;'"' amo anu boau, " and they came out." 

VII. The vowel i may be suffixed both to nouns and pro- 
nouns, and to verbs ; and in both cases its import appears to 
be the same, viz. the expression of continuity or frequent 
repetition. In English it is to be rendered by the simple 
indicative present, or by the participle with the verb to be. 

1. i suffixed to nouns or pronouns — 

Ai done donda, " she was eating rice :" ai buke, " he 
was a marksman f ngai mo ko dom-fenda, " I am 
giving food to man ;" Dsubai seria, " Job is praying ;" 
kereai dsa-fene dsau, *' war is destructive of goods ;" 
anui bukea, anui duakea, "they were firing muskets 
and guns f ngaina, " I am coming ;" na kerei na nie, 
" my war has come here ;" keremei, " war is here." 

2. i suffixed to verbs — 

Moanu sirai, " we were sitting ;" awe mfarai, " he is 
killing me;" ya kureai, "thou art being fooled:" ai 
musie a done donda, " he has been eating the woman's 
rice ;" Dsiibaroi, " Job has been saying ;" kewai boro 
sai, " this is quieting the country ;" awai ma koe we 
dsau, " it is making the salt not to spoil." 

3. Sometimes i has arisen from, and is equal to, ye ; but 
this seems to be owing to carelessness in pronuncia- 
tion — 

Ita, dsomme bereai, " go and give this slave to him." 
At other times i may have arisen from ni, by the ejection 
of n : at any rate, the power of i and ni seems sometimes 
quite identical : ai soro biriwa sa afaro, ani a boro don", " he 
lays those same ashes on his heart, and some he eats." 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 87 

It is even possible that sometimes i has merely been 
added in order to give greater fulness to a word, and thus 
to express a degree of emphasis. 

VIII. It will have been seen from the above that the im- 
port of several of these suffixes approaches sometimes very 
near to each other. And this may account for the circum- 
stance, that one mode of expression may be used in English, 
viz. the adverbs " when, whilst, as," with a past or present 
participle, to translate these several suffixes — 

1. Forms in ni: amo an^ tani, amo an'da kure bon, " when 
they had gone, they delivered the message ;" amo an'danu 
bowoni, amo anMaua " and when they had begged them, 
they consented ;"" anui bandani ama, amu Dsaniro, " when 
they had finished making it, John said ;" anu nyenyani a 
birie bandani, a gbaromu, amu sandsa binda, " when they 
were dispersed, when that was done, afterwards it was that 
the town was burnt." 

2. Forms in wa : anu bande fa nyawa, amo anMa sere, 
" when they had dressed the dead, they carried him up ;'' an' 
tawa, amo an'da kure bon' " when they had gone, they de- 
livered the message ;" an'da damewa ma, a ma ban, amo a ta, 
" when they made this feast, and it was not yet over, he 
went f nnawa, kereni ban, " as I have come, the war must 
be finished." 

3.  Forms in ke : anda sandsa boke, an'do, " when they had 
taken the town, they said ;" an'da gborekeke, amu Dsiiraa ta, 
" when they had taken the oath, Dshuma went ;" a kea nuke 
amo a kundumi, " after having arrived there, he made a war- 
dance." 

4. Forms in i : ai na mbara, a kaime tara, " when he was 
coming to me, he met this man ;" ai siro gbe, musie a suye 
ke daro, " whilst he was sitting still, the woman put the meat 
into a pot ;" a musie tara ai done donda, " he met his wife, 
when she was eating rice ;" avvai ma femme were a donda, 
" when he does so, the thing will not hurt him." 



88 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

5. From their nearly approaching power it also results 
that several of these suffixes may be joined together at the 
end of words. The examples already quoted abundantly 
illustrate this. 

IX. The syllable ro can be affixed both to nouns and 
verbs. Its general import is the idea of being within ; and 
in English it must be expressed in various ways — 

1. Ro suffixed to substantives and pronouns. 

a. In a local sense. And here it again depends on the 
verb whether ro indicates the idea of resting in a place 
(then = " in, within, inside ; among, with ; in behalf of""); 
or of moving into a place (then = " into, to") ; or even of 
moving from within a place, in which latter case it must 
be rendered in English by the quite opposite preposi- 
tions, ** out of, from :" moenu be mu dsaro, " people 
were in our sight ;" anu be sandsaro, " they were in 
the town ;" a be dsiero, " he was in the water ;" a sam 
here siiero siindondo, " he spent six years in the hole ;" 
moa tae wuraro, "we walked in the bush ;"" dondo be aro 
afadia berebere, " one was among them, him his father 
loved very much ;" a tondo Vandi, hi* Momoru Kari 
Kai, " among their names were Vandi and Muhammad 
Kari Kai ;" nna ibara na diambo dendowau, " I come 
to thee with my little talk f' na toro dse aro, " I have 
had trouble on its behalf f ' a ta firaro, " he went into 
the forest ;" a gbi kiri gbasaro, " he tied all into a 
handkerchief ;" I femme firi dsiero, " throw this thing 
into the water ;" wui mu firi taro, " throw us into the 
fire ;" mbe ma ke anu firiaro ? " what happened that 
they jumped into it ?"' a boa kenero, " he went out of 
the house ;" a sene b9 dsifaro, " he took out a stone 
from the pocket ;" an'da buye biranu boro, " they took 
the guns out of their hands ," i boro bo kerero ! " take 
thou the hand out of the war !" 

Sometimes ro also corresponds to what in Hebrew has 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 89 

been called 1 essentiae : aro kur\i,lit. "in it (was) great" = " it 
was great ;" kere abe kerero, lit. " war was not in the war," 
i.e. "the war was no war " = was not a difficult war; femmu 
tondo Bumbu, lit. " as to the thing which in name is Bumbu," 
i. e. " as to the thing whose name is Bumbu ;" dsa-fen* gbiro 
ton* gbe-dsi, lit. " in all goods is the name gbe-dsi," i. e. " all 
goods have the name of, or are called, or are gbe-dsi" 
(cf. especially Exod. xxiii. 21, ll*})?^ ^t2t). 

b. Bo with a temporal meaning, " in, during :" an' sama 
suyero, " he may lie on it in the night ;" a fo tere- 
mero, " he said in that day ;" anu ma soekero terebi- 
riro, " they did no more work during the same day." 

2. Suffixed to verbs, ro has either an adverbial charac- 
ter, or makes them serve the purpose of our present par- 
ticiple. 

a. It is easy to perceive why a particle, whose proper 
meaning is "in" (local), should, when connected with 
verbs, assume the meaning of " again, still, more, 
also." For, as J. Harris remarked in his Hermes, 
" Time and space have indeed this in common, that they 
are both of them by nature things continuous, and, as 
such, they both of them imply extension ; but in this 
they differ, that all the parts of space exist at once and 
together, while those of time only exist in transition or 
succession.""^ What, therefore, exists as an uninterrupted 
extension in space must be parallel to a constant succes- 
sion or repetition in time : i naro ! " come again !" am' 
sama gbearo, am' turu taro, " and the morning davvjied 
again, and the ground pig went again ;" amo a dondo 
gbauro, " and she sought one again ;" anu firiaro den- 
dero, " they embarked again in the vessel ;" na kaie 
ma ndiaro, " my husband likes me no more ;" wu 
ma dson- karo, " sell slaves no more ;'' nfibe fendo ? 
" what more ?" mma foro Zo, lit. " I do not also say 
Zo. i.e. " except Zo ;" wu ma bukero mdenua, "do no 

N 



90 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

more fire at the people ;" kira dondo ber5 nu, " there 
is still another sickness," 
6. Verbs in ro corresponding to our present participle : ai 
siro gbe, " he was sitting still ;" na banda ba tara soro 
tomboero, " I found a large cotton-tree standing on the 
deserted town ;" musie gbore ben' dendo, " the woman's 
skin has been hanging ;" kere be kiro, " the deer was 
sleeping ;" a we fen dondo, " he was eating something." 

X. The suffix re serves a variety of purposes, between 
some of which there appears to be a connexion — 

1. When affixed to pronouns, re sometimes appears to be 
merely emphatic : ngare, na mbe ma ? " as for me, what 
shall I do ?" aware toa " she was left ;" ngare ma koariro, 
"/ said nothing moref ngare na mbe don? "what have I 
eaten ?" ngare, rama dsom firiwe nie, " as for me, I did not 
ship slaves here ;" yanuware kurua, ya ndoya, " thou hast 
made them great, me small." 

It may, however, be considered as still an open question, 
whether this is the true nature of re, or whether it ought 
not rather to be looked upon as a euphonic e joined to a pre- 
ceding a by the consonant r. 

2. Sometimes, when affixed to verbs, re gives them an ad- 
jectival or participial character — 

Mmirinyaremu Vanira, " I am afraid of Vani ;'' i gboro- 
aremu, " thou art crazy ]"' ndsirimasoreba, " I am very 
wise ;" i kurearemu ? " art thou made a fool ?" a 
den tare bera duma, " her child, able to walk, fell 
down ;" tie nyeiremu, " it was a speckled fowl :" mo 
fare, " a dead person ;" mo bunde kiinkuru, " many 
people shot ;'* mo birare, " captured people ;"" ai koaria 
sore, " he was speaking intelligibly." 

3. But sometimes, also, when affixed to verbs, it is a rela- 
tive adverb of time = " when " — 

An'da faire ke a mo, " when they have planted it, then it 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 91 

is ripe," i. e. " they have scarcely planted it, when it is 
already ripe ;" an'da senenu bindare, anda ta, " when 
they have burnt the farms, they go." 

4. After substantives, re is generally an interrogative ad- 
verb = " where ?" — 

Boa K aire? "where is Boa Kori ?" Vanire ? "where is 
Vani ?" wu nyomo domare ? " where is your younger 
brother ?" na suyere ? " where is my meat ?" man- 
dsare ? " where is the king ?" 

Symphonism sometimes transmutes the e into i : 
deneri ? " where is the child ?" 

5. When standing at the end of an interrogative proposi- 
tion, it increases the force of the question — 

Anu kunni mfare ? " when they kill me, what then ?" hi' 
a ma gbai moa berere ? " if he should not speak well 
with us, what then ?'' anu kunni kereke sina ndare ? 
" if they make war with me to-morrow, what then ?" 

XI. When a (or ra, da) is affixed to verbs, it generally 
denotes a subordinate (adverbial, complemental) position of 
theirs, in a proposition. It must be rendered into English 
in a variety of ways — 

1. Verbs in a, corresponding to our infinitive form — 

A kurua diekea, "she ceased to weep;" a bunda 'fa 
kerea, " he began to call his father ;" anun' kiiru 
kerekea, " may they cease to make war ;'"' anu banda, 
done donda, " they had finished eating the rice." 

But when the verb already terminates in a, this a 
is generally omitted (but cf. also § 15. IV. 5.): areikuru 
mana ma, " he said, Cease to make a resistance ;" mu 
na a kune dsiraira, " we come to show thee his head ;" 
hi" a ma wuru na, " if he does not like to come." 

2. Verbs in a, corresponding to our participle — 

An' terea tay'a gben, " they spent the day wholly in 
walking f mo biri dserea burikea, " that same person 



92 PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 

returned running ;" a tea dia, " he burst out weeping," 
i. e. " he burst into tears ;" ai b5a, bukea kirafe. " he 
comes out shooting by the way ;" anu kun tere tomboekea 
gben", " when they have spent the whole day playing ;"" 
ai boa dikea, " he was going forth weeping."" 

3. When the predicate of a proposition stands first, in which 
case it also always has mu suffixed, the subject is indicated 
by a or one of its equivalents — 

Ando tomboke-fem munda, " they thought I was a play- 
thing," i. e. " a thing to play with ;" mo koromu nda, 
" I am an old man ;" a sundamu nda, " I am his 
stranger ;" a dia-demmuira, " thou art his favourite 
child ;" mandsa bamuira, " thou art a great chief;" mo 
beremeira, mo nyamabamuira, " thou art not a good 
man, thou art a very bad man ;" mo kimarebamu 
Daminia, " Damini is a very cool man ;" dem mese 
berebamu Siafara, " Siafa is a very good little boy ;" 
a be a demmu Biranda, " Birang was his cousin." 

4. The remote object of doubly transitive verbs follows 
the latter, and has the suffix a, or one of its equivalents. 

The same is the case with adverbial definitions or com- 
plements after transitive verbs with their object — 

Mfa nko bara, " my father gave me a goat ;" mfa ma 
nkere fenda, " my father has not called me for any 
thing ;"" a nkerewi diamboa, " he has called me to a 
conversation ;"" mbe gboro simda Kuinira, " I shall send 
a letter to the queen ;" amo an'da sina dsirara, " and 
they showed him a seat ;"" mu kun ko nyama mara, 
'* if we had done wrong to him f' kanmba boro kanua, 
marekanua, " God sent them, the angels ;" wu ma 
bukero nyonua, " do not fire guns at each other any 
more ;" mma ko nyama maira, " I have not done wrong 
to thee ;" mo we sua ko ma musuakba, " one does not 
use witchcraft on behalf of a woman ;" na fen kakoa 
kurumba, " I have sold many things on her account f' 



PECULIAR SUFFIXES. 93 

ifibe a kumaka dsonda, " I shall redeem it with a 
slave." 

5. When intransitive verbs are adverbially complemented 
by nouns, the latter follow with a, or its euphonic modifica- 
tion — 

A na kura norea, " he came with dirty cloths ;" kaie ta 
bara, " the man went with the goat ;"" itaina keria, " go 
and come with ( = fetch) the eggs ;" hi' na soni, ke mbe 
nani kiramea, "if I had known it, then would I not 
have come this way ;" i faran' ti kanmbaro benda, 
" thy heart be alone with God ;" mboa Hur5a, " I come 
from Huro ;'' awa nani tenduyera, '* he has come as a 
messenger ;'' ama nawakba, " he did not come on his ac- 
count ;" femmemu awa fore be nda, lit. " this is the thing 
whose grief is with me," i. e. " which grieves me." 

When such a noun has a suffix already, a is gene- 
rally omitted; e.g. " anu dunda firaro" is much more 
common than " anu dunda firaroa," " they went into 
the forest;" "anu toa dararo" much more common 
than " anu toa dararoa," " they were left in the forest." 
It is also sometimes omitted after the remote object 
of doubly transitive verbs ; but perhaps this is to be 
considered as an instance of negligence in speaking : a 
mandsamu ko tawa, " he gave tobacco to the chiefs ;" 
awa suyenu gbi ko dom-fen, " he gives food to all 
animals." 

6. Concerning the a after subjects of propositions, and 
after intransitive verbs, see §. 27. I. 

XII. The suffix na stands probably in an etymological con- 
nexion with the verb na, "to come," primarily expressing 
the idea of " coming to, attaining to," I e. obtaining, gaining, 
effecting the notion of the verb to which it is affixed. With 
this power, na makes verbs correspond with our infinitive. 
But as it is natural to expect that we are really engaged in 
effecting what is the purpose of our will and the object of 



94 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

our destination, so verbs in na do not only correspond with 
our infinitive of purpose, but also with our participle present. 

1. Verbs in na corresponding with our infinitive — 

A taba kunena, " she went to awaken her mother f 
wuria na dsi mina, " the baboon came to drink water ;" 
mu ta dom-fen sanna, " we went to buy food ;" a mo 
so a kerena, " he sent somebody to call her ;" anu ta, 
senekena, " they went to make a farm." 

2. Verbs in na corresponding to our participle present — 

Ai kbme gbi mana keiiro, " he was doing all this in a 
dream ;" rairinya be musie kaniia, " a boa was swallow- 
ing the woman ;" mbe ko gbi manara, " I am not doing 
any thing to her f ' a be dsambi senna, " he was dig- 
ging wild yam.'' 



CHAPTER XI. 

SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 



§. 23. 

SYNTAX OF SUBSTANTIVES. 

The peculiar use of some Substantives, and the relation between plural 
and collective Nouns, are here to be mentioned. 

I. How the want of case-terminations is supplied is partly 
to be learnt from the preceding chapter, and partly from the 
syntax of the possessive pronouns, the postpositions, and in- 
terjections. 

H. 1. The substantives ta, " part,'' and dm, " home," are 
frequently connected with possessive pronouns, and add em- 
phasis to the idea of possession, similar to our " own," or 
"one's peculiar" — 



SYNTAX OF SUBSTANTIVES. 95 

Ta : ita denge a maira, " thy own child will do it to thee ;" 
anu ta mii ta mamara Dsondu, " theybrought our grand- 
mother to Dshondu ;" nta sawa dondomu, " this is one 
of my laws ;" aro ben* ata bira-monuineninu, " they 
have been his captives, his only f' mui wu k5a dson 
sunsagba : ke-ye-moenu-ta nani, more-moenu-ta nani, 
lit. " we will give you eight slaves : four as part of the 
diviners', four as part of the Muhammadans'," i.e. "four 
for the diviners and four for the Muhammadans ;" bere- 
mo-ta kirlmu, " it is the peculiar manner of a virgin." 

Dsa : anadsa kenna, " he came to his own house ;" ata 
Vani dsa kuro, " he went into Vani's house ;" ata adsa 
kiiro, " he went to her own house." 

2. Gbo means properly " seed ;" but it is often joined with 
other words to express more emphatically the idea of " small- 
ness or fewness." 

Bu-gbo dondo pere ma dau, " even not a single gun was 
fired ;" ngbo nga Fan*a mbe don* kenna, " I, even I, 
Fanga, was quite alone entering the house." 

Its force is sometimes to be conveyed in English by 
" very, even :" kama-gbo dsi-kire rama, " the very ele- 
phant suffered thirst," or, " even the elephant suffered 
thirst." 

3. The word duma, " ground," is sometimes used where 
we use merely the grammatical subject, and sometimes it is 
made the object of a verb where we use an intransitive verb — 

Duma maroa, lit. "the ground was ashamed,"" i.e. "it was 
a shame ;" a ma kun duma dsea, " he could not see the 
ground," i. e. " he could not see at all, was blind." 

4. The Vei people frequently say that something is in one's 
hand (boro, or buro, for bororo) where we cannot say so, but 
generally use the prepositions "with, about," or the verbs 
* to have, to own," &c. 

A kunni kiraibiiro, " if she has become sick with thee," 
i.e. " in thy house ;" hi' momu fem bereboro, "if there 



96 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

is anybody who has nothing;'' femme gbia beni 
aboro, " all these things he possessed ;" musuma toewa 
rebore, " no woman has been left with thee or for thee {"" 
dsa-fen" kun tiboro, " if thou hast goods ;" a kunni fa 
iboro, " if she dies with thee ;" kira gbi here moa mo- 
enu boro, " there is not any way (left open) for our 
people." 

And just as frequently they use da, " mouth," where, 
in translating, we must substitute another word for it : 
an'ni sunda-da tie, lit. " they cut the teremite-hill's 
mouth,'' i. e. " they cut a mouth to it " or " they cut it 
open ;" na na mie-da sa, " I laid down the mouth of my 
knife," i.e. " I sharpened my knife." 

5. The substantive torv, " name," is often used where we 
use the verb substantive — 

A ton sinke-moba, ** he was a great sing-player ;" atom 
bira sunsagba, lit. " its name was eight fathoms," i.e. 
" it was eight fathoms long ;" a gbi ton tdnyawa, " it 
is all true ;" i ton na denu gbi a moba, " thou art the 
eldest of all our children ;" iwa ton dem mese, "thou 
art a little boy." 

III. Although all Vei substantives may assume a plural 
termination, yet this termination is often omitted, without 
preventing the substantive from being expressive of plu- 
rality. This seems to be the case, when the idea of 
sameness and unity amongst the individuals that constitute 
a multiplicity, is uppermost in the mind of the speaker, 
whereas the plural termination is used when a particular 
stress is laid on the multiplicity itself. The absence of the 
plural termination is therefore especially common when gbi 
is joined with a noun ; e.g. kai gbi, " all men ;" sandsa 
gbi, "all towns." Owing probably to the tendency of the 
language to great simplicity, the plural termination is 
frequently omitted when the idea of plurality is expressed 
by a defining word ; e. g. the numerals above one ; or that if 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 07 

a substantive is defined by aii adjective or a suffixed pro- 
noun, the defining word alone receives the plural termina- 
tion — 

Mo boro kun ti nie, " if there are some persons here ;" 

^ X y 

abore na gbiinda fera, a b5re na gbunda sagba, a bore 
na gbunda tan', " some bring two bowls, some bring 
three bowls, some bring ten bowls;*" den' sagba, "three 
boys;"" kura fera, " two cloths ;" den* kaimanu, " boys;" 
dsara kunkurunu, " many lions ;" mandsa banu, " the 
great chiefs ;''' moe fimanu, " black persons ;" momunu 
a musu beni nu, " those men whose wives had been 
there ;' anda musumeniiwa te-dunni, " they have di- 
vided these women." 

§. 24. 

SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 

It is necessary to offer some remarhs on the use of all the variovs 

classes of Pronouns. 

I. Personal and Possessive Pronouns. 

Although the forms for the personal and possessive pro- 
nouns are identical, it will yet be convenient for syntactical 
purjDoses to separate them, and to consider them, first, with 
a personal, and secondly, with a possessive force. 

1. Personal Pronouns — 
a. Etymology has already shown that the personal pro- 
noun has three distinct forms, a short, a long, and a 
compound one ; and we now come to examine' into 
the distinct uses of each. It is easy to define the 
province of the compound form, that being always 
used when the pronoun stands alone, i.e. when it is 
used elliptically for a whole proposition, or when it 
stands' emphatically before a verb with its simple pro- 
noun; in which latter case, however, the simple pro- 
noun seems sometimes to have been ejected, so that 

o 



Jj8 SYNTAX OF THE PAllTS OF SPEECH. 

the compound form comes into immediate contact with 
the verb; e.y. Afaro dsomu ? Aro nga Boa Karimu, 
" his father said : Who is it ? He said : It is I, Boa 
Kari ;" Aro ds5 a ma ? Ndo : nga ma, iwa, " He said : 
Who has done it ? I said : Not I, thou ;" Aro : ngamii 
naiwuru, " He said : It is I, I have begotten thee ;" 
Areiwaitoa ngbaro, "He said : Thou, thou wilt be left 
behind me." 

The short and long forms are used in connexion 
with the verb, both as its subject and object. If the 
latter is the case, the short form is uniformly employed ; 
e.g. na i tusa, " I asked thee ;" na i dia, " I love thee ;" 
mba ndia, " my mother loves me ;" nko ! " give me !" 
But if a pronoun is the subject of a verb, either the 
short or the long form may be used. To remove, as 
far as possible, the uncertainty from the choice of one 
form for another, we may here distinguish between 
three different cases ; viz. first, when only the short, 
secondly, when only the long, and thirdly, when either 
the short or the long form, may be used. 

The short form of the personal pronoun is used exclu- 
sively — 

First, in voluntative, imperative, interrogative (provided 
the verb be intransitive), negative, and conditional pro- 
positions — 

Nta, " I will go ;" mu dsere, " let us return !'' wu 
bu here, " give up the guns f ita, " go thou !" 
nta ? " shall I go ?" mu dsere ? " shall we return ?'' 
mu mabira, " we do not take them ;" wu ma ndia, 
" ye did not love me ;"" wui 'nu bira ! Amo an'danu 
bira, " take ye them ! And they took them ;" an'da 
sara boira, " they have selected thee as an alms ;" 
anu ma sara bo nda, " they have not selected me as 
an alms ;" wu kun- kiire hon-, " if ye bring news ;" 
i kun ta, " if thou go.'' 



) 
SYNTAX OP PRONOUNS, 99 

Secondly, when prefixed to the verbs substantive be, 
here, to the auxiliary verbs we, were, to the verb ro, 
and to all such intransitive verbs as are formed by the 
addition of a, ra, da — 

I be nu? "art thou there?'' mu be nie, "we are 
here;" anu be nu, "they are not there;" wu be 
nie, " ye are not here ;" iwe fen dondo, " thou art 
eating ;" mu we tana, " we are going ;" mu we ta 
kan', " we will not go anywhere ;" iwere ndsearo, 
"thou wilt not see me again;'' ndo, "I said;" miiro, 
" we said ;" an'do, " they said ;" anu s5a kirafe, 
" they set out on the way ;" amo anu dserea, " and 
they returned ;" anu daura, " they consented ;" a 
sira duma, " he sat down ;"" ndunda, " I entered ;" 
wu banda, " ye have finished." 
The long form is used exclusively — 

First, when the pronoun is the subject of a transitive 
verb in the present or perfect tense, and not falling 
under the above rules — 

Moa gore bira, " we have taken the palisade ;" an'da 

mo bun, " they shot people ;"" m5a sisie dse. " we 

saw the smoke ;" w6a ns6, " ye sent me ;" m5a 

femme gbi bi, " we took all these things ;" ya kaie 

dia ? Na a diau, " doest thou love the man ? I love 

him ;" wu bawara bira ! Amo an'da bawara bira 

"catch ye the sheep ! And they caught the sheep." 

Secondly : when it is the subject of an intransitive verb, 

not terminating in a formative a, neither included in 

any of the above rules, and being at the same time 

the imperfect or perfect tense — 

Na dsere, " I returned ;" na dsereni, " I have re- 
turned;" na don, "I entered;" na donni, "I have 
entered ;" na kun, na dia nta mu dsa, " I am grown 
up, I like to go home." 

The only case, therefore, in which the choice between 
the long and short forms appears to be doubtful, is in 



100 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

the present tense of intransitive verbs, not terminating 
in a formative a: /'I go," e.<j. maybe expressed by nta 
and na ta; "I return,'' by ndsere and na dsere ; "I 
come," by nna and na na. But even here the first form 
appears to have more of a future, and the second more 
of a perfect character. If, e. g., a man is met in the 
act of going to a place, and replies to the question 
whither he is going, " I go to, &c.," he may consider 
his then condition in reference either to the starting- 
point or to the end of his journey. In the first case, 
his going may be said to have more of a perfect 
character ; wherefore he w^ould say, na ta ; in the second, 
it may be said to have more of a future character, 
wherefore he would say, nta. But in English both forms 
would answer to, " I go." 
h. As there is probably an etymological connexion between 
the plural termination {nu) and the third person plural 
of the personal pronoun {ami), there would be no posi- 
tive error in considering under the head of plural 
what, however, we best consider under this head. It is 
the use of nu, (most probably = 'nit or anu^ when suf- 
fixed to proper names. Thus used, it expresses pos- 
session or dependency, just like the Greek o\ tov, &c. 
The predicate may then refer to both proper name and 
those put in relation to it, or merely to the latter — 
Na fo mfanuye, " I told it my father and those with 
him ;" so Vaninufe ! " pursue Vani and those with 
him ;" a bereni Dsara Gombaniiye, " he had given 
it up to Dshara Gomba's party :" i fanu na, " thy 
father's people have come." The connexion in this 
instance renders it clear that it cannot mean, " thy 
father and his people ;" but merely " thy father's 
people." 
c. It is striking how the second person is used where we 
would expect the third (quite similar to what we some- 
times meet with in Hebrew, e.g. ^|^<t'i!l "TV = " until thou 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 101 

comest," i.e. until one come; or to a use of the English 
you )— 
Fembaro : momu kun kume ma mbe ifa ; miisumu 
kun* koeke ma mbe ifa, " the demon said, If any 
person do this thing, I shall kill him {lit. thee); if any 
woman do that thing, I shall kill her " (lit. thee) ; 
dsanda-kira-mo kunni fa nie, anu wereburo fere, ito 
kewa, an'nifiri sundaro, anun' dsamba bu ima; ke 
an' ta itawake, " when a leper dies here, they do 
not inspect his {lit. thy) bowels :* he {lit. thou) is 
left thus ; they throw him {lit. thee) into a teremite- 
hill, and cover him {lit. thee) with leaves ; thus (or 
then?) do they go and bury him {lit. thee)." 
(I. Pleonasm of the third person of the personal pronoun 

is very common — 

So dondo si-moe a fera a dia-musie, an' ta kirafe 
berebero, lit. " once the rich man, he with his fa- 
vourite wife, they went on the way to take a walk," 
i. e. " the rich man and his favourite wife went once, 
&c.; am' moe gbi an'do : ko beremu, lit. " and all the 
people, they said, (i. e. and all the people said) All 
right ;" bori-ma-fennu anu kd gbere, " the things to 
make medicine of are {lit. they are) a difficult mat- 
ter;" kono keremaba a na borero, "a very great 
famine came {lit. it came) into the country." 
e. But although the pleonasm of the personal pronoun in 

its subjective capacity occurs frequently, its ellipsis is 

scarcely less common, when it ought to be used in an 

objective capacity — 

iwa ton dem mese, ifa, " thou art a young boy, do 
thou kill him " (ifa for lafa) ; a na here amiisieye, 
areita, " he came, gave it to his wife, and said, 
Cook it " (areita for aro i a ta) ; wiimui fa, " let us 
kill him " (for wumui a fa). 
* A thing done in all ordinary cases, in order to ascertain whether the de- 
ceased had practised witchcraft or not. 



102 SYNTAX OF THE PAllTS OF SPEECH. 

f. The personal pronoun is frequently used where, in 

English, we should use a reflective or relative one — 

A mo anda kura dondo bun* anuma, "and they 

covered themselves with one cloth ;" an' danu ko, 

" they washed themselves ;" mii na muye, " we 

came by ourselves;" mun' ta si miiye ! "let us go 

and sit by ourselves f hi' a kani-mie Kuiniwa siin- 

dani, " and his silver sword which the queen had 

sent him," lit. " the queen had sent it to him ;" i 

ma femme bi a be mbbro ! " do not take this thinir 

which is in my hand," lit. " this thing, it is in my 

hanjl."" 

(J. The force of the juxta-position of wu and mu before a 

verb is very^ peculiar. They thus acquire a voluntative 

or hortativp' force, and can be rendered into English by 

" let us." 

Wumu ta, " let us go ;" wumu kereke, " let us make 
war ;" wumu musiero bendo bi nu ! " let us take 
there the women only/' 

These plural-forms are also used when they refer, 
each to one person only, or one to one, and the other 
to more than one : Vaniro, Siafa, wiim' Boa Kari fa, 
" Vani said, Siafa, let us {viz. thou and I) kill Boa 
Kari ;" an'do, Boa Kari, moa suye bi, wumu ta 
dara ! " they said. Boa Kari, take our venison and 
let us (viz. thou and we) go to town ;" anMo, kere- 
raibira, wumu ta mandsanu bara, " they said. War 
has taken thee ; let us (sc. thou and we) go to the 
chiefs' place." 
//. The short forms of the pronouns, both personal and 
possessive, have this peculiarity in the singular, that, 
when employed in a sentence, they sound as if they 
were suffixed to the preceding word, and not prefixed to 
the following one, just as J of the wesled article in Ara- 
bic, e. g. aro : mbe dikoaro, " I shall no more weep," is 
pronounced as if written iirom be, &c.: ita ndla-mo- 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 103 

bara, go to my friend," as if written itun dia, &c.; 
aro nko, " he said, Give me," as if written aron ko ; 
i ma ndia, " thou dost not love me," as if written 
iman dia ; wii fera mba na me mbara, " thou earnest 
here to me with my mother,'' as if written wu feram 
ba na nlem bara ; wumu taifabara, " let us go to thy 
father." 
i. The emphatic form of the personal pronoun is expressed 
by here, which always immediately follows the sub- 
ject; e.g. mo were a bira keibere, "none can take 
him, except thyself.'' Bere may then be immediately 
followed either by the bare verb, e.g. Komodo here na 
nle, " the commodore himself came here ;" or the verb 
with a corresponding pronoun at its head, e.g. mbere 
mbe tana Saro'wa, " I myself shall be going to Sierra 
Leone ;" mbere mbe ka, " I myself will not rise ;" 
ibereweitoaro, " thou thyself wilt be left in it." 

2. Possessice Pronouns. 

a. The possessive pronouns regularly appear as prefixes of 
the substantives which they define ; and it is only in 
a few cases that small particles intervene between 
them, e.g. mfa, " my father ;" mba, " my mother ;" na 
den, " my child ;" woa mie, " your sword ;" ke awa, zi, 
ton- kere-mo, " but he is a warrior." 

b. It is also easy to define the province of the compound 
form ; it is used when we would express the pronoun 

with rather more than usual force or emphasis — 

Amo anu tusa, aro : musie gbema, i ton dso ? Aro 
nga ton Dsanga. Amo aro : musie fima, i ton dso? 
Aro n-ga tom Manguru, " and he asked them, and 
said, White woman, what is thy name ? She said. 
My name is Dshanga. And he said, Black woman, 
what is thy name? She said. My name is Man- 
guru;'' iwa tom mu dia-mo nie dara, 'Hhou hast 
been our friend in this town. 



104 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH, 

Here again the only difficulty exists in the choice 
between the long and the short forms. Whether one 
form is to be taken, or another, does not seem to 
depend on phonetic, but on logical reasons. But I 
am only able to make the following observations on 
this subject — 

The short form is used with words expressive of 
family relation and friendship, and of any part of the 
body : ndia-mo, " my favourite f ' mboe, " my friend ;" 
mfa, " my father ;" mba, " my mother f mmama, " my 
grandmother ;" mmamada, " my grandfather ;" mbe, 
" my uncle ;" nnyomo, " my brother f mbira-kai, " my 
father-in-law ;" mbira-musu, " my mother-in-law ;" 
nkun, " my head ;" ndsa, " my eye ;" iida, " my mouth ;" 
nken, " my leg ;" nkuru, " my bone ;'' mfara, " my 
liver," &c. 

The long form is used before words expressive of 
common property : na musu, " my wife," na den, " my 
child ;" na dson, " my slave ;" na duma, " my shirt ;" 
na kura, " my cloth ;'' na kene, " my house ;" na den- 
de, " my canoe ;" na sene, " my farm ;"" na ni, " my 
bullock ;" na mie, " my sword," &c. 

But this long form is also used otherwise : na kai, 
'' my husband ;" m5a mandsa, "our chief;"" na toro, 
" mv trouble," &c. 

It must be remarked that the praxis of the language 
distinguishes strictly between the use of the long and 
the short forms. Words used with the one are scarcely 
ever used with the other. A mistake in this respect 
may entirely alter the meaning; e.g. mfa, "my 
father ;" na fa, " my dead person ;" mba, " my mo- 
ther ;" na ba, " my goat." 
c. Sometimes the possessive pronoun conveys the sense 
which we express by the preposition; for e.g. mii ta 
raoa suye fana, lit. "let us go to kill our beasts, i.e. 
to kill beasts for ourselves ;" i kiinni kure sunda nda, 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 105 

adumameke, " as thou hast sent word to me, this is 
its shirt/' i. e. " this is a shirt for it/' or, " in acknow- 
ledgment of it." 

But if a noun, thus qualified, is at the same time 
followed by a verb substantive, we have to convey the 
force of the possessive pronoun by the verb '* to have :" 
e.g. i kundo-kiri bere, lit. "thy sense is not," i.e. "thou 
hast no sense ;" na mie be nu, " my sword is there," 
i.e. "I have a sword;'' a fene kun ti nu, "if his thing 
is there," i.e. " if he has something." 

d. Of special importance is the use of the possessive pro- 
noun in supplying the want of a possessive case in the 
noun : na fari a kira tara, lit. " I found the aligator 
his path," i.e. " I found the aligator s path;" kai koro 
a dene-terimu, " story of an old man his children," 
i.e. "of an old man's children;" iton na dinu gbi a 
moba, lit. " thou art all my children their great per- 
son," i.e. "thou art the eldest of all ray children;" moa 
m5 kurumba, "our people, very many," i.e. "very 
many of our people ;" a boe dondo, " his friend, one," 
i. e. " one of his friends." 

With this mode of expressing the genitive-relation 
we may compare in English the phrase of the Liturgy, 
" for Jesus Christ his sake," and German provincialisms 
like, " mein Freund sein Bruder," for, " meines Freun- 
des Bruder." 

e. The mere possessive pronoun is sometimes used where 
we use the genitive of a relative pronoun, e.g. dso a 
tieme, lit. " who his fowl is this ?" = "whose fowl is this?" 
na Panya-m5 dondo bira, a ton D., lit. "I have caught 
a Spaniard, his name is D.," i.e. " I have caught a 
Spaniard whose name is D." 

II. Reflective Pronouns — 

The reflective pronoun is expressed by the addition of 
wa or n-ga to the short form of the personal pronoun ; 



106 SYNTAX or THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

e.g. mo gbi rawaiiga dia, "everybody likes himself;" na 
nganga dia, " I love myself;" iwanga fere, " thou lookest 
at thyself ;" moa muwanga nyau, " we dressed ourselves ; "' 
awanga nyau, " he dressed himself." 

Ill, Demonstrative Pronouns — 

1. me. — We have already stated that me has always the 
character of a sufl5x. It may be remarked here, that, in 
the praxis of the language, its proper demonstrative force 
appears frequently so weakened, that it entirely corresponds 
with the definite article of other languages : an'da nime gbi 
fa, " they killed all the bullocks ;" anMa dsa-femme gbi bi, 
" they took all the goods ;'"' a mome gbi kere, " he called all 
the people;" fem biri some niera, "of that thing the price 
is a bullock." 

It is striking, that, as the Vei expresses these different 
degrees of demonstrative force by one and the same demon- 
strative pronoun, so also in languages which now possess 
different forms for them, it can frequently be shown that 
they were originally the same, or, at least, that the articles 
have developed themselves from demonstrative pronouns : 
compare in English "the'' and "that," with the Anglo-Saxon 
"Paet:" in Greek 6 and ovTog with the Sanscrit jf; the modern 
articles, " le, il, el," with the Latin " ille." 

In consequence of the decrease of the demonstrative force 
originally expressed by me, it may also be appended to 
nouns in the vocative, just as the article is sometimes used 
in Hebrew, e.g. Jerem. vi. 19, ^'^i^Tl ''i^pU?, " Hear, O earth!" 
demme, ya kune ? " art thou awake, O child ?" musiime ya 
ko be kuma ? " woman, what is thy matter ?" kaime, liibe 
ma- kama? " oh man, what shall I do ?" 

When a substantive is defined by one or more adjectives, 
me is only suffixed to the last word, e.g. den kaima fareme, 
'* this dead boy ;" kai korobame, " this very old man." 

2. Ke. — Whereas me is always a suffix, ke may be either 
suffixed, or stand by itself; e.g. a miisTeke tusa, "he asked 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 107 

that woman ;" so birike, " on that same day ;" a kunni ke ma, 
" if he has done that ;" an'da ke gbi a birani, " they have 
taken all this ;" wuni ke bira, " ye are to take that ;*" 
kenuwa t5a, " these were left f a ti kenu a mandsako, " he 
has become the chief of those." 

jffe — ke is used for, " the one — the other, this — that " = 
" every one, whoever '"' (cf. Hebrew H't'TTTt = " this — that ") ; 
e.g. moeke kim don* kenna, an'na kura fera ; mdeke kun don* 
kenna, an' na kura dondo, " if this man goes into the house, 
he brings two cloths : if that man goes into the house, he 
brings one cloth;" moeke we ata dene bi, moeke v/e ata dene bi, 
" this one takes his daughter, that one takes his daughter," 
i. e. " every one takes his own daughter." 

3. Biri has always the character of a suflrix ; e.g. kaibiri, 
" that same man ;" fembiri, " that same thing." But by 
prefixing to it the personal pronoun, third person singular, 
it may be used as an independent word : abiri mfara sa, " the 
same will cheer my heart ;" or it may qualify a succeeding 
noun : abiri-banda, " at that same time." In the latter case, 
zi may intervene between it and the noun : abiri, zi, banda, 
" at that same time, however.'' When hir'i defines banda, 
it has sometimes kari prefixed, instead of a; e.g. kambiri- 
banda, " at that same time." 

4. Mu is frequently used like the Hebrew i<^n, and its 
original force must have been demonstrative, just as that of 
fc^in.* When it corresponds with t^,^n, it forms the subject 
of a proposition, including the copula, and the word to which 
it is affixed is the predicate; e.g. kaimu, "it is a man;" 
dsommu, " it is a slave ;" mfamu ? " is it my father ?'' fani- 
amu, "it is a lie;" dsomu ? "who is it?'' mbe keumu? 
" what dream is it ?" nga ma, kanmbamu, " it is not I, it 
is God;" kemo anyomo mani, "it is thus his brother has 
acted ;" minamo anui fereke ? " where is it that they are 

* Cf. the very interesting §§ 101—105 in the " Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch 
der Hebrceischcn Sprache des alten Bundes von Ilcinrich Ewald." 



108 SYNTAX OP THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

trading ?" nkumu nni a foiye, " this is why I tell it 
thee ;" awa demmu a tie, " his daughter was she (whom) 
he had cut.'''' 

Nay, not only predicate and copula, but a whole proposi- 
tion may be united in mu ; e. g. suromuni, " it has been by 
night ;"" keuromu na sieke, " it was in a dream that I was 
rich." 

It is frequently the case that propositions, in which mu is 
the grammatical subject, the word preceding it, its predicate, 
and the one following, its complement, must be so rendered 
in English that mu appears as a mere copula, and the word 
follow^ing it as the subject. But as the latter is a mere com- 
plement in Vei, it has regularly the suffix a (ra or da), w^hich 
is expressive of subordinate relations in a proposition (simi- 
larly as sometimes 7 before infinitives in Hebrew) ; e.g. moe- 
fira-boe-sonomii ds5n tanera ? " are ten slaves the value of a 
persGn"'s life ?" na demmu Gbanara, " Gbanga is my daugh- 
ter ;" moa kere sandem' Bdpuru-monua, " the Bopuru people 
are our hired warriors ;"" abe a demmu Biranda, " Birang 
was his uncle's son ;"" mu bemu Buraima, " Ibrahim was our 
uncle.''' 

As in some other languages (e.g. Greek 6'$-, English "that/' 
German "der"), so also in Vei a demonstrative pronoun 
is made to discharge the function of a relative. The fol- 
lowing examples show this relative function of mu, and, at 
the same time, illustrate its often peculiar position when dis- 
charging that function : a be momunu afa an' na, " he and 
the people who killed him are to come ;" momu tanike atom 
Mereba, " the name of the man who had gone was Mereba ;" 
iwamuitom moba, " thou who art an adult ;" I kum"'ma nda, 
" the thing which thou didst to me ;" wui demmu wuroake 
musu ma dseu, " the child which ye will beget is not to see 
a woman ;" na keremii bera wu here aro, " ye are not in the 
war which I have brought ;" an'da gborekeni femmu ma bori 
ma, " they had sworn on something which was not a gree- 
gree ;" ya komu ma ndse ko beremu, " the thing which thou 



SYNTAX OF PRONOUNS. 109 

hast done to me is a good thing ;'' Panya-momu gbi be nie, 
wui anu here ! " give up all the Spaniards who are here !" 
momu sendse ta birana, a mobiri fawake, " as to the one 
who went first to seize him, he killed that one ;" a na dsa- 
femmu gbi dsau, ani a gbi pake ! " he is to pay for all those 
goods of mine which he spoiled i" anui kun* gbima wuiamu, 
" every thing which they were doing was deceit." 

Very peculiar, and inexpressible in English, is the conjunc- 
tion of hi' and kurv with the relative mu in one and the same 
proposition : a mo kun ti kammiia, wu ma ma kerea, " in 
whatever place his people may be, do not make war ;"' mo- 
mu kunni a birani sagba, " whenever a man has captured 
three ;" hi' a kaimu dia, an'ti kaibiri boro, " whatever man 
she may love, in that same man's hand will she be left;*" hi" 
momu musu ma toiboro, an'niko dsom fera, " in whosesoever 
hand no woman is left, to him they will give two slaves." 

IV. Interrogative Pronouns — 

1. Dsd : when connected with a verb as its subject, or 
containing the copula, it is used as an independent word ; 
but when predicate, it is suffixed to its subject : mo sagbame, 
dso here aboa ? " who of these three surpassed the other .^" 
dsoa kume gbere foiye ? " who told thee all these things ?" 
dsomu ? " who is it ?" iton dso ? " what is thy name ?" ifa- 
dso ? " who is thy father ?" 

2. Mbe is always used as an independent word : mbe dem- 
mu ? Ando : kai-mo, " what child is it ? They said, A male f 
mbemu? "what is it? what is the matter?" mbe mome ? 
*' what sort of person is this ?" mbe tieme ? " what fowl is 
this ?'' 

Mbe is also used in exclamations like our " what !"" am' 
dem musumaro : mbe kc bame ! " and the girl said, What a 
great matter is this !" 

3. Mina has usually the character of a suffix ; but by pre- 
fixing to it the third person singular of the personal pronoun 
it may be used as an independent word : mandsa mina ? 



110 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

" which chief s'" serie mina ? " which chief ?" tore mina ? 
" which ear ?'' koe mina ? " which thing ?" ita fo kaimeye ! 
Aro amina? "go and tell the man. He said, Which one?" 
ita na tiemera ! Aro : amina ? " go and fetch the fowl. He 
said, Which one ?" 

4, Kama stands likewise after the noun to which it be- 
longs, but may also be used alone : seri kama ? " how many 
witnesses ?" mandsanui kama ? " how many are the chiefs ?'' 
serienui kama ? " how many are the witnesses ?" mbe ma 
kama ? " what shall I do ?'' 

V. Reciprocal Pronoun — 

Nyo is used both in the singular and plural : the latter 
when referring to more than two persons, and the former 
when either referring to two persons only, or when a greater 
number are individualised, i. e. considered as two parties, two 
divisions : anda nyo siia, " they saluted each other ;" mu 

• ^ • 

fera mboe moa nyo dia, " I and my friend, we love each 
other;" mui ma kama mui nyo dse ? " what shall we do that 
we may see each other ?" an' siiye gbi anyonu dsaro fere, 
" and all the beasts looked into each other's face ;" m5a 
nyonu dia, " we love each other." 

Here it may also be remarked, that, just as in Hebrew 
Vy^. and UJ'^t:^, so, in Vei, ho, " friend," and mo, " person,'' are 
sometimes used instead of a reciprocal pronoun : m5 ferame 
ds5 kakere here ab5a ? " which of these two persons exceeds 
the other in stealing ?" Mariao, a kaio, ds5a ko nyama ma- 
boa ? " who has done wrong to the other, Maria or her hus- 
band ?" mo were mo tie, " none will cut the other ;" mo 
were m5 fau, " none will kill the other." 



( 111 ) 

§. 25. 

SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES. 

Some remarks must he made on their collocation with nouns, the 
force of their repetition, and the manner in which their gradation 
is expressed. 

I. Adjectives always follow the nouns which they qualify: 
mandsa ba, " a great chief ;" dem mese, " a little child ;" den* 
kaima, "a male child," i.e. "a boy:" dem musiima, "a fe- 
male child," i. e. " a girl." 

The adjective " fima," black, has the peculiarity of join- 
ing itself to the substantive by means of the compositional 
ro ; e.g. moro fima, "a black person, a negro." 

The sign of the plural and other suffixes, logically be- 
longing to a noun and its adjective, are generally added to 
the latter only : dem musumanu, " girls ;" dem mesenu, 
" little children ;" mandsabanu, " great chiefs." 

But if adjectives are the predicate of plural-nouns, they 
uniformly appear in the singular form, and generally assume 
the suffix mu : mandsanu koromu, " the chiefs are old ;" 
moenu sandemu, " the people are hired." 

II. Adjectives are frequently repeated once or oftener, in 
order to express energy, emphasis, intensity : amo a buro- 
dem here ndse, musu berebereberebere, " and he gave me 
his daughter, a most beautiful woman ;" a dom berebere ta, 
" she cooked very good rice ;" a kende kende, a mu fa, " he 
was alive, he had not died ;" ko korokorokoromu, " it is a 
very old concern f wua den* kerema keremamenn, '*-these 
your great children." 

Sometimes the repetition of adjectives has a distributive 
force : anun' suyeme tedon nu gbere dendendenden*, " they 
there distributed all this meat little by little." 

III. Adjectives do not undergo any change of form to 
indicate gradation, but express it by additional words. 



112 SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES. 

The comparative degree is expressed by the positive and 
the verb here, " to surpass :" na kene kerema bere itara, 
lit. "my house is large, it surpasses thine," i.e. "my house 
IS larger than thine ;" i nyama berea konea, " thou art 
longer than the stick ;" a fadia berebere, a berea den* kaima 
sagbakenua, " his father loves him very much, more than 
these three boys '' {accus.) ; anMa sam bere nu a berea nania, 
" they stopped there more than four years ;" sie kerema 
berea nira, " a buffalo is larger than a bullock." 

The superlative degree is expressed in a two-fold way : 
first, by the positive and the verb bere : idsirimasoa berea 
moe gbia, * thou art the wisest of all men ;" ibori mo gbia, 
kenyomo berea, " fearest thou anybody, then fear thy brother 
more,'' i.e. " fear thy brother most." Secondly, by a pos- 
sessive pronoun and the positive degree : iwa ton denu a 
mo ba, lit. "thy name is the children's great person," i.e. 
" thou art the eldest of the children ;" wu nyomo domare ? lit. 
where is your little brother.^" i.e. " where is your young- 
est brother f 



§.26. 
SYNTAX OF NUMERALS. 

We must here illustrate the Numerals' position in a proposition ; 
the peculiar use of dondo, a7td the indefinite Numerals ; and the 
manner in which the want of ordinal, adverbial, and distributive 
numbers is supplied. 

I. The proper nature of the cardinals in Vei seems to be 
that of adverbs ; but they may be also used as adjectives.* 
There is therefore more liberty in the collocation of sub- 
stantives and numerals than in that of substantives and 

* In both which ways the Hebrew numerals are also used, according to 
§ 267 c. of H. Ewald's Lehrbuch. 



SYNTAX OF NUMERALS. 113 

adjectives ; the numeral, viz., may either immediately follow 
the noun which it qualifies, just as the adjective, or be sepa- 
rated from it by verbs and adverbs : mo sa^ba berea, " three 
men went on ;" mbe ko sagba foaye, " I shall tell him three 
things ;"" amo anu nani na, "and they four came," i.e. "and 
all four of them came;" amo anda kafa dondo bi, "and they 
took one wing ;" anda mo so nu sagba, " they sent three 
persons there ;" an'da don ta kurumba, " they cooked very 
much rice ;" Boa Kari, zi, a sam here suero siindondo, " Boa 
Kari, however, had spent six years in the hole ;'' am' man- 
dsa ni fa a bo-mandsaye nani, " and the chief slaughtered 
four bullocks for his fellow-chief f' so berea sagba, " three 
days passed ;" gba kunni ti amani siindondo, " if six sores 
are upon him." 

When we use numerals as substantives, (pronominally,) 
they retain their adverbial or adjectival character in Vei by 
being coupled with a personal pronoun of the third person : 
momu ra bira sagba, ini a here fera, momu kunni abira s5ru, 
ini abere sagba, momuni abira sumfera, ini abere nani, " the 
person who captured three, is to give up two ; if one has 
captured five, he is to give up three ; he who captures seven, 
is to give up four ;" iwe a here dondo, " thou art to give up 
one." 

TI. As in Enslish the indefinite article and the numeral 
one are etymologically identical, so in Vei the use of the 
numeral dondo frequently fully corresponds to that of an 
indefinite article : kai dondowa sira, amo a musu dondo gbau, 
" there was a certain man, and he sought a wife ;" kai dondo 
be sandsaro, ai buke, " there was a certain man in a^ town, 
who was a hunter ;" kai dondomuni, amo a na nle Vei, 
" there was a man, and he came here into Vei." 

All the indefinite numerals generally follow the noun after the 
manner of adjectives, and, when used alone, require the third 
person of the personal pronoun before them, as will be seen 
from the following instances — 

g 



114 SYNTAX 0¥ THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

1. Gbi: Na denu gbi dse, " I have seen all the children ;" 
i buri mo gbi ? " fearest thou anybody ?" mma ko gbi fo 
aye, " I have not told him any thing ;" mma don" gbi tau, 
" I have not cooked any rice ;" mo gbi be nu, " there were 
not any people there." 

It must be especially remembered, that when gbi is con- 
nected with the pronouns me, mu, ke, it always follous them : 
ke gbi, " all this ;" an'ni kumu gbi mana were, " whatever 
thing they were doing to-day f' am'femme gbi here, " he is 
to give up all these things ;" a gbi basarime, " all this to- 
gether." 

2. Hari: Wu hari, " ye all" or, " all of you ;" moenu hari, 
" all people ;" femme hari, " this whole thing i"' kome hari, 
" this whole concern.'" 

3. Gbere : Wu gbere, " ye all," or, " all of you ;" gburume 
gbere be nu, "all these weals are there." 

4. Pene : Dende peneme ? " are these all the vessels ?" 
a peneme, ** this is all ;" moenu peneme ? " are these all the 
people .^" a sone peneme ? " is this its whole value ?''' 

5. Bdbai : Kaienu babaini to nu, " the men are left there 
alone ;" ko nyama babaiwaweima, "only evil will be on thee." 

6. Mande : it has the peculiarity of joining itself to 
nouns by means of the compositional ro : moro mande, " ano- 
ther person ;'' moenMo mande, " other people ;" mandsaro 
mande, "another chief;" mandsanMo mande, "other chiefs;" 
fendo mande, " another thing ;'' aro mande, " another one." 

7. Ben or gben' : it likewise joins itself to nouns by means 
of ro: Boa Kairo ben ta firaro, " Boa Kari went alone into 
the forest ;" a suye dondo gbem fa, " he killed only one 
animal ;" kira be dondo ben*, " the sickness w^as only one," 
i. e. ". remained the same ;" ke ndo bem man, " but not I 
alone ;" arc benga ma inyomo fa, " not he alone has killed 
thy brother ;" a tie kaima dondo benga ta nu, " he met only 
one single cock there." 

III. ). The Ordinal Numbers, after the first, are expressed 



SYNTAX OF NUMERALS. 115 

by the Cardinal ones and the verb na, " to come," as will be 
seen from the following examples : anu kia sagba, an' nani 
na, amo an 'da bawara bira, lit. " they slept thrice, and four 
times came, and they caught a sheep," i. e. " they waited three 
days, and on the fourth they killed a sheep ;" so fera a sagba 
na, mun' s5 duma, lit. " two days, three came ( = it came to 
three), we rose up," i. e. " on the third day we rose up ;" 
an do so sagba, am'bere anani na, mu na, lit. " three days, 
they may pass, four come, we come," i. e. " we shall come 
after three days, on the fourth." 

2. The Cardinal Numbers are very frequently used as 
adverbs : a kia fera, " he slept twice ;" anu kia sagba, " they 
slept thrice ;" a kia kiraro tan, " he slept ten days in the 
sickness," i. e. " the sickness lasted ten days." 

Besides this, the nouns so, " day, time," and ki> "time" 
( = sleep ?), are sometimes used in connexion with the Cardi- 
nals : amo a bundani abira-musieye ki nani, " and he bowed 
four times to his mother-in-law ;" a pere ta Sar5 ki sagba, 
" he also went three times to Sierra Leone ;" a ma ki nani, 
" he did it four times f anu kia nu so fera, " they slept there 
twice." 

3. The want of distinct Distributive Numerals is made up by 
the repetition of the Cardinals : anuwe a makewa gbere dondo 
dondo dondo, " they are all doing this, one by one ;" mie 
mese mese be a gbi boro, an'ni kore tiawa, dondo dondo 
dondo, " very small knives are in the hands of all of them, 
that they may cut the rice one by one." 

DondoSndo is also used like our " one — another :" kere- 
mandsa dondo ton Nyangbe, a dondo ton Zoru, a dondo ton 
Gbato, a dondo ton Korigbe, " the name of one war-chief was 
Ngangbe, the name of another Zoru, the name of another 
Gbato, the name of another Korigbe." 



116 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

§. 27. 

SYNTAX OF VERBS. 

Some remarks may be offered on the use of the sujffix a in con- 
nexion with Verbs, on the use of tenses and moods, on certain 
peculiarities of some Verbs, and on the use of the Auxiliary Verbs. 

I. Verbal forms in a — 

It has already been stated, that, by the addition of a or ra, 
intransitive verbs can frequently be known from transitive 
ones (§. 8. II.) ; that the former are coupled with the short, 
and the latter with the long form of the personal pronouns 
(§. 24. I. 1. a.). Here it must be added, that when the sub- 
ject is not a pronoun, but a noun, it takes the suffix a when- 
ever a pronoun in its stead would have to appear in the long 
form ; and it is without a whenever the pronoun in its stead 
would have to be short. This observation is of importance 
in understanding the nature of a when suffixed to nouns. 
When we read Dsdni a Vei-monu ghi here, we are inclined to 
look upon a as the third person of the personal pronoun, and 
to translate, " John, he called the Vei people ;" but if we re- 
member, that, by substituting, e.g., the first person of the 
personal pronoun for Dsdni, the form is to be na and not n, 
then Ave must change our view, and look on the final a of 
Dsdnia as a formative affix, and not as a pleonastic pronoun ; 
and this, because the corresponding na cannot be a composi- 
tion of n+the third person of the personal pronoun. The 
following are instances of this formative a after nouns : paniia 
mu so niou, " gentlemen have sent us here ;" terea dsi bam- 
ba, " the sun has declined very much ;" ya sundara ya dene 
fa, " thy guest has murdered thy daughter ;" kaiera bawara 
fa, " the man had killed a sheep ;" sunamera ngbasi, " this 
rain beat me ;" na denea mbe ma ya tie ? " what has my 
daugliier done that thou hast wounded her?" a gbia dsi 
tie, " all crossed the river ;" ds5a foro wiini tH, " who has 



SYNTAX OF VERBS. 117 

told you to go ?" moe gbia kundumi, " all people war- 
danced." 

Compare with these instances the corresponding forms of 
personal pronouns : moa gore bira, " we took the palisade ;'" 
an'da ta bi, " they took fire ;" m5a sandsa bo, " we took the 
town." 

This a is also, but very rarely, suffixed to the object pre- 
ceding its verb : an'da mome gbia kereni, " they have called 
all the people ;" Buraima dsa-femme gbia don', " Ibrahim has 
consumed all the goods ;" anu banda dommea donda, " they 
had finished eating: the rice." 

After verbs which are neuter, or only intransitive, a is 
added to express the past tense, but the subjects of these 
verbs are usually without it : amo a gbi dsira, " and all came 
down ;" amo anu daua, " and they consented ;" amo a buria, 
" and he ran away f anu kia gbu, " they slept the whole 
night ;" amu sama gbea, " and the morning dawned." 

Sometimes, however, it happens that an intransitive verb 
is without a in the past tense also, and that this suffix is 
added to the subject, or that both subject and intransitive 
verb have it : a gbia buri, " they have all run away ;" inyo- 
moa fa nie, " thy brother has died here ;" a denga boa nie, 
" his son came from hence ;" anu gbia sira kan dondo, " they 
sat all in one place." 

The preceding groups of examples may show that it is 
always the same formative a, whether it be annexed to the 
subject, or object, or verb, and that in all cases it is used of 
ivhat has actually taken place ; but that it is attached to the 
subject when an object and transitive verb immediately follow, 
and to the verb when no object intervenes between it and 
the subject. This identity of a after noun and verb also 
shows how easily it may have been used pleonastically, as 
would appear from some of the above instances. Whenever 
no actual fact is stated, i.e. in many interrogative and condi- 
tional, and in all voluntative, imperative, and negative pro- 
positions, neither subject nor object take the suffix a; e.g. 



118 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

wumun' SI kan dondo, " let us sit in one place ;" wumu 
dsere, " let us return ;" wu si gbe, wu ma firi kereo, " sit 
ye quietly, do not throw yourselves into the war ;"" mu kum 
ban a boa, " when we have finished taking it out ;" hi' a ma 
baru, " if he did not recover ;"" wu kun dau, " if ye consent ;" 
dseredsa. Hima dsere, " return to thy home. If thou do 
not return — ;" nta ? " shall I go ?'"' ndsere ? " shall I return .^" 
dsa-fem here mboro, nto ako, " there are no goods in my 
hand to give him ;" an 'do, Mu ma dau, " they said, We will 
not consent.'' 

But notwithstanding all that has here been said, it is not 
improbable that, in some instances, the a after a subject is a 
pleonastic pronoun. 

II. 1. The remarks just preceding have an immediate bear- 
ing on the tenses, inasmuch as they have shown that the 
suffix a is used whenever any thing is stated that has ac- 
tually taken place, or really come to pass, i.e. whenever we 
have to use in its stead a past tense, or sometimes a present. 

The sort of past time expressed by the suffixes ni and wi 
has been stated §. 22. I. and 11. 

To express very emphatically that something has already 
fully come to pass, or is completed at the time of speaking, 
the verb ban\ " to have done, to have finished," is often used ; 
e.g. 1 fara sa, ya bam Boa Kari fara, "thou art glad that 
thou hast not killed Boa Kari ;" anMa- ban* kere bera miima, 
mun' ta sa duma ? " they have already thrust war upon us, 
and should we now go and surrender.^'' 

2. The same forms which are generally expressive of 
either past or future may sometimes need to be translated 
by the present tense, e.g. na ta = " I went, I go ;" nta = " I will 
go, I go." 

But if any thing is to be strikingly represented as pre- 
sent, the verb, the substantive, and the participle are joined, 
just as in English : mbe tana, " I am going," i. q. nibe tayero, 
"I am in (the act of) going f mbe kikena, "I am sleeping," 



SYNTAX OF VERBS. 1 19 

i.q. mbe kiro, "I am in (a state of) sleeping;" mbe fen 
donna, " I am eating ;" but : mbe fen dondo, " I am eating 
again." 

3. The future, as has been stated, is sometimes without 
distinguishing characteristic; e.g. i kuru nta, "be silent, I 
will go ;"" but, generally, it is expressed, as in English, by 
an auxiliary verb. The auxiliaries thus used are be and na ; 
he seems to indicate a nearer and more definite, but na a 
more distant and indefinite future, which we often express 
by our hy-and-hye — 

Mbe Idene baru sina, " I shall cure thy child to-morrow ;'' 
mbe tara, " I shall bring it ;" mbe fawai, " I shall die ;" ka ! 
mbe ta, " up ! I shall go ;" mbe a kun-ga tia, " I shall wound 
his head ;" anu na torowa dsea, lit. " they come to experience 
trouble," i.e. "they will experience trouble;" ina dsa-fen* 
kurumba dsea, lit. "thou comest to see very great riches," 
i.e. "thou wilt get very great riches;" konobawai na bera, 
lit. "a great famine is coming to happen," i.e. "a great 
famine is going to happen ;" a ma na dsau, lit. " lest it come 
and spoil," i. e. " lest it spoil by and bye {" anui na ta, lit. 
"they will come to go," i.e. "they will go by and bye;" 
kum' be ndaro, nni nafo, " that I may then tell the word 
that is in my mouth ;" anu ma nanu fa, lit. " lest they go 
and kill them," i.e. "lest they should kill them by and bye." 

III. Moods— 

1. Imperative. — When several imperatives follow each other, 
the first only usaally is coupled with a pronoun and the other 
are without it; e.g. areina nko kani dsare siim fera, na nko 
kani gbema siimfera, na nko barawara sumfera, na nko nie 
dsare siimfera, " he said. Go thou and give me seven gold 
pieces, and give me seven silver pieces, and give me seven 
sheep, and give me seven red bullocks ;" areita Morenuko, 
" he said, Go and give them to the Mores." 

2. InfinHive. — When the infinitive is joined with " koa," it 
corresponds to our infinitive with " to," or " in order to," 



120 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

and also to our participle with " in behalf of/' " on account of ;" 
e.g. mu na kerewakekoa, " we come in order to make w^ar ;" 
ifara sa na dsekoa, " thou art glad on account of my seeing," 
i.e. " on account of seeing me." 

Often a finite verb is used in Vei where w^e should use 
an infinitive, e.g. na dia nt6mi:oke, lit. "I like that I play,'' 
i.e. "I like to play;" amo ano anu kere, anun' na, lit. "and 
they called them they should come," i. e. " and they called 
them to come ;"" na dia nsande don-, " I like that I enter the 
sand," i.e. " I like to enter the sand :" n'gurua mbe ta, lit. 
" I want that I go," i.e. " I want to go ;" na foiye ndo : Isoke ! 
lit. " I told thee : Work !" i. e. " I told thee to work ;" a fo 
ndse aro nna, "he commanded me that I should come," i.e. 
" he commanded me to come." 

3. Participle. — It has already been shown (§ 22. XI. 2. and 
XII. 2.) that verbs with the suffixes a and na correspond to 
our present participle, and it now only remains to be said, 
that forms in na frequently also take the suffix wa, e.g. mbe 
tanawa, " I am going f mbe sokena, " I am working ;" mbe 
fen donna, "lam eating;" mbe kanba furenaw^a, "lam 
praying." 

Transitive verbs with the suffix re correspond to our 
past or passive participle, e. g. nyie sande, " a bought fish ;" 
duma nyiare, " a made shirt ;" sene faire, " a sown farm ;" 
sani tere or san' tere, " a broken bottle ; ' kon tiere, " a cut 
tree ;" kai sere, " the said man ;" gbun- kiimma bunde, " a 
covered bowl." dsa-biinde, "eye-covered," i.e. "blind." 

IV. 1. The construction of certain transitive verbs with 
ro is peculiar, where we w^ould expect a simple objective, 
In some instances it makes up for what we express by the 
junction of certain prepositions with verbs. 
Ban' : i ban- aro ? " dost thou refuse it ?'" 
Ben' : anoa nyoro ben-, " they met each other." 
Dan' : an'da gbir5 dan-, " they heard all ;" mii maro dan*, 
" we did not hear it." 



SYNTAX OF VERBS. 121 

Dsau : mbe sokero dsawa, " I shall spoil the work ;" na 

ya sokero dsau, " I have spoiled thy work." 
Dsira : anu kunni aro dsira, " when they have shown it." 
Fere : i komero fere muye, " do thou investigate the 

matter for us" (of. " look into, in-vestigate "). 
Fira : amo a dsaro fira, " and he wiped his face ;" an da 

sandsaro fira, " they swept the town." 
Fo : ai ko dondoero fo, " he was speaking only one word," 

(i e. " he was not double tongued *"). 
Fare : a gborero fure, " she unfolded the hide f anun' 

kuraro fure, " they unfold cloths." 
Ka : anMa kundo ka, " they opened the head," i.e. " they 

informed." 
Ko : musiea daro ko, the woman washed the pot out." 
Nyenye : anMa muro nyeny9U, " they have scattered us." 
Nyia: an'da sandsaro nyia berebere, " they made the town 

exceedingly good." 
Suma : mum' faro siima, " let us try my father." 
Tie : amo anMaro tie, " and they cut it up.'' 
The verbs /dran, "to turn, metamorphose," and ti, "to be- 
come," are always construed with hd : i faran kundeko, " turn 
into a bird ;" am' mirinya faranda moe fimako, " and the 
boa changed into a black person ;" a ti mandsako, " he be- 
came a chief." 

2. By the repetition of verbs, not however of frequent 
occurrence, an emphasis is expressed which we have gene- 
rally to convey by adverbs : moenu tea-tea, " the people dis- 
persed all about," or " entirely, altogether ;" atatabera, " he 
went on quickly, and fell ;" areitaita Ndore bira ! " he said. 
Go, go, and catch Ndore !" 

But sometimes the meaning itself is modified by repetition, 
e. g. here, " to pass, pass on ;" bere-bere, " to go about, walk 
about." 

3. Special attention has to be directed to the manner in 
which the notions of " fetching, bringing, carrying," are 
expressed — 

R 



122 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

Na tawara bi na nko, lit. " take my pipe, come, give it me," 
i. e. " fetch, or bring, my pipe ;" itaina keria, lit. " go and 
(then) come with the eggs," i.e. "fetch the eggs ;" itaro 
ina wuru-susu-dsia, lit. " go again and come with baboon- 
milk,'' i.e. "fetch baboon-milk again;" anu tanMa den- 
dero, lit. " they went with them into the vessel," i.e. 
" they carried them into the vessel ;" a ta Buroma, koro 
tona mandsaye, lit. "he went to Buroma, to leave rice 
for the chief,'' i. e. " he carried rice to Buroma for the 
chief;" mu dsirara, lit. "we went down with him," i.e. 
'* we carried him down ;" iteina na denea, lit. " go and 
(then) come with my child," i.e. "fetch my child;" 
ita dsie boro koina nko, lit. " go, draw some water, 
come, give it me," i.e. "draw and bring some water 
for me." 
4. The verb ro is of the most frequent occurrence, and 
regularly follows the " verba sentiendi et declarandi '' when 
their contents is explained (comp. the use of lbi^7 and on). 
It usually repeats the subject of the preceding verb, assuming 
a corresponding pronoun, and is only occasionally separated 
from it by an intervening adverb, but it generally follows it 
immediately. In English it may be rendered by the parti- 
ciple " saying," or by a mere infinitive, or the conjunction 
" that," or, in writing, by mere interpunction — 

Fo : a fo aye aro : sama kun' gbewi, " he said to him, 
When the morning has dawned ;" wu na fo muye, 
wuro, mum' m5 basai*5a, " ye come and tell us that we 
must again add somebody;" na fo wuye kerima, ndo: 
wu be na tirinero, " I have told you lately that ye are 
not (concerned) in my struggle ;" ini a foa moenuye, 
iro, na musume dia, " thou tellest the people I like 
the woman ;" iwere a fo afaye, iro, ya denea fa, " thou 
dost not tell her father, saying. Thy daughter has 
died." Sometimes ro is affixed to fo without repeating 
the subject : wu kum foro : wu we a fawa, " if ye say 
that ye will not kill him;" i kum foro: siiamu, "if 



SYNTAX OF VERRS. 123 

thou say, He is a wizard ;" aforo : nibe kai-wore maro, 
" she said, I will no more perform my duty as wife." 
Kure firi : amo a kure firi aro : Fa" Manu, areina so tie- 
da, "and he shouted, saying. Fa Manu, come and 
stand on the fording-plaee." 
Kure bon : amo a kure bon' aro, ntawi, " and he informed 
them, saying, I went," or, " and he informed them that 
he had gone ;" an'da kure bon* an'do : anda mu gbaiwake, 
" they gave information that they had repelled us/' 
Dau : am More-kaie daua, aro, e*, " and the Muhammadan 
replied, saying. Yes f' musieni dau, aro, na a diau, 
" the woman consents, saying, I love him ;" wurea dau 
aro, na dsimu, " the baboon answered. It is my water." 
Kere : a kunnikere aro, mba, " when she calls thee, say- 
ing. My mother ;" awe a bo mandsanu kere, aro, wu 
na, " he then calls all his fellow-chiefs to come ;" na a 
kerewi ndo : an'na, " I have called him to come." 
So : moa so muro : ya mu diake, " we know that thou 
lovest us ;" ini a so ero : tonyamu, " thou knowest that 
it is true ;" a soaro, a famu, " he knew that it was 
his father ;" anu ma so an'do, nyanamu, " they did not 
know that it was a ghost;" sundanu ma so an'do ke 
afa, " the strangers did not know that he had died."" 
Tusa : an'da Maria tusa an"do, ya den' kaima fareme 
dia ? " they asked Maria, Dost thou love this dead 
boy?" amo anda tusa ando, kai mbemu? "and they 
asked him, Man, what is the matter?" anda ntusa 
an'do : iwa mandsa-dene fa ? " they asked me. Hast thou 
killed the gentleman's daughter ?" 
Iro, which is also used after verbs not belonging to the 
verba sentiendi, has generally to be rendered by, " as, as if, 
like "^ (cf. also § 24. I. 1, c) : dsoakoariro Boa Kari ? lit " who 
speaks? thou sayest (it is) Boa Kari," i.e." "who speaks like 
Boa Kari?" kaime bero mfa, lit. " this man is, thou sayest 
(he is) my father," l e. " this man is like my father ;" Poro- 
mo be iro musu gbandawau, " an European is like an un- 



124 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

married woman f' anui konowa de bet'ebere, iro, gbengbe, 
lit. " they plait sticks very nicely, thou sayest (it is for) a 
bed," i.e. "as if making a bed," 

The verb ro is also used for our " think, imagine, be of 
opinion :"* musie ta kando suie bina ; a wara dse ; aro, 
suiemu, " the woman went up stairs to fetch soap ; she saw 
a mat and thought it was the soap ;" mbemu, dene ? ndo 
nna sinke, iwe nkerea keren*, " what is the matter, child ? 
I thought I would make my game, and thou art now calling 
me constantly ;" amo a bunda ma' ma kaieye, aro ke a kun 
kaie bira, " and he began to growl against the man, thinking 
that he might seize the man ;" kurua kun na 'ro abira, aro, 
dem mese were mbira, " when a warrior came, thinking to 
seize him, he said, A little boy shall not seize me." 

The pleonasm of ro is very extravagant, attributable to 
negligence of the speaker, especially when obliged to speak 
slowly : a faro aro, " his father said ;" aro : mma moro man- 
de dse, ke Ghana, aro : a na kura gbe fera, aro : a na na de- 
newakoa, aro : nga, zi, ndo ben", " she said, I have not seen 
any body but Ghana ; he came with two white cloths ; he 
came on account of my daughter ; but I alone," &c. 

5. The verb to, " to leave, be left," is also frequently used 
in order to express ideas which we convey in a different 
manner; e.g. na ta mboe to kirafe, lit. "I went and (then) 
left my friend on the way," i.e. " I accompanied my friend 
a distance." 

Frequently its force must be expressed in English by an 
adverb ; e.g., by 

" Before :" a t5aniwe Bumbu berea, amo an'na, lit. " they 
had still been left to deliver up Bumbu, and they came," 
i.e. "before they had delivered up Bumbu, they came;" 
1 ke dom, mun' to diambo sa, lit. " put this on, that we 
may be left to hold a conversation," i.e. "put this on 

* Cf. the same power of '^ib^^T', according to H. Ewald's " Ausfiihrliches 
Lehrbuch der Hebrseischen Sprache," ^\ 280. d. 



SYNTAX OF VERBS. 125 

before we hold a conversation ;" mu nyo dse, an' to gore 
so, I'd. " we will see each other, that he may be left to 
erect a palisade," i.e. "we will see each other before 
he erects a palisade ;" moe bore ki firaro soru, amo 
an' toa buranda, lit. " some people slept five times in 
the forest, and they were left to come out," i e. " some 
people were five days before they came out of the 
forest." 

" Then, at that time :" amo a toaro, am' W6"yeweremani 
gbandia, lit. " and they were left in it, and there was 
fever about Woyewere," i.e. "at that time Woyewere 
got fever;" a toaro, an' den* kaima kundn, lit. "he was 
left in it, and the boy was grown up," i.e. "then the 
boy was grown up." 

" Still :" anu t5a tayenawa, am' difi bera, lit. " they were 
left walking, and darkness fell," i.e. " when they were 
still walking, darkness fell ;" sai toa nu, am' na fo, 
lit. " early morning was left there, and I said," i. e. 
" when it was still early morning, I said." 

6. For the use of na to express ordinal numbers lid. §. 26. III. ; 
and that of here to express gradation of adjectives vid. §. 25. 3. 
Here, however, it may be remarked, that the verb ko, " to 
give," always takes the person to whom something is given 
as direct object before it, causing the thing given to follow as 
indirect object ; and also that the verb bun, " to cover," treats 
the thing with which is covered as direct object, causing the 
thing covered to follow with the postposition ma; e.g. — 

Wui mu k5a mbe ? Amo an'do, mui wu koa dson sun- 
sagba, " what will ye give lis ? And they said. We will 
give you eight slaves ;" ya nko ara, " thou hast given 
her to me ;" liko borie ! " give me the medicine !" mbe 
iko koro, " I shall give thee rice." Anun' kura bun- ama, 
"they cover him with cloth;" ariun' wara bun- ama, 
" they cover him with a mat ;" anun' kura bum fama, 
" they cover the dead with cloths." 



126 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SrEECII. 

In like manner, the Veis do not say, " to fill a ves- 
sel with something," but " to fill something info a ves- 
sel ;" not " a vessel fills itself with something," but 
"something fills a vessel;" e.g. a ra miisume gbi fa 
dendero, ** he filled the canoe with all his wives ;" dsie 
da fa gba', " the pot quite filled itself with water ;" dsie- 
wa faro gba', " it quite filled itself again with water." 

V. The Vei language has two verbs substantive (cf. in Ara- 

bic ^jO and ^J«J3) and two auxiliary verbs which closely cor- 
respond to each other, viz. be and bere, we and were. Two 
of them, viz. be and we are positive ; and two, viz. bere 
and were are negative. The meaning of be is " to be ;" of 
bere, " to be not ;" of we, " will, may, be ;" of ivere, " do 
not, will not, may not, be not." Some examples may illus- 
trate this — 

Be: i fa be nu ? A be nu, " is thy father there ? He is ;" 
a ton kom' be borero, " it is the news which is in the 
country ;" anu be sinkena, "they were playing at sing ;" 
a be afe, " she was behind him ;" a be we boro, " he 
was still in the country ;" hi' bewe nie karo sagba, " if 
thou wilt still be here in three months ;" a denu be 
mo-bande, " his children were twenty." 

Bere, or contracted into be: a den do: dsi bere, "his boy 
said, There is no water ;" a bere mu boro, " it is not in 
our hand ;" ko be mu bara, " there is no word in our 
place," i.e. "we have nothing to say;" wu here aro, 
"ye are not in it;"" koro bere, "there was no rice;" 
kere a be kerero, " as to war, it was not in the war," 
i.e. "as to the war, it was a light one, scarcely worth 
speaking of." 

We: awe mfarai, " he is killing me ;" awe ngbasia, " he is 
flogging me ;" aro a musiewe toa nu, " he said, his wife 
is to be left there ;"" hi kerewe banda, ani banda, " if the 
war is to be finished, be it finished ;" mandsa we a san, 



SYNTAX OF VERBS. 127 

" the chief had bought him ;" I we nkureanawa kerlma, 
" thou hast been fooling me before ;" terewe bera, " the 
sun was setting ;" a we ntusanawawi, " he has been 
asking me." 
TFere, or contracted into we : iwere a dse ? " dost thou 
not see it .^'" na banda birau, awere bera, " I hold the sky- 
so that it cannot fall ;" mo were a bira keibere, " none 
may seize him but thyself ;" awere tie don, " she did 
not eat fowls ;" bori nyama werefa, " an evil greegree 
may not kill thee ;" kere w^e na, " war will not come ;" 
a we ta sokena, " they did not go to work ;" awe toei- 
boro, " she will not be left in thy hand ;" a we kun 
tay'a, " he could not walk.'' 
From phonetic reasons, however, n'ue and n'were become 
mhe and mbere; and a preceding o, u, &c., might also change 
a following 6 into w. Hence we sometimes meet be and here 
where the above statements lead us to expect we and u-ere, 
and vice versa — 

Mbe nana, tae bike, rabe sena mu dsa, " I was coming, 
had taken a journey, was ascending to our home ;" 
mbe favvai, " I shall die ;" mbe idene baru sina, " I 
shall cure thy child to-morrow;" mbe tara, "I shall 
bring it ;" mbere nie donda, " I shall not eat the fish ;" 
rnbe don donda, or mbe don donna, " I shall not eat 
rice ;' musu a were nkurea, mbere dau, " a woman 
shall not fool me, I will not consent ;" mbe ko gbi fo 
ive, " I shall not tell thee any thing ;" mbe kun ta nu, 
" I shall not go there ;" mbe nau, I cannot come ;" 
kono were ama, "hunger was not on him," i.e. "he 
was not hungry." 
The verb ti, " to become, to be," is also used as verb sub- 
stantive, but continues to be construed with led : san da ti 
dem meseko, " the deer is very small " wu na ti mu seriko, 
"come ye and be our witnesses !" mfa ti mandsako, "my father 
is a chief ;" i faran'ti kanmbaro benda, " thy heart be only 
with God!" 



128 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

§. 28. 
SYNTAX OF ADVERBS. 

Here we have to illustrate peculiarities of Adverbs — their position, 
their connexion with verbs, and their repetition. 

I. 1. Adverbs generally take their position immediately after 
the verb — 

Dendee na sen, '* the vessel is coming slowly ;" i kome 

m.a keren-, " thou doest this thing continually ;" anu ta 

gbe, " they went on a little ;" a sira ten", " he sat 

erect ;" wu were ka duma sa, " ye must not get up 

suddenly." 

But, they may, as in most languages, change this position 

from rhetorical reasons : mbe fiiawa ka duma sina sama, " early 

will I rise to-morrow morning." 

2. There are some adverbs, however, which take a diffe- 
rent position, and never change it : kun', u-un, wen, and ma, 
invariably take their place between the subject and the verb : 
Akum mo, ani a don-, " when it is done he eats it f a kum 
bera taro I gbasi, " when it falls into the fire, whip it ;" 
suye mesenu kun na dasakena, ai anu bira, " when the 
little animals came to feed, he was catching them;"" soke- 
banda wun* ke, anu ta senekena, " when the work-time 
comes they make farms f mo wun na mewe dserero, 
" when one has come hither {sc. into the Sheol) he re- 
turns no more ;"" sama wunni gbe anu done ta kurumba, 
"when the morning had dawned they cooked much ricef' 
mbem fa somu, i ma nsa suero, " do not lay me in the 
hole on the day when I die ;" riiben* wureke, mbe iko 
fen* kurumba, " when I have given birth I will give thee 
very many things ;" a ma kure fi nu, " he did not reply ;" 
i makere, " do not call him !" rnma dan, " I do not hear 
it ;" mma so, " I do not know it ;"" i mabira tonyiira, 
" do not take it for true !" i 'nu bo anum* ma bawa sa, 
" beg them not to fight.'' 



SYNTAX OF ADVERBS. 129 

Note. — When ma is not followed by a verb, it has just the 
opposite force of mu ; e. g. faniama, tonyamu, " it is not 
a lie, it is truth ;" moro mandemau, mo faremu, " it 
was no other person, it was the dead person," i.e. "it 
was none other but the dead person." 

3. Be and ti are always suffixed either to the substantive 
or verb : mandsare ?" " where is the chief ?" denere ? 
" where is the child ?" m5a tare da-sakena, ai mu bira, " when 
we went to feed he was catching us f na dsi tiere gben, T 
kene-daro fure, " untie the house-door when I have crossed 
the water ;" hi" wu dawati ke wu mo bo ! " if ye really con- 
sent, then select somebody!" 

4. Ka always takes its place before the subject: n'kono 
nie ka nta na, " wait for me here till I return ;" i sue sen 
ka ikeara mu dsa-dara, " dig a hole till it reaches our town." 

5. As ka always precedes the subject, so kdma, f/ben; and 
gbd', follow the predicate : mbe ta kama ? " how shall I go ?" 
mbe k6eke ma kama? "how shall I do this thing?" an'da 
binda gben, "they burnt him up entirely f a tara gbem 
mandsawe fen dondo, "he found just then that the chief 
was eating;" an' toawa fona gben, am' More buranda, 
"they had just left off speaking, then the More came f " 
anu terea kiria gben-, " they had spent the whole day in ty- 
ing ;" a dsira gben*, " he had quite descended ;" mu kea nu 
gben-, " we had quite arrived there ;" amo a fen don gba', 
" and he ate the thing thoroughly," i.e. " he ate it up ;" a den- 
kaima fareme tefo gba , " she embraced the dead boy most 
ardently ;" a kori-den don gbai, " he ate the young leopards 
wholly ;" a fare gba*. " it was quite full ;" i da tan-- gba*, 
" shut it well ;" wa dse were gba, " ye see this very day ;" 
mbere mfa tusa gba, "I shall not ask my father at all;" 
ai mie momani gba, "it remains about a person a good 
while." 

II. The majority of adverbs may come into connexion with 
as great a variety of verbs as is the case in other languages. 



130 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

But there are some, especially those in which there is an 
onomatopoetical element, which are connected with certain 
verbs only — 

Ghurmc is imitative of the report of fire-arms, and therefore 
only follows the words huhe and dubdke, e.g. amo a du 
ba soso, amo awake gbui'un, " he loaded a cannon and 
fired it, so that it went bang.^'' 

U and ivu are imitative of the noise of the sea and other 
flowing water, as seen from the passage, amo a koie 
dse, ai ma: u, "and he saw the sea, it was making 
ii."" They can therefore only follow verbs denoting 
the flowing: of water : am' dsTe dsira ii, " and the 
water gushed down ii," i.e. with a tremendous noise; 
amo anoa dsi ke daro wu, " and they put water into 
the pot, wu." i.e. so that it produced a noise. 

Popo connects itself only with so : amo a mie ra buro so 
popo, " ana he stuck the sword right into her bowels." 

Pu only follows te : amo a sandsa te pu, " and he divided 
the town throughout,'' i.e. from one end to the other. 

BvTun' is used only with huiC : a dsa-bunde burun, " he 
was stone blind.'" 

Sunsun occurs only after dsa : a dsa sunsun, " it is red 
like crimson, or, red like fire." 

III. Certain adverbs are frequently repeated, and their 
force increases wdth the number of repetitions — 

Piri : a kia sua-koewa ma piri-piri, " he spent the whole 

night in nothing but witchery ;" anui ki tombokea piri- 

-piri-piri, " they spent the whole night in nothing but 

playing." 
Pa : amo a kori pa-pa-pa, " and he twirled round and 

round and round." 
Gbon' : an ta koari gbon-gbon-gbon, " he goes and speaks 

on a very long time." 
Bere : mfara sa bereberebere, " I am exceedingly glad." 
Soma : sama gbea, siima-sama, am mu kii duma, * the 



SYNTAX OF POSTPOSITIONS. 131 

morning dawned very early, then we rose up ;" sama 
kunni gbe, sama-sama-sama, musienu gbi na, " when 
the morn has dawned, exceedingly early all the women 
come." 
Ka : amu na bo ka, " and I begged awhile, or a little 
while ;" a diewake ka-ka, " he wept a good while ;" anu 
sa ka-ka-ka, " they sat a long while ;'' anu tiawa Tiiso 
kakakaka, "they were in Tuso a very long time;" amo 
a sa kakakakakaka, " and he lay an enormous length of 
time." 

§. 29. 

SYNTAX OF POSTPOSITIONS. 

Postpositions, as indicated by their name, always follow the noun, and 
this in the capacity of suffixes; hut their use is often avoided 
when we use prepositions. 

I. Postpositions suffixed — (Cf. also §. 25. IX. and §. 10. II.) 
Fe : a be afe, " she was with him;" a sira kirafe, "he sat 

• • • * 

by the road." 

Koro : a be gbengbekoro, " it is under the bed ;" anu 
burandara kem bakoro, " they brought him under a 
large house." It is often used to form proper names 
of towns and villages, e.g. Bandakoro, Pakai-koro^ Duru- 
koro, Turo-koro ; from banda, " a cotton-tree ;" pakai, 
" a pawpaw ;" Duru, the Vei name of the St. Paul's 
river at Monrovia ; tiiro, " a cola-tree." 

Ma : a ka du'ma kanarama, " he rose up from the box ;" 
abe masama, "it is on the table ;'' mbe tawa so 
nanima, " I shall go on four days," i. e. " after four 
days ;" an da tirinke ama, " they fought over him," i. e. 
" on his account, or in his behalf." It is likewise fre- 
quently used to form proper names of towns and vil- 
lages, e.g. Bomma, Gindema, Buroma ; from, bon-. "a 
hill ;" ginde, " a small kind of fish ;" buro, " mud." 



132 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

Mani: a be inmani, "it is with me;" anu we ku" Imani, 
" they will be powerless near thee ;" asa konomani, " it 
lay along the stick/' 

Ve: this postposition supplies the want of a dative case : 
i bori ma ndse, " make medicine for me ;" wu kere 
bera ndse, " make ye war in my stead ;" a fo aye, " he 
said to lier ;" a ma den* kaimaye, " it appeared to the 
boy ;' dsara ma* maye, " the lion made a growl against 
him ;" mu na muye, " we returned by ourselves."" 

II. Instances of the omission of postpositions where we 
use prepositions — 

" With :" Panya-moenu a basare anoa dson'enu, lit. " the 
Spaniards mixed as to their slaves," i.e. " the Spaniards 
with their slaves ;" a here mu boro, lit. " it is not in 
our hand," i.e. "it is not with us ;" a b5ani Buse, mo 
kiirumba, dsa-fene kunkuru, lit. " he had come from 
Buse: very many people! very many goods," i.e. "he 
had come from Buse with very many people and 
goods ;" anda famewa ma, ^safene kunkuru, lit. " they 
made this funeral-feast : many goods," i.e. " with many 
goods." 

"To:" mil ta Denebere, "we went to Denebere ;" mu dsira 
Mina, " we went down to Mina ;" anu sere dara, " they 
went up to town." 

" In, at :" kan dondo, " in one place ;" a sirani gba*, Poro- 
dsa-fen, kando-dsa-fen", dsone kunkuru, " he was very 
rich in European goods, in up-land-goods, and in slaves;" 
mu na Mina dserema, " we came to Mina in the even- 
ing ;" am' koe banda so biri, "and the matter was 
finished the same day." 

" For :" dsa-fene berea wu sagba, ///. " the goods surpass 
you three, i.e. "are too many for you." 



( «33 ) 



§. 30. 
SYNTAX OF CONJUNCTIONS. 

Their use, and the manner how they are often avoided have here to he 

illustrated. 

I. 1. The conjunctions he and /e'ra seem to be quite identical 
in force. The only difference that may exist between them 
is perhaps this, that he is simply expressive of addition, and 
fera with the adjunct idea that no more than two things are 
joined. The use of both is confined to the connecting of words 
which form the subject of a proposition. Both of them have 
the peculiai'ity of changing the singular of a pronoun, to 
which they join another word, into the plural. (Except we 
account for it by assuming an ellipsis, so that, e.g., mii be 
mfa would stand for mu, mbe mfa, " we, I and my father") — 

A be a, " he and she ;"" kama be suyenu ta sokena " an 
elephant and (other) animals went to work ;'' mii be 
anumu, an 'da mu wuru Dsoni, " it is I and they, whom 
they begat at Dshoni ;" a feramusie, " he with his 
wife ;*" pakenna feramusie, " the spider and his wife ;" 
tie fera pakenna na, "the fowls came with the spider;" 
Boa Kari fera Siafa ka duma, " Boa Kari and Siafa 
rose up ;'' wu ferainyomo keremanu, " thou and thy 
elder brothers ;" wu feranu kun ta firaro, " when thou 
goest with them into the forest ;" mu feraiba dsa- 
bundemu, " I and thy mother are blind ;" mu fera 
mbo-den- kaimanu, " I and my comrades ;" mu ferara, 
mu ma ko ma, " I and she, we did not do any thing ;" 
ka fera miisie a terimu, " tale of a serpent and a wo- 
man." 

The uncertainty thus arising as to whether a pronoun 
preceding he and /era is to be translated into English by a 
singular or a plural is in some measure removed by adding 
the plural termination to the word after he and fera when the 



134 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

latter is to be the case. But of course, if such a noun has 
a plural termination already, the ambiguity remains : mu 
be mfanu, " we and my father," or " I and ray fathers ;" but, 
mu be mfa, " I and my father ;" wu be mfanu, " ye and my 
father," or " thou and my fathers ;" but, wu be mfa, " thou 
and my father ;" wu fera wu bonu, " ye and your friends.'' 
(Here the ambiguity is removed by the number of the pos- 
sessive pronoun, which clearly shows that the phrase cannot 
also mean " thou and See."') 

2. The conjunction hi has either a mere copulative or a 
conditional force. In the first case it connects words which 
are generally part of the predicate ; in the second case it 
stands before the subject, and subordinates one proposition 
to another. 

a. Aro, wu nko kan-kiri-gbasa, hi' bira-boro-gbasa, hi' 

fita-gbasa, hi* tun'gbe, hi' te-bira, " she said, Give me a 

neckcloth, and a pocket-handlcerchief, and a silk hat, 

and a walking stick, and an umbrella ;" an-' kaiea More- 

moe tusa, aro, mbe fennumu ? Amo a fo aye, aro, 

dsara-susu-dsi, hi' kori-susii-dsi, hi' fari-keri, hi' ko- 

randsa-keri, hi' mirinya-kende, hi' paburonu, " and the 

man asked the More-person, What are these things.^ 

And he said to him. Lion's milk, and leopard's milk, 

and alligator's eggs, and eagle eggs, and a living Boa 

and sparrows." 

6. Wum' 'faro suma! hi' a mu dia muni a so, hi' a ma 

mu dia, muni a so, " let us try my father : if he love 

us, we shall know it ; if he do not love us, we shall 

know it ;" hi' ko ama ivvere a fo ndse ? " if something 

happened to him wilt thou not tell me .^" 

When many words are to be joined in the above manner, 

the conjunction is sometimes omitted before the last words ; 

and when hi' renders a proposition conditional, the following 

principal proposition is sometimes introduced by ke — 

a. S6-femmu gbi be sandsaro, an'ti bawarako, hi' ba, hi' ni, 
tie, nyarenu, "all the living creatures which were in 



SYNTAX OF CONJUNCTIONS. 135 

the town, they were sheep, and goats, and bullocks, 
fowls, cats." 
6. Hi' dsirima ma soni, ke dsara i dongakeni, " if thou 
hadst not been wise, then the lion would certainly have 
devoured thee f hi' ma ndia, ke mbeifawa, " if thou do 
not love me, then I shall kill thee." 

3. Zi has a moderate adversative force, corresponding to 
the Latin aulem and Greek §e, and always takes its position 
immediately after the subject — 

N'ga, Boa Kari, zi, ndo, " but I, Boa Kari, said ;" a kumu 
nga, zi, na ya sokero dsau, " but I have therefore spoiled 
thy work ;"" musie, zi, ro, " but the woman said ;" moa, 
zi, mu dserea, " but as for us, we returned." 

4. A climax, and not simple addition, is expressed by the 
conjunction -pere, which always directly follows the word to 
which it more immediately belongs — 

A ma gbasi pere kerema, "he did not even flog him much f 
anda mpere mbira, "they caught me also ;" a pere ta, 
" he also went ;" a pere mani gbandire, " about him 
also was sickness ;" mu ra tau pere kirafeou, ** we even 
buried him on the way;"" anda bum pere bukeaniia, "they 
even began to fire at them ;" a ma dsam m5e dondo 
pereau, " he did not take leave even of one person." 

5. O — 0, generally after e and i, u — u, generally after a, 
and ou — (m are always suffixed to those words which they 
are to put into a closer relation to each other. Their force 
is copulative, and this, so as to express a fuller co-ordination 
or equality by reconciling an antithesis, in much the same 
way as we use both — and: 

Moa buye gbio moa mie gbio, " both all our muskets and 
all our swords ;" rrgau, w5bau, mu dsa-bunde, " both I 
and your mother, we are blind ;" anyomoeniia nau, a 
nyomo musumaniia nau, " both his brothers and his 
sisters came ;" a bau, afau, anu be nii, anu dsa, " both 
his mother and his father were there in their home;" 
a musuou, a denuou, abanuou, bavvaranuou, tienuou, amo 



136 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

anoa gbi bini, "as for his wife, his children, his goats, 
the sheep, the fowls, they have taken them all ;" ifa kofo 
lyeo, a ma kofo iyeo, na kuna be nu, " whether thy 
father has told thee any thing, or whether he has not 
told thee any thing, I do not care." 

6. When huri and kunni are conjunctions, they take their 
place after the subject, just as when they are adverbs, and 
the following principal proposition is often introduced by he : 
kaimu, zi, akun* wuru na demmea, ai a bo-kaie gbi sandiwake, 
" but if any one want my daughter, he must throw down all 
his comrades ;" i kum mu gbore-nuna dsewi, hi'wa bi, keibere, 
" if thou sawest the place where we hid our skins, and if thou 
hast taken them, then give them up;" mo dondo kuu" ko fo, 
i mabira tonyara, " if (only) one man says any thing, do not 
take it for true;" mu kaienu kun tiwi soru, ke na dau mum' 
Boa Kari fa, " if we had been five men, then would I consent 
to kill Boa Kari ;" musie nyomo kaima kun ti, au'ni ako, afa 
nyomo kun ti, an^ni ako, " if the woman have a brother, they 
are to give it him ; if she have a father's brother, they are 
to give it him ;" keikunni a fo iro, ya denua be nu, keitau, 
" but as thou sayest that thou hast children, therefore go ;" 
ya den* kunn' ekere, ita nu dse, "as thy child calls thee, go 
there and see ;'' kanba kunni a bo mbbro, mbe kanba furia, 
ani nko aro mande, " as God has taken her out of my hand, 
I shall beg God to give me another.'' 

7, The conjunctions, gha, he, bema, always stand before 
the subject — 

Gha : mui wu tau nu, gba, zi, mui wu firi faro ? ya mina 

dia ? " shall we bury you there (or in German the full 

force of gha, zi, can be expressed by oder, aher, not 

in English), or shall we throw you into the fire ? which 

dost thou like ?" 

Ke, a= "then :" aro, Hi' ma bi mbegbasiwa. Boa Kariro, 

Ke ngbasi, " He said. If thou do not take it, I 

shall flog thee. Boa Kari said. Then flog me ;" 

aro, Koemu nna wu kerena. Amo an'do, ke wu 



SYNTAX OF CONJUNCTIONS. 137 

mu ta, " he said, Therefore I come to call you. And 
they said, Then let us go." 
b = "that, so that :" aro ke a kun- kaie bira, "he thought 
that he could catch the man ;" wa taye kama firaro, 
ke wu nyoijioro, awere dono donda ? " how did ye 
fare in the forest, for your brother to say, He will 
not eat rice f ' musie ma so ke pakennamu, " the 
woman did not know that it was the spider ;" a ma 
so ke Warahaula a be tere-dsie, " he did not know 
that Warahaula was under the sun." 
c = " whether:" i ta nii dse ke koa maidsa-kuro, "go 
there, and see whether something has happened in 
thy house." 
cZ="but:" ke denu toa mboro, abiria mfara sa, "but 
children are left to me, the same will cheer me ;"" 
ke moe boro ma dau, "but some people did not 
consent." 
Bema : amo anMa musie here kamaye, an'do, bema iwa 
tom mandsaba, " and they gave the woman to the 
elephant, and said. Because thou art a great gentle- 
man ;" aro mu fua were ta, bema mboenu kurumba, 
anui na basa nda were, " he said. Let us go early to- 
day, because many of my friends will come and help 
me to-day ;" amo an'do, mii wa fawau, bema Buraima 
wa Poromomunio, " and they said. We will kill him, 
because he has been Ibrahim's European." 
8. Jtmu (often am'), komu (often kumu), s6mu (sometimes 
sdmu), and kinmu, are properly each a whole proposition : a 
mu = "itwas," komu = " it is the reason," somu = " it was 
the time," kirimu = " it is, or was, the way ;" but they are 
now used quite like our conjunctions — 

a. Amu, as may be expected from its proper nature, con- 
nects propositions only, and, like 1 conversive in He- 
brew, presents what follows as a consequence or con- 
tinuation of what has preceded. If translated into 
English, two such propositions are often connected by 

T 



138 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

" when, then:" avva dokea, amo a fa, " lie shot him, and, 
(or, so that) he died/' Am' Boa Kari-faro, Boa Kari, 
areima ko gbi ma firaro, am' Vanieikiri ? " and Boa 
Kari's father said, Boa Kari, didst thou not do any 
thing in the forest, that Vani tied thee ?" amo anda 
kere bi, amo anda na m5e gbi bira, " and they took up 
the war, and they caught all my people ;" P6ro-m6e 
banda fene soa duma, amo afo mandsaye, " when the 
European had landed the things, he told the chief ;" 
anu banda dsi tiara, amo anu na da, " when they had 
crossed the river, they went to town." 

b. Komu or kumu : komu mo kun ti dara, " therefore, if 
people are in the town ;" komu mbe ta mbawa kerena, 
" therefore I go to call my mother ;" a kumu moa moe 
gbi kere, " therefore have we called all the people ;" 
a kumu anda ntusa, an'do, iwa mandsa-dene fa ? 
" therefore they asked me. Hast thou killed the chiefs 
daughter;" nkomu mbe ta, "therefore I shall go," lit. 
"it is my reason (that) I shall go." 

c. Sornu or sdmu ; it is generally followed by zi : samij, 

zi, anui kon*' gbi ma wiiiamu, " but whatever they were 
doing was conceit ;" aro, ya sundara ya dene fa ; na 
a tara a boa fana, wurie be miemani gbi. Somii, zi, 
kaierabawarawa fa, " she said. Thy visitor has killed 
thy daughter. I met him when he came out from kill- 
ing her ; blood was all about his knife. But the man 
had killed his sheep." 

d. Kinmu : amo an'da Maria tusa an'do : ya den" kaima 
fareme dia? Mariaro : kirlmu pere mbe s5ro, "and 
they asked Maria, Dost thou love this dead boy ? 
Maria said. Even as I am standing," i.e. "as I live;" 
kirimu mandsai gbaro kema suro, a ma gbaro, " the 
chief did not grunt, as he had been before grunting 
by night." 

Kirimu — hemu, means, " as much, so much, as many 
as, so manv :" dene kiinni ti kirimu, kemu anui tiirie 



SYNTAX OF CONJUNCTIONS. 139 

magbimani, " as many girls as there are apply grease 
all about them ;" gbune a kirimu kemuidone ta, " cook 
as much rice, as there are bowls/' 

II. The use of conjunctions is sometimes avoided where 
we have it in English, as will be seen from the following 
instances — 



«< nnm '•'> 



Till : ' na tusake kaka nkanyawa, lit. " I asked a long 
time, I was tired," i.e. " I asked a long time, till I was 
tired ;" moe gbi ra fo aye, anu ka'yawa, lit. " all the 
people told it her, they were tired," i.e. "till they were 
tired." 

" Whether — or," " if — or :" Mariaro, wui mu ke soero, ko 
here, wui mu firi taro, ko here, " Maria said. If ye are 
putting us into the hole, all right ; or if ye are throw- 
ing us into the fire, all right." 

"If:" n-kere-fure here; na din'em fa, lit. "I give up the 
snail-shells ; my child must die," i.e. " if I give up," &c. ; 
ta boadaro a duma binda, lit. " fire proceeds out of his 
mouth, and it burns the ground," i.e. "if fire proceeds out 
of," &c. 

" That :" areima kama, ya kori-susu-dsie bo ? " he said, 
What didst thou do that thou gottest the leopard's 
milk ?" a mbe ma yakiri firaro ? " what has he done 
that thou boundest him in the forest ?" wu na korera, 
mbe a dse, " bring the rice that I may see it." 

" None — but :" anu ma moro mande wuru, an'da Seria 
wuru, lit. " they did not beget another, they begat 
Seri," i.e. "they begat none other but Seri ;" mu 
meikere koro mandea, moa moenuata kerima Masa- 
gbara, lit. " we did not call thee on account of another 
thing : our people went lately to Masagbara," i. e. " we 
did not call thee on account of any thing else, but be- 
cause our people," &c. 

" But, only, except :" mfa ma mu dia, ke Boa Kari, ///. 
"my father does not love us, but Boa Kari," i.e. "my 



140 SYNTAX OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH. 

father loves only Boa Kari ;" ke fern here anu wuru- 
moenu-boro, mma fo tie kaima dondo, lit. " but his 
parents had not any thing, I do not (also) say one 
cock," i.e. "but his parents had not any thing but a 
cock ;" mo we don nu, mmafo pakenna, lit. " none en- 
ters there, I do not say the spider," i.e. "none enters 
there but the spider ;" biindo-san-dende bero, mmafo 
dson-san-dende, lit. " there were no more vessels to buy 
camwood, I do not also say vessels to buy slaves," i. e. 
" there were no more any vessels to buy camw^ood, but 
only slave-vessels/ 

§. 31. 

SYNTAX OF INTERJECTIONS. 

In the Vei language Interjections are used to supj)ly the zcant of a 
Vocative Case ; but besides this, they are used as in other languages. 

I. In calling any one, especially when some exertion of the 
voice is required, the conjunctions e or o are frequently an- 
nexed at the end of the name, and sounded very long; 
e.g. kaie ! " O man !" mfae, or mfa5 ! " my father !" mandsae, 
or mandsao ! " O chief P' musie, or musie5 ! " O woman !" 
dsonee, or dsoireo I " O slave !" denuye, or denud, " O chil- 
dren !" 

The same practice seems to prevail in other African lan- 
guages, and, like many other peculiarities, is sometimes 
transferred to the English language also by the common 
people in Sierra Leone. It is not unfrequent to hear them 
shouting out words like these : " sister-6, comeo !" i. e. " come, 
O sister!" "br6ther-6, st6pe-6 !" i.e. "stop, O brother!" 

II. In the instances which have come under my notice, 
the various interjections were used in the following manner — 

-E^ as an expression of surprise and astonishment ; or, asto- 
nishment and disapprobation; or, surprise and grief; 
or, surprise and approbation. 



SYNTAX OF INTERJECTIONS. 141 

A and oya as an expression of sm-prise and grief. 

Ea as an expression of joy and admiration, and some- 
times of grief. 

Eio as an expression of pleasure, joy, and rapture. 

Ko as an expression of surprise and dislike. 

Kuo and ydmhao as an expression of disappointment, grief, 
and sorrow. 

O as an expression of surprise or grief, and the wish to 
call on somebody. Thus it is used in the very fre- 
quent exclamation, 5 kanmba ! i.e. "O God !" 



VEI-ENGLTSH VOCABULARY. 



[Abbreviations : s. substantive, v. verb, a. adjective, ad. adverb, 
cojy. conjunction, pr. pronoun.] 



A. 

A. pron. " he, she, it, they ; his, her, its, their/'' 
Amu, conj. " and, then."" It often drops the u, and before a 
often changes it into o; e.g. amo anu, " and they." 
Anu, pr. " they, their." 

B. 

Ba, a. "great, big, large, bulky;" e.g. musu ba, "a great 
woman," also the head wife in polygamy; boi dem 
ba, " head servant ;" fern ba, " a great thing, a ghost, 
the devil." 
Ba, ad. " much, very." 

Bamba, " very much." 
Ba, s. " mother." 
Ba d5ma, " aunt." 
W6nye-ba, " the queen of a large kind of black ants." Its 

bite is considered fatal. 
Kisi-ba, " the queen of the termites." 
Kumu-ba, " the queen of a bee-hive." 
Ba, s. " goat." 

Ba kaima, " buck." 
Ba dori, or ba den*, " kid." 
Ba, or baa, or bawa, s. " boat." 

Ba-du, a house with a roof of the form of an upset boat. 
Ba, s. also kiira-de-ba, the tripod on which the weaving ap- 
paratus is suspended. 



144 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Babai, a. " all, nothing but ;" a fania babai fo, " he spoke no- 
thing but lies." 
Baden, s. a kind of cloth manufactured by the natives alter- 
nating with square spots of white and black. 
Bafa s. " shed, hut." 
Bamba, a. " very big, very corpulent, very handsome." 

Na musieni bamba, i.q. "my wife has been very hand- 
some." 
Bambi, s. a temporary grave in the house or kitchen, where 
corpses are laid, enveloped all over in many bandages 
of cloth, from two weeks to one year, before all the 
relatives can be convened for the final burial, and 
all be procured that is required for the funeral-feast. 
The bambi is only about two feet deep and two or 
three wide. 
Bana, s. " plaintain." 

Poro-bana, lit. " white man's plantain," i. e. " banana." 
Banda, s. " sky, cloud, air ; time, season." 
Nu-banda, " at that time, in those days." 
Nie-banda, " at the present time, now." 
Banda bera, lit. "the sky fell." i.e. "it became cloudy, 

lowering." 
" Time, as opposed to eternity ; this world, the earth ;" 
e.g. a departed spirit, when asked 'at his arrival in 
the infernal regions, " i boa mina ?" answers, " mboa 
bandawa," " I come from the earth." 
Banda, s. " cotton-tree." 

Banda-fumu, " cotton of the cotton-^ree." It is of a silky 
quality, and different horn fdnde fumu. 
Banda, v. " to finish, be finished." 

Ban, V. " to finish, complete, end ; to be finished, completed, 

ended ; bring to an end, cause to cease, stop ;" e. g. 

a ds6n-san-kde ban, " he stopped the slave-trade." 

c. Ro, " to refuse, reject ;" e.g. i ma ban aro ! " do thou not 

refuse it !" a ban kore gbiro, " he refused all the rice." 

Kundo-ban, " perplexity, confusion." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 145 

Ban", s. " bamboo-tree." 

Ban-gbe, s. " bamboo wine ;" it is gained by tapping the 
tree in such a way that it dies within a twelvemonth 
after. 
Banguru, s. a bamboo stick ; bangiiru-gbengbe, " a bed- 
stead made of bamboo sticks" (vmru, in Mende, means 
" stick ;" but in Vei it is not used by itself). 
Bana, s. a ring of twisted bamboo bark, about the thickness 
of a finger, worn by males round their heads, and 
by females round their necks, as a sign of mourning 
for near relatives. 
Bana, s. a building with only three sides walled up, of which 
description their kitchens generally are. 
Si-bana, " town-house.'' 
Wunde-bana, " kitchen." 
Bana, s. a country harp with seven cords, played with the 

fingers. Na bana sin*, " I play the harp." 
Bao, s. " opposite side of a water " (Trepai). 
Koi-bao, " beyond the sea." 

Dsi-bao, " on the other side of the water or river." 
Nu-bao, " the opposite bank ;" nie-bao, " bank on this 
side." 
Bara, s. "navel, umbellicum." 

Bara-dsuru, " navel-string." 
Bara, s. " place ; large open place, yard." 
Baramboron-, or babon*, s. " pitcher, jug." 
Baran', s. " fence." 

Baran- kiri, " to make a fence." 
Baran-, v. "to lath, fit up with laths." 

Baran-kon-, " rafter, lath." 
Barawara, bawara, and barawa, s. " sheep." 
Barawara kaima, " ram." 
Barawara dori, or barawara den', " lamb." 
Bari, s. "thatch, roof." 

Bari, s. " meeting, congregation, assembly." 
Rari, r'- "to flatter" e.g. i ma mbari ! "do not flatter me!" 

u 



146 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Baru, V. " to save, cure, heal ; to recover, get well ; to escape 
(e.g. an animal), to get clear (e.g. in a law-suit); to 
help, to oblige ;" e.g. an' ta mu baru nira ! " may he 
go and help or oblige us with a bullock/' 
Baru-mo, s. " healer, Saviour." 
Basa, V. " to add, mix with." 

c. a. " to assist, help ;" e.g. i basa nda ! " assist me !" 
Basi, s. a yellow country cloth, worn as a sign of mourning. 
Batata, s. ** locust, grasshopper." 
Bawa, s. " quarrel, dispute, contest." 

Bawa sa, " to quarrel, to contend." 
Ben', V. " to meet ;" e.g. moa nyoro ben, " we met each other." 
" To fit, to suit ;" e. g. dumame ben 'da, or, more generally, 
diimame benda mmani, " the shirt fits me." 
Ben', V. "to deny, refuse;" e.g. ya mbem fen demmea ? 

" wilt thou deny me this little thing ?'" 
Be, s. " uncle." 

Be-den', " nephew ;" be-dem musuma, " niece." 
B6re-be-den', a sort of prime-minister, next in dignity to 
the king, and himself the chief of a town. 
Bende, s. a sort of scaffold, consisting of four forked sticks 
rammed into the ground, with cross sticks laid upon 
them, for the purpose of drying something on it, 
either in the sun or over a fire. Sometimes they 
make it large, and cover it with a thatch, when it 
serves them as a barn for their rice, similar to our 
stacks. In this case bende is synonymous with bundu. 
Bende, part. pass, of ben', " to meet." 

Kum- bende, " whole ;" e.g. a ma na kum-bendea, " he did 
not bring the whole ;" liko gbasa kum-bende, " give me 
a whole cassada." 
Bere, s. " self." 

Mbere, " myself ;" nga mbere, " I myself." " Honour, re- 
gard, respect ;" e.g. a bere bere, " he has no honour," i.e. 
" is not respected ;" na ibere so, or na i bere si, " I 
respect thee" (cf. the use of TilS in Hebrew). 



I 



V£I-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. l47 

Bere, s. " voluptuousness, fornication, adultery." 
Bere ma, " to commit fornication or adultery." 
Bere-kai, " whoremonger, adulterer." 
Bere-musu, " harlot, concubine, adultress."" 

Bere, s. a strip of cloth about two inches broad, worn by 
girls from about their eighth year up to their mar- 
riage, to cover their shame, and hanging down be- 
fore and behind to about half a foot from the 
ground. It is therefore identical with a mark of 
virginity ; and bere-mo means " a virgin." 

Bere and bere, " fine, good."" 

Bere ma and here nyia, " to treat well ;" e.g. an'da dene 
bere ma, " they treated the child well." 

Berema, or generally contracted into bema, conj. " because." 

Beri, s. a religious rite, at which the males receive their 
national mark on their backs, and a new name. At 
the same time they are instructed on certain sub- 
jects, perhaps of a sexual nature, which they keep 
strictly secret, for death is threatened if a man re- 
veals the heri secrets to a woman, or to one not 
initiated ; or if, on the other hand, a woman reveals 
the sande secrets to a man. It seems probable 
to me, that originally the heri rite was identical 
with that of circumcision ; but at present the males 
are circumcised in infancy, and in the heri only 
those with whom it has been neglected in an earlier 
age, which is not frequently the case. Hence, also, 
it doubtless comes, that to undergo the heri rite is 
expressed by heri fa. To go through the rite of the 
common heri, only requires a few months, whereas, 
in what is called the dancing heri, they have to be 
several years. Hence, also, only a few go through 
the latter. There seems to be no law as to what 
age the youths have to enter the heri, but they do 
so generally when they arrive at puberty, or during 
the first few years after. 



148 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Beri-fira is the place in the forest where the beri ceremonies 

are performed. 
Beri-mo, " one gone through the beri rite." 
Beri-tamba, " the national mark across the back." 
Beri-nyana, beri-demon, or beri-devil, i.e. a masked man 
who acts the part of a being from the unseen world, 
and who makes the tamba. In the sande rite, the same 
is called /em6a. 
Beri-wusa, name or title of beri youths during the time 
they have their beri dances. 
Bendera, s. " flag, banner." 

Na bendera sere, " I hoist a flag:." 
Bene, s. "arrow." 

Benero-dserare, lit. "a fried arrow," ie. "a poisoned one." 
Bera, v. "to fall;" e.g. a bera duma, "it fell down." 
"To set;" e.g. terea bera, "the sun set." 
" To happen" (cf. incidental, and Germ, einf alien); e.g. kone 

bera, " a famine happened." 
"To let fall, drop, lay;" e.g. korandsa kerie bera, "the 

eagle laid eggs." 
" To cause to fall, to throw ;" e.g. wu kun kere bera, " when 
ye throw or make war.'' 
Bere, v. " to pass, pass on, pass through, go on, pass by, to 
pass or spend time ;" e.g. na sam fera bere> " I spent 
two years." 
"To pass, deliver up, give to;" e.g. na kungo berea ndia- 

moye, " I passed the cup to my fi'iends." 
c. Ra, " to surpass ;" e.g. mbereira, " I surpass thee." 
c. Ko, " to go over to a party, go on one's side." 
Berebere, v. " to walk about, take a walk." 
Bi, V. " to take, take away, take up." 
Bimbiri, s. " ladder, steps, stairs." 

Bimbiri nyia, or sie, or ma, "to make a ladder." 
Bina, s. " horn." 
Binda, s. " spoon." 

Kom-binda, " wooden-spoon." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 149 

Kundu-binda, " iron-spoon/' 
Kani-binda, " silver-spoon." 
Binda, v. " to burn ;" e.g. anMa sandsa gbi binda, " they burnt 
the whole town." 
" To roast ;" e.g. na tie binda, '* I roast a fowl." 
Bini, s. " porcupine." 

Bini-sura, " its quills." 
Bin- or bine, s. " grass, weeds." 

Bira, v. " to take, accept, seize ; catch, overtake ; affect ;" e. g. 

borie ma gboro bira, " the medicine did not affect 

the skin." 

c. Ma, " to rely on;" e.g. na bira kanmbama, "I rely on God." 

c. Mana, "to dispute, quarrel;" e.g. an terea ma birana, 

" they disputed the whole day." 
Gbe-birare, lit. "wine-caught," i.e. "drunk." 
Bira-kai, " father-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law." 
Bira, s. "booty, spoil, prey" {i.e. "something taken in war"). 

Bira-mo, " a captive." 
Bira, s. " fathom," a measure reaching from one end of the 

extended arms to the other. 
Biri, s. " winged termites," considered a delicious food when 

fried in palm-oil. 
Biri, pr. " same, self-same, that." 
Bo, s. " dung, manure, excrement.' 
Bo-dsiiru, " rectum, last intestine." 
Boke or buke, " to pass a motion." 
Ni-bo, " cow dung." 
Bo, s. "friend, fellow, companion, comrade, lover." 
Bo, V. " to come from, go out, issue, proceed, arise from." 
"To rise;" e.g. tere bo, "the sun rises;" mu danLiina-s5e 

gbi bo, " we shall rise on the last day." 
" To leak ;" dendei bo, " the canoe leaks." 
" Put off," used of all sorts of cloths. 
" Take out, bring out, bring forth, put forth, take in war ;" 

e.g. an' ta sandsa bo, " they went and took the town." 
" Take out of, choose, select." 



150 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Bo, s. " palaver-sauce," a kind of soup made of meat, plants, 
palm-oil, spices, and water. Any plant used for pa- 
laver-sauce. 
Bo-don", "palaver-sauce rice,"" i.e. "rice on which palaver 
sauce is poured." 
Boda, s. " pitcher, jug, cup." 
Boi, s. "hut, shed, without walls, resting merely on posts." 

B6i-den", " servant," as opposed to " slave." 
Boni, s. name or title of girls whilst in the sande bush. 
Bon', V. " pour out, spill," used of fluids and substances like 
dust ; also, ° 

Kure bon', " to deliver a message, give information." 
"Rush or fall upon;" e.g. kuruan'da bon moenuma, "the 

warriors fell upon the people."" 
" Upset, capsize ;" dendea bon*, " the vessel capsized." 
Boro, s. " palm-cabbage." 

Na boro fa, " I cut palm-cabbage." 
B5ro, s. " side." ad. " aside." 
Boro, s. " bag made of mats or rough cloth." 

Kundo-boro, ''cap." 
B5ro and b5ro, " some ;" e.g. mo boro, " some people." 
Bosi, s. " cocco," a bulbous plant. 

A woman soon after her confinement, as Ndore told me, 
musumu kun* wiiruke nie nama, atom bosi. This is 
owing to the circumstance that the food of females lately 
confined is prepared chiefly from coccos. Sometimes 
they are called bosi so long as they are suckling. 
Botu, s. "foreskin of men." 

Botu tie, " to circumcise." 
Bou, s. " fishing with a nrf." * 

Bou-dsara, " fishing-net ;" bou-mo, " seiner." 
Bowo and bo, v. " to beg, entreat, supplicate." 
Boya, s. " beard." 

Boya, V. "to be vexed, irritated, angry ; to be raging, to be mad." 
Boya, s. (from bo, "friend?") "affinity, kindred; relatives, family." 
Bondo. s. " a large kind of guinea-fowls." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 151 

Boro, s. " arm, hand, power." 
B6ro-dsaro, s. " wrist." 
Boro-dori, " finger," 
Boro-dori kumba, "thumb." 
Boro-dori a te, " middle-finger.*" 
Boro dori boro, " little finger." 
Boro-fira-gbasa, " pocket-handkerchief.'' 
Fen-dom-boro, lit. " something-eat-hand," i. e. " right-hand." 
Mara-boro, " left-hand." 

Boro be fen* koro, " to be pleased with something." 
Boro ka, " to let go, let fall, give up ; to despatch, to send ;" 

e.g. a boro ka m5a, "he sent a man." 
Boro don*, " lit. " to put the hand in," viz. into another 
man's hand, i.e. "to shake hands;" e.g. a boro dom 
panu-boro, " he shook hands with the gentlemen." 
Boro gbasi, "to clap the hands." 
Be b6ro, "to own, have, possess." 
Bdro, s. " mud, dirt ; land, country." 
Boti, V. " to squeeze, twist, wring." 
Bu, s. " side ;" bufe, " alongside." 
Bu, s. " belly, bowels, inside, womb." 
Bu bi, " to become pregnant." 

Bu-fa, lit. " belly-filled," i. e. " satisfied," used even of men- 
tal satisfaction. 
Buma, " pregnancy." 

Musu be bumaro, " the woman is with child." 
Buraare, " pregnant ; thick, swollen." 

Koro bumare, " swollen, germinating rice." 
Bu, s. " gun." 

Bu-fun*, " gunpowder." 

Bu-kendi, " trigger." 

Bu-sen*, "flint" (cf. Germ. Flintenstein). 

Bu-woro-mo and bu-ko-kundu, " ramrod." 

Bu-kara, " the largest spring in a gun." 

Buke, V. " to fire a gun, to shoot." 

Buke-mo, " marksman, hunter." 



152 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Bu, s. "sack, bag." 

Bu-gbara, " socks, stockings." 
Bumbara, a. " whole, entire, undivided." 
Bumbo, s. " small-pox." 

Bumbora mbira, " I have got the small-pox." 
Buna, a. " whole, entire, undivided." 
Bunda, v. " to bow down, begin." 
Bundo, s. " camwood." 

Bundu, s. i.q. bana, a shed or house, consisting only of 
three walls, with the fourth side open. 
Bun", V. "bow down, stoop down, begin; to bend;" e.g. na 
bun* koaria, " I began to speak." 
c. Mani, " to attack ;" e.g. wa den na bunda, mmani, " your 
youths came to attack me." 
Bun*, V. " to cover, to shut "" (perhaps identical with the pre- 
ceding through the idea, " to bend something upon 
something else" = " to cover"). 
Bunde, "shut;" dsa-bunde, "blind." 
Bun*, V. "to shoot." 
Bun*, s. " a bunch or cluster of palm-nuts, such as they grow 

on the tree." 
Bun*, V. " to plait, to braid ;" e.g. anun*' kumme bum berebere, 

"they plait the hair very well." 
Bungbo, s. "a very small canoe." 
Buo, V. "to whip, to flog." 
Bura, s. " ashes." 

Buran*, v. "go out, go through, go to, reach to, arrive at." 
Buranda. v. id. 
Bori, s. "medicine, greegree, poison." 

Bori-mo, or bori-ma-mo, " physician, doctor, charmer." 
Bori, V. "to use medicine, treat with medicine." 
Buri, V. "to run away." 

" To shun, avoid, fear, be afraid of." 
Bu, V. " to move." 

Buru, a. " unripe, immature," used of plants that bear in 
the ground. 



VEI- ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 153 

Buru, s. " trumpet, horn." It is made of the horns of cattle 
and deer, is open at either end, and has a hole, large 
enough to put the mouth in, about one-fourth its 
whole length from the thin end. The sound is very- 
deep and mournful, and by putting the finger before 
the opening at the thin end a modulation of the 
sound is effected. 

D. 

Da, s. " mouth, brim, opening." 

K6ie-da und dsie-da, " landing-place." 

Tie-da, " ford, fording-place." 

Kene-da, " the opening for a house door," 

Kene-daro-gbengbere, " the house door itself." 

Kira-da, " the beginning or end of a way." 

Kunda-da, "the opening of a pot," i.e. that which is co- 
vered by the cover. 

Mie-da, " edge of a sword or knife." 

Da-gboro-kummana, " upper lip."" 

Da-gb6r6-k6r5na, " under lip." 

Da-firi, s. " stomach." 

Da-ka, v. " to open ;" e.g. na na gbore da-ka, " I open ray 
book." 

Da-tau, V. "to shut;" e.g. na na gbore da-tau, "I shut my 

book." 
Da-sa V. " to sharpen, to strop." 

Da-sa-fen-, " a strop." 

Kundsi-da-sa-fen-, " a razor strop." 
Da, s. " friend, one's equal in age." 
Da, s. " shoulder," i. q. dapo. 
Da and dara, s. " town." 
Da, rarely dara, s. " feast, banquet." 
Dada, s. " a mud wall round a town." 
Danya, s. " manille, bracelet." 

Dan-, V. "to hear ;" e.g. na i kure dan-, "I hear thy voice." 
" Hear, obey ;" e.g. ifa dan- ! " obey thy father !" 



X 



154 VEI-ENOLISH VOCABULARY. 

"Feel;" e.g. na ra kunya dan, "I feel its stench." i.e. " I 
smell it." 
Dan, V. " to count." 

Dana and danana, s. " end f e.g. kira-dana be pon, " the end 
of the way is far distant ;' danama-so, " the last 
dav." 
Dana, v. "to be done, be ended, be over;" e.g. ds6n-san-kde 
a dana, " slave-trade is at an end." 
" To stop;" e.g. ima dana nie ! " do not stop here !" 
" To end, to finish ;" e.g. Kuini a dson-san-koe dana, "the 
queen has put an end to the slave-trade." 
Daoro, da-koro, or da-woro, that part under the arm which is 

opposite the shoulder. 
Dapo, s. " shoulder." 

Dara, s. often contracted into da, " town, home ;" e.g. na ta 
dara, " I went to town, I went home." 
Dara-saudsa, " town, home." 
Dara, s. a large flat brass pan in which the natives boil sea- 
water in order to gain salt. 
Da-sake, v. " to feed, support, sustain." 

Da-sake, s. "food;" e.g. woa dasakemei, "this is your food." 
Dason' and dasb', v. " to gather, collect, heap up." 
Dau, V. " to consent, agree ; to answer, reply ; to confess." 
De, V. " to plait, twist, weave ;" e.g. na kendsa de, " I plait a 
hamper with some palm branches." 
Na kura de, " I weave cloth." 
Kura-de-mo, "a weaver." 
De, s. a trap for catching birds and small animals, consisting 

in a bent stick and a loop. 
De, s. sometimes dere, " flour " prepared by soaking rice about 
half an hour, then, after it has been dried, pounding 
it in a mortar. 
De-fu", s. " rice-flour." 
Dende, s. " canoe, vessel." 

Dende denda, " the vessel rides at anchor." 
Kuru-deude, " Kru canoe." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 155 

Bomu-dende, ** country canoe." 
Kere-dende, " man-of-war." 

Kere-dende-mandsa, " Captain of a man-of-war." 
Sisi-dende, " steamer." 
Fere-dende, " merchant-vessel." 
Den', s. a kind of gourd before it is cut into two, used by the 

natives as kitchen utensils ; a calabash. 
Den", V. " to hang, be suspended ; e.g. ai dendo komma, " it is 
hanging on a tree." 
" To float, to swim ;" e. g. ke hi' suama, an' den dsiema ; a 
kun den, ke fa be rem u, " but if she has not been a 
witch, it {sc. her spleen) will float on the water ; if it float, 
then is she a good dead (was good whilst alive, and not 
a witch)." 
" To hang, to suspend ;" e.g. na na biiye den konkoro, " I 
hanged my gun under a tree ;" kaie awanga den-, " the 
man hanged himself." 
Dere, s. " rice-pancake," 
Dere, s. " the common bat." 
Deri, s. " art, work of art, ingenious article." 
Deri-mo, " artificer, artist, mechanic." 
Kon-deri-mo, "a carpenter." 
Dei'dei*, s. " fit, paroxysm." 
Demu, s. a company of men to work in turn each other's 

farms gratuitously. 
Dendori, dondori, and dundori, s. " infant, baby." 
Den-, a. " small, little ;" e.g. dende den*, " a small canoe ;" den 
tuni, "diminutively small;" e.g. sese dentiini, "a di- 
minutively small switch," 
Den-, ad. "a little f' e.g. na a gbasi den, "I whipped him a little." 
"Minutely, exactly, distinctly, clearly f 6.(7. na ya bere- 
moe dse den, " I saw thy paramour distinctly." 
Den-, s. " a little one, a child." 
Den- kaima, " boy." 
Dem musuma, " daughter." 
Dem mese, " small, little ones, little children." 



156 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY 

Buro-den-, " natural child." 
Buro-den* kaima, " a natural son."" 
Dene, s. " calf of the leg." 
Dera, s. a large lizard with a red head. 
Di, s. " blaze, flame." 

Ta-di, " flame of fire." 
Di, s. "diligence, laboriousness." 

Di, V. "to be diligent, laborious f e.g. kaime di, "this man 
is diligent." 
Di-mo, " a diligent man." 
Di s. "cry, weeping, lamentation;" e.g. na a di-kure dan, "I 

heard the voice of his weeping." 
Di, V. " to squeeze, press upon." 
Di, a. "right ;" e.g. a dimu, "it is right." 
DI, V. "to be right;" e.g. a di ma, a dsarlmu, "he is not 

right, he is wrong." 
DT, s, " right ;" e.g. a kiinni Kari ko dia, " when he has given 

Kari right." 
Dia, s. "right;" e.g. an'da nko diara, •' they gave me right;" 
anu mako diara, anoa dsariake, " they did not give 
him right, they gave him wrong." 
Dia, V. "to love, to like ;" e.g. kanmba mu dia, "God loves us." 
Dia, s. " love." 

Dia-mo, " friend, favourite, lover." 
Dia-musu, " favourite wife." 
Dia-dene, "favourite child." 
Diambo, s. " discourse, conversation, talk ; narrative, tale." 

Diambo sa, " to hold a conversation." 
Didi, s. the common small red or black ants. 
Difi, s. " darkness, night." 

. Difi bera, " darkness came." 
Dike, V. " to weep, cry, lament ;" e.g. i ma dike ! " do not cry." 
Dindi, s. the black conical hill of termites. 
Din-, s. (English) " ring, finger-ring." 
Kani gbema-din-, " silver ring." 
Kani dsare-din-, "gold ring." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 157 

Din', .<?. " shark." 

Dinga, a. " overgrown, grown too big," used merely of cassada. 

Gbasa-dinga, or merely din'ga, " overgrown cassadas." 
Do, s. a float of rafters for conveying people across a river. 
Do, V. " to be little, be small ;" e.g. na dene do, " my child is 
little." 

" To make small, diminish, humble."" 

Do-kai, "brother." 

D6-musu, " sister." 
Dogbo, V. "to soak, soften in water." 

Dogbu, V. "wither;" e.g. ya bimmu ti a dogbu, "the grass 
which thou hast cut is withered." It is also used of 
the gradual disappearance of swellings. 
Doma, a. " small, little." 

Den d5ma, " a little child." 

Nyomo doma, " a younger brother." 
D6mb9, s. " sugar-plum," a sort of small, very sweet plums, 

growing wild. 
Dondima, s. " nail." 
Dondo, "one." 
Dondori, ad. " at once." 
Don, V. " to eat, devour." 

Dom-fen-, "food." 
Don-, s. " cooked rice." 

Da-don-, " feast-rice," i.e. rice served in a feast. 
Don, s. " song ;" e.g. ya don-e ma nyi, " thy song is not fine." 

Dom bo, "to sing;" e.g. mbe kun dom boa, "I cannot sing." 
Dongbo, s. " crowd, multitude.'' •• 

" Swarm ;" e.g. kumu-dongbo, " a swarm of bees." 
Dora, s. " anchor.'' 

Na dora firi, " I cast anchor." 
Dori, s. hook for catching fish. 

Dori-firi-mo, " a fisher with hooks." 
Dori, a. " young, immature ;" e.g. den dori, " an infant." 

Gbasa-dori, " a young, immature cassada." 
Doso, s. " ghost, spectre." 



158 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Doya, V, " to make small, lessen, diminish; humble.'" 
Doya, s. " smallness, scarcity/"' 
Dsa, s. " eye." 

Dsa-tere, "eye-broken, one-eyed." 
Dsa-tere-mo, " a one-eyed person." 
Dsa-bunde, " eye-covered, blind." 
Dsa-bum-mo and mo dsa-biinde, " a blind pei'son." 
Dsa-timba, s. " eyelash, the hair on the edge of the eyelid." 
Dsa-foro, " eyelid." 
Dsa-fen-, " goods, wares, furniture." 

c. Muni, "to be giddy;"" e.g. ndsa muni, "I am giddy, 

whirling." 

Dsa, ^v. " to be red, yellow, loathsome, disgusting, tiresome ; 

be hard, difficult, severe, dangerous ;" e.g. koe a dsa, 

" the matter is hard ;" a kira dsa, " his sickness is 

dangerous." 

" To make red, yellow, to blacken," i. e. " to defame ;" e.g. 

a ndsa, " he blackened me." 
"To hate, despise;" e.g. an'da nyo dsa, "they hated each 
other." 
Dsa-mo, " enemy." 
Dsa, s. "home ;" e.g. anu tanu dsa, "they went to their home." 
Dsa, s. title of a married woman who possesses some property, 
corresponding to "pa" with men, "Mrs., lady;" 
e.g. am' femba dsa dia, "and the devil loved the lady." 
Dsafa, V. " to slander ;" e.g. Setaui awa Dsiiba dsafa kanba- 

bara, " Satan slandered Job with God." 
Dsafa, s. " slander, tale-beaijjng ;" e.g. dsafa amanyi, "slander 
is not good." 
Dsafa-mo, s. " a slanderer, tale-bearer." 
X)saia, s. " mangrove." Also proper name of the Gallinas 

country, on account of its many mangroves. 
Dsake, v. " to divine, soothsay, prophesy." 
Dsamba, s. " leaf." 
Dsambi, s. " wild yam." 
Dsanda, s. " palm branch." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 159 

Dsanda, v. " to take leave ; send away, despatch." 
Dsanda-kira, s. " leprosy.*'*' 

Dsan-dsan, s. a sort of bell, consisting of a thin curved iron 
plate with iron rings on it, which, when shaken, make 
a rattling noise. 
Dsan", a. " long, tall ; deep ; far." 
Dsan', V. " be far, be distant.*" 

Dsan, u. "take leave, bid good bye; send away, despatch.*" 
Dsara, s. " lion.*" Frequently used to form proper names of 

men ; e.g. Dsara Kari, Dsara Berekore, &c. 
Dsara, s. " seine." 

Bou-dsara, " a fishing-net.*" 
Dsara-sa-mb, " a fisher with a seine, a seiner." 
Dsara, s. or sa-dsara, "hammock;" e.g. an ta nda dsararo, 

" they carried me in a hammock.*" 
Dsare, a. " red." 

Turu-dsare, " palm-oil." 

Koro dsare, "rice-flour," which is gained by first parching 
and then pounding rice. 
Dsari, a. "wrong;" e.g. ndsarimu, "I am wrong." 
Dsari, v. " to find wrong, pronounce wrong or guilty ;" e. g. 

an'da i dsari, " they found thee guilty." 
Dsari, s. " wrong ;' e. g. na na dsaria so, " I know my wrong.*" 
Dsau, a. " spoiled, wretched, miserable ; poor, needy ; bad." 
Dsau, V. "to be ruined, destroyed;" e.g. nnyomo dsau, "my 
brother is ruined," i.e. "has lost his fortune;" mu 
dsa dsau, "our home is destroyed." 
" To ruin, destroy ;" komewe ndsaua, " this matter will 
ruin me ;" anda sandsa dsau, " they destroyed the 
town." 
Dsau, s. " ruin, misery, destitution, wretchedness ; badness ;" 
e.g. ifarama dsau, lit. "on thy heart is badness," i.e. 
" thou hast a bad heart.*" 
Dsau-mo, " a poor, destitute man." 
Dsaure, " spoiled,'*" said of things and children. 
Dsei, .S-. " tear.*" 



160 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Dsere, s. "baldness;" e.g.dsere be a kundo, "he has a bald head." 

Dsere-mo, " a bald-headed person." 
Dse, V. "to see> perceive." 

"Find, get, acquire, gain;" e.g. a dsa-fen* kurumba dse, 
" he acquired very much good ;" a ma gboro dse, " he 
did not gain his health." 
Dsembe, v. "to examine, investigate;" e.g. i na, moa dene 

dsembe, " come and examine our child." 
Dsende ! an expression which demands the watchword in time 
of war. Perhaps it stands for dso're = dsonde = dsende, 
" who" is there ?" At any rate it seems to express 
some such question, as I found it followed in the con- 
text by amo an'do, moaniimu, " and they said. It is we." 
The watchword in war is generally a chiefs name. 
Dsere, v. "go back, return;" e.g. i dsere, "return!" 
" Bring or carry back ; take away after a meal." 
c. Gbaro, "to drive back, repel;" e.g. an'danu dsere gbard, 
" they drove them back." 
Dsere, s. " hallooing, shouting." 
Dsere tie, " to halloo." 

Dsere-wo, " fun, joke, play;" e.g. dsere-wo ke ma, "that 
was no joke," i.e. no easy thing. 
Dserema, s. " evening " (perhaps from dsere, " seen," and 

ma, "not)." 
Dseri, s. "a crier, herald," 

Dseri-mo, dseri-kai, '* crier, herald." 
Dsese, s. " warp, in weaving." 
Dsi, s. " water." 
Dsi-so, " a well." 

Dsi-kere, "thirst;" e.g. dsi-kere mma, "I am thirsty."' 
Dsie bira, lit. "to catch the water," i.e. to swim. 
Susu-dsi, "breast-water," i.e. milk; na susu-dsie bo, or na 

susu-dsie bbti, " I milk." 
K6i-dsi, " sea- water, salt-water." 
K6ndse~dsi, "juice within a cocoa-nut." 
K6ne-dsi, "juice of a tree," 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 161 

Dsi, V. " to descend, go down, come down, move down, flow 

down." 
Dsi, s. "going down, descent, setting." 

Tere-dsi, " west." 
Dsi, s. a sort of drum beaten between the legs. 
Dsi and dsiri, s. "key." 
Dsifa, s. " breast pocket.'' 

Dsina, s. " spectre, ghost, spirit, apparition.''"' The word is pro- 
bably derived from dsi, " water," and na, " to come,'" 
as the Veis tell many stories of ghosts coming out 
of the water, where there is one of their chief 
residences, the other being on the top of Cape 
Mount. 
Dsindera, s. " window." 

Dsindera-gben'gbere, "a shutter.'' 
Dsira, v. " to show, explain ; teach, instruct ;"" e.g. a gboro 
dsirara, " he taught him the book." 
"To report" (cf. German anzeigen): e.g. na a dsira man- 
dsaniia, " I reported it to the chiefs." 
Dsiri-mo, s. " a counsellor of the chiefs" (from dsira, " to 

show"). 
Dsiri, s. " swelling ; reliance, dependence, trust, confidence f 

e.g. 1 dsirin ti kanmbama, " put thy trust in God." 
Dsiri, V. "to swell;" e.g. a borea dsiri, "his hand swelled." 
Dsiri or dsiyi, often contracted into dsi, s. "key." 
Dsiron-, a. "blue, green." 
D§a or ds9 ? " who ?" 
Dso or dsowo, s. ""sweet potato." 

Dsombo, s. cassada farm after the rice is taken away from 
it. The Veis frequently sow rice in their cassada 
farms immediately after having planted the cassa- 
das, so that rice and cassadas grow together. But 
when the rice has become ripe it is cut out from 
between the cassada sticks, and these are after- 
wards suffered to grow to maturity in what is then 
called dsombo. 

Y 



162 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Dsondo, 15. " to shove, push, push forward ; rend off, cast off."" 

Dsondsa, " slavery."" 

Dsonga, s. " rivalry, emulation, contention." 

Dsonga tie, " to contend for pre-eminence ;" e.g. anui 
dsonga tie nyoniira, " they contended with each other 
who should be the first." 
Dsoro, s. a ball-shaped bell, with little stones inside to make 

a noise. 
Dsoro wo, s. " chain ;" e.g. wu ta ke dsoro wero ! " go and put 
him in chains !'' 
Kani-dsorowo, " brass or gold chain." 

Ds6r6wo-ken*, "house where chained prisoners are confined." 
Dsuru, s. " string, cord, rope.'" 

Dsuru-gbara, " a string of beads." 

Tiri-dsuru, string of beads worn by females round their 
waists. 
Doma and duma, s. an upper garment of males, of the form 
of a shirt, without sleeves and collar, but generally 
provided with a breast pocket; hence, also, a com- 
mon European shirt. 
Dondo, s. a hand-net suspended on a stick, of an oblong shape, 
with a greatest diameter of from four to eight feet, 
and a lesser of from three to five feet. It is generally 
used by women. 
Dondo, s. " wart." 
Don-, V. "to bear;" used only of plants that bear in the ground, 

as cassada, groundnut, potato. 
Don', V. " to enter, go in, come in ;" e.g. na don* kenero, " I 
entered the house.'' 
" To put on," used of coats, waistcoats, shirts, trousers ; 

hence, dom-fen, " apparel." 
"Offend, hurt;*" e.g. a ken- ga don*, "his foot hurt him." 
" Put in ;" e.g. a ra dom* bundu sandero, " he put her into 

a house in the sande. 
c. Koro, "give in return, give for, pay for;" e.g. mandsa 
dsa-fen- kurumba don some akoro, " the chief paid very 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 163 

much for this horse ;" wu kun na fondse, kurameke, 

na wa don* akoro, " as ye have come and told it me, I 

give this cloth in return." 

c. Boro, " to shake hands :" but, boro dom fen- koro, " to 

be pleased with something." 

Dona, s. "nut," nearly of the size of a walnut, but with a 

kernel like that of a hazel-nut. 
Dongo, s. " chamelion." 
Dora, V. "to be sour." 
Dii, " house." 

Ba-du, a house roofed in the shape of an upset boat. 
Kuude-du, "bird's nest." 
Du so, " to erect, to build a house." 
Du, V. " to bend ;" e.g. na sese du, " I bent a switch." 

Diire, " bent, bowed down ;" e.g. mo kore dure, " an old 
bent person." 
Dii, s. the goods which a widower gives to his father-in-law, 
that the children whom he had by his deceased wife 
may stop with him, and that his father-in-law may 
give him another of his daughters for a wife. If 
the widower does not give the du, the children of his 
departed wife will all leave him and go to their mo- 
ther's father. 
Diia, s. " gun, cannon." 

Dua-kondse, " cannon-ball." 
Duake, " to fire a cannon." 

Diiake-kunde, s. " turkey," doubtless from the similarity of 
its cry with the report of guns. 
Dua, s. " ink," gained from the leaves of certain plants -• that 

are called dua dsdmba. 
Dua, only used in connexion with fen- : dua-fen-, " meat." 
Dua and duake, v. " to pray, praise, bless." It is generally 
followed by kdnmbaye, and said to have been intro- 
duced by the Mandingoes. 
Duamba, s. title of a beri boy whilst he is in the beri bush and 
wearing the duamba cap, a period varying from two 



164 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

or three months to so many years. The dUdmba is 
in the beri what the boni is in the sande. 
Dufe, V. " to extinguish, blow out, put out." 
Duma, s. " soil, earth, ground, bottom." 

" Land," as opposed to " water ;" e.g. moe boro berea duma, 

" some people passed by land." 
S6-duma, " to land, go ashore, put ashore." 
Dumam' be, " at the present time." 
Duma, ad. " down." 
Dumare, a. " earthen." 
Dumare, s. " earthenware, earthen vessel." 

Dsi-dumare, "an earthen water-pitcher." 
Dumbai, s. a preparation of cassadas, which are first boiled, 

then cut into small pieces and beaten in a mortar. 
Dundi, s. or dundi-dsi, " a small creek, a brook " (perhaps from 

dori). 
Duro, s. " chest, breast." 
Duru, s. " fog, mist, haze ; dew." 

Diiru-karo kerema, a month nearly corresponding to our 
January. It is very hazy during that time, on account 
of the harmadan wind. 
Duru-karo d5ma, a month nearly equal to our February. 
Duru, V. "to steam ;" e.g. na nganga duru, "I steamed myself." 

" To suffocate, smother, stifle." 
Duwo, s. "language;" e.g. Vei-duwo, " Vei language." 

E. 

E ! inierj. " oh, ah !" (cf. German je .') 

Ea ! interj. " oh !" e.g. ea na den, " oh, my child !" 

Eio ! interj. " oh !" (cf. German ei .') 

F. 

Fa, s. " father." This word is generally used in addressing 
people, either alone, like our "Sir," e.g. mfa, "my 
father," or followed by the proper name, like our 
"Mr.," e.g. mfa Kari, "my father Kari." To dis- 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 165 

tinguish the natural father, he is called wuru-fa ; 
e.g. nguru-fa, or mburu-fa, " my natural fatlier," 
properly, " my parental father." 
F§. a. " full." 

Da-fa, " quite full, full up to the brim." 
Fa, V. "to be full;" e.g. na kunda afa, "my pot is full." 

" To fill ;" e.g. ita na kunda fa ! " go and fill my pot !" 
Fa, V. " to die, expire ;" e.g. mfa afa, "my father has died." 
"To kill, murder, slaughter ;" e.g. a nie fa, " he killed a cow.'" 
" Spend time ;" e. g. ya karo kama fa nu ? " how many 

months didst thou spend there?" 
" To cut ;" e.g. a kone fa, " he cut a tree." 
Fa, s. " death ;" e. g. fa-ko, fa-w6, " mourning intelligence." 
Sheol, abode of the departed spirits, supposed to be in the 
bowels of the earth, to which a way leads through the 
water; e.g. mu mamadanu gbi be faro, "all our fore- 
fathers are in the sheol;" ya na faroi, kira bero nie, 
an' to dsere, " thou hast come into the sheol : there is no 
more any way here by which thou mightest go back," 
" Funeral-feast,"" which generally lasts from three to six 
days, but those of rich people one or two months ; e.g. anu 
fa ma, " they make a funeral-feast ;" anun' ta tomboke 
faro, " they may go and play at the funeral-feast." 
Fa, a. "dead;" s. "dead person, corpse;" e.g. wu ke ke fa 

mani, " put this round the corpse." 
Fadsaro, s. " forehead." 

Fai, s. generally, kundo-bo-fai, s. " comb, dressing-comb."" 
Fai and fei, v. to scratch the ground with a hoe, so as to cover 
the seed which is sown ; e.g. na koro fai, "I plant rice." 
Fana, s. " place where one dies ; death-bed." 
Fana, v. " to become lean, thin." 
Fani, s. " grass field, green, meadow." 
Faui, s. " lie.'' 

Fani, v. " to lie ;" e.g. I fani, " thou liest." 
FaniM, s. "lie;" e.g. ima fania fo, "do not tell lies." 
Fania-kira, "a pretended sickness.'' 



166 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Fara, s. "bamboo-band/' i.e. the outer hard part of the bam- 
boo split off from the inner marrowy part, and used 
as a band. 
Fara sunda and fara bira, " to send and to accept a bamboo- 
band." This is a symbolical act connected with the mar- 
riage of widows. If a man leaves wives behind him at 
his death, any one of his relatives who wants to marry 
one of them takes such a bamboo-band, about four to 
eight inches long, and sends it to the woman as a sign 
that he wants to marry her. By accepting the band 
( =fa,ra bira) she expresses her consent to his wish ; by 
returning it to him (fara dsercfara ma bira) her refusal. 
Fara mare, s. " a lighted torch, a flambeau." 
Fara, s. '* liver," and, in a metaphorical sense, " heart." 

Fara gbere, " courage ;" a fara gbere gba', " he has much 

courage.'' 
Faramani-ko, "heart's desire, wish" (cf. German Herzens 

verliegen). 
Fara sa, " to be glad, pleased, satisfied, cheered ;" also, " to 

please, to satisfy, to cheer." 
Fara dsau, " to be excited, vexed, angry." 
Fara kuru, " be haughty, proud ; obstinate, stubborn.'' 
Fara so, "to trust, rely;" e.g. na mfara so kanmbara, "I 
trust in God, rely on God." 
Fara, s. "image, likeness;" e.g. a fara wuru, 'he begat his 

likeness," i.e. a child like himself. 
Fara, s. " handle, heft." 

Kari-fara, " handle of a hoe." 
Kundsi-fara, " haft of a razor." 
Faranda, v. "to change, exchange;" e.g. mandsa ra dson- gbi 
faran dsa-fenda, " the chief exchanged all his slaves for 
goods." 
" To turn something, metamorphose, be transformed." It 
is then construed with ro or kd; e.g. a faranda kondo, 
and a faranda konko, " he turned or became a stick." 
Faran', v. i.q. faranda. 



, 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 167 

Fare, a. " filled, full." 

Da-fare, " full up to the brim, quite full.'' 
Fare, a. " dead, killed." 
Fari, s. " alligator." 
Fari, s. the cleaned place in a forest where the beri and sonde 

ceremonies are performed. 
Fasi, s. " brass kettle." 

Fe, V. " blow, make wind, kindle ;" e.g. ta fe, " to kindle a fire." 
" Blow, play ;" e.g. na buru fe, " I blow the horn ;" na koro 
fe, " I play the flute."" 
Fe, postpos. " after, along." 

So mofe, "to follow somebody ;" e.g. i soa mufe, "thou 
followedst us ;" a taye a bufe, "he walked along its 
side," i. e. " alongside it." 
Kirafe, "after," i.e. "in, on, along the way," it being al- 
ways before us in walking. 
Borofe, " after," i. e. " in, about the country," as the coun- 
try can be considered in travelling to be always before 
the traveller, cf. Gen. xiii. 9. xx. 15. 
Fe is often coupled with nyama and dsarv; e.g. na dike 
ya kda fe nyama, " I wept on thy account for a long 
time." 
Fe-dson, " a slave who follows his master." 
Fe-wuru, " a dog which follows his master," 
Fedsaro, s. "forehead." 

Fen-, s. "tail ;" e.g. so-fene, nie-fene, kunde-fene. 
Fen-, only in the connexion fen-gbe, s. " white baft, baft." 

Fen-gbe fima, " blue baft." 
Feo, s. " asthma." 
Fere, v. " behold, look at, see." 

c. Ro, " look after, examine ;" e.g. a pfuruaro fere, " he 

looked after the trap." 
Kumma fere, v. " to superintend."- 
Kumma fere-mo, s. " superintendant. 
Ferea, v., i.q- fere. 



168 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Feren", v. "to lick;" e.g. wuriea dene feren, "the dog licked 

the child." 
Fen-, s. " thing." 

Femba, " great thing, devil."" 
D6ni-fen-, " food." 
Dom-fen-, " apparel." 
Dsa-fen', good property. 

S6-fen", and wuri-fen*, " living thing, animal." 
Fira-bo-fen", " living creature, animal." 
Fen-tara, " apparition, spectre." 
Fera, "two.'' 
Feranden", s. " twin." 
Fere, s. " trade.'' 

Fere-dende, " trading-canoe, merchant-vessel." 
Fereke, " to trade ; to gain," e. g. by gambling. 
Fereke-mo, " trader." 
Fere, s. "whistling;" e.g. na ya ferero dan*, "I heard thy 
whistling." 
Ferefe, v. " to whistle." 
Fi, s. " darkness." 

Fi-tiri, lit. "darkness-waist, darkness midst," i.e. "twilight, 

dusk." 
Fima, a. "dark, black." 

Fiare, s. " thank." This word used with regard to God and 
man ; s§ only with regard to man." 
Finda, v. " to be black ;" e.g. mfinda, " I am black." 
Findo, s. " coal." 

Fin', V. "to make black, to blacken;" e.g. i na koa fin', 
"blacken my shoes." 
"To blacken;" e.g. i fin* am' fin*, "blacken it, and it will 
be black." 
Fira, s. " forest, bush, wood." 

Firaro-suye, " wild animals, venison." 
Fem bo moye fira, " to bring forth something to one as a 
forest," sc. in which every one can go where he likes. 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 169 

i.e. "to invite one, or bid him welcome to something, 
offer it him/' 
Fira, v. " to wipe, wipe off." It is construed variously ; e. g. 
I damani fira ! " wipe thy mouth !" 
I masama .fira ! " wipe the table !" 
I gbanero fira ! " wipe the bowl !" 
Boro-fira-gbasa, pocket-handkerchief.''' 
Fira, s. " wind, breeze, breath." 

Fira bo, " to draw breath, to breathe, to rest." 
Fira ban', " to expire, to die.*" 
Fira-bo, s. " breath, life, soul." 
Fira bam mo-buro, " one is out of breath." 
Wuraro— fira, "land breeze." 
Koiro-fira, " sea breeze.*" 
Firi, a. " bare, plain," only joined to dorr, kende, and nyoro ; 
e.g. dom-firi, "plain rice," i.e. rice without sauce or 
meat." 
Firi, V. "to throw away, cast off, fling, put;" e.g. a sem firi 
mma, " he threw a stone at me ;'' na mboro firi dsi- 
faro, " I put my hand into my pocket." 
" Leap, jump into ;" properly, " to throw oneself into ;" e.g. 

na firi gone buro, " I jumped into the stockade." 
"To ship," with and without a following dendero; e.g. mma 
dsom firiwe nie, " I did not ship slaves here." 
Firia, v. "get in, go in, embark;" e.g. moe gbi firia dendero, 
" all people embarked in the vessel." 
Mfiria kiro, " I sunk into a sleep." 
Fita, " silk." 

Fita-gbara, " silk hat, beaver hat." 
Fita-gbasa, " a (black) silk kerchief." 
Fita-kura, " black silk." 
Fo, ad. " truly, certainly, really, indeed." 
Fo, V. "to escape;" e.g. na fo, "I escaped;" a fora korie- 

boro, " he escaped from the leopard." 
Fo, ad. "clean, quite, completely." 



1 70 VEI-ENGLISII VOCABULARY. 

Fo, V. " to tell, say to, speak." 

Ko-fo, " to speak a case," i. e. to examine it, deliberate, 
judge on it. 
Fo, V. "to plunder, spoil ;" e.g. kere-moenMa sandsa fo, "the 
warriors plundered the town.'' 
Fom-foro, " spoil, prey, booty ;" e.g. anMa fom-forome gbi 
bo anu boro, " they took all the spoil out of their hand.""' 
F5na, s. " accident, casualty ;*" e.g. m mama k^isarawa, fona- 
mu, " I did not do it intentionally, it is an accident." 
Fono, V. " to vomit." 

Foro, a. "empty, void, bare;" e.g. kiinda foro, "an empty 

pot ;"" kum foro, "an empty head ; ko foro, "an empty, 

nonsensical word ;" kai foro, "a destitute, poor man C 

kem foro, " barefooted ;" kundo foro, " bareheaded." 

Foro, s. "vexation, grief;" e.g. fore be nda, " I have grief." 

"Anger, vengeance;" e.g. fore bo, "to revenge;" e.g. mbe 

na fore bo ama, " I shall revenge myself on him." 
Na mfa fore bo, " I revenged my father." 
Foroforo, s. " lights, lungs." 

Forowo, s. a wreathed silver-ring, worn by females as an or- 
nament round their necks, wrists, or ankles. 
Foro, s. "shell;" e.g. tie-keri-foro, "egg-shells;" genderi-foro, 
ground-nut shells." 
" Bark ;" e.g. kom-fbro, " bark of a tree." 
"ChafF; e.g. koro-foro, " chaff of rice." 
Fu, s. " blossom, flower ;" e.g. kon'e-fu, ** blossoms of a tree ;" 

banda-fu, " cotton blossoms." 
Fu, s. the greenish substance in stagnant water-pools ; also, 

such pools themselves. 
Fua, V. " be, go, come early, timely, soon ;" e.g. mbe fua sina, 
" I shall go early to-morrow." 
A ma fua dsea, " he did not find it soon." 
Hi* ma fua boria, "if thou art not timely in using medicine." 
Fiia, V. "to twist," e.g. a rope. 
Fui, s. " pus, matter of a sore." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 171 

Fumu, s. " powder, dust ; an undressed, disorderly stull," as, 
e.g., unspun cotton. 
Tawa-fumu and ta-fumu, " snufF." 
Na ta-fumu sa, " I take snufF." 
Banda-fumu, cotton from the cotton-tree. 
Fande-fumu, the common undressed cotton. 
Bam-fumu, a confused mass of the thin, inner bark of a 

bamboo-tree, used for making mats, &c. 
Gbema-fumu, the same of palm-trees. 
Fiinde, s. " mushroom." 
Fundo, s. a sort of bats. 

Fura V. " to bore ;" e.g. i ma ntore furau, " do not bore my 
ear through." 
" Prick, pierce, break open,'' said of sores. 
Fiire, v. " ask, beg.'" 
Fure, V. " unloose, untie, open." 

Na buyero fure, " I levelled the gun.'' 
Furu, s. " shuttle." 
Furu-fande, " woof." 

a 

Ga, V. " to be covetous, stingy, niggardly, avaricious." 

Ga, s. " stinginess, covetousness." 
Ga-mo, " a niggard." 

G^na and gara, s. "strength, power, force;" e.g. i ma ga- 
nara, "do it by force." 
I gara ma, " exert thyself." 

Gana and gara, a. "strong ;" e.g. kai gana, "a strong man." 
Na a bo gana, " I took it as strong," i.e. by force. 

Gana and gara, v. " to be strong." 

Gawiri and garawiri, s. a disease in the jaw, which, when not 
cured, will distort the mouth on one side. 

Ge-, s. a deer, as large as a pony, striped white and red, 
with ribbed horns, three feet in length, of which 
they make a musical instrument called burn, which 
gives a very deep and melancholy sound. 



172 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Gene, " circle, ring." 

Tomboke-gene, " dancing place, play ground.'" 
Sin-gene, the ring in which the circular dance, with sing- 
ing, is performed. 
Gene, s. " cricket, a chirping insect." 
Genderi, s. " ground-nut." 

Genderie turu, " to plant ground-nuts." 
Gene, s. " shell." 

Koiro-gene, " sea-shells." 
Dsiro-gene, " fresh-water shells." 
Geren*ere, s. " saw." 

Na kon'e tie gerenerera, " I sawed a stick." 
Gba, ad. " always, constantly." 

Gba, s. " track, trace ;" e.g. na korie-gba dse, " I saw the track 
of a leopard." 
Mie-gba, " the scar from a knife." 
Ta-gba, *' scar from fire." 
Gba, s. " a small sore." 

Gba*, s. " debt ;" e.g. ya gba* gbe mma, " I owe thee a debt ;" 
na gba' gbeima, " thou owest me a debt ;" nko na 
gbara, "give," i.e. "pay me my debt." 
Gba' firi, " to trust, to lend ;" e.g. ya gba' firi mma, "thou 

didst lend me." 
" Guilt, crime, fault f' e.g. hi- a gbamu, hi' a gbama, " whe- 
ther he have any guilt, or whether he have no guilt." 
Gbafa, s. a small leather bag, generally used as a depository for 
charms, and worn by the natives about their bodies. 
Gbai s. a wild red plum, alout as large as a fowl's egg. 
Gbai, V. " to drive, to chase, to hunt." 
Gbamanden", *. *' bell, clock." 

Fari-bamanden-, "alligator s bell," i.e. a small egg which the 
alligator lays on the top of others, and which is said to 
give a sound, when taken, like a bell, at which the alligator 
comes to defend her eggs. 
Ghana, s. a feast in connexion with the beri rite. 

Gbana bo, " to make or give this feast." Bo is thus used, 



VEI- ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 173 

it would seem, because the dishes are prepared in town, 
and then carried out into the heri bush, where the feast- 
ing takes place. 
Gbanda, a. " having nothing, having no partner in life, being 
single"" (cf. the German ledig). 
Kai gbanda, " a bachelor." 
Musu gbanda, " spinster." 
Gbanda, ad. "for nothing, without cause, without pay;" e.g. 
anoa ngbasi gbanda, '* they whipped me for nothing ;" 
nko femmea gbanda, "give me this thing gratuitously." 
Gbandi, a. "warm, hot;" e.g. dsi gbandi, "hot water." 
Gbandi, v. "to warm, make hot;" e.g. a dsie gbandi, "she 

warmed the water."*' 
Gbandi, s. " heat, steam, vapour, perspiration."" 
Na gbandi boa nda, " I perspire." 
A gbandie fira, " he wiped off his perspiration." 
Gbandia is the hostile reply to the question dstnde ? in war. 
Gbandsa, a. " naked." 
Gbanya, s. " tongs, pincers." 
Gban-, s. " sugar-cane." 
Gban', s. " bamboo-tree." 
Gban', s. "jaw." 

Gban-kuru, "jaw-bone." 
Gban*akesi or gba'kesi, s. " a wasp." 

Gbanara, s. a kind of thin reed, used by the natives for the shafts 
of their arrows, and by the Mahommedans for pens. 
Gban'gba, s. " broom,'' viz. a rough one, used out of doors. 
Gbangba, v. "to strike, to drive;" e.g. na dondema gbangba 
kene-daro-gbengberero, " I drove a nail into the 
house-door." 
" To nail ;" e.g. kanmba ra gbangba duma, " God had 
nailed him on the ground." 
Gban-gban-, s. " copper." 
Gban-gbe, s. " bamboo- wine." 

Gbangbe kinya or kinyare, " sweet bamboo-wine." 
Gbangbe dora or dorare, " fermented bamboo-wine." 



174 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Gbanguri, s. " branch of a bamboo-tree." In Mende louri 
means " tree," but in Vei i,t is only retained in the 
word (jhan'guri. 
Gbao, s. "braces;" e.g. a gbao ke, "he put on braces." 
Gbara, used only in the connexion koasi gbara, " a string of coral 

beads ;" dsuru gbara, " a string of common beads." 
Gbara, v. " to be near :" construed variously ; e.g. a gbara 
firara, or a gbara firamani,, or a gbara fira-dara, " it 
is close to the forest." 
"To draw near, go near, approach;" e.g. mu gbara nu, 
" we went near there ;" anu gbara nda, " they came 
near me." 
Fo is often added to it to express emphasis : a gbara ken- 

na fo, " it is quite close to the house." 
Gbara-mo, s. "a relative;" e.g. a fa gbara-monu, "her fa- 
ther's relatives." 
Gbara, v. "to dry;" trans, and intr., e.g. ihbe na kura gbara, 
" I will dry my clothes ;" mbe gbara saaa, " I shall 
soon be dry." 
Gbara, s. " a large kind of mats." 
Gbara, s. " hat;" gbara si, " to put on a hat." 
Kefe-gbara, " straw hat." 
Fita-gbara, " silk or beaver hat." 
Gbara gbauda, s. " thunder." 

Gbare, s. a cloth, four or five yards in length, worn by men 
only. It is put over the left shoulder, so as to hang 
down in front nearly to the ground; then the part 
hanging down the back is drawn under the right 
arm across the breast, and thrown again over the left 
shoulder, so that it hangs down behind as far as it 
does in front, leaving the right arm uncovered and free 
for action. This, together with a pair of breeches, 
constitutes the dress of a common man. 
Gbare, a. " dried," for gbdrare from gbara ; eg. kon-gbo gbare 

" dried fruit." 
Gbaro, v. " to sigh, moan, grunt ; cry, halloo, call." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 175 

Gbaro, s. " hind-part, seat." 

Gbaru, v. "to halloo, shout, hoot f e.g. anui gbaru kunderaa, 

"they halloo at the birds." 
Gbasa, s. " handkerchief." 

Pasiro-gbasa, or boro fira gbasa, or bira-boro-gbasa, " pocket- 
handkerchief." 
Kan"-gbasa, or kan*-kiri-gbasa, " neckcloth. 
Gbasa, s. " cassada." 

Gbasi, V. " to beat, flog, whip f e.g. i ma ngbasi, " do not 
whip me." 
"To hammer, prepare by beating;" e.g. andanoa bene 

gbasi, " they made their arrows." 
" To strike ;" e.g. na ta gbasi, " I struck fire." 
Gbati, "difficulty, perplexity;'* e.g. ya ndon* gbatiero, "tbou 

hast brought me into difficulty." 
Gbati, V. "to hold, hold fast." 

c. Mani, " stick to, keep to : e.g. ima gbati kaimemani, " do 
not keep to this man." 
Gbatire, a. "to be held fast, be in need;" e.g. ngbatiremu 

femme akoa, " I am in need of this thing.'' 
Gbau, s. "braces,'' for keeping up clothes ; " straps," for carry- 
ing a load on the back. 
Gbau, V. " to seek, to look for." 
Gbawa, s. the instrument with which, in weaving, the woof is 

beaten into the warp. 
Gbe, a. " quiet." 
Gbe, s. " whiteness." 

" Dust, dirt ;" e.g. anu kummai gbe, " they are dirty." 
Gbema, a. " white." 
Gbe, V. "to white, to be light, day;" e.g. sama gbea, "the 

morning was light, had dawned.," 
Gbe, s. " intoxicating liquor, rum, wine." 
Gbe-koro, " a rum-barrel, a barrel of rum." 
Gbe-birare, " rum-caught," i. e. drunk. 
Gbe ra mbira, "rum has caught me," i.e. "I am drunk." 
Gban-gbe, " bamboo-wine." 



176 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Ds6-gbe, " palm- wine." 

Gbe-dsU or merely gbe, is the name for presents in general, 
and especially for the dowry which the bridegroom has 
to give to the parents of his bride ; doubtless, because 
rum is the most essential part of it. But it does not 
mean merely rum : Ndore says somewhere : Kura ton 
nie-gbe-dsi, duma ton* gbe-dsi, bu-fun ton* gbe-dsi, tawa 
ton* gbe-dsi, dsa-fen* gbiro ton* gbe-dsi, i.e. "Clothes are 
white water here, shirts are white water, gunpowder is 
white water, tobacco is white water, all goods are called 
white water." Hence they can couple don' with ghedsi 
or ghe; e.g. anu were anoa gbe don*, "they would not 
eat," i.e. "accept, spend, their rum," i.e. "their dowry, 
gift, present." 
Gbene, *. a species of fresh-water fish. 
Gbende, s. a tree stripped of the bark, a post. 
Gbendse, s. small crushed rice, or the small pieces which 
break from rice when beaten for the purpose of re- 
moving the chaff. 
Gbeni, s. the common lizard. 
Gben*e, s. " chair." 

Gbengben*, s. a kind of drum. 
Gbere, a. " hard ;" e.g. sen* a gbere, " the stone is hard." 
" Fast, fixed ;" e.g. dura gbere, " the anchor is fast :" often 
followed by den'; e.g. dsurie gbere den*, "the rope was 
quite fast." 
"Difficult;" e.g. kS gbere, "a difficult case.'' 
"Illiberal, hard;" e.g. kaie a gbare, "the man is hard." 
Gbere, a. " all ;" e. g. karmba mo gbere ma, " God has made 

all men. 
Gbereka and gberika, " centipede." 
Gberen*, s. " shin-bone." 

G^ere, for gberere, a. " hard ;" e.g. semme gbere, mbe kun* a 
tea, " this stone is hard, I cannot break it." 
Tere gbere, " hot sun ;" e.g. anu be tere gberebama, " they 
were in the very hot sun." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 177 

Gbese, V. " to move, to remove ;" e.g. I gbese nu, " move yon- 
der !" i gbese nie, " draw hither !" i samme gbese, 
'* remove this stone !" tere gbese, " the sun passes the 
meridian" i.e. "a little afternoon." 
Gbese, s. the child born next to twins. 
Gbei, adL " wholly, entirely." 
Gbengbe, s. " bedstead, country-bed.*' 

Gbengbe, s. "frog." This word is pronounced, with fuller 
and higher vowels, nearer to i than the preceding 
word. 
Gbengbere, s. " plank, board." 
Gbere, ad. " no, not.'' 

Gberima, s. " water-deer." An amphibious animal, about half 
the size of a goat, living in sweet water, and often 
coming out to graze on the land : said to sleep with 
open eyes. 
Gbesa, s. " scorpion." 
Gbi, a. "all, any." 

Gbine-gbine, s. an insect much like a wasp, but of a dark brown 
colour, making its cells of earth, and fixing them 
against a wall or tree, a hornet. 
Gbirin, v. "to pile up, to heap upf e.g. na kore gbirin, " I 
heaped up rice." 
"Coil up," said of serpents ; e.g. mirinya be gbirindo, " the 
Boa was coiling himself up." 
Gbo, V. " to bear fruit," used only of plants which bear above 

the ground, as trees, corn, &c. 
Gb9, s. " seed, fruit." It is' often used to express diminutive- 
ness or fewness ; e.g. den kaima-gbo dondo pere ma 
ta nu, "even not one seed of a boy," i.e. "even not 
a single boy went there." 
Gbo, s. " lock." 
Gbo, s. " a large sore." 
Gbofo, s. a single bush or shrub. 

Gb6fu, s. " biscuit, bread ;" often, gbofu gbare, " dried bread." 
Gbogba, s. " a scar." 

2 A 



178 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Gbogbara, :.. " socks, stockings." 

Gbdgbara ke, " to put on socks or stockings." 
Gbogbo, s. " hammer." 

Gbondo, s. "palm-soup," i.e. the watery part which is left in 
boiling palm-oil after skimming off the proper oil. It is 
eaten by the natives like soup to their rice or cassadas. 
Gbon', s. " monkey, ape." 
Gbori s. " bowl, basin." 

Dsaro-ko-gbori, " washing-basin." 
Gbori, V. " to pound, crush, mash."" 

Gbori, V. "to be even, smooth ;" e.g. duma gborie, " the ground 
is even." 
" To make even ;" e. g. i sene gbori, " even the farm." 
Gboro, s. or more usually, den gboro, " first-born." 
Gboro, s. wood growing where the primitive forest is cut down; 

" secondary forest," as opposed to wura. 
Gboru or diiye-gboru, s. " gable end of a house." 
Gb6s6gb9 or ken"-gbos6gbo, " the ankle-bone." 
Gbotoro, a. " rough, coarse," said of the skin in leprosy. 
Gbouru, V. "to thrive;" e.g. amo fi dene gbouriia, "and her 

child throve." 
Gbowo, or contracted into gbo, s. a large sore boil. 
Gbongbon", s. " ocro." 

Gboru, s. " pompion, pomkin, a kind of melon." 
Gboro, s. " oath" (cf. boro = " hand," and Arabic ^♦^. = manus 
dextra et juramentum). 
Gboroke, v. " to take an oath, to swear." 
Gboro, s. " skin, hide." 

Ngboro gborema, " I am unwell ;" ngboro gboremu, " I 

am well." 
"Book, paper" (cf. Latin mem6^rana = " membrane, skin and 

parchment"); kanmba-gboro, "the book of God." 
Gboro gbema, " white or blank paper" 
Gbore nyei, lit. "to speckle paper," i.e. to write. 
Gb<^ro, s. "health;' e.g. a ma gboro dse, "he did not see," 
i. e. " regain health." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 179 

Gboroa, s. one who has not gone through the beri rite, one 

who is not a heri-mo. 
Gboroa, s. " foolishness, madness, insanity.'" 
Gboroa wa bira, " he has become insane." 
Gboroa-mo, " fool, madman, insane person." 
Gboti, V. " to stop, close up, obstruct, stuff." 
Toro-gboti, "ear-stopped," i.e. deaf. 
T6ro-gboti-mo, " a deaf person." 
Gbot9-m6enu, certain doctors, originally come from the inte- 
rior, and professing to cure long-standing diseases. 
Gbotu, s. " tadpole." 
Gbu, V. " to ball, form into balls." 
Gbii, ad. " all night." 
Gbii, s. " heart," viz. the bodily organ, not the metaphysical 

heart. 
Gbun*, s. " bowl." To be in the " bovvl of a town or country" 

is as much as to be chief of a town or king over a 

country. 
Gbun,-tere, " bowl pieces," also a disease of the spine. 
Gburo, V. " to shave ;" e.g. mu we mu kune gburo, mui mu 

boyawa gbiiro, " we do not shave our heads, we 

shave our beards." 
Gburu, s. " boil," e.g., from falling; "wale," from stripes. 
Gere, s. " hawk." 
Gesa, " glow-worm." 

Gini, s. a paste or pitch made from bees' cells. 
Gini, s. a house of a conical shape. 
Giro, ad. "in future, hereafter;" e.g. mbe i pawa giro, "I 

shall pay thee in future." 
Gisa, s. a wild plum, much like the golden plum, eaten either 

raw or boiled and fried. The Mahommedans do not 

eat it, believing it to be the fruit forbidden to our 

first parents. 
Gisi, V. "to smear, besmear;" e.g. anni a gisi ama, "they 

smear it on him." 
Go, v. "musk-cat, cive-tcnt." 



180 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 



Gogo", s. " crow, a bird," 

Gono, or goro, and goro, s. "palisade, stockade, barricade."" 

Guru, V. " to break out, escape, start off, run away ;" e. g. 

a guriia burikea, " he broke out and run away." 
Guriiwe s. a large kind of spiders. 

Gusu, s. a large grey deer of the size of a cow, with two 
straight horns about a foot in length. 

H. 

Haie, or heye, or he, ad. " there, thither." It was doubtless 
originally a demonstrative pronoun, and is identical 
with corresponding Indo-European and Semitic roots. 

He'ye, but generally contracted into he-,, " the place where one 
is ; here." 

He ! " hear !" It is of frequent use, especially in public 
speeches, and may be considered as an adverb, or as 
a verb occurring only in the imperative. 

Hi-, conj. " and, if." 

Ho ! interj. " O !" 

Hou ! interj. '* O ! ah !" (cf. Latin heu, eheu.) 

Hu hu- s. owl." 



I. 



I, pr. " thou, thee, thy.' 
Iwa, pr. " thou, thy." 



K. 



Ka, V. " to open," trans, and intr. ; e.g. i boro ka, " open thy 
hand ;" a dsa ka, " his eyes opened themselves." Of 
many things of which we say that themselves open, 
or are opened, the Veis say that their mouths open, 
or are opened ; e. g. fuye a daka, " the flower opens 
itself;" kanara da ka, "to open a box;" e.g. ken- 
eda ka, " to open a door ; gbore-da ka, " to open a 
book," &c. 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 181 

Kundo ka, "to let know, to inform;" e.g. an'da mandsa a 

kundo ka, " they informed the chief." 
Boro ka, or ra, " let go, let fall ; despatch, send f e.g. na 

mb6ro ka na miera, " I let my knife drop out of my 

hand ;" a boro ka marekaniia, " he sent angels." 
Ka, c. mani, " to depart, separate from, leave one another ;" 

e.g. anu ka nyo mani, "they separated from each other." 
Ka, c. ko, " cease to support, forsake one ;" e.g. i kunni a 

fa, mu we kaiko, " when thou wilt have killed him, we 

will not forsake thee." 
Ka, V. " to take off, take away." 

Da ka, " to have nothing to do with, not to meddle with ;" 

e.g. an' da ka birama, " he must have nothing to do 

with booty. 
Ka, V. " to sell." 

Ka, ad. " up to, to, unto ; till, until." 

Ka, s. " snake, serpent." There are different names for the 
different kinds of serpents ; e.g. 
Dsamba kura-ka, " green leaf-snake f commonly called, 

"green horse-whip." 
Bovo, s. commonly " brown horse-whip." 
Koasa, s. a yellow serpent, often as thick as an arm, from 

four to five feet long, which makes a rattling noise 

when he darts on his prey. 
Nyimi, s. the black serpent, which is so much dreaded : 

sometimes it is of the thickness of an arm, and six feet 

long. 
Ndovo gbore (in the Mende language, ndovo, " frog ;" gbore, 

" to swallow) : it is of the thickness of a thumb, and 

one foot in length, with a speckled skin. 
Tumbu, s. a brown serpent, one yard in length, often as 

thick as a man's thigh, with two teeth in the lower jaw, 

which project about two inches through corresponding 

holes in the upper lip : it can Hing itself more than 

fifty paces. The natives of the Gallinas say of this 



182 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

serpent — and I received the same statement respecting 
a serpent from a native of Gazir, in Bornu, who never 
in his life has seen the Gallinas — that whereas all others 
lay eggs, this one is viviparous, and this only once in 
her life, when the young ones come out of every 
part of her body, under great agonies, followed by her 
death. 
Mirinya, s. the Boa, swallowing deer and bullocks. 
Bowi, s. a fresh-water serpent, of a black colour, as thick 
as a man's arm, six feet in length, and living on fish. 
Ka, V. generally ka duma, " to rise, get up, stand ; to under- 
stand" (?). 
Ka ! ad. " up !" 
Kabande, s. " instruction, information ; narration ; history ; 

story.'' 
Kafa, s. "wing." 

Kafa, V. "to cheat, defraud, deceive." 
Kafa, s. " deceit, fraud." 

Kafa-kirafe, " in the ways of deceit." 
Kai, s. " man," viz. as opposed to woman. 

Kai-woro & kai-koro, s. " connubial duty of a wife." 
Kaiworo dsau, " to commit adultery," as said of a woman. 
Kaia, s. " fish-trap," made by putting sticks across a creek, 
leaving only a small opening, into which a round 
basket of bamboo-sticks, from three to six feet long, 
is fixed, which is wide at the brim and narrow at the 
end. Its mouth being always set against the current 
of the water, the fish run into it with such force that 
they cannot get out. 
Kaiba, s. a man is thus addressed who is younger than the 
speaker, and whose name he does not know or wish 
to repeat. 
Kaima, a. " male." 

Den- kaima, " a boy." 
Dem musuma, "a girl." 



'1 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 183 

• 

Tie kaima, "a cock." 

" Manly, courageous, useful f e.g. mo-kaima, "a courageous 

and useful person." 
"Superior, valuable, precious" e.g. duma kaima, kura 
kaima, tebira kaima." 
Ka ke, v. " to steal." 

Ka-ke-kai, ka-ke-musu, or ka-ke-mo, s. " a thief.'' 
Kama, s. "elephant." 

Firaro-kama, s. "land-elephant. 
Koro-kama, s. " sea-elephant.' 
Kama-nyin-, s. " ivory." 
Kama, pron. " how much ? which ? what .?" (cf. Heb. HS?, id.) 
Kama, ad. " how." 
Kamba, s. "grave;" e.g. ma mfa ke kambaro, "we interred 

my father." 
Kambi, s. name of the common Guinea-fowl. 
Kana, s, " guana." 

Kan'ba, i.q. kanmba and karmba, "God." 
Kandi, s. a sort of wild pepper, generally called " bush-pepper, 

bush-spice." 
Kando, ad. " up, on top, above ; up stairs ; in the up-land, in 

the interior." 
Kani, s. " metal." 

Kani gbema, " silver." 
Kani dsare, " gold." 
Kania, s. " gonorrhoea." 
Kanu, V. " to swallow " e.g. na kiiru kanu, " I swallowed a 

bone." 
Kanya, v. "to be unsuccessful, to be unable; to give up;" 

e.g. na kanya komera, " I gave up this case." 
Kanya, s. "wax." 

Kan*, s. "neck, throat; top, upper part; highland," i.e. "interior." 
K9i kando, " on the high sea." 
" Back of a cutting instrument;" e.g. kuto-kan*, " the back 

of a knife." 
Kan-go far kan-ko, s. " neck." 



184 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Kan', s. "place;" e.g. kan'ba be kan gbiwa, "God is everywhere." 

"Land/' as opposed to "water;" e.g. amu nserea kamma, 

" and I went on land ;" i gboro sunda kamma, " send a 

letter ashore/' 

Kana, s. often contracted into ka*, "dishonesty, theft; imposition, 

fraud ; sordidness, meanness, coveiousness." 
Kana, s. "thief; marten, a kind of weasel.'' 
Kanara, s. " box, chest, trunk, portmanteau." 
Kan-gbasa, s. " neckcloth." 

Kara, s. a pad for the head when carrying a load. 
Kara, s. " a bow." 

Kara-kon", that part of a bow which produces the spring 

power. 
Kara-pondi, " string of a bow." 
Kara or karan", v. "to learn." 

Kara, v. " to mind, attend to;" e.g. nkara na sokera, " I mind 
my work ;" nkara kira-moera, " I attend to a sick 
man." 
Kara or karara, s. a close fence in the forest, about four feet 
high, and of different lengths, provided with holes, 
in which traps are set to catch animals, as deer, 
wild hogs, &c., when they want to go through the 
holes. 
Na kara sandsa, " I set such a trap." 
Karare, a. " learned, cunning." 
Kare, a. " opened." 

Duma kare, lit. " the ground is opened," i.e. " it is light, 
it is day." 
Kari, s. a mild sort of itch. 

Kari ra mbira and kari boa nda, " I got the itch, I have 
the itch." 
Kari, v. " to break, break in two, break off;" e.g. na kone kari, 
" I broke a stick ;" na d6mb9 boro kari, " I plucked 
some plums." 
Tere-kari, s. " daybreak." 
Kari, s. " hoe." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 185 

Karo, s. " moon ; lunar month, month. 

The following are the names of the months : — 

1. B5 or ken-gbato-bororo-karo, lit. " foot-track-in-the- 
ground-leaving month, i.e. "month in which the 
foot leaves a track in the ground," it being the 
first month after the rains, corresponding to our No- 
vember. 

2. Duru-karo doma, i.e. "the little-haze month," or kima- 
karo doma, i. e. " the little-cold month," because then 
the hazy and cool harmadan wind begins to blow ; 
answering to our December. 

3. Duru-karo kerema, i.e. "the great-haze month,"" or 
kima-karo kerema, i.e. "the great-cold month," be- 
cause then the hazy and cool harmadan winds have 
fully set in; answering to our January. 

4. Banda-buru, answering to our February. 

5. Vo or Vauo, answering to our March. 

6. Furu, answering to our April. 

7. Goru, answering to our May. 

8. Gbero-karo or Gberewo-karo. answerins: to our June. 

9. Narua, answering to our July. 

10. Kondere, answering to our August. 

11. Sara, answering to our September. 

12. Garu or Gariiro, answering to our October. 
Karmba, kanmba, or kan'ba, " God ;" perhaps it is derived 

from DH, " Ham,'' and ba, " great ;" cf. Ammon of 
the Libyan desert, but especially the Indian Charma 
and Greek Hermes; also the names for God in the 
Bulanda, Nalu, and Padsar languages, Hdla, Chalang, 
and Kcdang; and, according to Dr. Prichard's re- 
searches, those of the Berber and Guanche languages, 
M'Kurn and Acoran. It may here be remarked, that 
karmba or kanmba sounds like a foreign word in Vei, 
there being not a single instance more in the whole 
language where three consonants meet without an 
intervening vowel. 



186 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Kasara, s. "purpose, intention;'"' e.g. na kasara nyi, " my in- 
tention is good." 
"Wilfulness, naughtiness;" e.gr. ai kasa-diwakea, "she is 
crying from naughtiness." 
Kasara, a. " wilful, idle, lazy." 

Kasi and kase, s. "rust ;" e.g. na mie, kasi be a mani, "my 
knife is rusty." 
"Blame, fault;" e.g. bema kasi beremani, "because thou 

art not blameable." 
Kasi firi, " to blame, find fault with ; accuse ; to fine ; e.g. 
an'da kasiwa firi ama, " they blamed him." 
Kaiiru, s. " crab." 
Ke, pr. " that, this." 
Ke, ad. "there, then." 
Ke, conj. " then ; but." 
Ke, V. " to put in, lay in, pour in." 

"To put on," said of socks, shoes, braces; e.g. a koa ke, 
" he put on shoes." 
Kende, a. " alive, living ;" e. g. fen kende, " a living thing." 
Na kunde, fare ma, a kendemu,, "' my bird is not dead, it 
is alive." 
Kende and kendi, s. also ta-kende, " fire-coal, burning-coal, 

live-coal." 
Kendsi, s. "nail of fingers and toes ; claws of birds and beasts.'' 
Kendsi, " bamboo-nut." 
Kenye and ke'ye, s. " sand, sand-beach." 

Kenye sa, lit. " to lay sand," i. e. to make figures in the sand 
for the purpose of ascertaining futurity, to augur by 
means of sand;" e.g. an'da ke*yewa sa, amo a nyia, 
"they augured from sand, and it was favourable." 
Kenye-mo, " an augur by sand." 
Kenye, v. " to hatch." 
Kere, ad., i.q. ke. "there, then." 
Kere, conj., i. q. ke, " but, yet, however." 
Kere, s. " war, warriors." 

Si-kere, the warriors whilst occupying a town or country 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 187 

that they have taken. It also signifies the place itself that 
is thus occupied, and then answers to our " seat of war." 
Kere bera, " to throw," i. e. " bring, make war." 
Kere-kondse, lit. " war-ball," i.e. those captives whom the 
warriors have to give up to the chiefs. They are al- 
ways a certain proportion of the whole number of cap- 
tives, generally one-half, or one-third, or still fewer. It 
is intended as a remuneration for the ammunition with 
which the chiefs have to provide the warriors. Hence 
they also say bu-kondse, " gun-ball," instead of kere- 
kondse. 
Kerenyo, s. "combatant, enemy." 
Kerei ? ad. " so ? indeed ?'" 
Kerima or kerema, and often contracted into keima, keima, and 

kema, ad. " before, lately, some time ago." 
Keri-keri, s. the common itch. 

Ke, V. "reach, come to, arrive at;" e.g. a kea mu bara, "he 
came to us." 
" Arrive at an age, become f e.g. a kea musiiro, " she ar- 
rived at womanhood, became a woman." 
"Refer to, relate to, concern, interest;" e.g. fa-kome anke 

wa, " this mourning intelligence concerns you." 
"Communicate, relate;" e.g. mandsa kome ke kuruaniia, 
" the chief communicated the matter to the warriors." 
Kefe, s. " pine apple." 

Kefe-gbara, " straw hat." 
Kembu and kimbu, s. " charcoal." 
Kende, s. " guinea-corn." 

Kendsa, s. a hamper about three feet long and one wide, made 
of palm-branches. 
Kendsa kiri, to make such a hamper. 
Kentinderi, s. "heel. 
Ken-, s. " foot, leg." 

Kemma, " on the lap." 
Ken-goro, s. " sole of the foot." 



188 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Ken-gura, s. " trousers "' (cf. Germ. Beinkkider). 

Ken-kundu, s. a species of small wild hog. 
Kera, s. " a red deer." 
Kere, v. " to call, invite.*" 

Dsi-kere, s. " thirst." 
Kere, s. " snail." 

Kere-foro, " snail -shell." 
Kerefe, and sometimes contracted into kefe, " cayenne pepper." 
Kerema, a. " great, large, big." 

Nyorao kerema, " an elder brother." 
Kerema, ad. " much, greatly." 
Keren*, s. a kind of drum. 
Keri, "egg:" 

Tie-keri, " fowl's egg'' 
Keu, s. " turtle, tortoise," 

Keu-keri, " tortoise egg.'' 

Keu-foro, " tortoiseshell." 
Keu, s. " dream." 

Keii sa, "to dream." 
Ki, V. "to sleep;" e.g. mma ki, "I do not sleep." 

" To spend the night ;" e. g. ya ki domboa, " thou didst sing 
all night ;" manyare kia tura fara, " the cat was killing 
rats all night long." 
Ki, s. "sleep;" e.g. ki ra mbira, lit. " sleep has caught me." 
Kike, V. "to sleep." 

Kima, s. " cold ;" e.g. kima-banda, " season of cold, harmadan 
season." 

Kimawa mbira, lit. '* a cold has caught me," i. e. " I caught 
a cold." 

Kima we mma, " I have a cold, labour under a cold." 
Kimare, a. "cold;" e.g. dsi kimare, "cold water." 

" Cool, quiet ;" e.g. mo kimare, " a quiet, easy person." 
Kinei, ad. " exactly, exactly so, just so." 
Kini, s. sympathy, compassion, feeling ; emotion, grief." 
Kini, a. " touching, moving, grieving." 



VEI- ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 189 

Kinya, a. "sweet, pleasant, agreeable;"" e.g. amo akiire kinya 
femba-toro, " and her voice was sweet in the devirs ear." 
Kin-, V. "to bite;" e.g. wuria nkin-, "a dog bit me." 
Kira, s. " path, way, road, street.'' 
S5a kirafe, " to set out, to start." 
Kirafe-fena, place where a road divides into two, also a 

cross-way. 
"Way, side, part;" e.g. nu-kira, "on that side;" me-kira, 

" on this side." 
" Quarter, region." Their kira ndni are — 

1. Tere-b9, " east." 

2. Tere-dsi, " west." 

3. Boro berema, "on the good," i.e. right hand ; or fen- 
dom-boroma, lit. " on-the-something-eat-hand," i.e. 
right hand, or south. 

4. Mara-boreina, " on the left hand," or north. 
Kira, " sickness, disease, ailment." 

Kira-dii, " hospital;" 
Kira, v. "to be sick, to sicken." 
Kira, a. "sick." 

Kirare, a. " sick, unwell, poorly, indisposed, ill." 
Kiri, V. " to tie ;" e. g. an'da ka'ke-kai kiri, " they bound the 
thief ;" i ya bore kiri, " tie thy bag." 
Kundo-kiri, " thought, study ;" nkundo-kiri mana, " I am 

studying." 
" Put on," said of the neckcloth, and the cloths of females. 
Kiri, *. a small kind of rice bird. 
Kirifi, s. " a ghost." Perhaps from kira and fe 
Kirimu, ad. "as." 
Kirire, a. " tied." 

Daro kirire, " stammering." 
Kisi, s. " termite." 

Kd, s. "palaver, matter, thing, case, cause, reason, account, 
sake, word." 
" Palaver, dispute ;" e. g. ko ba be anu boro, " they have a 
great palaver." 



190 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

"Objection;" e.g. anMo : ko be mubara, "they said, We 

have no objection." 
" Matter, affair, news ; e.g. mbe ko be nie ? " what are the 

news here ?" 
" Matter, concern ;" e.g. faramani-ko, "heart's desire, wish." 
" Opinion, judgment, sentence;" e.g. nkomu : a kunni ka- 
nake an' to nie, " it is my opinion that, as he has stolen, 
he is to be left here.'' 
Ko, V. " to wash, wash oneself, to bathe." 
Ko-kiiru, " washing yard, bathing-place." 
Kona, s. " washing-place, bathing-place." 
K9, V. " to give ;" e.g. a nk9 miera, " he gave me a sword." 
" Give for deliberation, lay before ;" e. g. wiimu kere- 
mandsa ko komea, " let us lay this case before the 
war-chiefs." 
Ko or kowe, " let, suffer, permit, wait," an expression of 
politeness, just as we say in English, Excuse me a 
little, till, &c. ; ko mbe ta, " let me go ;" kowe sa- 
man' gbe, " suffer, wait till the morning dawn ;" kowe 
mun' kiin so, " allow that we may consider it." 
Ko, s. "back;" e.g. 1 sei ko, "put it on thy back." 

c. Muni, "go over, in war;" e.g. Tere-moenu muni anuko, 

"the Tere people went over to them." 

c. Sa and bon, "to send with;" e.g. a monu sako, lit. "he 

laid people on his back," i.e. " he sent people with 

him ;" amo anoa sundanu bon* ako, lit. " and they poured 

strangers on his back," i. e. " they sent strangers with 

him." 

Ko, V. " to take out, to draw," used of fluids in the widest sense. 

Ko, V. " deny ;" e.g. i ma ko, iwa, zi, i ma dau, " do not deny, 

but do also not confess of thyself." 
Ko, interj. " O !" 
Ko, s. " salt." 

Ko-fere-borodori, lit. "salt-tasting-finger," i.e. the finger next 
to the thumb. 
Koanya and koa'ya, s. " ground-pig." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 191 

Koari, v. *' to speak, to sound ;" e.g. de mme we kun* koaria 
" the child cannot speak," 
" To blame, rebuke, scold ;" e.g. mfa koari nda, hi nnyo- 

moera, ** my father rebuked me and my brother." 
c. Dakoro, " to put the mouth into, to interrupt in speak- 
ing, to intermeddle, interfere ;" e.g. mo ma kun koaria 
ndakoro, " no man can interfere with me." 
Roari, s. " speech, rebuke, scolding ; dispute, quarrel." 
Koasi, s. coral beads. 

Koasi-gbara, a string of corals. 
Kogba, s. a peculiar kind of beri dance. 

Koi, s. " sea, salt-water," probably connected with kq, " salt." 
But some natives expressed the opinion that it is 
connected with koari, *' to speak,'' on account of the 
constant noise of its breakers. 
Koi, s. or koi, " plantation, field ;" but used only in the fol- 
lowing connexion — 
Gbasa-koi, a cassada field, in which rice has not been 

planted first, vid. Dsombo. 
Genderi-koi, " ground-nut plantation" 
Koiwa, s. " guawa" a fruit not unlike a pear. 
Kokoye, s. " partridge." 
Kone, s. " petition, supplication." 

Kone sa, "to beg ;" e.g. na kone sa mfa, or na kone sa 
mfara, " I beg my father." 
Kone, ad. "please, do." 
Kondo, s. "sloth," the animal. 

Kondse, s. " ball," any thing globular, " kernel, kidneys.'' 
Dua-kondse, " cannon-ball." 
Bu-kondse, " musket-ball." 
Gbakoro-kondse, " palm-nut." 
Kondse-kira, s. " scrofula." 

Kondse-turu, " palm-nut-oil," oil prepared from the palm 
kernels, not the same as palm-oil, which is made of the 
fleshy substance around the kernel. 



192 VEI-KNGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Konia, s.. " pig, hog." 

Kona, s. " matter, palaver, cause, concern." 

Konama, ad. " no matter, never mind." 

Kondo, *. the large kind of locusts, which congregate in large 
swarms so as to darken the sky. 

Kondsukandsa, s. "the ant-eater." 

Konsuru, s. " tree-root, root of a tree." 

Kon* and kon", s. a tree. 

Kon-gbo, " tree-fruit ;" gbo-kon*, " fruit-tree ;" kura-de- 
kon", " a weaver's beam ;" tema-kon, the pedals of a 
loom." 

Kono, s. " mountain ;" konekoro, " at the foot of a mountain." 

Kono, s. "famine, hunger, appetite ;" e.g. kono bera, "a famine 
happened;" kono be nda, "I am hungry;" konoba 
be miia, " we are very hungry." 

Kore, a. " washed, clean." 

Kori-gbere, s. a species of jackal or fox. 

Koro, postpos. " under, underneath." 

Koro, a. " old ;" e.g. kai koro, " an old man ;" kura koro, " old 
cloth." 

Koro, ad. "long ago, long since ; e.g. ya mu so koro ? " didst 
thou know us long since ? 

Koro, s. rice when not yet cooked. 

Koro gbere, or kero ture, " clean rice." 
Koro, gbara, "rough rice." 

Koro, s. this is said to be a round mat, neatly made. I have 
not seen it myself, and, as Ndore informed me, mo 
kurun' ge fern biri dse, ai ti kanaro gba, i.e. " not 
many persons see that thing ; it is carefully preserved 
in a box." Now this koro the English-speaking Veiese 
always translate as " crown," because it is used at the 
installation of a king : however, as the mat is not 
placed on the king's head, but as he is seated on it, 
it has more similarity with a throne than with a 
crown, although it is identical with neither. 



VET-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 193 

Koro-mandsa, the king of a whole country, as opposed to 

the chiefs or mandsa over one or more towns. 
Si koroma, " to enthrone, to install a king." 
Koro, and sometimes koworo, s. " a walled-in yard." 
Koro, s. " flute." 

Koro-kama, i.e. koiro-kama, " sea-elephant, sea-horse, walrus." 
Kosia, s. the yellow rice-bird, a kind of sparrow. 
Kowa and koa, s. " sandal, shoe." 
Koa ke, " to put on shoes." 
K5wa kinyama, " boots." 
Kongo, *. a small kind of round gourds, used for drink- 

ing-cups. 
Kori, s. "leopard." 

Kori nyin*. " leopard's tooth ;" kori gboro, " leopard's skin." 
Koro, a. " large, big, great." 
Koro, s. " a cask, barrel." 

Gbe-koro, " a cask of rum ;" gbofu-koro, " a barrel of 
biscuits." 
Koroa, v. "to make great, large, big." 
Koro, s. " a fenced-in yard." 
Kii, s. " house." 

Tie-ku, " fowl-house." 
Kii, s. a very large species of spider. 
Kii, s. also kii-bere, s. " rupture, hernia." 
Kumaka, v. " to redeem," e.g., a pledge, or from slavery. 

Kumaka-mo, " redeemer." 
Kumare, s. " palm-nut." 

Kumare-kone, i. q. t6ngb9, " palm-tree." 
Kumbende, a. " whole ;" e.g. a ma na kumbendea, " he did 
not bring a whole one ;" nko gbasa kumbendea, 
"give me a whole cassada." 
Kumbere, s. " knee." 
Kumbi, s. " dew%" when lying on plants or the earth. 

Kumbiro-doma, " dew-shirt," i q. doma, worn by the more 
respectable natives instead of a common ghare. 

2 c 



194 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Kumburu, v. "to roll;"" e.g. dugba-kondse kumburua, "the 
cannon-ball rolled on ;" i semme kumburu, am' b9 
kirama, " roll this stone out of the road." 
Kumma, "on, upon;" e.g. masa kumma, "on the table." 

K6i-kumma, " on the sea." 
Kumu, s. " bee." 

Kumu-dsi, " honey." 
Kumu-sa, "bee-hive." 
Kiimu-vombe, " queen-bee." 
Kuna, a. "bitter." 
Kuna-kuna, s. " gall, bile." 
Kune, V. " to awake, waken." 

Ya kune ? in addressing one person ; and wa kune ? in 
addressing more than one person ; a common salu- 
tation, used from morning till late at night, the 
original meaning being lost sight of, so that the 
English-speaking Veis always say it means, " how do 
you do.^*" 
Kunda, V. "to bend" (i.q. bunda); e.g. na n'ganga kunda, "I 
bend myself;" na sese kunda, " I bend a switch." 
"To roll up;" e.g. na wara kunda, " I rolled the mat up." 
c. Ra, "to fit, to suit;" e.g. kengurame kunda nda kinei, 
" these trousers fit me exactly." 
Kunda, v. " to grow, grow up." 
Kunda, s. for kundu-da, " iron-pot." 
Kunde, s. " bird." 

Poro-kunde, s. "duck." 
Diiake-kunde, s. " turkey." 
Kundi, s. " hair, feather." 

Kunde-kundi, " bird's feathers." 
Kundsi, s. " razor." 
Kundu, s. " iron.'' 

Kundu mi, " to perform a war-dance." 
Kundu, a. "short;" e.g. kira kundu, "a short road.'' 
Kundu kundu, " a short piece of iron." 



VEI ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 195 

Kundu, s. " shortness ; privation, exertion" e.g. a dse nga 

kunduma, " he got it through my exertion."" 
Kun-te, s. " pate.'' 

Kiinu, s. "the day past;" e.g. kiinu-sama, "yesterday morning."" 
Kunu, ad. "yesterday."" 

Kunuko, ad. " on the day before yesterday.'' 
Kunye, s. " smell, stench, stink." 

Iwaro kunyaweibo, or ikunyaweibo, " thou stinkest ;" na ra 
kunye dan-, " I smell it." 
Kunye and kunye, v. "to smell ;" e.g. na ra kunye, "I smell 

it ;" a kore kunye, " he smelt at the rice." 
Kun', s. "head, top, pitch, surface." 

Kun-te, s. " pate, zenith ;" e.g. terea ke kun-te, " the sun 

has reached the zenith." 
Si kun", " to lay on one's head, to charge him ;" e.g. an'da 
koe SI san-kun", " they charged the deer with the 
matter." 
Kun so, "to deliberate, ponder, muse ;" e.g. kowe, mun' ta 

kun so, " excuse us, that we may go and deliberate." 
Kundo-kiri, a. " thought, study, sense, remembrance, me- 
mory ;" e.g. na kundo-kiri ma, "I study, I remember." 
Kundo-ban*, s. "perplexity, confusion;" e.g. a ma kundo- 

ban so, " he knew no confusion." 
Kundo-ka, "to inform, to tell;" e.g. mbe tafa kundo ka, 
" I shall go and tell his father." 
Kun-, V. 'to grow;" e.g. mbe kunna, "I am growing." 
Kun-, V. " to be able, enough for, to match, equal ;" e.g. 
mma kun- ira, " I do not equal thee ;" dsie ma 
kun- a kunda, " the water was not enough for his 
head," ie. " the water was not enough to fill his 
head." 
c. Koro, " to be strong enough for, equal to ;" e.g. mbe kun- 
akoro, "I am not equal to it;" mbe kun suye koro, "I 
am not strong enough for the venison," ie. "not so 
strong as to carry it." 
"To overcome, prevail against, subdue, subject;" e.g. na 



196 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

kun' 1 koro, " I have overcome thee ;" ya ban* kunda 
nkoro, " thou hast already prevailed against me.'' 
Kunkoro, or kunkuru, a., perhaps from kurun* and koro, "much, 
many, numerous ;" e. g. dsie kunkuru, " much water ;" 
dsara kunkurunu, " many lions ;" dongbo kunkuru, 
** a numerous crowd." 
Kuo, inferj. " O !" 

Kura, a. " raw, uncooked ; fresh, green ;" e.g. suye kura, " raw 
meat ;" k6r9 kura, "uncooked rice ;" dsamba kura, "a 
green leaf ;" kon* kura, " a green tree." 
Kura, s. "cloth;" e.g. na kura de, "I weave cloth." 
Kura-de-mo, " a weaver.'' 
Kura-de-kon*, "a weaver's beam." 
Kamma-kura, or kando-kura, " country cloth." 
Poro-kura, " European or American cloth." 
Ken-gura, " trousers." 

Kura-bu, s. a strip of cloth as broad as the native weavers 

can make it, i.e. from four to six inches. In order to 

make use of them for clothing, these kura-bu must first 

be sewn together. 

Kure, s. " word, voice, report ;" e. g. Vei-monua bu-kure dan, 

" the Vei people heard the report of the guns." 

Kure dsau, " to break a word ;" e. g. i ma nkure dsau, " do 

not thou break my word." 
Kure firi, "to reply;" e.g. mma kure fi nu, "I did not 
reply." 
" To crow ;" e.g. tiea kure firi sai gben*, " the cock crew 
just before daybreak." 
Kure dondo, " concord, harmony, union ;" e.g. kure dondo 
ai boro a sau, IH. " union lays the whole country down," 
i. e. " makes or keeps it quiet." 
Kure ta kan dondo, "to agree, be unanimous;" e.g. anu 
kure ma ta kan dondo, " they did not agree." 
Kurea, v. "to deceive;" e.g. ya nkurea, "thou hast deceived 
me. 
Kurea-mo, "c man who may be easily deceived." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 197 

Kuri, V. " to go or walk round, carry round ; surround." 
Na kuri sandsara, " I walked round the town." 
N kuria nnyomo sandsaro, " I carry my brother round the 
town;" kere-monu kuria sandsa, "the soldiers surrounded 
the town." 
Kurima, s. " dry season." 
Kuru, s. " bone." 

Nyie-kuru, " fish-bone." 
Te-kuru, " spine." 

"Stone of fruits;" e.g. dombo-kuru, "a plum stone." 
Kuru, s. " hinder-part, seat." 

Kuru-si, breeches, worn by the natives, like our bathing- 
breeches. 
Kone-kuru, the bottom of a tree. 
Tamba-kuru, s. that part of a spear which is opposite the 

point. 
Kuru bi, " to begin ;" e. g. moa diambo a kuru bi, " we be- 
gan a conversation." 
Kuru, V. " to be silent, keep silence ;" e.g. ikuru ! " keep silence !" 
c. Ra, " to let alone, leave in peace ;" e.g. i kuru nda ! " let 
me alone !" mfa kurera, " my father leaves thee in 
peace." 
" To cease, desist from ;" e g. anun' kuru kerekea, "they 
are to desist from warring.'' 
Kuru, a. i. q. koro, " much ; great, big." 

Kurua and kuruwa, s. "war-hero, a more than common warrior." 
Kurun, a. " much, many ;" e. g. moenu kurun, " many peo- 
ple ;" koro kurun, " much rice.'' 
Kurumba, a. " very much, very many." 

M. 

Ma, ad. " not ;" e.g. mma mandsa dse, " I did not see the chief;" 
1 ma fo ndse ? " didst thou not tell me ?" 

Ma, V. " to seem, to appear." 

Ma, V. "to make, perform, do, commit, cause;" e.g. i ke ma! 
do this !" mma ko nyama maira, " I did not do thee 



198 VEI-ENGLISH VOCAEULART. 

harm ;" karmba bore ma, " God made the earth ;" 
mfa aken'e ma, " my father made a house/' 
" To make," i. e. " to say, produce a souud," the exact im- 
port of which is not understood; e.g. anu ma, mina, 
" they make {i.e. say), Amen !'' amo ai ma kereku, "and 
she made kereku,''^ i.e. "and she cried as monkeys cry." 
'* To be done, to happen ;" e.g. hi' ko ama, " if something 

has happened to him ;" mbe ma ? " what happened ?" 
"To apply, to put;" e.g. anu turJe ma nu, "they put oil 

there." 
Bere ma, " to commit adultery." 
Ma-ko, " business, work." 
Ma, postpos. " on, upon ; above, over ;" e.g. masama, " on the 
table." It is frequently affixed to kun-; e.g. kene- 
kiimma, " on the house ;" masa-kiirama, " on the 
table ;" kun* kumma, " on the head ;" duma kumma, 
"on the ground." 
Mafiri, s. " brain.' 
Mai, V. " to abuse, revile ;" e.g. i ma mba mai ! " do not abuse 

my mother !" 
Makiri, v. " to dress, put on clothes ;" e.g. na nganga makiri, 
" I dressed myself ;" mba nnyomo makiri, " my mo- 
ther dressed my brother." 
Mama, s. " milt, spleen." 
Mama, s. " grandmother." 
Mamada, s. "grandfather." 
Mande, a. " other, another." 

Mandsa, and sometimes ma'ya, s. " chief, any great, rich man.' 
Koro-mandsa, " king." 
Mandsa-den-, " a free-bom person," 
Mandsa, s. a whisk or broom made of the spines of palm- 
leaves, about one and a-half to two inches in diame- 
ter. The people, and especially the chiefs, frequently 
carry it in their hands to drive away the mosquitoes 
and flies. Together with the tun'ghe, it constitutes 
the insignia of the king's speaker. 



VET-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 199 

Mani, postpos. " on, at, by, with, close to, next." 
Mani-woro and Mani-koro, " Mani rice," i. e. a small-grained 
rice with blackish chaff, ripening very quickly, and 
therefore also called koro gbandere, '' hot rice." 
Manyare, s. "cat." 

Mana, s. " dispute, quarrel ; growl, snarling ; resistance, de- 
fence." It is often contracted into md'; e.g. koria 
ma' maye, " the leopard growled at him ;" i kuru 
mana ma, " cease to make resistance ;" mma dau, 
nga, zi, mma mana ma, "1 did not confess, neither 
did I make a defence." 
Mara, v. " to be lighted, kindled ;" e.g. ta a mara, " the fire 
is lighted ;" ta ma marawe ? " is the fire not yet 
lighted r 
"To shine;" e.g. terea mara, "the sun shines." 
"To light, to kindle ;" e.g. i fara mara, "light the torch." 
Mara, generally mo-mara, s. " the left, left hand, left side." 
Mmararo, " on my left ;" dsa-fenni bo mo-mararo, dsa-fem 
bo mo-toro, "goods will come from the right and left." 
Mara-boro, " left hand ;" mara-ken, " left leg ;" mara-wa, 

" left side." 
"Wrong, injustice, impropriety," i.e. something opposed to 
what is right ; e.g. a ma marawa ma, " she has not done 
wrong." 
Mara, s. " war-dress," covering the whole body with the ex- 
ception of the eyes, and consisting of cloth and the 
head part of a dried skin. 
Mara, ad. "improperly, roughly, harshly;" e.g. a kiin'ni a^ 

gbai mara, " if he speak it harshly." 
Marake, v. " to raise up, bring up, mind, nourish," said only 

of animate beings. 
Mare, a. for marare, "lighted, kindled," 

Fara mare, " a lighted flambeau." 
Mari, s. an amphibious animal, as large as a cow, living by day 
in fresh water, and coming out by night to graze. 
It is black, without eitlrer horns, tail, or hair, is short- 



200 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

legged, and has diminutive eyes. Being very fat, the 

natives are very fond of its flesh. 
Maro, V. " to be ashamed, to blush ; to put to shame." 
Masa, s. " table." 
Mazu, s. a kind of dance, accompanied with wild gestures of 

the arms. 
Me, pron. " this." 

Mei', V. " to consider, deliberate ;" e.g. na komu foimei', " con- 
sider what I say ;" mbe ikure meira, " I will consi- 
der thy word." 
Meremere and memere, s. " mirror, looking-glass." 
Mese, a. "small, little." 
Meseri, s. " needle." 
Mba and mbaa, ad. reply to an expression or action which has 

given much pleasure and satisfaction. 
Mbe ? pron. " what ? what thing ? which ?" 
Mei, v., i.q. mai, "to revile, abuse." 
Mi, V. " to drink." 

Tawara mi, "to smoke." 
Me-fen-, " drinkable." 
Miamia, s. " lightning." 
Mie and mie, s. " knife, cutlass, sword." 
Mi'e and mi'a, v. "to remain long, to delay ;" e.g.k mi'a nu, 

" he delayed there ;" mma dia nni mi'e nie, " I do 

not like to remain here long." 
Mie, a. "likely, probable;" e.g. a we mie f6n5a, "he is likely 

to vomit ;" mfa were mie ta, " my father is not likely 

to go. 
Mira, and more frequently mina, pr. " which, which one." 
Mira and mina, ad. " where ? whence ? whither .^" 
Mirinya, *. " Boa-constrictor," a large serpent, swallowing 

goats and deer. 
Mirinya, v. " to fear, be afraid ;" e. g. i ma mirinya ! " fear 

not !" mmirinya mfara, " I fear my father." 
Mirinyare, a. "afraid, fearful" e.g. a mirinyaremu, "he is 

fearful ;" mmirinyaremuira, " I am afraid of thee." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 201 

Mo, a. "cooked, done;" e.g. suye a mo, " tlie meat is done;" 
done a mo, " the rice is done, cooked." 
" Ripe," thus used only of rice ; e.g. koro a mo, " the rice 
is ripe.'' 
Mo, s. " man," said of the species; " person, somebody." 
Wuru-mo, " ft parent." 
Kere-mo, " warrior, soldier." 
Deri-mo, " carpenter, joiner." 
T6na-mo, " blacksmith." 
Sunda-mo, " stranger, visitor, guest." 

This word placed after any verb gives the force of our 
participle; e.g. fereke, "to trade;" fereke-mo, "one 
who trades, a trader." 
Kara, v. " to attend ;" kara-mo, " an attendant." 
Tomboke, v. " to play ;" tomboke-mo, " a player," &c. 
" Relative, relation ;" e g. bema na momuira, " because 
thou art my relation." 
Mongu, s. the yolk of an. egg. 
More, s. title of any Muhammadan, especially the priests. 

It may be a corruption of Moor, or Mosl ( J-<x«) 

Mumu, s. " deafness and dumbness." 

Mumu-mo, " a person deaf and dumb." 
Muni, sometimes muli, v. "to turn, to empty;" e.g. i semme 
muni ! " turn this stone !" i dsie muni ! " empty the 
water. !" 
Dsa muni, "to be giddy, whirling ;" e.g. ndsa muni, " I am 
giddy." 
Munia, r " to turn, to turn oneself." 
Musu, s. " woman." 
Musuba, s. a woman is thus addressed who is younger than the 

speaker, and whose name you do not wish to repeat. 
Musiima, a. " female." 
Dem musiima, " a girl." 
Ni musiima, " a cow." 
Tie musuma, " a hen." 

2d 



202 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

N. 

Na, V. "to come, come back, return;" e.g. riifa a na, "my 
father has come." It is often followed by ke, more 
emphatically to express the actual arrival in a place ; 
e.g. anu nanu kea sandsaro, "they came and arrived 
in the town." 
Na-banda, " time to return." 

Nama, a. " new ;" e.g. kura nama, " a new cloth." 

" Fresh, additional ;" e.g. mu we mo nama berearo, lit. ** we 
will no more give up fresh people." 

Namara, a. "slippery;" e.g. kirame a namara, "this road is 
slippery." 

Namara, v. "to slip, to glide;" e.g. na namara kirama, or nti 
nama kirama, " I slipt on the road." 

Ne, s. " tongue." 

Neke-mo, s. " a spy." 

Nene, v. "to deceive, impose upon;" e.g. a nnene, "he im- 
posed upon me ;" mbe i nenea, " I shall not deceive 
thee." 

Nen"e, v. " to overhear.'' 

Nesi, s. water with which Arabic sentences have been washed 
off a tablet on which they had been written, and 
which water the natives are directed by Muham- 
madan priests to drink, or to wash themselves with, 
instead of using medicine. 

Ndogba, s. pains about the eyes. 

Ni, V. "to taste ;" e.g. i ma ni ! " do not taste it !" na kefe ni, 
" I tasted a pine-apple." 

NT, s. " past time, time long gone by, ancient time ;" e. g. ni 
sendse, "the first time," i.^?. " in the beginning;" ni 
korokoro, "olden times;" Aina-kere-ni a ban", "the 
Amara war-time is passed," i.e. "the time of the 
Amara war is passed." 

Ni, ad. "in past time, in bygone days, long ago." This adverb 
is frequently expressed by a mere perfect tense in 
other languages, vid. Grammar. 



VEI-ENGLTSH VOCABULARY. 203 

Ni, s., and often me, s. " cattle, bullock." 
NI kaiina, " a bullock.'' 
Ni musuma, ** a cow." 
Niembere, s. " a cockroach." This name I received at Wakoro ; 

but in Dsaiaro they called the same niepere. 
NIe, s. "place where one is, this place;" eg. a ma mirinya 

niera, "he must not fear this place ;" nieme, "this 

place ;" nie-kira, "this side.'' 
Nie, ad. " here, hither ;" e.g. i na nie, " come hither !" 
Nimi, a. " palatable, savoury, sweet." 
Nimisa, s. " misfortune, accident, misery, ruin ;" e.g. na nimisa 

dse, " I have experienced misfortune ;" nimisa-ko 

ntara, " an accident has happened to me." 
Nimo, s. the trunk of an elephant. 
Nini, s. the strings on a native loom, which take one half 

of the warp up and the other down. 
No"ko, s. " elbow." 
None, s. " dirt ;" e. a. kiramefe nonoba, " there is much dirt on 

this road." 
Nono, V. "to dirty, make dirty;" e.g. na kurame nono, "I 

dirtied this cloth." 
NonSa, v. "to be dirty, to make dirty;" e.g. na dene nonoa, 

" my child is dirty. 
Nonore, but generally contracted into nore, a. " dirty." 
Nori, -v. " to be wet ; to wet, make wet." 
Norire, a. " wetted, wet." It is often contracted into noire ; 

e.g. na dom-fene noire, " my wet apparel." 
Nou, s. and neou, s. " turban." 
Nou. s. a masked woman in the sonde ceremony, intended to 

represent a demon or the devil. 
Nu, s. "yonder place, distant place," the opposite of nie; e.g. 

ihbe nu dsewa were, " I shall see that place to-day ;" 

nume and nuro, " in that place, there, yonder ;" niikira, 

"on that side;" riibe tafoa nu-monuye, "I shall go and 

tell it to the people yonder ;" nu-mandsa-ton Gbakoi, 

" the name of the king of that place was Gbakoi." 



204 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Nil, ad. " there, yonder" e.g. a be nu, " he is there ;" an' taro 
nu, " they went there again." Sometimes it loses 
its demonstrative force, and denotes existence in space 
generally, just as the English " there is,'' or the 
French " il-y-a :" especially so in relating stories ; 
e.g. musle be nu, "there was (once) a woman, &c.;" 
mu be sira nu, " we were (once) sitting somewhere.' 

Nu, s. " bowels, intestines, entrails." 
Nu mese, "gut." 
Nu ba, " colon, paunch." 

Nu, V. "to hide, to conceal." 

Numu, s. a very large kind of toad. 

Niinu, s. " the beaver, an amphibious animal." 

Nyama, a. " long, tall ; distant, far ;" e.g. kon nyama, " a tall 
tree ;" kai nyama, "a tall man;" kira nyama," a long 
way." 

Nyama, a., doubtless from nyi a ma, lit. " good it (is) not," " bad, 
evil, wrong, wicked, criminal ;" e.g. mu kun* ko nyama 
mara, " if we have done wrong to him." 

Nyana, s. " spirit, demon, ghost ; devil," supposed to live un- 
der deep water, or in the bowels of the earth. 

Nyana, s. "louse;" e.g. nyana bi, "to catch lice." 
Wuru-nyan"a, "dog-louse, flea." 

Nyau, s. a wild spice. 

Nyerima and neiyma, s. the part of the head about the eye- 
brows ; the hair on the eye-brows. 

Nyei, v. "to be specked, to make speckled, to speckle; e.g. 
na gbore nyei, "I speckled paper," i.e. "I wrote." 

Nyeire, a. "speckled;" e.g. tie nyeiremu, "the fowl was 
speckled." 
" Written ;'' e. g. gbore nyeire, " a written letter, a written 
book, or written paper." 

Nyenye, v. " to scatter, disperse." 

Nyerima, s., i.q. nyerima, "eye-brow." 

Nyi, s. " beauty, fineness, handsomeness ;" e.g. a nyi a ta, " his 
beauty is gone." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 205 

Nyi, V. " to be beautiful, handsome, fair, fine ;" e. g. ndia-mo 

nyi gba, " my friend is very beautiful." 
Nyia, V. "to make fine, good; to get ready, prepare, make" 
e.g. i na gbengbe nyia, "get my bed ready ;" an'ua 
Sana nyia, " they prepared a couch." 
"To produce, to yield ;'' e.g. kore nyia kurumba, "the rice 

yielded very much." 
"To be good, to be favourable ;" e.g. anMa ke-yewa sa, amo 
a nyia, " they augured by sand, and it was favourable." 
Nyia and nyiare, a. "beautiful, handsome, fair, fine." 
Nyie, s. " fish." 
Nyina and nyira, v. " to forget ;" e.g. mma nyina mfa kurera, 

" I do not forget my father's word," 
Nyin-, s. " tooth." 

Kama-nyin, "ivory." 
Nyo, s. " likeness, similarity." 

" Brother or sister ;" e. gr. wu na musie nyo here, " give up my 

wife's sister ;" but generally nyo-mo, " family likeness." 

Nyobi, s. "likeness, similarity ;" e.g. na a nyobi, dse, " I saw his 

likeness ;" mu fera mba nydbi, " I and my mother 

are alike ;" mu fera mandsa nyobi, " I am like the 

chief." 

Nyoma, t;. "to be like, similar;" e.g. mu fera mba nyoma, 

"I and my mother are alike." 
Nyoma, ad. "about," used in connexion with numbers; e.g. 
a kun ki nu fera nyoma, " if he has slept there about 
twice ;" na mo mo-bande nyoma dse, " I have seen 
about twenty persons." 
Nyomo, s. from nyo and mo. 
Nyomo kaima. "brother," 
Nyomo musiima, " sister." 
Nyoro, s. " corn, Indian corn, maize." 

Wonye-nyoro, "kuskus," a kind of guinea-corn, so called 
from the rough sensation it produces in the throat 
when eaten before it is thoroughly done. 



206 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

N'. 
I^'ga, pr.^for nwa-nwa, "I, my." 

]<}"gere, ad. " only ;" e.g. ihfa fo ngere, " my father only spoke." 
N'gere, s. a dance accompanied with a peculiar kind of song. 

O. 
O! interj. "O." 

P. 

Pa, s., and pai, a title given to elderly, respectable people, and 
doubtless of the same root with our " pa.'' It may 
be rendered by our " Mr. and Sir ;" e.y. pa ya kune.^ 
"how are you, Sir.^" pa Doara, ina! "come, Mr. 
Doara !"" 

Pabo, s. " parrot." 

Paburu, s. a small kind of sparrow. 

Pakai, s. " pawpaw ;** pakai-gbo, " pawpaw-seed." 

Pakenna, s., from pa and kenna, seldom merely kenna, " spider." 
Pakenna-dsara, s. "spin-web.'' 

Pasi, s. "pocket." 

Patawa and patara, and both contracted into pata, " money, cash." 
Pata gbema, "silver money." 
Pata dsare. " gold coin." 

Pawa, s. "pay, payment." 

Pawa, V. " to pay." 

Pawaro, s. "temple of the head;" e.g. mpawaro dsara, "my 
temples are red." 

Pene, a. "all, whole;" e.g. peneme .^ "is this all.^" 

Pene,' ad. " first ;" e. g. nna pene, itoa na, " I came first, before 
thee;" kowe, mbe fen dom pene, "let me first eat 
something." 

"Pere, conj. "too, also, even;" e.g. a pere a sira, "he also was 
rich ;" ke pere bera, " this also fell." 

Pe, s. " bush cat, or wild cat, civet cat." 

Pfurua, s. the stick used for a trap, trap-stick. 
Pfurua sere, " to set a trap." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 207 

Pi, V. ''to fly ;" e.g. kunde pira, "the bird flies;" dua-kondse 
pira purii, " the cannon-ball flies quickly." 

Pitipiri, ad. " incessantly, without intermission." 

Po, s. " eagle." 

Pondi, s. " cane, rattan." 

Pondi biina, or pondi bumbara, "a whole," Le. "unsplit cane." 
Pondi tere, " a split cane." 
Kara-pondi, " string of a bow." 

Pono, s. " gut, intestines, entrails, bowels.'' 

Poti, s. the pus of the eyes. 

Powo, s., often contracted into p6, " broom," viz. a fine one, used 
within doors. 

P5wo, s., and also contracted to po, s. " pigeon, dove." 

Pon-, ad. " distant, far away, far." 

Poro, s. probably a corruption of Portuguese. They having 
been the first white people seen by the Africans on 
the west coast, it became a denomination for white 
men in general. It is now applied to Europeans and 
Americans, and by way of politeness also to those 
Negroes who have had some education and are more 
civilized than the natives of the country. But the 
natives themselves are aware that, when they call 
Negroes Poros, they use this term not in its proper 
sense ; and they have often told me, we know very 
well that they are not real Poros, but we call them 
so because they have been in white man's country, 
and like to be called so. There is no root in the Vei 
language from which the word could be derived ; and 
the natives know no more of it than that it signifies 
" white man." They also use it of any thing that 
they want to designate as of superior quality and 
foreign introduction ; e.g. Poro-koro, " large-grained 
rice with yellow chaff ;" Poro-baria, " banana ;" Poro- 
kondse, "cocoa-nut;" Poro-kunde, "duck." 

Poron-, ad. " along, on ; in vain, for nothing, without reward, 
without cause or reason, at random." 



208 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

R. 

Re, ad. "where?'' when; e.g. iware ? "where art thou?" na 
dsi tiere gben", " when I have quite crossed the water." 

Ro, V. " to say, suppose, think." Joined with the pronouns it 
undergoes the following euphonic changes : ndo, iro, 
aro ; muro, wuro, an'do. 

S. 

Sa, V. "to lie down;" e.g. na sa na gbengbema, "I lie on 

my bed." 

" To lay down, put down, put, lay;" e.g. na mie sa masama, 

" I laid the knife on the table ;" a sako, " he put it on 

his back ;" p6 a kerle sa, " the eagle had laid eggs.'' 

"Apply to ;" e.g. a. woso sadsaro, "she applied chalk to 

her face." 
"Present, give;" e.g. na se saira, "I give thee thanks." 
Sa duma, c. "to surrender to ;" e.g. mu we sa duma 
wuye, " we will not surrender to you ;" nni saiye duma, 
** I will surrender to thee." 
Fara sa, " to please ;" e.g. a ko a fara sa, " his word pleased 

him." 
Diambo sa, " to hold a discourse." 

Keu sa, " to have a dream, to dream ;" e. g. na keu dondo 
sa nnyomoetiu sagba, " I dreamt of my three brothers." 
Da sa, " to sharpen, strop ;" e.g. na na mie-da sa, "I sharpen 
my knife." 
Sa, *. " depository, case, sheath." 

Mie-sa, " the sheath of a sword." 
Sa and sai, s. " early morning, before day-break." 
Sa, V. " to draw together, draw near, approach ;" e.g. i sa mbara, 
" draw near to me." 
"To draw, to pull, to haul;" e.g. a kunwe sa, "he hauled 
the gourd." 
Saki, s. " dagger, poniard ;" saki-sa, " dagger-scabbard." 
Sama, v. " to be lost, go astray, wander." 

"To lose;" e.g. na na mie sama, "I have lost my knife." 



VM-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 209 

Sama, a. " lost, wandering." 

Sama, s. probably from sa and ma, the time which follows on 
or after the sa, i.e. " morning." 
Sina sama, " to-morrow morning.'" 
Sama hwe, ** good bye." 

Samaro, .s. " rainy season." 

Samba, s. " basket." 

Samba, v. " to tremble, to shake ;" e. g. mbemuisamba # " what 
is the matter that thou tremblest?" 

Sana, ad. "just now, immediately, presently, instantly ; a little 
while ago, scarcely." 

Sana, s. " place for lying down ; couch, sofa." 

Sande, s. a religious institution , in which the females are instructed 
in singing, dancing, and other things which they keep 
secret, and also have to go through the rite of circumci- 
sion. A female who has gone through this rite, which 
is usually the case about the tjme she has arrived at the 
age of puberty, is called a sande-musu; and one not gone 
through it, a gboron. All Vei women are said to be 
sande-musienu. This institution seems to be to females 
what the beri is to males, with this difference, however, 
that females are circumcised (kese-kun tie) in the 
sande only, whereas males are usually circumcised 
(botu tie) in infancy, and in the beri only when it 
has been neglected before ; and that the men re- 
ceive the national mark in the beri, whereas the wo- 
men do not receive that mark at all. 

Sande, a. " hired, bought." 

Sande, s. " craw-fish> river-lobster." 

Sandi, v. "to throw down," viz. in wrestling; e.g. na i sandi, 
" I threw thee down." 

Sandsa, s. " town." 

Sani, s. " glass-bottle." 

San', .V. " year." 

San- keminana, " next year." 
Niko-san, " last year." 

2 I 



210 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

San", s. a kind of hornless deer, as large as a small goat, and 
supposed to be very sensible ; hence the natives tell 
many fables concerning it. 
San-, V. " to buy ;" e.g. na tie san, " I bought a fowl."" 

" Hire, bribe;" e.g. an'da kere-mo hondoro fera san*, " they 
hired two hundred warriors." 
Sana, s. " saline," place where salt is prepared by boiling salt 

water. 
Sana, ad. " well, thoroughly ;" e.g. na femme so sana, " I know 

this thing thoroughly." 
Sara, s. a kind of gourd. 

Sara, saraka, and sadaka (from Arabic &i* Js*o), " alms." 
Sasa, *. a musical instrument, consisting in a gourd of the 
size of a child's head, loosely surrounded by a net, in 
which large beads are fastened, which, when shaken, 
makes a very loud rattling noise. 
Sawa, s. " law." 

Sawa sa, " to give a law." 
Sawa dsau, " to break a law." 
Se, s. " thanks." 

Se sa, " to thank." 

I se, referring to one person, and wii se, reterring to 
more, are used as a salutation to express sympathy and 
congratulation ; e.g. when a land-owner visits his la- 
bourers on the farm he salutes them by wu se ! and they 
reply, e'. If a person had sustained a loss, or received 
an unexpected fortune, they say to him, i se ! 
Sewiiru and seiiru, s. " rice-soup." 
Sembe, s. " strength, power, force, energy." 
Sembe, v. "to place against, to lean against;" e.g. a bimbirie 
sembe bandara, " he placed a ladder against the cot- 
ton-tree." 
"To lean;" e.g. nsembea na tungbera, "I leaned on my 

staff." 
"To go, turn, hang on one side;" e.g. dendee sembe, "the 
vessel hangs on one side." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 211 

Sene, s. " farm.'" viz. when cleaned and planted. 

Sene gbendi, or merely gbendi, a farm after it has been 

cleared of the bush, and before it is planted. 
For senero they generally say sen do, " in the farm.'" 
Sere, v. " to go up, come up, ascend ;" e.g. a sere kanmba 
bara, " he went up to God." 
" To rise ;" e.g. terea sere, " the sun rose.'" 
"Climb up;'' e.g. a sere kono-kando, "he climbed up a 
tree." 
Seren-dende and sen-dende, s. the inner palisade round a town. 
Sere, and contracted into se, s. " pawn, pledge." 
Sese, s. " wild duck." 

Sewe. s. " charm, amulet,'' consisting of a scrip of paper sewn 
into cloth and leather, and worn about the body as a 
safeguard against all sorts of misfortunes. 
Sewe nyia, to prepare a charm for the use as amulet. 
Sende, s. the water which drops from the edge of a roof 

during rain. 
Sende, v. " to pour gently." 
Sene, s. " salutation, welcome." 

Sene sa, " to salute, to welcome." 

I sene and wu sene ! are used when people meet each other 
on the road, and seems to correspond with our " wel- 
come !" The reply then is, rnbad I 
Sen", s. " stone, rock." 

Sen, V. " to say, tell, speak ;" e.g. mbemu i ma sendse sendse ? 
" why didst thou not tell it me first .^" i ma sendse, 
" do not tell it me." 
Sen, V. "to dig." 
Sen, V. "to play the bdn'a, or country harp, by touching its 

chords with the fingers. 
Sere, a. (senere ?) "said;" e.g. koe seremu, "it is the said 

thing." 
Sere, ad. "very;" e.g. kaime a koe dsau sere, "this man's 
case is very bad ;" kai nyamamu sere, " the man is 
very tall ;" dsan sere, " very far." 



212 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Seri, 8. "witness;" e.g. kanmba ton na seri, "God is my 

witness" 
Sese, s. " switch, whip." 
Si, s. " buffalo." 

Si, V. "to sit down, settle;" e.g^ si na gbenero, "sit down in 
my chair." 
"Set, put, place;" e.g. i dene si na gbengbema, "set the 

child on my bed ;" a gbara si, " he put on his hat." 
Si kumma, " to lay on one's head, to charge him with 

something." 
Si-si, " to wait a little while.' 
Si, s. "riches, wealth." 

Si-mo, " a man of wealth, a rich, wealthy man." 
Si and sira, v. " to make rich, enrich, to be rich ;" e.g. mandsa 

a sira, "the chief is rich." 
Sieke, v. " to become ;" e.g. Dsuba siekero gba, " Job became 

again very rich." 
Sian*, s. " bill-hook." 

Sibara, and often contracted into siba, s. " onion." 
Sie and sie, s. " blessing." 
Sieke and sieke, v. "to bless;" e.g. na ra sieke, "I blessed 

him." 
Sieke, s. " sacrifice." 

Siekena, place where sacrifices are made ; e.g. mo kunni 
sandsa so nie, a sieke-nawaiti, " if one builds a town 
here, it has its place for sacrifice." 
Simbiri, s. "joint." 
Simbiri, v. " to join." 
Sina", s. " coming day, to-morrow." 

. Sinako, lit. "coming day's back," i.e. "day after to-morrow." 
Sina, s. "sitting-place, seat;" e.g. siname, "here is a seat," 
"Place for a settlement;" e.g. kona kum ban* anu sina 
dsira Duru-koro-moeniira, " when the matter is finished, 
they will show the Liberians a place for a settlement." 
Sinaberi, s. " yam." 

Sinaberi tiiru. " to plant yam." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 213 

Sin-, s. square pieces of ivory or palm nuts, used in a certain 

game, and also the game itself. 
Sina, s. " loan ;"" e.g. ita sinabira, " go and take a loan," 
Sina, V. "to lend ;" e.g. kone nsina ya gborea, " please to 

lend me thy book. ^ 
SIra, V. " to sit, to live." 
Sisi, s. " gnat, fly." 
Sisi, s. " smoke." 

Siwiri and siri, s. " scarlet cloth." 
Siwiri, s. a beautiful scarlet-coloured bird with black wings, 

of the size of a sparrow. 
So, V. "to know;" e.g. na komeso. "I know this." 
So, *. " bean." 

Kamma-so, " country beans." 
P6ro-so, " white men's beans." 
So, V. " to stand ;" e.g. so mmani, " stand with me, stand on 
my side !" 
"Set up, erect, build;" e.g. a du so aye, "he built a town 

for her;" a sandsa so, " he built a town." 
" Put ashore, land ;" e.g. mbe ya dende soa, " I shall land 

thy canoe." 
" Raise, stir up ;" e.g. momu kun* kere so nda, " if any man 

raise a war against me." 
"Raise, breed;" e.g. ai banu so, "he raised goats." 
So koro, "to join, assist in a matter;" e.g. mbe 39 ya 

koro, " I will assist thee in thy cause." 
S9, c. fe, "to pursue, follow, accompany;" e.g. wu so sunda- 
nufe, "pursue the strangers ;" riibe sorefe, "I shall accom- 
pany thee ;" mbe soro mfafe, " I shall follow my father." 
So kirafe, "to set out, start, depart;" e.g. amo anu soa 

kirafe, " and they started." 
Sona, s. " standing-place, station, end." 
So, V. " to send;" e.g. mbe iso, "I will send thee." 
So, s. "firewood;" e.g. na so gbirin*, "I pile up firewood." 
So and so, s. " horse." 
So-dson, "ass, donkey." 



214 VEr-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

S5, s. the remuneration given to a country doctor for his 
attention : always given iti advance. 
Soeke, v. to give such a remuneration. 
So. s. "day, time," e.g. so boro, "some time;" so gbi, "all 
times, constantly;" so siimfera, "a week." 
Kai-S9, s. the four days which a male child has to remain 
in-doors after birth before it is allowed to be carried 
into the open air. 
Musii-so, s. the three days during which a female infant 
is kept in-doors. 
So, s. "hole, ditch, trench." Before suffixes, and in the con- 
text, it is not unfrequently pronounced su. 
So, V. " to stick, prick ;" e.g. ya nso meseria, " thou hast stuck 

me with a needle." 
Soke, s. " work {"' e.g. na soke a gbere, " my work is hard." 
Soke, V. " to work, labour i" e. g. mbe sokena, " I am working." 

S6ke-mo, " workman, labourer." 
Sono, s. "worth, value, price;" e.g. a sone tombe ? "what is 
its price?" moe-fira-boe-sonomu dson tanera ? "are 
ten slaves the value of a man's life ?" 
Soro, V. "to sew;" e.g. mbe kura soro a kengurara, "I sew," 

i.e. " make trousers of cloth for him." 
S6r9, s. a long bag made of mats or bamboo-bands. 

Ko-soro, " salt-sack." 
Soso, s. " palm-worm," i.e. a large worm living in the palm- 
cabbage, and considered a delicacy by the natives 
when fried or boiled. 
Soso, V. "to ram in, to load," e.g. a gun. 
S6s5, V. " to rub;" e.g. na femme soso mboro, " I rubbed this 

thing in my hand." 
Su, s. ■" corpse, carcass." 

M6-SU, " a person's dead body." 
Suye-su, " carcass of an animal." 
Su, s. " night ;" siiyero and siiro, " by night ;'' were siiyero, 

" last night." 
Su, s. " seed." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 215 

Siia, s. " miltf and then also " witchcraft," probably because 
from the milt, which is taken out of every Vei per- 
son after his death, it is seen whether he has prac- 
tised witchcraft or not; e.g. hi* kunni sua ma, i fa- 
wake, " if thou hast practised witchcraft, thou wilt 
surely die." 
Sua-mo, " a person practising witchery." 
Sua-kai, " wizard ;" sua-musu, " witch." 
Sua, V. " to salute, to greet by the shaking of the hand."" 
Sui and sue, s. " soap." 

Sui and sui, v. " to mash, bruise, pound, beat." 
Suma, V. "to measure;" e.g. mu kore suraa, "let us measure 
the rice." 
c. Ro, "to try, examine, put to the test;" e.g. mu mfaro 

suma, " let us try my father." 
Suma-den", s., perhaps equal to " a tried, examined girl," i.e. 
name or title of girls from the time they come out of 
the sande bush till they are married to a husband. 
Suma, s. " measure, bushel,'' i.e. the quantity of a measure 
or bushel ; e. g. koro-suma fera, " two bushels of rice." 
Suma-fen-, "measure,"" i.e. "instrument for measuring ;" e.g. 
koro-suma-fens "rice measure." 
Suna s. "rain;" e.g. suna ba, "a great, a heavy rain;" suna 
ngbasi, or suna mbiio, " rain beat me ;" sunekena, 
"it is raining." 
Sunda, v. "to send;" e.g. na na tenduye sunda, "I sent my 

messenger." 
Sunda, s. the large hill of termites, sometimes ten feet long. 
Sunda and sonda s. "stranger, visitor, guest;" e.g. ya sundamu 
nda, " I am thy visitor ;" na sundamuira, " thou art 
my visitor ;" mfa sundamu mandsara, or mfa torn 
mandsa a sunda, " my father is the chiefs visitor." 
Sunda-mo, i.q. sunda. 

S6nda-fa, " host, landlord ;" s6nda-ba, " hostess, landlady ;" 
e.g. sunda ma gara, ke a siinda-fa, " a stranger has no 
power, but his landlord." 



216 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

Kemnia-sunda, lit. "an in-the-lap stranger," i.e. "a much- 
loved and honoured guest;" e.g. woanu torn mu kem- 
ma-sunda, " ye are our much-loved guests.'' 
Sundo, s. "end;" e.g. kira-sundo, "end of the way;'' b6ro- 
sundo, " the tips of the fingers ;" fennu gbi-silndo ai 
na, " the end of all things is coming." 
Sun', V. "to gather, to collect;" e.g. moa kore gbi sun nu, 
" we collected all the rice thither." But more gene- 
rally da-sun' is used instead of the simple verb. 

Sit ^t 

un', s. nose, 

Sun-a, a. " yellow " 

Surisuri or sosori, s. " mosquito." 

Suri and sori, 's. "cornen promontory, cape;" e.g. soriefe, "in 

the corner ;" soriema, " on the promontory." 
Suon for s6-kon', s., " mast." 
Suro and soro, s. mark of tattooing ; a medicine prepared by 

calcination." 
Suran", v. " to leap, jump, bound ;" e.g. dem mesenu gbi sii- 

ran*, " all little boys were jumping ;" a suranda s5e 

kumnia, " he jumped over the hole." 
Suro, s. a bag made of bamboo-bark. 

Na sure de, " I plait or make such a bag." 
Suru, s. "root;" e.g. kon-suru, "root of a tree." 
Susu, s. " female breast, udder." 

Susu-dsi, " milk." 
Su-te, s. " midnight." 
Suye and siiy^, s. " meat, flesh, venison ; beast, animal ;" e. g. 

siiye kura, " raw flesh ;" siiye tare, " boiled meat ;" 

firaro-suye, " wild beasts." 



T. 

Ta. s. " fire." 

Dsahannama-ta, " hell-fire ;" buye-ta, " musket-fire." 
Ta fe, " to kindle a fire " 
Til dufe, " to put a fire out." 



VEI-ENGLISn VOCABULARY. 217 

Ta gbasi, " to strike fire, to give fire, to fire f e.g. na buye- 
ta gbasiro ama " I again fired on him." 
Ta, V. " to cook, to boil ;" e.g. na done ta, " I cook rice." 

Tare, a. "cooked ;" e.^. suye tare, "cooked meat." 
Ta, V. " to go ;" e.g. mbeta ndsa, " I go home ;" mbe ta Datia, 

" I go to Datia." 
Ta, s. " going, walk ;" e.g. anda tamu keni, "they have taken 

that walk." 
Ta, s. " part, portion ;" e.g. nta, " my part ;" wii ta dene ara 

nta dene fa, " your child has killed my child." 
Ta-bp-fen-, s. lit. " fire-exciting-thing," i. e. " matches." 
Ta-kendi, s. * fire-coal." 
Tama, a. " gentle, meek." 

Tama, ad. " gently, softly ;" e.g. i tara tama, "carry it gently." 
Taraanden', s. " drum," used especially in times of war. It 
is about two feet long, with a diameter of nearly 
one foot. It is held under the left arm, and beat 
with one stick only ; and at the end a bunch of pieces 
of iron is suspended by means of a rope, about two 
feet in length, which make a tinkling noise when 
the drum is beaten. 
Tamara, s. " foolishness." 

Tamara ma, " to act foolishly." 
Tamba, s. "spear." 

Tande, a. " straight ;" e. g. kon tande, " a straight tree." 
Tando, v. "to thank, praise, bless;" e.g. wumu kanmba tando, 
" let us thank God ;" mfa ntando, " my father thanked 
me. 
Tani, s. "lead." 
Tan-, " ten." 
Tan-, V. "to be straight, to make straight;" e.g. i seseme tan-, 

" straighten this switch." 
Tanda, i5."to be straight;" e.g.kone tanda, "the tree is straight." 
Tara, v. "to meet, to find;" e.g. na i tara, "I met thee;" a 
tara a musie be k6r9mu tiena^ " he found that his 
wife was cutting the rice." 

2 F 



218 VEI-ENGLTSH VOCABULAKY. 

Tara, v. "to tear, rend, break;*" e.g. demme a kura tara, " the 

child tore his cloth ;" a ken tara, " he broke the 

house down." 
Tara, s. " rag, piece ;" e.g. kura-tara, " cloth-rags,'' i.e. " rags."" 
Tara, s. the swallow, a bird. 
Tare, a. "going, walking;'' e.g. den tare, a child when just 

beginning to walk. 
Tasabia, s. " rosary." 
Tau, V. "to shut, to bury;" e.g. i ken"e-da tau, "shut the 

door ;" na mfa tau, " I buried my father." 
Tawa, s. *' kindred, relation, family." 
Tawa, s. " tobacco." 

Tawa mi, "to smoke." 
Tawa-fumu, or ta-fumu, " snufF." 
fa-fumu sa, " to take snufF." 
Tawara, s. "a pipe." 

Tawara mi, " to smoke a pipe." 
Taye, v. " to walk ; to behave, conduct oneself;" e.g. mbe taye 

kirame fe, " I walk on this road ;" wa taye kama ? 

" how did you behave yourselves ?" 
Taye, s. "a walk;" e.g. a taye nyia, "he took a walk." 
Te, s. " middle, midst, centre ;" e.g. koi-te, " the midst of the 

sea ;" na te, " the middle of my body ;" kere ma 

bange mute, " the war is not yet finished in our 

midst," i.e. between us. 
Kun-te, s. " pate ; zenith ;" su-te, " midnight." 
Te-dun' and te-don, v. "to divide, distribute;" e.g. na na kore 

te-dun", " I divided my rice ;" a kore te-dum moe 

gbia, " he distributed rice to all the people." 
Tefo, V. " to embrace, to caress." 
Te-kiiru, s. " spine." 

Tema and tema-kon', s. the treddles of a loom. 
Tembe, v. "to stand or place in a line, to form a row;" e.g. 

kere tembea, " the soldiers formed a line ;" i kone 

tembe, " place the sticks in a row." 
Tende, v. " to repair," used only of cutting instruments, which 



VET-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 219 

are repaired by the applicatiou of fire ; e.g. i na mie 
tende, " repair my sword." 

Tende, a. " hasty." 

Tende, s. a sort of dark red beads, worn by females as an or- 
nament. 

Tendsere, s. " plate." 

Tere, s. " piece, fragment, rag ;" e. g. kura-tere, gbun-tere. 

Teri and kumare-teri, s. the stalk on which the palm-uuts 
grow. But when the nuts are still on it, the whole 
is called bun. 

Teri, s. the region where the thigh joins the body. 

Teri, s. "tale, story, narration, fable, parable." 

Tesi, V. " to drop," trans, and intrans. 

Tewe, s. a black deer, about the size of a goat, with round horns 
from two to three inches long. Its meat is not eaten 
by the Veis, as they believe it would give them itch, 
or make them deaf, stupid, or even crazy. But the 
Guras, Huros, &c., eat it. A Liberian assured me 
that he once ate it, and in about six days afterwards 
was visited by a severe itch. 

Te, V. "to break in pieces ;" e.g. na na kiinda te, "I broke 
my pot ;" na sani te, " I broke a glass-bottle." 
** To burst, break out;" e.g. mandsa tea dia, "the chief 
burst into tears." 

Tea-tea, v. (from te) "to disperse, to scatter ;" e.g. so birike mo- 
enu tea-tea, " on that same day the people dispersed." 

Tena, s. "fellow-wife," only used in polygamy. Name by 
which wives of the same husband call each other. 

Tendu, s. " messenger." 

Ten-, ad. " up, erect, straight ;" e.g. a soa ten-, " she stood "erect." 

Tere, a. "broken, split" e.g. pondi tere, "a split cane." 

Tere, s. " sun, daytime, day," viz. of twelve hours' dura- 
tion. 
Tere bera, " the sun sets." 

Tere ke kun-te, "the sun reaches the meridian," i.e. "it 
is approaching to, or is noon." 



220 VEI-ENQLISH VOCABULARY. 

Tere-kari, s. "daybreak;'' e.g. sama, tere-kari, amo an'da 
sandsa bo, " in the morning, at the break of day, they 
took the town." 
Tere-bira and te-bira-fen*. " umbrella, parasol." 
Tere, v. " to spend the day ;" e.g. nterea sokena, " I spent the 
day in working," ie. " I worked the whole day ;" nte- 
rea mfa bara, " I spent the day with my father." 
c. Mani, " to spend the day in feasting with one, to make a 
feast for him;" e.g. a tereamani, "he entertained him 
sumptuously." 
Teremapi, jr. ." sumptuous entertainment, feast ;" e. g. an'da 
teremani ma, " they made a feast ;" a na teremani ma, 
OT a terea mmani, " he made a sumptuous entertain- 
ment for me." 
Tere-bo, s. " sunrise, east." 
Tere-dsi, s. " sunset, west." 

Terenga, ad. "opposite;" e.^. terebo be terebera terenga, 
" the east is opposite to the west." 
" With each other, together ;" kurua ferame fara terenga, 
" the two war-chiefs died together. 
Ti, V. "to become, to be;" e.g. a ti mandsako, " he became a 
chief;" anu tia nu sam fera, "they were two years 
there." 
riere and tie, a. " swift, alert, active." It is construed with 
ro; e.g. iido tiera, "I am swift;" mfaro tieremu, 
" my father is swift." 
Tiere, s. " hatchet, axe." 
Tie. s. " fowl." 

Tie-keri, " fowl's egg." 
Tie kaima, " cock ;" tie musuma, " hen." 
Tie. V. " to cut, cut up, butcher ;" e.g. i bawara tie, " cut up 
the sheep." 
"To cross;" e.g. na dsie tie, " I crossed the water." 
Tie-da, " landing-place, ford." 
ri-mo, s. "owner, possessor;" e.g. kene-ti-mo, " owner of a 
house." 



VEI- ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 221 

Tina, s. " place f' e.g. mu ta da-tina dse, ** let us go and see 

the place of festivity." 
Tina, postpos. ' to ;" e.g. mbe ta raandsatina, " I will go to the 

chief." 
Tindiri and ken-tindiri, s. " stocks ;" e.g. an' na siinda gbangba 

tindiriero, " they thrust my visitor into the stocks." 
Tin*, s. "tidings, news, report, rumour ;" e.g. ya Gomere-tin 

dan- ? " hast thou heard the report of the Governor ?" 

anun' ta tim fo mandsaye, " they go and tell the news 

to the chief." 
Tin", s. " island, isle." 

Timma, and more generally tindo, " on the island." 
Tiri, s. " waist." 

Tiri-dsuru, strings of beads, worn by girls round their 

waists. 
Fi-tiri, s. " twilight, dusk.'' 
Tirinini and tinini, ad. " full, up to the brim ;" e. ^. da a fa 

tirinlni, " the pot is full up to the brim." 
Tirin", s. "struggle, fight, battle; wrestling ;" e.g. moa tirin*e 

bera wuraro, " we had a fight in the wood." 
Tirin" and tirinke, v. " to fight, to struggle, to wrestle ;" e.g. 

moa tirinke momea kaka, " we struggled long for this 

person," i.e. we tried our best to keep him alive by 

using medicines, charms, &c. 
Toke, a. " mild, soft, easy, genteel, quiet, patient." 
Toke, ad. " softly, gently." 
Tombo, s. "play, dance." 
Tomboke and tomboeke, v. " to dance." 
Tono, s. " worm." 

Tonya, s. "truth ;" e.g. tonya be nu, "no truth is there," 
Tonya, a. " true, truthful ;" e. g. kome tonyamu, " this word 

is true." 
Tonya bira, v. " to take for true, to believe." 
Ton*, s. " name." It is often used where we use the verb sub- 
stantive ;" e.g. ntom mandsa, "I am a chief." 
Tofo, V. properly, "to say the name," i.e. "to mention;" e.g. 



222 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

a ntofo, " he mentioned me ;" a kanmba tofo, " she 
mentioned God." 
Tongbo, s. " palm-tree." 

Gba-tongbo, a young palm-tree whose trunk cannot yet be 
seen, because the branches have not dropped off. 
Tore, a. " rotten, decayed." 
Toro, V. " to grow fat'' 

Toro, s. " sorrow, trouble, affliction ;" e g. i se ya torera, " I 
thank thee for thy trouble ;" toro-kai, " a man of 



sorrows." 



To, s. " remainder, half;" e.g. amo a toe bi, " and he took the 
remainder ;" suma fera hi* ato, " two measures and 
a-half," 
To, V. " to be left, forsaken, suffered, permitted ;" e.g. na to nu, 
" I was left there." 
"To leave, forsake, suffer, permit;" e.g. na na dsa-femme 
gbi to, " I left all my goods ;" ai to tune dsiero, " it was 
suffered to sink in the water." 
"To leave off, to cease;" e.g. an' toawa fona gben', "they 

had just ceased speaking." 
c. Dsaro, " to leave or reserve for ;" e.g. anu fai don to anu 

dsaro, " their father had reserved rice for them." 
c. Dsama, v. "to succeed, become successor;" e.g. na to a 
dsama, " I succeeded him ;" Zauni to mandsa-dsa ma, 
" Zau is to be the chiefs successor." 
Tona, s. "bellows." 

Tona-mo and tona-ma-mo, s. " blacksmith." 
Tonamana, s. " smithy," 
Tora, s. "rat;" tora-bu, properly, "rat-dung," i.e. a kind of 

beads. 
Toran', s. " hook, forked stick." 
Tore, a. " left;" 
Toro, s. "cola-tree, cola-nut." 
Toti, s. " frog." 
To, s. " right, right side," generally mo-to. 

To-boro, " on the right hand ;" ntoro, " on my right." 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 223 

Tombo, s. area of a deserted town. 
Tori, V. " to rot, putrify, decay." 
Toro, s. " ear." 

Toro-kani, " ear-ring." 

Bu-toro, s. the touchhole of a gun. 

Toro so, or to so, properly, " to put the ear to, to listen to, 
to hearken ;" e.g. ya i to so kenna, " thou didst listen at 
the house." 
Toroma* s. " star." 
Tu, V. "to knock, to strike ;" e.g. niera ntu, "the cow ran at 



11 
me. 



" Beat, pound :'" e. g. na kore tii, " I beat rice." 
Tune, V. " to dive ;" e.g. ntune dsiero, " I dive in the water.'' 
" To sink ;" e.g. sua kunni tune dsie koro, ke suamu, "when 
the milt sinks in the water, then she is a witch." 
Tuna, s. " flying dog," a sort of large bat. 
Tungba, s. " arrow." 
Tun'gbe, s. " walking-stick," 

Tungbe-ko, s. "court-matter, a case to be settled in a council 
of judges." The expression is derived from the cus- 
tom, that the speakers in these courts of justice hold 
a staff in their hand so long as they are speaking. 
Tungbe sa, " to hold a court of justice." 
Tungbe-ko ro nyia, " to give the satisfaction, or pay the 
fine fixed by the judges." 
Turi-turi, v. "to turn or twist about," as, e.g., in agonising 

pains. 
Turu, s. " oil, grease, fat." 

Turu dsare, lit. "red oil," i.e. "palm-oil," 
Kondse-turu, " palm-nut oil, or palm-butter." 
Doasa-turu, s. a fat substance obtained from the nuts of a 
tree, and resembling lard in virtue and appearance. 
Turu and tii, v. " to plant," by putting into holes or upon 

heaps ; e.g. na gbasa turu, " I plant cassadas." 
Tusa, u. "to ask, inquire of, to question;" e.g. na i tusa, "I 



224 VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

asked thee ;" mfa antusa koa, " my father asked me 

a question." 
Tiiti, ad. expressing emphasis after words denoting smallness ; 

e.g. ti den tuti, "a very small fowl." 
Tutu, ad. " no answer." 

V. 

Va, s. "hamlet, village." 

Va-du, s. " a square-shaped house." 

Vanya, s. " vein, sinew.*" 

Vari, V. " to go off," said of a trap. It is often contracted 

into vei. 
Vezi, 1'. " to sow;" e.g. na kore vezi, i.q. na kore fei, "I sowed 

rice." 
Vivi, s. " tornado, thunder-storm." 
Vombe, *. ; e. g. kumu-vombe, queen-bee ;" vombe-tura, " a 

kind of rat." 
Vovo, *. " lights, lungs." 

W 

Wa, *. "side." 

Wa-kuru, " rib." 
Wandsa, s. the common red squirrel, 

Gbon-wandsa, a large sort of grey squirrel. 
Wara, *. " mat." 
Wasi, V. " to strip, take off," e.g. bananas from the bunch, 

leaves from a branch. 
We, ad. " now.'* 
Were, and rarely wore, " to-day ; last night." 

Were-terero, " on this present day." 

Were-suyero, " last night.' 
Were, often contracted into we, v. " cannot, may not, will not," 
Wonye, v. " to itch ;" e.g. ai nwonye, " it makes me itch." 

Didi-wonye, s. large ants, called drivers. 



VEI-ENGLTSH VOCABULAIir. 225 

Wori-gbon-, s. " a large dish.'" 

Wosa, V. " to bale, bale out." 

Wose, s. " holloing, loud noise, applause." 
Woseke, v. " to hollo, applaud." 

Woso, s. a white clay, used by females for ornamenting their 
faces, and sometimes to besmear their bodies, in or- 
der, as they say, to prevent or remove itch. For the 
latter purpose it is also used by men. 

Wori and wuri, s. " blood." 

Wori-fen-, " a living creature, an animal." 

Wui, s. a brown deer, about half the size of a goat, with horns 
of about an inch long, which are often worn for or- 
naments by children and w^omen. 

Wumbe, s. a place used as a rendezvous. 

Wunde, s. a brick, generally from four to six inches high, 
its base being two and a-half inches square, and its 
top two inches, made of clay dried in the sun, and 
used in cooking : three or four bricks being put 
under the pots, so that the fire can burn freely 
between them. When used in boiling salt, they are 
generally of larger dimensions. 

Wunu, s. " a mortar." 

Wundse, s. " cork- wood." 

Wiira, V. "to strip." 

Wura, s. a primitive forest. 

Wuri, V. "to boil;" e.g. i dsie wuri ndse, "boil water for me." 

Wiiri, V. " to move on all fours, to creep," but only used of 
human beings; e.g. amo a dene wuria, "and her 
child crept." 

Wuri, V. " to row, to pull." 

Wuro and wuru, v. " to will, wish, like, want." 

N'giiro, " I want ;" riima urara, " I do not want it." 

Wuro, s. " baboon." 

Wuro, s. " thigh, leg." 

Bawara-wuro, " a leg of mutton." 

Wuru, V. "to bear, bring forth, beget;" e.g. musu a wiiru, 

2 a 



226 VEI -ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 

" the woman has borne him ;" mfa n*guru, " my father 
has begotten me." 
"To beget or bring forth a child" (of. the use of l/'^) ; 
a wuruke kurumba, " he had begotten many children ;" 
an'da wuruke ; dem biri ton Doaru, " they had begotten 
a child ; that chikrs name is Doaru." 
Wiiru, s. " dog." 

Wiiri nyana, "dog -louse, flea." 
Wusa, s. title of that heri man through whom the beri-zo con- 
fers with the rest of the beri people. 
Wuso, s. a kind of whitish clay, used by the female natives 
for ornamenting their faces. This clay, after being 
dried over the smoke, is also frequently eaten by 
young women whilst in a state of pregnancy. At 
Mina I also knew an old man who was in the habit 
of eating it, especially, as I was informed, at night, 
when in bed. 

Y. 

Ya, pr. " thy." 

Yombo, s. " dainty, delicious, precious food." 

Z. 

Zao, s. "complaint, accusation." 

Zau dsira, "to make a complaint;" e.g. a zau dsira Vei 
gberea, " he made a complaint to all Vei." 
Ze', s. '' soup, sauce." 

Se -don', " rice with sauce." 
Zi, ad. " a while, a little." 
Ziao, s. "only." 

Kai ziao, " widower." 

Musu ziao, " widow."" 
Ziawa, .9. a dance accompanied by a peculiar kind of song. 
Zo, i. head or chief of any art ov profession ; e.g. sande-zo, 
beri-z5, bori-zo, &c. 



VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. 227 

Zozo, s. "joy, merriment, frolic, wild gaiety;" e.g. anoa zozo 

ma, " they made merriment." 
Zu, ad. " hastily, quickly,^' only used in connexion with 

zumu. 
Zii, *. " spike-nail ;" e.g. na zuye gbangba gbendero, " I drove 

a nail into the post.'' 
Ziimu, V. "to snatch, to catch hastily;"" e.g. na sisie zumu, 

" I caught a gnat." 



DAN'AMR. 



APPENDIX. 



It has been suggested that an account should be added to 
this Grammar respecting the mode of writing invented b?/ 
the Vei people themselves, and that the memory of this 
interesting fact should thus be preserved, especially as the 
pamphlet which contained such an account, viz, the " Narrative 
of an Expedition into the Vei country of West Africa, and the 
Discovery of a System of Syllabic Writing, by the Rev. S. W. 
Koelle," is nearly out of print. I respond to this wish the more 
gladly, as it will afford me another opportunity for making 
honourable mention of my late friend, Momoru Doalu Bukere 
(English, Muhammed Doalu Gunwar) or Doalu Gburomo 
{English, Doalu, the Bookman), the noble and modest originator 
of the only mode of native writing ever discovered amongst the 
negro race, and who is now no longer in the flesh, but yonder in 
the world of spirits, which so often had occupied his contemplative 
mind before his translation thither. 

Perhaps it will be best for our present purpose to give a short 
extract of the above-named pamphlet. 

About the middle of January 1849, Lieutenant Forbes, Com- 
mander of H.M.S. Bonetta, came to Fourah Bay, in order to 
inquire, whether the Missionaries of Sierra Leone had ever heard 
of a written language amongst the natives, some distance down tne 
coast. He had been ashore near Cape Mount, and observed that 
there the natives had a mode of writing of their own. On inquiring 
as to its origin, he was told that four men had once brought this 
art from the interior of Africa. We could not doubt the existence 
of such a language, as the captain showed us a manuscript written 
in it. 

As no trace of negro writing had ever been found, and as, 
had the statement proved true, that the newly-discovered writing 
was brouo-ht from the interior, we might have had reason to look 



230 APPENDIX. 

out for a literary nation in the unknown regions of Africa ; the 
local Committee here thought the matter of importance, and ap- 
pointed me to take a journey into the country, and to collect all 
possible information respecting it. A passage immediately offering 
itself, I left Freetown on the 27 th of January, and arrived at 
the Sandbeach, near Cape Mount, on the 1st of Febuary. The 
vessel in which I went was bound for Liberia, and therefore she 
went on, as soon as I was landed. But the supercargo, a Liberian, 
kindly accompanied me ashore, and introduced me to an Ame- 
rican trader, a man of colour, who was living on the Sandbeach. 
As there were not many natives dwelling there, I wanted to 
go up the country at once ; but the American to whom I had 
been introduced told me that this was quite impracticable, on 
account of a civil war by which the country was disturbed. 
Accordingly, I had to avail myself of his offer to stop with him, 
till it would be possible to proceed further inland. 

A fortnight after my arrival on the Sandbeach, one of the con- 
tending parties came there and took possession of it. I was now 
in the power of the chief, who, however, was friendly towards the 
English. As I had learnt that the inventor of the Vei writing was 
living in their territory, I at once asked his permission to let me 
proceed thither. But he refused, saying, " You are now in my 
power ; if I let you go, and you are killed up in the country, the 
English will come and require your blood at my hands. Wait, 
till we have driven our enemies out of the country, and then you 
may go up and stop as long as you please." So I had to be con- 
tent to stay longer on the sea- shore. 

When, in the course of the war, the town of Tuso was besieged, 
which had been obstructing the road from the Sandbeach to the 
upper part of the country, I again made an attempt to get per- 
mission, from the chief, to let me go up to Bandakoro, where the 
inventor of the Vei mode of writing was said to reside. After 
some hesitation, he told me that in the evening he had to send 
a canoe to fetch provisions, and that I could go in it. These 
were glad tidings to me, for I had now been detained on the 
Sandbeach for nearly four weeks. At five o'clock the same day 
I left, together with a wounded soldier, and two boys who had to 
row the canoe. 

When I arrived at Datia, I was first observed by some sentinels 



APPENDIX. 231 

posted outside this well fortified-village, and after having told 
them my friendly intentions, they opened its gates to me. Having 
entered, I was led, through exceedingly narrow lanes, to a small 
hut, in which I was to spend the night. At first I stood there in 
profound darkness; but, after a while, a woman came in and 
lighted a fire upon the floor, Avhich had to serve the purpose of a 
lamp. Soon the house was filled with curious spectators, who 
asked me a multitude of questions. The air became so close 
and hot, that it was almost insufferable. At half-past ten o'clock 
I politely begged my visitors to retire, and to let me take some 
rest. But I had to repeat my request several times, before it was 
attended to. When they were gone, I told my servant, with a 
special emphasis, to shut the door close ; for which I had sufficient 
reason. But how surprised was I to hear his reply, " Sir, there 
is no door ! " At first, I did not know what to do ; but after 
looking about, we discovered a ragged mat, which we suspended 
before the entrance, and then, commending ourselves to the pro- 
tection of our Heavenly Father, we laid ourselves down to 
rest — I upon an old bedstead of native manufacture, the only 
article of comfort in the house, and my servant upon the ground 
by my side. 

I had sufficient time to view the town before breakfast next 
morning, for in the Vei country the cooks are not so expeditious 
as in the hotels of Europe. It was past eight o'clock, when 
my fried fowl was ready, and so I could not leave till nearly 
iiin£, though I had intended to be off at day-break. On my 
journey higher up the Bisuma, I was exposed to some danger, 
owing to the small size of our canoe, and the carelessness of the 
canoe-men. It was so small, that we had to sit down on the 
bottom of it, in order to affect its equilibrium as little as possible 
by the motion of our bodies. Once it turned so much on one side, 
that it was half filled with water ; and scarcely was I aware of 
it, when the Natives had already jumped out, and I found myself 
alone in the canoe. Happily we were just then in a shallow part 
of the river, and the evil could easily be remedied. After this 
they showed a little more concern about their canoe, and we 
arrived safely at Da about half an hour after noon. 

Da is situated on the river Bisuma which might be more pro- 
perly called a lake. Its water is stagnant, and its breadth about 



23'2 APPENDIX. 

eight or nine niiles. Originally, however, it must have been the 
lower course of the Ma river, which could only with difficulty 
have found its way through extensive masses of sand into the sea, 
and has, therefore, no doubt formed swamps thereabouts for a 
long time. At last, the sea broke through the masses of sand, 
and covered the low land, through which the Ma wound its wav 
as far up as Da. This accounts for the saltness of the water 
in the Bisuma, and for the fact, that at Da the river at once nar- 
rows into a breadth of only about fifteen yards. Its banks do not 
consist of rocks, but of a low swampy soil, covered with man- 
groves. This small river bears the name of Ma ; but the name 
of Bisuma is applied to the water from Da quite down to the 
Sandbeach. 

After having rowed up the quiet, black-looking, almost mo- 
tionless Ma, for about two miles, we had to land and pursue our 
way to Bandakoro on foot A few hundred yards from the river 
I saw the spot where Dshoni once stood, the native place of Doalu 
Bukere's grandmother. Here our travelling difficulties began 
afresh. The carriers took my luggage on their heads and ran on 
with it, so that they were soon out of sight, amid the thousand 
serpentine windings which the path takes through the forest I 
was not afraid of their running away, but expected soon to find 
them seated under a tree. And so I did. But now they began 
to trouble me, saying that they could not go any further — that 
Bandakoro was too far, &c. But good words, accompanied by a 
small piece of silver, or a larger piece of an English biscuit, 
always reconciled them to the thought of proceeding a little 
further. And really their work was not a very easy one. The 
man who carried my portmanteau on his head had several times 
to proceed on his knees for some distance, on account of the over- 
hanging branches of the trees, which, however, formed a beautiful 
umbrella over the narrow path, so that we could walk in the 
coolness. and darkness of shads, almost in the middle of the day. 
Oiice we had to cross a swamp, of about five or ten minutes in 
breadth, on pieces of wood, sometimes scarcely thicker than a 
man's arm, which were laid across forked boughs, by which we 
had to hold ourselves, to prevent our falling into the mire. 

At last, after a walk of four or five miles, we emerged from the 
thicket of the forest ; and before our eyes there stood a moderate 



APPENDIX. 233 

hill, with the crown of a stockade on its head, and beautifully 
illumined by the mild rajs of the setting sun. It was a most 
agreeably surprising sight to see such a pleasant spot in the 
midst of a wilderness. Our paces were quickened, especially when 
we saw some persons come out of the gate, and appai-antly waiting 
for us before the town. They were two men; the one with 
features expressive of mildness and benevolence; the other, 
not quite so advantageously distinguished. "What news?" 
was at once the question put to me, with a hearty shaking of 
hands, and with the explanation, that, to ask this at meeting, was 
the custom of the country. The next question was, " Now tell 
us, what has brought you to this comitry ?" Having repHed to 
this, I said, " I want to see a certain Doalu Bukere ; can you not 
tell me where he lives?" Then the man with whom I spoke 
laughed heartily, and said, " You want to see Doalu ? that is 
myself, who am now speaking with you." This promised success 
to my mission ; for hitherto I had entertained fears lest the people 
should refuse to give me sufficient explanation of their country 
books. As soon as they heard that I intended to stop with them 
some days, they said, " Then come with us, and we will show you 
where to dwell, till you go back again." Then I followed them to 
a neat new hut, belonging to Kali Bara, Doalu's companion, which 
I occupied during my whole stay in Bandakoro. A short while after, 
Doalu went away and brought some more men to introduce thera 
to me. Then he said, " We are now prepared to hear more about 
the object of your coming amongst us." But I was obliged to beg 
them to wait till the next day, for I was quite exhausted from the 
troubles of the journey, having had nothing to eat since morning. 
The next morning they came early, and reminded me of my pro- 
mise ; upon which I told them that I had heard of some men here 
who had written their own language, but that their books were 
now old, and so I came to bring them new paper, on which the^ 
might copy them, and then let me have the old books, that I might 
show them to my friends, who were also great friends of the black 
people. They were pleased with this, and at once my landlord 
began to copy his book. However, I had to finish it, and Doalu 
Bukere afterwards said to me, " White people can write better 
than black people : you must copy my book for me." I gladly 
accepted the offer ; but was not able to write with so little appa- 



234 APPENDIX. 

ratus as they do. They sit upon a low bench, and then their knees 
serve for their writing-desk. When I asked them for a table, 
they informed me, there was not one in the whole village. I there- 
fore put my two trunks one upon the other, and so contrived a 
writing-desk, which, perhaps, was not much more convenient than 
theirs. But an old European camp-stool, the only one in the 
village, was afterwards brought for my use. This shows that 
they have but few commodities. As to their writing-materials, 
Doalu told me that they do not write with " bird's hair," as we 
do, but with pens made of reed, and that they prepare their ink 
from leaves in the bush, which they call ink-leaves. 

The nature of the Vei writing plainly shows its entire indepen- 
dence of both the Arabic and the Latin. In proof of this, I refer 
not so much to the shape of the letters, though this also shows it 
at first sight, as to the fact, that the Vei is a syllabic mode of 
writing, M'hereas the Arabic and Latin are alphabetic. Each 
syllable in the Vei writing has only one simple sign for its repre- 
sentation. An alphabetic mode of writing is the most developed 
method of representing thoughts to the eye. Such a system pre- 
supposes some grammatical knowledge, and an ear already 
exercised to a certain degree. And this cannot be expected of a 
people, when making their very first attempt in writing. The 
syllabic character, therefore, of the Vei writing speaks much in 
favour of its natural origin. The people write from left to right, 
which is another proof of their independence of the Arabic ; yet, 
from the nature of the characters, they can also write from right 
to left, or from top to bottom, and this I saw a few men do ; but 
Doalu himself, and the majority of the people, write in the same 
way as ourselves. It will be seen, from the subjoined specimen, 
that the letters are not joined, as in English, but loosely follow 
one another, as in Hebrew. No interpunction is used, neither are 
the words separated fi'om each other, but character follows cha- 
racter, in a " serie continua," just as in very ancient Greek manu- 
scripts. 

But although the Vei mode of writing is very undeveloped, yet 
it does not stand so low as to be merely hieroglyphic or sym- 
bolical ; on the contrary, it is fully entitled to be cdW^d phonetic al ; 
for the three characters which appear to be symbolic, viz., o°o, 
hiii "gun;" , iahi, "water;" and o o, (jba, "money," 



APPENDIX. 235 

form such a small proportion of the whole number of characters, 
which are above 200, that they alone cannot decide the question ; 
and they are, moreover, used as fi'equently in a phonetic capacity 
as in the one which might be called symbolic. Neither is the case 
altered by the circumstance that most of these simple characters 
seem to have been originally intended to represent distinct words; 
for in a language containing so large a proportion of monosyllabic 
words as the Vei, a syllabic mode of writing could scarcely avoid 
the coincidence of many of its characters with monosyllabic words. 
But although certain characters uniformly represent certain mono- 
syllabic words, yet they are, at the same time, used for other words 
of a similar sound, and even as mere parts of polysyllabic words, 
which could not be done if the signs were not considered as really 
phonetic. Nor can it be of consequence in deciding such a general 
question, that we meet with a few simple characters which re- 
present polysyllabic proper names, for these are mere mementoes 
for the writer himself, and not generally legible. 

We are therefore justified in characterizing the Vei mode of 
writing as independent, original, syllabic, and phonetic. 

Having thus considered the nature of the Vei writing, let us 
now review its origin and its history. Doalu Bukere, who was 
about forty years old when I paid him this visit in Bandakoro, 
was the real inventor of it, assisted by five of his friends. The 
first impulse to attempt it, was given him in a dream, which he 
narrated to me as follows: — About fifteen years ago, I had a 
dream, in which a tall, venerable-looking white man, in a long 
coat, appeared to me, saying : " I am sent to you by other white 
men." Doalu asked : " What is the object for which you are sent 
to me ?" The white man replied : « I bring you a book." Doalu 
said : " This is very good ; but tell me now, what is the nature of 
this book?" The white messenger answered: "I am sent to 
bring this book to you, in order that you should take it to the reSt 
of the people. But I must tell you, that neither you, nor any one 
who will become acquainted Mdth the book, are allowed to eat the 
flesh of dogs and monkeys, nor of any thing found dead, whose 
throat was not cut; nor to touch the book on those days on which 
you have touched the fruit of the To-tree (a kind of very sharp 
pepper)." The messenger then showed Doalu his book, and taught 
him to write any Vei words in the same way, in whicli the book 



236 APPENDIX. 

was written. This made a deep impression on Doalu's mind, and he 
described it to me most graphically. He said the man thus addressed 
me: "Look, Doalu, this sign (writing the sign with his finger on the 
ground) means i. Then he wrote close to it another sign, saying, and 
this means, na. Now, Doalu, read both together !" Doalu did so, and 
was delighted to have learnt to read the word ina, i. e. " Come here ! " 
In the same way the messenger showed him how a great number of 
other words could be written. At last Doalu asked his instructor 
concerning the contents of the book he had brought. But the 
answer was : " Wait a little ; I shall tell you by and by." After 
this, Doalu awoke, but, as he told me in a sorrowful tone, was 
never afterwards informed of what was written in the book. In the 
morning he called his friends together, in order to tell them his 
dream, viz. his brother Dshara Barakora, and his cousins, Dshara 
Kali, Kalia Bara, Fa Gbasi, and So Tabaku, the latter of whom died 
about three years ago. They were all exceedingly pleased with the 
dream, and quite sure that it was a divine revelation. A few days 
after. Kali Bara also, as he himself told me, had a dream the reality 
of which, however, I doubt— in which a white man told him that 
the book had come from God, and that they must mind it well. 

Perhaps it will not be amiss to state here what, in my opinion, will 
account for Doalu Bukere's dream. Doalu Bukere was a thinking 
man; and what once occupied his mind seemed to occupy it altogether 
and constantly : all his thoughts and energies seemed to be con- 
centrated on this subject. Now there was once a white Missionary in 
the country, with whom Doalu, when quite a little boy, had learnt to 
read for about three months, till the Missionary's departure. This, 
in some measure, awakened his desire for learning. He could 
still repeat some verses from the English Bible, which he had 
learnt from that Missionary. Afterwards he was employed as a 
servant by slave-traders and common traders on the coast. They 
often sent him on an errand to distant places, from which he had 
generally to bring back letters to his master. In these letters his 
master was sometimes informed, when Doalu had done any mischief 
in the place to which he had been sent. Now this forcibly struck 
him. He said to himself : " How is this, that my master knows 
every thing which I have done in a distant place? He only looks 
into the book, and this tells him all. Such a thing we ought also 
to have, by which we could speak with each other, though sepa- 



APPENDIX. 237 

rated by a great distance." The want of a mode of writing seems to 
have been felt even more generally. This I conclude from a passage 
in Kali Bara's book, in which he speaks of the time, when that 
art was invented. He says : " At that time my father Doalu 
Worogbe began to Hke books. And the people said ; The Poros 
(Europeans) have long heads. Nobody has such a long head as 
the Poros. But some of our people did not believe this. Then 
said I to Doalu (Worogbe) : Why do you call what I maintain a 
lie ? Can any Vei man write a letter and send it to his friend, and 
could he read it?" But Doalu Bukere's mind especially was so 
entirely wrapped up in this ardent desire to be able to read and 
write, that it occupied his thoughts day and night, and this 
formed the natural basis of his curious dream, which seems to have 
been the reflex of his waking thoughts. 

Though Doalu had been well instructed in his dream, yet, as he 
told me, in the morning he could not remember all the signs which 
had been shown him by night. Therefore — these are his own 
words — he and his friends had to put their heads together, in order 
to make new ones. And on this ground we are fully justified in 
speaking of a real invention of the Vei mode of writing. 

But these six men being then only from twenty to thirty 
years of age feared, lest the people might not pay them 
proper attention. So they agreed to take 100 salt sticks, i. e. 
100 parcels of salt, as thick as an arm, and three or foui' 
feet long, and to bring them to king Fa Toro, or Goturu, in 
Tianimani, in order to make him favourably disposed to their 
object. Their present had the desired efiect. The king declared 
himself exceedingly pleased with their discovery, which, as he said, 
would soon raise his people on a level with the Poros and Man- 
dengas, who hitherto had been the only book-people. He expressed 
the curious opinion that this was most likely the book, of which 
the Mandengas (who are Muhammadans) say, that it is with God 
in heaven, and will one day be sent down upon earth. He requested 
them to teach this new art in Dshondu, where they resided, and 
to make known his will that all his subjects should be instructed 
by them. Accordingly, they erected a large house in Dshondu, 
provided it with benches and wooden tablets, instead of slates, for 
the scholars, and then kept a regular day-school, in wliich not 
only boys and girls, but also men, and even some women, learnt to 

2i 



238 APPENDIX. 

write and read their own language. So they went on prosperously 
for about eighteen months, and even people from other towns 
came to Dshondu, to become acquainted with this "new 
book." But then a war broke out with the Guras, in which 
Dshondu was taken by surprise, and committed to the flames, with 
all the goods and books it contained. The destruction of Dshondu 
forms a crisis in the history of the Vei writing. By it the literary 
zeal of the people was so much checked, that they have never had 
any schools since. After the destruction of Dshondu, the 
book-men, i. e. people who can read and write, were scattered 
throughout the country, and it was only about five years ago that 
many of them collected together and built a new town, some 
miles distant from the place where Dshondu stood. The name of 
this new town is Bandakoro, literally, cotton-tree ground, from the 
abundance of cotton trees which are growing thereabouts. At the 
time I first visited it, it appeared to me that a great proportion of the 
male adults in Bandakoro were more or less able to read and write, 
and that in most other Vei towns, near Cape Mount, there were at 
least some men who could likewise spell their " country-book ;" 
but a few days before my second visit, Bandakoro also was 
taken in war, burnt, and its population scattered. 

Doalu Bukere was a very interesting man, and distinguished 
from his countrymen, not so much by a greater intelligence, as 
by an altogether nobler spirit. The Vei people, in general, I 
must call a very sensual and carnal people, the females especially 
unchaste and shameless. They Kve without God, and without 
hope in this world. Idols they have none ; and to the God who 
is a spirit they cannot elevate their carnal thoughts. I saw no 
mode of worship among them, except the Muhammadan. And, 
as if Muhammadanism even were too spiritual for them, not one 
fourth of the population are professed followers of the false prophet. 
But all the nominal Muhammadans I saw drink wine and 
spirits whenever they could get them : they also take as many 
wives as they can afford to buy. All those who are not Mu- 
hammadans are real heathen, a godless people, a people with no 
other god, than their belly. No wonder that such a people have 
gone the common way from atheism to superstition, and that they 
are now slaves to a childish fear of evil spirits and witches, so that 
you may see them often carry about on their bodies actual loads of 



APPENDIX. 239 

greegrees to guard themselves against their influence. Amongst such 
a people, to meet with a man like Doalu Bukere, is an indescribable 
pleasure to a Missionary. I always felt very happy in his company, 
and he also felt attached to me : so that once, when he was called 
to another town, he said to me on his return: " My heart did not lie 
down the whole day, because I could not be with you ; but now 
it has laid down again." 

Doalu was an open, upright, and honest man. His modesty and 
humility surprised me the more, as these are virtues of very rare 
occurrence among the negro race. He was grateful for kindness 
received, and could value disinterested motives. When I was 
lying sick of the fever in Bandakoro, he said to me in one of his 
visits : " My heart troubles me much, because you have come 
amongst us, not in order to trade or to make any gain, but merely 
to tell us the true road to life ; and now you have also to suifer 
sickness for our sakes. But never mind, God will soon make you 
well again." His mind appeared to have been frequently engaged 
with metaphysical and divine things. In our walks which we 
took together, and in which he had often to walk beliind me, from 
the narrowness of the paths, I not unfrequently heard him ejaculate, 
with deep emotion, words like the following : "Ever — lasting! God 
Almighty ! Jesus Christ ! Alakabaru I " He seemed to have been 
under real concern for his soul's salvation, and earnestly seeking 
to secure it. In a conversation I had with him, he once said to 
me : " My heart seeks after God. Once I thought to find God 
in our book-palaver, but it was not so. Afterwards, I believed 
that J could find God in Muhammadanism, and have now been 
praying after the Mandenga fashion these seven yeai's ; but my 
heai't has not yet found God. Now if you can help me, so that I 
may really find God, I shall be very thankful to you." I was of 
course delighted to point out to him the new and living way which 
leads to God and heaven. He was very attentive, to,^ and 
much pleased with, what I said to him on this subject. On the 
day after this conversation, he came again, and asked me in a very 
serious manner, whether it was really my full conviction that the 
Muhammadan road leads to fire, and only the Clu'istian road to 
heaven. I now told him my whole mind about Muhammadanism, 
and he was so much impressed with what I said, that he promised 
to give up the repetition of his unintelligible Arabic prayers. 



240 APPENDIX. 

and to pray henceforward to our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ 

In order to ascertain, as I conceive, whether I should be able to 
refute the objections of his Muhammadan guide, he introduced this 
Malara to me. I then told the latter that I was sorry to see him 
walking on a road which could not lead to heaven. He retm'ned the 
same compHment to me. Therefore I showed him, in a long con- 
versation, that he neither knew my road, nor had a thorough 
acquaintance with his own and that, consequently, he had no reason 
to pity me. At length he could gainsay no longer, but ran away, the 
bystanders saying : " This time palaver caught him." Even Doalu 
appeared to be pleased with the defeat of his master. Before I left 
the country, I offered to take Doalu Bukere with me to Sierra Leone, 
in order to instruct him more fully in the Christian religion. But 
he declined the offer, on the ground that there was then war in 
the country ; " for," said he, " if I were to go now, the people would 
say on my return — *He left us while we had war in the country ; 
so he must now pay a large sum of money.' " 

I regretted that Doalu could not make up his mind to accompany 
me to Sierra Leone, the more so, when I afterwards found, that 
his remaining days of grace were to be so few. On my second 
arrival at Cape Mount, November 2d, 1850, when I wanted to 
visit him again, I was informed that he had departed this life 
several months previously. Thus, however, he was spared the 
grief of seeing Bandakoro taken and laid waste by their enemies : 
he was permitted to descend to the grave in peace, whereas his 
brother, Dshara Barakora, one of his assistants at the introduction 
of the new mode of writing, fell at the capture of Bandakoro, in 
the night of October 27th, 1850, after a brave resistance, in which 
he himself killed four men with the sword. Doalu died of a 
cutaneous disease, called in their own language " kondshe-kira" 
i.e. ball-sickness, which produced in him such an extraordinary 
drowsiness that he often fell asleep while taking his meals. 

-We now give a specimen of his new mode of writing, which is 
taken from a manuscript written by himself, and in which he first 
notices the birth of his firstborn son, Fatoma Seli, and then the 
death of his father ; and to this we add the Vei syllabarium itself, 
with the value of the characters in English, in accordance with 
§. 2 in the grammar. 



APPENDIX. 241 

I. Translation of the Lingual Specimen o/No. II and III. 

" Fatoma Sell was bom of Talu Gula, his mother, one night 
before that in which we first saw the great haze-moon (?. e. on the 
last night of December). That same night I shall never forget. 
This is one (thing). 

" Sau, my father, died in the ' foot-track-m the ground-leaving- 
month' (;. €. November) here at Gbombai. Then the Gbombai 
people sent Doalu Sisi to Dshondu. But Doaiu himself had been 
Tugba Famisa's slave, after whose death he was left in the hands 
of Sau, my father. He went to tell this death-news at Dshondu. 
At that time my father Wonyawere was still alive. It was to his 
house that they called all these gentlemen : my father Bilang, and 
his brother Fa Sangbu, and Surufule, and my father Gang, and 
all the free men. Then said my father Wonyawere to my father 
Bilang : * Go, and fetch ye the dead from Gbombai ; hear!' And 
my father Bilang consented. 

" At that (time), however, we, Sau's family, had not heard of it 
ourselves. Even as to me, the Doalu, my father Sau himself had 
given me camwood at Gbombai and said that I was to go and sell it 
at Souri. I said : ' I will not go up.' He said: * If any thing should 
happen in thy absence, then we will send somebody after thee.' 
Then I consented, but my heart did not lie down (i. e. I did not 
feel quite comfortable). Then I left Gbombai, Avent and slept at 
Dshondu. It was early in the morning when Doalu Sisi went to 
tell this death-news at Dshondu. I, however, as soon as morning 
dawned, and I had finished washing myself, went on my way, and 
had just arrived under the cotton tree, when Doalu Tamia, in 
whose hands Tonni Dubui had been left, sent him after me on the 
way, who having reached me, I asked him, ' What is the matter ?' 
He said, * Some one has come from Gbombai and said that thy 
father's illness has taken a decided turn.' Trembling came over 
me, I returned to that town, and when I had reached our premises, 
I and Dshara Sau {alias Dshara Barakora, his brother) went to 
Wonyawere, my father's : thither we went, and met Doalu Sisi. 
All the people were there on the premises. Then Dshara asked 
Doalu himself, saying : * What is the news at Moro ?' (the district 
to which Gbombai belongs). And he said : ' My father's illness has 
taken quite a turn to-day.' We did not reach our house any 



242 APPENDIX. 

more, and Dshara said, ' Let us go to Moro !' Then we started, 
we, and Doalu Sisi and his people, we were all going ; and when 
we had reached the little grass-field, in the middle between us and 
Dshondu and Gbai, then Doalu said, 'Dshara, one does not 
conceal a matter from a man: — your father died to-day.' Dshara 
fell down on this side, Doalu fell down on that side. Then we 
reached Gbombai. And my father Bilang, himself and his people, had 
arrived, and they spoke to Gbakoi (the chief of Gbombai), saying, 
* There are strangers here.' And Gbakoi said, ' Ye are welcome.' 
He (also) said: 'I had come to you with news; but when ye 
made the (usual ) address of visitors, trembling took hold of me. 
This is why I did not come sooner to you with news. But the 
(whole) morning is at our disposal, gentlemen.' Then said my 
father Bilang : * We came on account of your calling ( us ), ( on 
account of) the person you sent there for us; but what are the 
news here ? ' And Gbakoi communicated them to the men. Then 
they said : ' We thank you for our part ; ( but ) will you not ( now 
also) tell them the reason, why they were called? ' " 

II. Transcription and word-for-word translation of the Lingual 

Specimen, No. III. 

We here give the text of No. III. in three parallel lines, and 
three different modes, viz. first, in a syllabic mode, by merely 
transcribing the Vei figures one by one ; secondly, in an alphabetic 
mode, by representing in a proper orthography, the actual sounds 
for which the native characters in No. Ill are intended ; and, thirdly, 
in a word-for-word translation. A comparison of the syllabic 
and alphabetic transcription will enable us to form an estimate of 
the degree of perfection or imperfection in which the actual sounds 
of the language are represented by the Vei characters. 



fa to ma 


;;€ ri 


a 


ha 


ta ru 


gu ra 


a ra 


Fatoma 


Seri 


a 


ba 


Taru 


Gura 


a ra 


Fatoma 


Sell 


his 


mother 


Talu 


Gula 


she him 


wu ru 


di fi mil ro 


ke 


mu 


ki ya 


sa a ma 


wuru 


difimuro 




ke 


mu 


kla 


sama 


bore 


the night w 


hich in 


then 


we 


slept 


morning 



APPENDIX. 



243 



ghe^ ya 

gbea 
it dawned 



ma 

mu 

we 



a mu mu ra 



amu 

then 

bi ri 

biri 

that same 



moa 

we 

a 



te re 

tere 

spent the day 

du ru 

Duru- 
the haze- 



gbe n- dse re ma 

gben', dserema 
quite evening 

ke re ma dse 
kerema dse. 



ka rb 

karo 
moon 



great 



saw. 



a 
it 



ke 

Ke 

This 



do do 

dondo. 
one. 



we re 

were 
will not 

m 



ka 

ka 

come out from 



n ku n do 

nkundo 
in my head 



ke ya 

kea 
arrived 

di fi 
Difi 

Night 

gba 

gba. 
at all. 



fa 

Mfa 
My father 



sa 

Sau 
Sau 



a 



wu 



ken- gba to bo ru ro ka rd ye wa ni ye 

ken'-gba-to-bo roro — karoewa 
foot-track-leave-in- the-ground — month 



me 
here 



a mu gbo m ba 

'Amu Gbombai 
And Gbombai 



mo nu we 

monue 
people 



du wa ru 

D5aru 
Doalu 



a fa 

afa 
he died 

gbo m ba 

Gbombai. 
Gbombai. 

se ye s. 

Sisi 

Sisi 



ra 



ye 



so 

so 
sent 



dso n du 

Dshondu. 
Dshondu. 



ke re 

Kere 
But ' 



du wa 

D5aru 
Doalu 



ru 



be re 

bere 
himself 



fa mi sa 

Famisa 
Famisa 

m fa 

mfa 
my father 

fo wu 

foa 
to tell 



u 



ma 

a 

his 

sa a 

Sau 

Sau 



dson du 

Dsondu. 
Dshondu. 



dson mu 

dsommu 

slave was 



a 

a 
he 



fa ra ke a mu a 

fake amu 

has died, then 



tu gba 

Tiigba 
Tugba 

td 



a 
he 



bo ro a 

boro. A 
hand. He 

ka ri' 

Kam 
Place 



ta 

ta 
went 

bi ri 

biri 

that same 



fa ku me 

fa-kume 
death-news this 

ba n da 

banda 
time 



a 

toa 
was left 

wa 



wo nya we re be we 

Wonyawere be 

Wonyawele was 

dsa ke na mu a nu ra 

dsa-kennamu anoa 

own house in it was they 



60 ro nu 

bord nu. 

in the land there 

ma dsa me gbi 

mandsame gbi 

the chiefs all 



a 

it 

m fa 

mfa 
my father 

a 

A 

His 

ke re 

kere : 
called : 



244 



APPENDIX. 



m fa 

mfa 

my father 

so ru fu 

Surufiire 
Surufure 



bi ra n- 

Biran* 
Bilang 

hi 

hi- 
and 



hi a 

hi- a 

and his 



nyo mo fa ha 

Fa- 
Fa 



nyorao 
brother 



sa m bu 

San'gbu 
Sanggbu 



hi 

hi- 

and 



re 



m fa 

mfa 

my father 



ke n- 

Gen* 

Gang 



hi 

hi- 

and 



ma dsa den' 

mandsa-derr 
chief children 



kai ma me 

kaimame 
male the 



gbi 

gbi. 
all. 



a mu 

Amu 

Then 



WO nya we re we 



m fa 

mfa Wonyawere 

my father Wonyawele 



a 

a 
he 



fo 
fo 

said 

u 

bi 

take 



m fa 

mfa 

my father 



bi ra n* ye a 
Birandse, 



ro 



Bilang to 



na 

na 

come 



gbo m ba i 

Gbombai, 
Gbombai, 



da u 

daua. 

consented. 

gbe re 

here 

ourselves 



ra 



a bi ri 

A-biriro, 
At that same, 



ro 



he 

he ! 
hear ! 

zi 



aro : 

he said : 

a mu 

Amu 
And 



wu 

wu 
ye 



fa 

ta 
go 



m fa 

mfa 

my father 



fa 

the dead 

bi ra rr 

Biran 

Bilang 



mu 

mu 
me 



du wa ru me 

Doarume, 
Doalu the, 

be re n ye 

berendse 
gave to me 



ma a ro 

maro 
not of it 

m fa 

mfa 

my father 

gbo m ba 

Gbombai, 
Gbombai 



zi, 

however, 

dan' rve 

dane. 
had heard. 



mu 

mu, 
we, 



sa u 

Sau 
Sau 



n- gbo 

Ngbo 

My smaUness 



ta wa 

tawa 
family 

n* ga 

n-ga 
I 



sa u 

Sau 

Sau 



be re 

here 
himself 



ra 

a 
he 



bu n do 

bundo 
camwood. 



a ro 

aro 

he said 



m be 

liibe 
I shall 



ta 

ta 
go 



ka 

ka 
sell 



su wi ri 

Souri. 
SoSri. 



n do m be re 

Ndo, rribere 
I said I cannot 



ta 

ta 

go 



ka w- 

kan*. 
up. 



a ro i ta ro 

'Aro : itaro 

I said : thou go, he said : 



ke ko mu ko ni 

ke kumu kunni 

then thing which when 



ma ni he 

manike 

should happen 



ro, 



i gba 

igbaro 
thee behind, 



ke 

ke 
then 



mo 

mu 
we 



we 

we 
will 



mo 

mo 

a person 



so wa 

s5a 
send 



ife. 

thee after. 



a mu n da u ra 

Amu ndaua. 
Then I consented, 



APPENDIX. 



245 



ke re 

kere 
but * 



m fa ra 

mfara 
my heart 



ma 

ma 

not 



sa 

sa. 

lay down. 



a mil 

Amu 

Then 



nta 
I went 



gho m ba i n ti 

Gbombai 
Gborabai 

gbe re mu 

gberemu, 
early was, 



ki ya 

kla 

slept 



dsn n du 

Dsondu. 
Dshondu. 



du wa ru 

Doaru 
Doalu 



se ye se 

Sisi 

Sisi 



ta 

ta 

went 



m bo wn 

mboa 

I came out of 

a sa a ma 

Asiima 
It morning 

fa kd me 

fa-kume 
death-news this 



fo na dson- du 

fona Dsondu. 
to tell Dshondu. 



n* ga 

N-ga 



zi 



Zl 



however, morning 



sa a ma gbe ya ke 
sama gbeake, 



had dawned, 



m ban n da w kb wa ke n so ro wa ki ra fe 

mbanda nkoake nsoroa kirafe 

I had finished I had washed myself, I started again the way on 



«• ke ya ba da ho ro wa gbe n' a mu du wa ru 

nkea banda koroa gben*, amu Doara 

I arrived cotton-tree under just, then Doalu 

ta mi nya a gbo ro to wo wa to n ni du bu i 

Tamia a boro toa Tonni Dubui 

Tamia his hand in was left Tonni Dubui 



a mu a we so 



amu 
and 



awe 
he ' 



so 

started 



m fe 

mfe 
me after 



n- ke ya a mu m be 

nkea amu riibe 

me reached, then I 



a 

a 
him 



ki ra fe a mu a we 

kirafe, amu awe 

way after, and he 

tu sa n do be mu 

tusa r.do : mbemu ? 
asked I said : what is it ? 



a ro mo 

'Aro : mo 

He said : a man he 



ra 

ra 

his 

ba 

ba, 

great, 



wa bn Jva gbo m ba i a ro i fa 

a b5a Gbombai aro : ifa 

came from Gbombai he said : thy father 

mi ni nya gba m ma ni sa m ba re 

gba. Mmani sambare ^ 
quite. Me about trembling 

n dse re ya we^ nu da ra n* ke ya mu 

ndsereawe nu dara, nkea mu 

I returned that to\vn, I had reached oar 



ki ra wa 

kira wa 

illness it 



minia 
has turned 



246 



APPENDIX. 



dsT, kti TO he 

dsa-koroke, 
own premises, 



a tnu 

amu 

then 



mu 6" dsa ra 

• • 

mu be Dsara 



I and 



Dslmra 



sa a 

Saue 
Sau 



u we 



nu m fa 

nu mfa 

there my father 



mu ice 

• 

mue 
we 



mu ta 

mu ta, 
we went 



wa ya ice 

Wonyawere 
Wonyawele 

clu wa ru 

D5aru 

Doalu 



re dsa ku wu 

dsa-koro ; 
own premises ; 



ro 



ta 
went 

nu 

nu 

thither 



se ye 

Sisi 

Sisi 



se ta ra 

tara. 
met. 



gbi hp we 7tu 

gbi be 
all were 



nu 

there 



du ica ru 

Doaru 
Doalu 



be re 

bere 

himself 



ku ro ro tea 

kororoa. 
premises in. 

tu sa a ro 



tiisa, 

asked, 



aro : 

he said 



a viu 

'Amu 

Then 

be ko 
mbe ko 



mo me 

Mome 
People the 

dsi ra ice 

Dsarawe 
Dshara 



be 
be 



mo ro 
IMoro? 



what news are Moro 1 



a mu 

Amu 
And 

gba 

gba. 

quite. 



a ro 

aro : 

he said : 

mu 

Mu 

"We 



m fa 

mfa 

my father 



ra 

ra 

liis 



ki ra ica mi 

kira minia 

illness has chans:ed 



ni ya ice re 

were 
to-day 



ma ke ro 

ma kero 

not reached again 



dsa ra ro 

Dsararo : 

Dshara said : 



mu ta 

mu ta 
we go 



mu be 

mu be 
we and 

a mu 

amu 

and 



du iva 

D5aru 
Doalu 



ru 



mu 

mu 
our 

a mu 

'Amu 
Then 

nu 



dsa ku wu 

dsa-kuro, 
own house 



ro a mu 

amu 
and 



mu 

mu 
we 



mu 

mu 
we 



be gba i 

be Gbai 
and Gbai 



ke ya 

kea 
reached 

te ma ro 

temaroke 
between 



mo ro 

Moro ! 
Moro ! 

se ye se 

Sisinu, 

Sisi and his people, we 

fa ni den 



so wa ki ra fe 

soa kirafe 
started the way after, 



fani 

grassfield 



mu ta wa gbe re 

mu tawa gbere 

were going all, 

mu be dso n du 

den- mu be Dsondu 
small us and Dshondu 



ke a 



mu 



amu 
then 



n/o 

mo 
one 



ice re 

were 
does not 



ku nu wa 

ko nu 

a matter conceal 



du wa ru 

Ddaruro : 
])oalu said : 

kai ra 

kaira, 
from a man, 



ro 



dsa ra 

Dsara, 
Dsara, 



a 



ro 



aro : 

lie said : 



APPENDIX. 



247 



icu fa ra fa we re 

wu fa ra fa were. 

your father he has died to-day. 



dsa ra we 

Dsarawe 
Dshara 



he ra fee 

bera ke 
fell down here, 



du iva ru ue 

Doaruwe 
Doalu 

a mu m fa 
'Amu mfa 



he ra 
bera 



ke 
ke 



fell down there. 



a mu mu ke gbo m ha 

'Amu mu ke Gbombai. 
Then we reached Gbombai. 



bi ra n' 
Birannu 



71 M 



be re we 
berewe 



And 



a 



nu ive 



my father Biran and his people himself 
ghq n gba ko 



anue 

they 



Ini re 

kure 
word 



bon- 
poured 



Gbakoiye, 
Gbakoi to, 



ke a mu 

ke, amu 

arrived, and 

ye and' 

{indo : 
they said : 



su n da me 

sundame. 
strangers here. 

m he 



a mu gha ko i ro m hu ru be ya ko ro. 

'Amu Gbakoiro : mbcro be akoro. 
And Gbakoi said : my hand is it under. 



a ro 

'Aro: 

He said : 

ku ni 

kunni 
when 



mbe 
I was 



na wi 

nawi 
come 



a ko ivo ra 

akoa 
with news 



ivu 



ye 



wuye ; 

to you ; 



le re 

kere 
but ' 



Sim' da t'l m 

sunda-tim 
stranger-news 



be ra 

bera 

dropped 



m ma m 

mmani 
me about 



wu 
wu 

ye 

sa ba re mu wi 

sambaremuwi. 

trembling was. 



a ku mu m ma fu wa wi a ko wo ra wu ye a ro 

Akumu 
It is why 



m ma fuawi ak5a 

I not came early with news 



n* 



ke re 

kere 
but ' 

oi ra 

Biran* 

Bilang 

mo mu 
momu 



sa a ma mu ye 'pa a nu 

sama miiye, Panu. 

the morning (is) to us, gentlemen. 



wuye. 
to you. 

a mu 

'Amu 
Then 



Aro: 
He said : 

m fa 

mfa 

my father 



a ro 

aro : 

he said : 

so wi 
sowi 



mu 

mu 

we 



na 

na 

came 



ya ke re ke v^a ra ya 



thy 



kerekea: 
calling on : 



nu 
nu, 



person which hast sent there, 

a mi na ki ^e 
kie 



amma 

■what 



sleeps 



m ye 

nie? 
her? 



ke 

ke 

that 

a mu 

Amu 

And 



mu 

mu 
•we 



na wa 

na ; 

should come ; 



gba ko i 

Gbakoie 
Gbakoi 



we 



ya 

thou 

ke re 
kere 

])Ut 

a 

a 
he 



248 APPENDIX. 



a mu 



ke a ma ni ma n dsa den- nu ra 

ke amani mandsa-denua. Amu 

communicated it about to the king-children. Then 

ko ro i ive re 

koro ; iwere 

under ; wilt thou 



a nu ro 


mu bo ru 


he 


mu ta 


anuro : 

they said : 


mu fcoro 
our hands 


be 
be 


mu ta 
our part 


« nu na 

anua 
their 


ke re ko fo 

kere-ko fo 
call-cause tell 


a nu ye 

anuye ? 
them ? 



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Koelle, Si^isriund Wilhelm 

Outlines of a ^^rarrjuar 
of the Vei lan;-uaj;e 



PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE 
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET 



UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY 



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