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THE
"STANDARD-ALPHABET"
PROBLEM:
OR THB PRKL1MINABY SUBJECT OF A
GENERAL PHONIC SYSTEM,
CONSIDERED ON THB
BASIS OP SOME IMPORTANT FACTS IN THE SECHWANA LANGUAGE OF SOUTH AFRICA,
AND IN REFERENCE TO THE VIEWS OF PROFESSORS LEPSIUS,
MAX MULLER, AND OTHERS.
A CONTRIBUTION TO PHONETIC PHILOLOGY,
BY
ROBERT MOFFAT, JUN.,
SURVEYOR,
Fellow of the Soyal Geographical Society.
" The loss of the living traditional pro- " But the linguistic scholar will prefer to
nunciation implies a loss of much more than follow the written system fixed by literature,
what we generally call pronunciation." and to neglect the varying deviations and
Sunen. shades of modern pronunciation." Lepsiui.
fttfalisjrers.
LONDON TRUBNEB & Co., PATERNOSTER Row.
, ( J. C. JUT A, CAPE TOWN.
a AFRICA. ^ Q BROWNE> NATAL
1864.
The right of Translation is reserved.
Unavoidable delays, contingent on the work being edited in a
foreign land, have delayed its publication. The concluding sheets
have been revised by the Rev. J. FRfenoux, of Motito, S.A.
THE PRINTER.
October, 1864.
GEOHGE CNWIN, GBESHAM STEAM PBE88. BUCKLERSBURY, LONDON.
Stack
Annex
5
735"
TO HIS EXCELLENCY
SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B.,
A SCHOLAR IN AFRICAN PHILOLOGY, AND AT THE SAME TIME ITS
DISTINGUISHED PROMOTER,
THIS HUMBLE ATTEMPT TO ARRIVE AT SOME OF THE FUNDAMENTAL
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN SPEECH,
UPON THE BASTS OF A NEW ORDER OF FACTS,
THE RESULT OF PERSONAL RESEARCHES INTO THE . LANGUAGE OF A REMOTE
PORTION OF THOSE INDIGENOUS SOUTH AFRICAN TRIBES WHICH
HAVE LATELY BENEFITED BY HIS EXCELLENCY'S RULE,
is (BY PERMISSION)
MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY HIS OBLIGED SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS,
CHAPTER I.
PRINCIPLES OF CONSONANTAL CLASSIFICATIONS 1
I. Of Classifications at present in use (Ancient and Modern) .... 1
II. General Principles of a Classification suggested by the Mutation
of Consonants in the Sechwana Language 14
CHAPTER II.
ANALYSIS OF SECHWANA CONSONANTS 19
I. The Guttural Series 20
Parenthetical Section [Confusion in Nomenclature and Ortho-
graphy in the usual Classification of the Gutturals] 23
II. The Lingual Series 40
III. The Labial Series 51
CHAPTER IK.
ANALYSIS OF~OTHER CONSONANTS EXAMINATION INTO THE POWERS OF
THE REMAINING LETTERS IN THE GENERAL ALPHABET OF DR.
LEPSIUS THE CLASSIFICATION OF SUCH AS ARE 'REALLY^ ELEMENTS,
AND OF OTHERS THAT MAY BE SUGGESTED BYJTHEM, UPON PRINCIPLES
RESULTING FROM ANALYSIS IN PRECEDING CHAPTER 57
I. Faucales (of Lepsius) 58
(a) Nature of the Spiritus Asper 69
(b) Are there P.inary or Quantitive forms of the Spiritus ? . . . . 75
Cc) The Spiritus influenced by the long quantity or Syllabic Accent 78
(d) Vocalization oftlte Spiritus, and of some Consonants .. .. 80
(e) The Nasals and their Vocalization 90
VI
PAGE
II. The Palatales (of Lepsius) and the Letter q 99
The Oriental q probably the elementary form of the aspirated
consonant 'g noticed under Classification of Sechtoana Gutturals 101
ILL Cerebrates Indicffi (of Lepsius) " 106
IV. Linguales Arabicse (of Lepsius) 112
V. Dentales (of Lepsius) 121
Inquiry into the nature of the letters s and z, th (in thin), and th
(in this), and the probable existence of their elementary forms .. 121
VI. Labiales (of Lepsius) 129
CHAPTER IV.
STJMMABY OF PEECEDING ANALYSES 131
1- Compendious View of the Simple Consonants, as suggested by the
Phonology of the Sechtoana Language 131
IT. On the Application of the Nomenclature and Orthography, above
suggested, to systems of permutation in other Languages . . . . 144
CHAPTER V.
COMBINATIONS OF Simple Consonants 167
(a} Latham's " Law of Accommodation," how far correct ?.. .. 168
C b) Consonantal Diphthongs 174
(c) The Hottentot or Naman and Kafir clicks explicable upon the
principles arrived at in this work
[_No MSS.have been found for this."]
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
IT is in the nature of man and his prerogative to generalize,
however limited the range of his observation ; and in proportion
as this is extended, is he enabled the more or less confidently
to demonstrate the truth of his knowledge, or the degree of
credibility of what he anticipates. Therefore, I presume that
fresh statements, whether of facts or inferences, will be welcome
from any individual in a new field of research, however obscure
or diffident he may be ; especially in this golden age of inductive
science, when particulars, and instances, and data, in every de-
partment, are being scrambled after by all classes of students.
I have been prompted by such considerations as the above to
publish, for the information of others devoted to the study of
language, the results of my observations during a few years of
assiduous research in an elementary branch of the subject. This
I had long selected for my own amusement and instruction in
leisure moments of a professional vocation ; and having recently
been engaged in an active trading life on a wide frontier, among
native tribes, the destruction of whose language is as inevitable
as their speedy social dissolution, I have enjoyed unusual facilities
for the prosecution of my object.
While the quotations, which confront each other on the
title-page of this treatise, present in a concise form the opinions
of two of the first continental scholars on the same subject, they
will also serve to convey an idea of the nature of the task I have
now undertaken. Where such absolute difference of opinion
exists between men possessing stores of learning, there must
rather be a deviation in the researches of either of them, than a
deficiency in his materials. The one, in a special case, proposes
to explain an ancient rock-engraven literature by means of an
investigation into the actual relations of the material elements
of human speech, as " transcribed * * * from the lips" of
those " among whom it has been traditionally preserved ;" * the
other attempts to establish an " absolute rule" of phonetics on
the historical relations of those elements, as represented to the
eye by letters in various existing literatures. I need not proceed
to argue the question as to which is suggesting the proper path
of research for the collection of data, in order to arrive at the
laws of " a natural science," as that of phonetic philology un-
doubtedly is ; and whether the rudiments of this science are to be
conveyed to the mind by the artificial means of letters to the
eye, or rather the more legitimate one of sounds to the ear.
Dr. Lepsius, by means of an immense command of ancient and
modern graphical materials, of both dead and living languages,
and taking the Indian grammarians as a guide, has arrived at
the construction of a " universal linguistic alphabet ;" but truly
elaborate as it is, and however convenient it may be for students
whose attention is confined to the historical forms of the Indo-
European tongues, there is decidedly something of an artificial nature
about it, which must necessarily be discordant with the views of
others who, in confining their investigations to the "living
traditional pronunciation" of primitive tribes like those of South
Africa, are led to arrive at conclusions of a more* demonstrative
character. The quotation to which his name is attached sufficiently
explains the basis of his system, and the difficulty of his labours.
* Dr. Lepsius's researches (1835) into the relation between the Egyptian
and Coptic, after all, I believe, only extended to the comparison of litera-
tures viz., the hieroglyphics and the liturgy.
The following treatise is the result of a mode of research
suggested by the pointed remark of the late Baron de Bunsen, con-
tained in the other quotation. It is a survey of the elements of
articulation as they occur in the crude and simple speech of a
barbarous people, and the principles which enter into their various
mutations and combinations ; which, in an order analogous to
that usually pursued in all natural science, must precede a con-
sideration of the more complicated or syntactical stages of the
material forms of human language. It maintains at the outset,
that " we can understand the historical forms of speech only by
watching and comprehending the process of utterance as it goes
on even now in the individual speaker ;* but rather by observing
the effects of the process on the ear, and in the various permu-
tations of the elements of articulation, than the cause in the
physiology of the voice which pre-supposes the anatomy of the
organs. It, in fact, claims for the humble Sechwana language,
spoken by numerous degraded tribes on the south-eastern borders
of the South African desert (or Khalagare wilderness), and
why not for other unwritten tongues ? that perfection of
phonic purity which Professor Max Mliller concedes only to
the Vaidik Sanskrit, whose historical orthography is more
than two thousand years old ; and for the very same reasons,
viz., that it (can be) " studied by means of oral tradition only,
and .... in the absence of a written alphabet, the most minute
differences of pronunciation (have) to be watched by the ear,"
and " it (has) suffered less from the influence of phonetic corrup-
tion than any tongue from which we can derive our observa-
tions.''! While it does not deny that the phonic forms of the
ancient vernacular Sanskrit were perfect, whatever corruptions
may since have crept into their phonetic representations, it holds
that those of the Sechwana, and some other barbaric dialects, are
* The Saturday Review, Jane 29, 1861, p. 673.
f Proposals for a Missionary Alphabet, &c.,\)y Max AJ tiller, M.A., p xxii.
perfect, and still accessible to the inductive philologer, but at an
immeasurably further advanced stage of inductive science. It
therefore deals only with natural facts, discovered in situ by per-
sonal observation.
As thus treated, the subject may be found to have some new
phases when viewed by men of learning, for whose consideration
I would with becoming reserve and humility submit my views.
It is just possible that a few of the facts, and such conclusions
as have been arrived at, or to which they may come, may
account for various phenomena in the accidence of those written
tongues, in which the development of the essential form has
greatly modified the accidental structure. Though I have
availed myself of the common prerogative of generalizing, and
even speculating to the utmost of my ability, and presume to
state such a possibility, I have given every particular that has
fallen under my notice, to enable the reader to arrive at his own
conclusions, by the aid of such accessory knowledge as he
doubtless possesses beyond me.
In craving the candid attention of the reader, and lest the
title of this treatise should lead him to expect more than it con-
tains, I would beforehand state
a. That the object of the work is not to prescribe a new
system, but rather to contribute to the construction of one,* or to
illustrate the science of universal phonics by the collection and
arrangement of instances from the phonology of the Sechwana
language of South Africa. It is an attempt to treat inductively
on a subject, which, by being usually based on the physiology of
the human voice, has hitherto only been examined deductively ;
nevertheless, reserving to myself the privilege of employing the
* On reference to the tables of consonants in Chapters IV. and V., the
letters in bold type will show the reader the extent to which the classification
is based on data furnished by the language; those in italics", the mode in
which I have attempted to complete it by a train of speculation suggested
by them.
latter speculative mode of analysis, besides so much of classi-
fication as the extent of my train of facts will have admitted.
Without -venturing to assert that, by a consideration of the
elements of articulation of any one spoken language, a correct
system of phonics may be framed applicable to all, it will satisfy
me to intimate that at least an imperfect, and not-incorrect or frag-
mentary, system may thus be framed ; and that the consideration
of other languages, containing additional elements, would, by in-
creasing the number of instances, contribute to a more copious
induction. I have, therefore, proceeded upon the principle that
it is absolutely necessary, for the purposes of this elementary
branch of the science, to arrive at fixed results in one pure and
living dialect, before advancing to a comparative view of different
tongues. This will, I trust, obviate, in my case, a common
objection urged against writers whose observations are confined
to a single language.
b. However I may feel the want of some fixed mode of re-
gistering my researches, as a saving of both time and labour, a
graphic scheme is entirely secondary to my immediate object.
Anything of the kind, even though it may emanate from a
master-mind in philology, must be regarded as immature, till
suggested by a phonic system resulting from an inductive survey,
similar to, but of a far more comprehensive nature than, that I have
attempted. It is in vain to expect it so long as men seek to arrive
at the nature of vowels and consonants exclusively, either by
experiments on the action of the vocal organs, or by artificial
contrivances to imitate them, or by the comparison of existing
historical alphabets.
To the self-experimenting phono-physiologist in the one case,
the facetious advice of Professor De Morgan to the meta-
physical student is particularly applicable, viz. : " I would not
dissuade a student from * * * inquiry ; on the contrary, I would
rather endeavour to promote the desire of entering upon such
b2
subjects : but I would warn him, when he tries to look down his
own throat with a candle in his hand, to take care that he does
not set his head on fire."* In the second case, it happens that
though the ingenious contrivers of speaking machines "have
succeeded in imitating a great part of the sounds used in speech,"
they confess that " every simple and independent sound and
consonant requires a special apparatus ;" they must, consequently,
admit that the production of the unique combination and operation
of the different apparatus would be a task about as hopeless as that
of any optician who would attempt to devise a means of imitating
the peculiar structural arrangement of the eye, whereby the
automatic alteration in the curvature of the crystalline lens adjusts
it to different ranges of vision ; in fact, that what the telescope with
its sliding focal adjustments (spite of its comparative perfection)
is to the wonderful structure of the visual organ, so are " reed
tubes" and " vibrating tongues" to the complicated organism
required in the perfect enunciation and articulation of the most
simple elements of voice. In the third case, it may be urged that
the fact of the English, or any other historical alplwbet, only indi-
cating a limited number of elements, does not necessarily imply that
the language does not contain several additional elements, though
these may be represented by irregular combinations of letters. In
the transliteration of such, " where," to use the words of Professor
Mliller, " for reasons best known to the archaeologist, one sign
may represent different sounds, and one sound be expressed by
different signs, new and entirely distinct questions are involved,
and capable of solution by archaeological and philological research
alone. "-f Hitherto the advocate of historical orthography has as
little to show as either the physiological observer or the artificial
experimenter, in any attempt to establish a natural classification
of the elements of speech. The one mode of research has only
* " Formal Logic," p. 27, Note. f " Proposals," &c., p. 20.
shed a few rays of light on the other, and phonology, instead of
being already " reduced to its last analyses," as a learned American
writer remarks, is, in his own words, as echoed from Sir Robert
Taylor's Institution, Ox/ord, -verily and without equivocation,
"exactly the same that Sanskrit grammarians more than two
thousand years ago defined its elements to be in their own
primeval tongue ;"* but not what it may be, if the modern
philologer will base his inferences on facts of a proper descrip-
tion.f
In corroboration, it may be alleged that the whole system of
phonetic philology, as at present based on ancient and existing
alphabets, and physiological classifications, is but a labyrinth of
graphic schemes. To the various powers given to the Roman letters
in different European alphabets, and various letters representing
the same power, there may be added (1) both letters and
sounds introduced by travellers and navigators of different
nations, in lists of words collected irregularly and carelessly
from uncivilized tribes ; (2) the more complete alphabets of
* Bibliotheea Sacra, Oct., 1859, p. 673. (See also Proposals, &c., by
Max Miiller, p. 22.)
f- The following, from the pen of no less distinguished a philologer than
the late Rev. Richard Garnett, of the British Museum, and which has
occurred to me since the above quotation was written, approaches more to
the sober and truthful:
' It is presumed that enough has been advanced to show that the scale
of permutations in the Indo-European languages, as laid down by Grimm
and Pott, will admit of being considerably extended beyond the limits
which they have assigned; and that it is very unsafe to fix upon Sanscrit,
or any other known language, as a model to which all others are to be
referred. It is believed that there are numerous phenomena in language
of which neither Sanscrit, Greek, Teutonic, nor all in conjunction, can
furnish a satisfactory solution ; and that the real original articulations of
speech have in many cases yet to be ascertained. This can only be
attempted by a copious induction of all known varieties of cognate forms,
and all that we can rationally expect to achieve is an imperfect approxima-
tion to the truth." Philological Essays, p. 254.
missionaries and priests labouring under the same disadvantages
of a diversity of plan ; (3) the host of cumbrous alphabets of
Oriental languages, dead and living; and (4) the numerous
"transliterated" forms of these alphabets introduced by Oriental
scholars of different schools, each according to a " method of
notation peculiar to himself," not to mention the orthoepical
schemes of many authors ; so that it may truly be said,
the operations of the linguist are trammelled by his own
materials.* This complexity of his phonetic materials has been
especially increased since the efforts of Sir William Jones, in
1788, and of Count Volney, in 1795. Missionaries labouring
among conterminous tribes have often made attempts to arrive
at uniformity, and philologers have as frequently seen the
absolute necessity of a universal alphabet for the analytical
purposes of their science; but the general public, with Isaac
Pitman before them, are too prone to suspect every innovation
as only a preliminary to the practical " abrogation" of the ancient
forms of literature. Therefore, such characters as I have made
use of, or even any suggestions on modes of writing the elements
of articulation, must be regarded as arbitrary, though, as much
as possible, in keeping with the Roman graphic system ; at all
events, most of my remarks upon them are confined to the foot-
notes. It will, nevertheless, be seen that, by working on a new
basis, I have attempted to provoke a little discussion on a subject
which every student of unwritten tongues must be most anxious
to see satisfactorily settled ; in order that the constant trouble of
making myriads of alterations may be dispensed with in the col-
lection or publication of orthographical data.
c. Much less do I presume to enter into the controversy on
the subject of " Romanizing" existing ancient and cumbrous
* The numerous comparative tables, occurring in this work, of letters
intended by different authors to represent the same series of sounds, will
alone show the confusion of alphabetic systems.
alphabets, in which some of the first Oriental scholars have been
engaged.* Independently of all the arguments which it is pos-
sible to allege for or against such an innovation on Oriental
graphic systems, it must be confessed that it would amply repay
the labour of any man with the necessary ability, and possessed
with the " phonetic crotchet," as it has been called, to reduce the
" twenty different vernacular tongues" of India, having now "fifteen
various alphabets," to the same phonetic system, based upon iden-
tical phonic principles, without consul ting one volume of philosophy,
poetry, or theology. He would verily be examining them in situ,
and classifying them by a most rigid analytic formula ; while, by
giving his attention to Pali, Sanscrit, and Arabic, he would have
to resort to the " books" of the Buddist, the Hindu, and the
Mussulman which ancient literary repositories, in point of value,
bear the same relation to the living dialects, that a few drawings
of fossils in a museum would have to originals still im-
bedded in the rock. It cannot, then, be denied that a body of
men, by a division of labour, and acting upon preconcerted views
of a phonetic system, would arrive at still more comprehensive
results, which no existing literatures could ever afford. In the
same manner as the learned Bunsen showed that a knowledge
of the traditional Koptic, gathered from the priests, would be
necessary to enable the Egyptologer to decipher the illegible
groups of hieroglyphics, so it would be easy to prove that a
still surviving colloquial dialect would shed light on the most
ancient sacred literature ; for " all sacred language is * *
essentially, nothing but an earlier stage of the popular dialect,
* For: Sir William Jones, Volney, Gilchrist, Monier Williams, Sir C.
Trevelyan, H. T. Prinsep, Dr. Yates, Dr. Duff, Dr. Caldwell, Max Miiller,
Lepsius, the " Times," and others.
Against : J. Prinsep, J. Tytler, Dr. Jarrett, H. H. Wilson, Mohl, and others
See Evangelical Christendom, May, 1860, p. 237.
preserved by means of the sacred books,"* only in an imperfect
and fragmentary, however correct, form.
d. Nor do I attempt to expatiate on the necessity of intro-
ducing a uniform phonetic system for the practical purposes of
the missionary. If we are to credit the opinions of many writers
of the present day, as to the qualifications of a missionary for
example, in India then he requires the preparation of a savan.
He has not only to master the root language of the people among
whom he is labouring, but also that from which its theology has
* " Egypt's Place in Universal History." Bunsen, Vol. I., p. 258.
Indeed, if we would wish to form an idea of the objective value of a
sacred literature, in a philological point of view, and compared with the
traditional language of the people among whom a new religion has been
introduced, we have only to examine any elaborate modern translations
of the Bible into unwritten tongues, such as the Sechwana, for instance,
which will bear comparison with many. The missionary acknowledges
that, in order to maintain the tenor of Scripture, he is compelled in a
measure to mar the colloquial idiom in a few cases; ex gr., to indulge in
circumlocution, where a curt phrase would convey the identical meaning
more elegantly. It cannot be otherwise, as, in the colloquial idiom, there
is so involved a reference to the instinctive customs, habits, and modes of
thought of the barbarian, that it would often be inappropriate, and in
many cases unnecessary, to introduce it; for, excepting the book of Job,
with its host of allusions to the scenes of the outer world, the subject of
all sacred books is generally too confined to allow of the introduction of
more than & fourth part of the spoken words in a comprehensive language.
Bearing this in mind, and the fact that a sacred literature is a new subject
in the language of an ancient or barbarous people, it is not surprising that
we hear of slurs cast by scholars in India on missionary vernacular, and in
this country on school Kaffir. In South Africa, I have heard an intelligent
missionary, after one year's application to the " book," or otherwise " sacred,"
Sechwana, convey the simple truths of Scripture to the natives in the most
intelligible strain, becaiise, during the acquisition of the language, his
phraseology has been confine/l, almost exclusively, to that new subject ; while,
again, I have heard some, comparatively uneducated, of a few years'
standing, so attached to this book or sacred idiom, without at the same time
making themselves daily more acquainted with the common idiom for
colloquial purposes, that their garrulous repetition of it on all subjects was
absolutely disgusting. It is sometimes as well that a translator is as much
at home in the one as in the other.
XVII , -.
been derived, and, of course, their respective alphabets. Of the
six systems of Indian philosophy, the Nyaya, with its excess of
logic ; the Sankhya, with its excess of metaphysics ; and the
Mimansa, with its excess of theology,* all claim his versatile
attention.! To accomplish his object, he must study those tongues
thoroughly, for a smattering is often no better than, absolute
ignorance. But, in order to understand the true end of his
exertions, it is as well to compare his calling and sphere with
those of the philologer.
The vocation of a missionary, who provides an unwritten
language with an alphabet, or finds one imperfectly prepared, is
entirely independent and peculiar ; his aim is the communication
of Divine truth to the instinctive ignorance of heathens; to
substitute for the vague impressions which exist on their
minds of impersonal " rude powers," or subtle deities, the re-
vealed fact of a personal God, or supreme moral Governor for a
superstitious adherence to any human method of expiation, a
living faith in His incarnation and redemptive act for a servile
willingness to appease aught that will quiet conscience, the spirit
of penitence and reformation for the fear of death, the hope of
future existence. Whatever the medium, he seeks to address
man, " be it an A'rya or a Sudra." His teachings have to be
conducted, not so much by an " argumentative exposition" of
his doctrines, and an "elaborate confutation" of those of his
opponents, as " in the form of a testimony * * with respect
to the mode of exhibiting it, though not in the spirit of the
teacher * * dogmatic. r \ He has to declare " intrinsic
* " Indian Logic," by Max Miiller. Appended to " Laws of Thought, by
W. Thomson, D.D.," p. 363.
f " Moreover, as is well known, the peculiar philosophical notions of the
learned Hindus must be understood by those who would effectively evan-
gelise that race." Evangelical Christendom, May, 1860, p. 244. See Ibid.,
Oct., I860, p. 524.
| Works of Rev. Robt. Hall, by Olinthus Gregory, LL.D., Ac., Vol. I., p. 302.
xviu
primordial truths," without the aid of a " syllogism, or quo-
tation" * of human wisdom, and by the mere external means of a
new vernacular. Therefore, in many cases he considers it
immaterial to him what orthography he may use,f as his practical
operations differ from those of the philologer, of whose science
he applies such a knowledge as he happens to have acquired to
suit his own peculiar plans. Moreover, as to his sphere of
duty, what is true of human nature in South Africa, where
the most rigid statist would be compelled to admit it, will be
true of man in all lands viz., that it is only amongst poor, or
isolated, or dismembered communities, that the missionary has
been most successful. One would think, therefore, that as he
has more immediately to explode popular notions, and not systems
of philosophy ; to dispel the superstitious polytheism of the
" unthinking multitude," rather than the atheism and pan-
theism of philosophic sects : in fact, to deal with the vulgar
rather than with the learned he would endeavour to command
a knowledge of the popular dialect, independently of existing
ancient vernacular literatures, in which " the spelling of words is
no longer phonetic but traditional." Indeed, if the fact admitted by
the "Friend of India" and cited by Sir C. E. Trevelyan,f may be
regarded as an approximate estimate of the proportion of the
educated classes to the ignorant masses in India viz., " that only
one million out of the thirty millions of Bengal can read" their
indigenous literature, the missionary can have no doubt as to
which ought to engage his attention, and the mode of writing
speech most likely to facilitate his labours. The amount
* Vinet.
f " But as it is so immaterial how the language is written, and the only
essential point being that the Word of God may be taught in it, I entirely
waive the question as to the mode of writing, &c." Rev. H. G. Knudsen,
R,M.S., in Carres. S. A. A. B. Society, p. 5.
t Papers originally published at Calcutta in 1834 & 1836, on the application
of the Roman Letters to the Language of Asia. London, Longman, 1854.
XIX
of success which has attended the labours of missionaries in
South Africa during the last half century, in the introduction
of a native literature,, is only a proof that as much could be
accomplished among the illiterate of every nation by any who
would choose the same course ; for it must be patent to all, that
what is communicable to the vulgar must be intelligible to the
learned.
The aim of the philologer is far otherwise. While, on the
one hand, he has solved some most interesting ethnologic pro-
blems, such as the identification of the radical language of the
" rude Kelt" of the corners of Britain, with that of the "effemi-
nate Bengali'' of the Indian promontory; and, more' recently,
the stock of the Hottentot of the Southern extremity of
Africa, with that of the ancient Egyptian of the extreme
North and discerns in the future still greater triumphs ;
on the other hand, he feels assured that if " truth consists in the
conformity of the names by which the representations of the mind
are expressed to the representations themselves," and if " lan-
guage is the only external condition on which philosophy is
dependent,"* he has the whole range of mental science at his feet.
To effect these objects, the analysis of language, phonetic as well
as grammatic, is his great power ; the former, by the comparison
of the material forms of human thought, as are to be found in
the various sets of combinations of the elements of articulation,
and in the collocations of words, which distinguish different
tongues ; the latter, by an inquiry into the essential form, or
the law of the process, by which the varieties of names and
syntactical constructions in different languages are but different
expressions for similar cognitions in all.f His sphere of re-
* Sir William Hamilton's Lectures, Vol. I., p. 382.
f This will perhaps be the fittest place for me to append, in explanation
of my meaning here, the following remarks, which I have extracted (slightly
modified) from a letter addressed in February, 1857, to a distinguished
individual greatly interested in the study of aboriginal tongues :
XX
search alone is analogous to that of the missionary's duty. As
with the missionary, the more unsophisticated and humble the
people, the more successful he is likely to be ; so with the
philologer, the more simple and primitive the language in which
he works, the more correct are his conclusions likely to be in
all cases ; for in it the various forms and combinations of either
sound or meaning* are more easily discernible, and resolvable
" It has often appeared to me that many of the so much misunderstood
elementary principles of universal grammar, which are the subject of great
diversity of opinion among scientific men in Europe, may be explained and
proved, and in some instances discovered, by a clear investigation of such
hitherto unwritten tongues, when carefully reduced to writing ; e.g.,
" Mr. Home Tooke's idea of prepositions and conjunctions is, that they
do not form distinct classes of words, but are merely abbreviations of nouns
and verbs." Eneye. Brit., Vol. X., p. 673.
Page 657. " It has been proved, by such evidence as leaves no room for
doubt, that if, though called a conjunction, is in fact a verb in the im.
perative mood, of the same import with give, so that we may substitute the
one for the other without in the smallest degree altering the sense."
The identical word holds good in the Sechwana, in the sentence ha Tti
bobola nka shwa (If I sicken, I may die) ; ha, the equivalent of our con-
junction if, is nothing else than the verb h.a (give), which is in a measure
obsolete in the language, and is usually employed in asking a gift, or at
meals, as mo ha (help, or give him), naea being the more common word
on other occasions.
AGAIN "From (the preposition) merely means beginning, and nothing
else." "As from always denotes beginning, so to and till always
denote the end. There is, however, this difference between them, that to
denotes the end of any thing ; till, only the end of time." Ibid., p. 681.
Now, in the Sechwana sentence, ki le lea ea go CWa (or go simolola ha)
Kuruman go ea Khatwe, the words go cwa and go ea, which are nothing
else than prepositions in their primitive forms, respectively mean to come
out (or to begin tvith), and to go to. Go tsamaea (to be in the act of going),
which is used for till or until, implies time. These are coincidences
showing that, however the accidental forms of language may vary, the
essential form or meaning is the same.
* In illustration I add the following from my note-book, with an example
from the primitive dialect of the Sechwana :
Nothing is more common in writings on mental science than a reference
to the connexion between thought and language; but this seldom exceeds
' half belief and feeble assertion.' The remark of Professor de Morgan,
XXI
into their elements. I have somewhere met with the remark,
that " the concerns of barbarians, unconnected and remote from
all contact with literature and civilization, and destitute of all
" I doubt whether we could have made thought itself the subject of thought
without language," (Formal Logic, p. 34) is, however, more bold and sug-
gestive ; and he surely speaks here of language in its essential forni. But
though we are told by another able author that logic is a science of " the
structural laws according to which man thinks," and by the above profound
logician that " logical truth depends upon the structure of the sentence," I
doubt whether either of them would concede that logic " can but result as a
generalization * * * from an inductive survey" of the science of
universal grammar, i.e., language in its essential form. To any inclined to
this opinion, as well as to those who maintain that language "is not
essential to thought," and go so far as to say " it must not be supposed
that an examination of the rules of language would answer every purpose of
a logical system," the undermentioned facts cannot be devoid of interest.
For it is to be expected that parties holding such opposite views must be at
variance as to whether or not the modality of a judgment belongs to the
copula in other words, whether "logic can take cognizance of the pro-
bability of any given matter;" that is, more plainly speaking, to say,
whether the expressions will be and may be, and their negatives, are not also
simple forms of the copula as much as is or is not.
The Sechivana auxiliary verb, deprived of a host of accessory particles,
may be simply classified under two tenses and three moods (proper).
Moods. Tenses.
Past. Present.
1. INDICATIVE. Jci le Jca tsamaea. Jci ea tsamaea.
I did go (=1 went.) I am going.
2. p Jci le M tla tsamaea. Jei tla tsamaea.
I (did) shall go. I shall go.
3. POTENTIAL. Jci le Jci Jca tsamaea. iiJca tsamaea.
I (did) may go. I may go.
It is evident, from the above, that there is no such thing as a "future
tense ;" but rather, besides what are popularly called the indicative and
potential moods, another mood, of which this " future tense" has all along
been the erroneous representative, and which might, for common gram-
matical purposes, be called the conjectural mood. There is very little doubt,
in my own mind, that these three moods express " modality," or degrees of
knowledge, at times past and present, viz., certainty, probability, and pos-
sibility ; but, as my attention is for the present confined to phonology, I can-
not here enter more fully into the subject. The fact will also, no doubt, be
xxii
historical records, will scarcely be thought to require any great
portion of attention from a philosophical inquirer." True
judging from the fate of such nations and tribes as have in many
countries been discovered by the traveller and navigator, and
which have dwindled before the approach of the colonist, very
much in the same manner as the herds of elephants, ostriches,
and antelopes, before the repeated sallies of relentless hunters
such a remark carries with it a phase of plausibility ; but it is a
false conclusion, based upon the assumption that, inasmuch as a
barbarian is a degraded being, everything pertaining to him
must be correspondingly liable to depreciation. Civilization has
advanced to such a consummation, through all its stages of
improvement, from writing and printing, to the electric, and
more recently the printing telegraph, that distance and time alike
have become annihilated in human intercourse, and enlightened
man has forgotten his ancient position, wherein, without the
means of constructing the symbols of his thoughts, he spoke in
native fluency and simplicity the language he now transmits,
in all its complexity, with the speed of lightning, across con-
tinents and seas. Each science and art, in the historical order
of its occurrence to the human mind, and its application to the
supply of human necessities, has developed and modified, and in
fact, destroyed the original language to such an extent and his
facilities of intercommunion have increased so amazingly by
means of the various modes of expressing thought that he is apt
to magnify the nature of the idiom he speaks, forgetting that it
interesting to those writers who have lately been speculating on the nature
of the auxiliary verbs shall and will, as they occur in English. " Whether
Aristotle's rudiments of logic have not antecedent rudiments which time
may yet bring to light is a somewhat unsettled problem in speculation."
(See Ferriers "Institutes of Metaphysic," p. 14.) Where, but in the
principles of universal grammar, are such rudiments to be found? and
whether more likely in the primitive dialect of the barbarian, or the complex
idioms of the civilized ?
XX111
is only the measure of its power that has been enhanced by the
means of its communication ; that its development and complexity
are the result of the development of mind, and the accession of
new kinds of knowledge ; that, whether man avail himself of
electricity or printing, or his organs of speech, he cannot surpass
the rapidity of his thoughts, and in this respect the degraded
Bushman can vie with the philosopher. When, therefore, we
are told that Home Tooke conceived an "original thought"
regarding the significance of the particles in his native tongue,
and, though " ignorant of the characters even of the Anglo-Saxon
and Gothic languages," acquired their crude and barbarous forms,
" to ascertain whether he had made a discovery," and this most
successfully ; and again, that Jacob Grimm was indebted for his
" law" to his researches into the ancient forms of the German
language, it seems surprising that students in philology have not,
ere this, inferred from such facts the probability that, in the
simplicity of the barbarous and unwritten tongues of newly
discovered regions, are to be found most of the data necessary
for the solution of some of the difficult problems in their science.*
It seems not unreasonable for us to expect that, just as men are
indebted for the greater part of what they know of metaphysical
* I am enabled to fortify these remarks by the following quotations from
able authorities : " The language of tribes who roam wild in a condition
of savage life, is necessarily simple and primitive. So long as they continue
separate and distinct from a civilized race, it is marked by the genuine
impress of nature ; but as soon as they mix with nations more refined than
themselves, in proportion as they gain morally or mentally by the inter-
course, it is observable that, in the same degree, the parent language
becomes vitiated or changed. Modifications and inflexions, unsanctioned
additions, tralatitions, and neologisms, like parasitical plants adhering to an
ancient and venerable stock, are then first observed disfiguring the natural
root; and, as the genius of modern literature has become disdainful of
indigenous compounds, a kind of hybridous vocabulary takes the place of
the old tongue." Edinburgh Review, April, 1844, p. 455.
" It is in.the ruder languages that the important phenomena of develop-
ment and growth the laws of language are best studied." R. O. L.,
Encyc. Britann., Sth Ed., Vol. XI11. p. 195.
science to so much of what the ancients knew as was preserved
in the monasteries of the middle ages, so they will have to look
to the perspicuous structure of these primitive languages, which
have hitherto remained concealed in the dark recesses and shades
of history, for any principles elucidative of the laws of speech
and thought.
But the condition of harbarous man is ephemeral ! Guided by
the knowledge of the past, we can only rest our hopes or fears of
him on sheer probabilities. That his normal constitution will be
annulled, and his social system dismembered, and that this will
result in his gradually disappearing from the dismal scenes of his
degradation, the whole tenor of modern history only convinces
us. This ephemeral nature renders him the more interesting to
both the missionary and the philologer. The former redoubles
his efforts in scattering the seeds of knowledge, and raising the
bright cloud in the path of the benighted to futurity ; the latter,
in grasping at each new appearance of truth, is rendered impatient
by the conviction that " every day destroys a fact, a relation, or
an inference." It is not to be wondered, then, that the missionary
occasionally anticipates the duties of the philologer, and that the
philologer sometimes borrows his materials from the missionary.
It appears impossible that all that would be " acceptable to the
scholar" in a uniform system of notation could be " convenient
to" the evangelist ; for the one requires a perfect and elaborate
system of phonetic symbols as a means of etymological analysis,
the other " a commoner alphabet, more suited to a work-day
age" of missions ; nevertheless, if the two can accommodate their
plans to each other, it is to be expected that mutual facilitation
must result.
In conclusion it cannot be denied the subject which I have
chosen is an unusually dry one, inasmuch as it is an attempt to
arrive at the laws of a process which the great Macaulay
would have said " is not likely to be better performed merely
because men know how they perform it ;" and cannot, therefor e
be expected to command the attention of more than a few of the
most zealous students of phonetic science, much less of those
who are indifferent to the gratification of "finding out laws
from facts, causes from effects, necessary truth from fleeting
occurrences of the day." At the same time, it must be admitted
that a writer on such a subject could never hope to realise any-
thing remunerative, beyond the gratification of having embodied
opinions, based on his own researches, and of anticipating dis-
cussion in imparting them to others. But if even the materials
contributed are turned to account, without regard to my own
opinions, I shall consider myself fully compensated for my labours.
Throughout the work, which will be issued in three separate
parts, it will be my endeavour to trace the facts and phenomena
of the language to first principles. In the following pages on
the Consonants, I have worked upon a few materials which have
been known to missionaries for the last forty years viz., the
permutations of Initials ; especially as they have occurred to my
own observation during the last four years. I have dealt only
with simple consonants and their mutual combinations, as well
as other elements affecting them. It may be thought that, in
confining my generalization of particulars to initial consonants,
I have made an arbitrary selection, and avoided any reference
to numerous permutations which are perceptible in the
comparison of different tribal idioms of the Sechwana such, for
instance, as may be seen on a considerable scale in the comparison
of the " three members of the Bantu family of languages," which
Dr. Bleek considers " can be brought under certain laws,
similar, to some extent, to those detected by Jacob Grimm, as
affecting the relations between the different Teutonic tongues,
and other members of the Indo-European family of languages,
I have only to allege, in defence, that in the one class of instances
which I have chosen for analysis, the changes are constant, and
limited to cognate pairs of consonants no one initial element
being changeable to a third ;* whereas, this cannot be said of the
other class alluded to by Dr. Bleek. It must not be supposed
that, while thoroughly analysing the constant examples, I am
neglecting the dialectical variations, to a proper discrimination
of which, however, a far more critical knowledge of the South
African languages than has hitherto been published for sacred
purposes is absolutely requisite.
I should have preferred to treat of the Vowels first, but have
found it necessary to reserve the consideration of them for the
Second Part. This portion of the work will be based entirely on
a series of new facts, the fruits of my own researches into the
phonology of the language, on the subject of a peculiar order of
mutation existing among the vowels. The Third Part will be
confined to " sounds" formed by the combinations of simple or
compound consonants, with simple or compound vowels, and
which answer to the "Palatals" of some writers, the " Un-
stable combinations" of Dr. Latham, and the "Specific Modi-
fications" of Professor Max Miiller. My peculiarly unsettled
circumstances will render the issue of these remaining parts
rather uncertain.
As it is the first public essay of one who, during the last
twelve years, has seen little of current literature, and still less of
society, and the greater part of it has been penned in the native
village or at the wild encampment, it will be needless for him
to attempt to disarm the censures of critics, by defending him-
self on the score of style. Having, amidst the harassing
vicissitudes of Colonial border-life, long neglected the art of
composition, his work might doubtless have been rendered
" more readable" had the phraseology been corrected throughout
by some literary friend; but it has not been his lot to find
convenient access to any one.
* Except in one instance of h to A:/ for which I have attempted to account.
After a practical knowledge of this language during the few
years of childhood, an alternating use of the low Dutch patois
and English in the Cape Colony during youth, followed by an
education in England, and subsequently by a return to a rude
life among South African Boers, and more recently intimate
intercourse with the same tribes among whom I was born, it
cannot be said that any of these tongues is properly vernacular
to me ; or that I am open to charges of either national prejudice
or organical habit, which would be unfavourable to a proper
comprehension and discrimination of new elements. At all events,
the desultory nature of my experience will help to explain and
palliate any want of literary ability in the execution of a laborious
task. The work having been printed in England, during my
residence about 600 miles within the South African coast, some
allowance will no doubt be made for any lapses and mistakes
which I should otherwise have been enabled to rectify.
It was not till the Second and Third Chapters were in the
press that I succeeded in procuring a copy of "The English
Language," by Dr. Latham, nor till the first proof of the Third
had been returned, and the Fourth was in the press, that I met
with the " Missionary Alphabet" of Professor Max Miiller, and
the works of Professor Monier Williams, the Rev. Richard
Garnett, and Dr. J. Miiller, together with an exposition of
" Grimm's Law," in the 8th Edition of the " Encyclopedia Bri-
tannica." I was, nevertheless, enabled, in correcting the later
proofs, to avail myself of any notes or quotations from these
works, by interpolations, wherever they appeared to place my
own views in relief.
In reperusing it, I have reason to regret that a controversial
tenor is perceptible throughout ; but it is difficult to see how this
can be avoided in a work containing innovations on prevailing
notions. However I may have presumed to differ from Dr.
Lepsius, I need only say, that its publication was suggested by
his able and interesting pamphlet, without the thorough perusal
of which I could not have placed the results of my researches in
the form in which they now appear.
R. M., JUN.
Natal, South Africa,
January 28th, 1862.
These pages must be offered to the public in an unfinished
state. The lamented author did not live to complete what was
to him a labour of love. He died in his 36th year, at Mangeeri,
near Kuruman, South Africa, after only a few days of acute
suffering. In him the aborigines of interior Southern Africa,
whose language was his favourite study, have lost a disinterested
and enlightened friend.
The attempt is now made, in accordance with the desire of
his widow, to present in as complete a form as possible the result
of his investigations. As far as the 64th page, the proof-sheets
had been fully revised and corrected by himself. Beyond this,
it has been deemed best that nothing should be added, but the
typographical corrections absolutely required.
Those who may read this attempt to contribute something to
the general store of philological facts and inductions, will pass
lightly over such imperfections as must necessarily be found
under the circumstances.
J. S. M.
& Urban, Natal,
1st December, 1862.
CHAPTER I,
PRINCIPLES OF CONSONANTAL CLASSIFICATIONS.
I. OF CLASSIFICATIONS AT PRESENT IN USE.
IT is not my purpose to discuss at any length the propriety of
the distinction usually made between vowels and consonants, as it
would suffice for me to assume that they are distinct, in accord-
ance with the opinions of the majority of writers on the subject.
The following remarks, in a quotation from an antiquated work,
will perhaps be sufficiently distinctive to prepare the reader for
the sequel :
" WHAT thefe Vocal Organs precifely are, is not in all refpefts agreed by
Philofophers and Anatomilts. Be this as it will, it is certain that the mere
primary andjimple Voice is completely formed, before e*ver it reach the Mouth, and
can therefore (as well as Breathing) find a Paflage through the Nofe, when
the Mouth is fo far ftopt, as to prevent the leaft utterance.
" Now pure and fimple VOICE, being thus produced, is (as before was
obferved) tranfmitted to the Mouth. HERE, then, by means of certain different
Organs, which do not change its primary qualities, but only fuperadd others, it
receives the form or Character of ARTICULATION. For ARTICULATION is in
raft nothing elfe, than that Form or Character, acquired to Jimple Voice, by
means of the Mouth and its federal Organs, the Teeth, the Tongue, the Lips, &c.
The Voice is not by Articulation made more grave or acute, more loud or foft
(which are its primary Qualities), but it acquires to thefe Charafters certain
others additional, which are perfeftly adapted to exift along with them.
"THE fimplefl of thefe new Chara&ers are thofe acquired through the mere
Openings of the Mouth, as thefe Openings differ in giving the Voice a Paflage.
It is the Variety of Configurations in thefe Openings only, which gives birth
and origin to the feveral VOWELS ; and hence it is they derive their Name, by
being thus eminently Vocal, and eafy to be founded of themfelves alone.
"THERE are other articulate Forms, which the Mouth makes, not by mere
Openings, but by different ContaEls of its different parts ; fuch for inftance, as it
makes by the Junftion of the two Lips, of the Tongue with the Teeth, of the
Tongue with the Palate, and the like.
B
2
" Now as all thefe feveral Contacts, unlefs fome Opening of the Mouth
either immediately precede, or immediately follow, would rather occafiort
Silence than to produce a Voice, hence it is, that with some fuch Opening,
either previous or fubfequent, they are always connected. Hence alfo it is,
that the Articulations fo produced are called CONSONANTS, becaufe they found
not of rhemfelves, and from their own powers, but at all times in company with
fome auxiliary Vowel.
" THERE are other fubordinate Diftinftions of thefe primary Articulations.
******
" IT is enough to obferve, that they are all denoted by the common Name
of ELEMENT, inafmuch as every Articulation is from them derived, and into
them refolved." Hermes, by lames Harris, Efq., p. 318. (1771 .)
The above general description of the fundamental distinction
between the two main classes of the Elements of Articulation,
though written nearly a century ago, and founded upon the
opinion of one of the ancients,* is perhaps as clear as, if not clearer
than, anything I have met with.
According to it, the VOWELS are pure sounds, the variations
in which are caused by different configurations of the aperture of
the mouth ; and the CONSONANTS are elements resulting from
interruptions of the breath by the contact of different organs ;
and though the vowels can be pronounced without them, they
cannot be completely uttered without accompanying vowels.
It is, therefore, incorrect to speak of consonants as sounds, inas-
much as they require the apposition of these to render them
audible. In speaking of them I therefore retain their common
name, or otherwise call them " explodents?\ but only in reference
to the necessary separation of the organs after contact in every
case ; and in the same sense may be understood the word " sound"
when it occurs applicably to consonants in all my quotations,
without distorting the meaning of their authors.
True, some consonants have been called semi-vowels,
* Ammonius.
fin this restricted sense T place the word in inverted commas throughout
the analyses. The word dividual, used synonymously by Dr. Lepsius, would
have done just as well, but occurred to me too late.
liquids, &c., because though such arc formed by a contact, and
are therefore " explodent" there is only a partial interruption of the
breath, part of which escapes, giving to the otherwise mute
element a liquid or continuous nature. There is, however, so
much uncertainty attached to the subject of these peculiar
consonants, and the most able writers differ so in classifying
them, that it is not well to anticipate a proper analysis by any
conjectures; and I prefer to base my conclusions respecting them
upon a thorough generalization of facts which will come under
consideration in the order of this Essay.
Though M. Majendie writes,* " Grammarians distinguish
letters into Vowels and Consonants, but this distinction cannot
suit physiologists," his division of the elements of sound into
" those which are truly modifications of the voice, and those which
(as he thinks) may be formed independently of the voice," does
not differ materially from that of Harris. Nor does the system
of Girard and Beauz(3e,f who " confine the term 'articulation' to
the Consonants, and designate the Yowels by that of 'sons,'
(sounds)," differ in anything but terminology from the distinction
made above. For the Vowels, the term Sonants, in contradis-
tinction from Consonants, would be as suitable as any, were it
not also applicable to certain elements which may, perhaps, be
proved to be vocalized Consonants. More satisfactory terms than
those employed by Harris, and still in common use, could
scarcely be found.
Among the ancient grammarians, as well as some moderns
who have taken it upon them to interpret Grecian and Roman
authors, the consonants appear to have been classified upon one
or two principles, which have since been introduced into other
highly developed living languages, and remained long in vogue
among the learned. For a suitable example, it is only necessary
* El. Sum. Physiol., vol. i., p. 154. Cited by Sir J. Stoddart.
t- Gram. Geu., vol. i., p. 5. Cited by Stoddart.
B 2
to refer to a grammar of the Greek. Its fourteen consonants
were arranged according to three organs e.g.,
Mutes.
Tenues. Mediae. Aspirate.
Labials p b ph
Linguals t d th*
Semivowels.
Liquids.
771
n I r 8
Palatals k g kh
Of these consonants, nine (viz., those of each organ) were
found capable of another ternary arrangement, according to their
properties or gradations of breathing, into tenues, medics, and
aspirates ; and a certain relation was thus established as existing
among them. These were all denominated mutes, in contra-
distinction from the vowels.
Again, " the ancients found, in the humming and hissing of
the letters I, m, n, r, ," which did not fall under this second
ternary arrangement, " a transition to the vowels, and therefore
called them semi-vowels ; and the first four were named liquids,
en account of their mobility, and easily combining with other
letters."! The sibilant s appears not to have admitted of any
specific description.
This classification still obtains among some men of learning,
who maintain the distinction between "tenues (p, k, t} i.e.,
slender, weak consonants ; medics (b, g, d,} or consonants re-
quiring a medial quantity of air for their articulation; and
aspirates (p7i, kh, th,) or strong consonants." J The partiality of
many to it has of course been strengthened by their attachment
to the classic tongues, as well as by long prescription. Among
* The nature of the articulation of the ancient letter 9, has not yet been
satisfactorily decided; it may have been either t, combined with the spiritus
asper, or equivalent to th, in the English thin. I have preferred to assume
the former, in accordance with the opinion of Dr. Lepsius. See " Standard
Alphabet," p. 37, note 2.
f Buttmann's " Larger Greek Grammar," p. 11.
* "Egypt's Place in Universal History." Bunsen, p. 278.
many modern systems which have sought to supplant it, that
which retains the same division of the organs, but divides the
gradations of breathing into explosive and continuous, is beginning
to obtain among some eminent linguists, and probably owes its
introduction to a certain peculiar law of correlation existing
between several consonants ; but it is difficult to say whether
the discovery of this law is to be traced to any deductions from the
physiology of the human voice, or to the frequent interchange
and approximation of those consonants, which must have been
apparent to any observer.
At all events, I must for the present content myself by placing
before the reader such explanations of it as have been given by
writers upon a physiological basis.
"All the oral consonantal sounds, except I and? 1 ," says Sir John Stoddart,
" are produced in pairs, each pair having the same position of the organs,
but with a certain difference of effect The difference of effect
in each pair is produced in the same manner throughout the whole."
Glossology, p. 127.
This principle is elsewhere explained by Volney, thus: "Each contact
(or near approximation) of two organs forms two consonants, which differ
only by the degree of intensity of that contact, and which, under the names
of strong and weak (or the like), are absolutely of the same family."
Alfab. Europ., p. 71, cited by Stoddart.
Again, Dr. Richardson, in assuring his readers that Hofne Tooke
was guided by some general views of the " interchange of letters," writes
as follows :
" The perpetual change of t into d is familiar to all, and there is an
organical cause for these and other changes of B into P ; V into F ; G into
K ; Z into S ; J into SH ; and the Anglo-Saxon -D, that is, TH, as pro-
nounced in that, into their Q, that is, TH, as pronounced in thing. The first
of each pair ^including D into T) differs from its partner by no variation
whatever of articulation, but simply by a certain unnoticed and almost im-
perceptible motion or compression of or near the larynx, which causes what
Wilkins calls some kind of murmur." TJie Study of Language ; an Expo-
sition of the Diversions of Purley, p. 31. He then describes how Home
Tooke, by illustrating " the whole series of these organic changes," viz.,
Of w&GdBJZZZ
Into / p C t 9 sh s ss
in two parallel (but not very elegant) lines, as they would be repeated by
an Englishman and Welshman respectively, shows that a Welshman, by
" failing in the compression," changes seven of the English consonants ;
" to which compression," he adds, " we owe seven additional letters."
Ibid. p. 32.*
Having never seen an exposition of (> Grimm's Law,"f of which Dr.
Kichardson seems to think the above " general remarks" of Home Tooke
" evidently lay the foundation," I am, of course, unable to judge of the light
which it may have shed on this subject.
This correspondency, or correlation^: of certain consonants, has
given rise to a variety of terms, which differ according to the
views which the writers seemed to entertain of its nature. The
following are a few which I have encountered :
(Latham.^
'[SirJ. HerscM.
soft '
lenis
vocal Walker.
spoken ... Pitman.
soft } T _
. Volney.%
weak J
'Article, " Stammer" Penny
Sharp
Hard
Fortis
Breathing
Whispered
Firm and dry
Strong
Voiceless
flat.
" \LepsiuSy and others.
us j
Hard
Atonic
Mute
Surd
voice
weak
subtonic ...
semi-mute,
sonant .
Cyclopedia.
Adclung.
J3ishop,
Sanscrit Grammarians.^
* The fact of such crude remarks on this important subject making their
appearance in an able work, so recently as 1854, leads to the suspicion that
the laws of phonics must still be based on imperfect conjecture.
f A writer in an able Review thus speaks of " Grimm's Law :"
" It consists in a permutation, or, if you will, a play of letters, whereby
almost any word may be made gerrnain to any other Not,
however, that the said law, with its machinery of ' nine equations,' is
without a real foundation in the history of language. We only mean that
it is exaggerated, and exactly in the manner of all hypothesis, all analysis,
by being run out into a vicious circle." North British Review, Feb., 1859.
1 This is called, by Sir John Herschel, " a constant relationship or
parallelism to each other." Richardson's Dictionary, 8vo., p. 19.
These are cited by Stoddart.
The two series of consonants, which are generally supposea
to have this correlation, may thus be represented in parallel
lines :
k p t
g b d
ill (thin) s sh ch (-M) / ch (-fofc)
t/i (this) z zh gh v j
By means of a vertical line, I have separated from the rest the
first three pairs, each answering to the tenues and mediae of the
ancient mutes, to which the furies and lenea explodents of the
modern system are identical. Among the remaining instances
we find, of the ancient alphabet 1, the consonant s and its cor-
relative z, which latter was considered to be a double consonant ;
2, the hard guttural aspirate ch (-M). A corresponding soft form,
gh (pronounced like ch in loch by a Scotchman, or in buch by a
German), of this aspirate, and four other pairs, were thus left to
be included in the second division of a more comprehensive
classification. This appears to have been suggested as I
have before hinted, and as may be gathered from the tenor of
the preceding remarks by the above explained principle of
binary quantities.
I leave the intelligent reader to compare with the above two
parallel series of interchanges, obvious to the most superficial
observer, the following tableau of the " Simple Consonants in
the European Alphabets ;"* and have no doubt he will concur as
to the probability of this classification being based as much on a
vulgar view of the correspondency of sounds, as on any deduc-
* The same, on the graphic system of Dr. Lepsius :
Explosivae or dividuce.
Fricatives or continues.
Ancipites.
fortis. lenis. nasalis.
fnrlis. lenis. seniiruc.
Gutturalet
k g n
x'(x) h x'(r) y
r
Dentalcs
t d n
$
r I
(0'(G) 0' (S)
La^i nl' -a
p b m
f v w
Standard Alphabet, p. 38
tions of the phono-physiologist with the exception of, perhaps,
the two gutturals above noticed.
Ancipites.
Gutturalea ...
Dentales
lAibiales ...
Explosives or dividuce
fort, lenis. nasal.
A Ger. g Ger. ng
t d n
p b m
Fricatives or continues.
fortis. lenis. semivoc.
Ger. ch h Danish g Ger. j
!Fr. ch Fr. j
Sharp s Fr. z
En. th (-in) En. th (-ine)
/ Fr. v Eng. w
gutt. r
r I
Under the explosives, the only element not in the ancient phonetic
tableau is ng ;* thus completing the set of nasals m and n, which
were semi-vowels of the old arrangement. The remainder of
these viz , r and I, are excluded, as they anciently were ; and
left doubtful as to whether they belong to the first or second
division. The letter s, formerly considered peculiar, and more
recently called by a distinguished authority! " the last vowel
and the first consonant," but to this day still rather inexplicable,
sits the basis (phonically) of a formidable array of sibilants. The
elements w and y, sometimes called consonants, at other times
vowels, are introduced as fricative or continuous consonants,
guttural and labial respectively.!
Again, the unfortunate aspirates, which, Volney would say, re-
quire efforts of the lungs compatible with the vehement passions
and strong desires of the savage or rustic, are excluded from
this general tableau ; and only preserved from nonentity by the
fact that they occur in such highly important languages as the
Sanscrit, Bengali, and Chinese, &c., in the phonetic tables of
which Dr. Lepsius has inserted them. One of these, before
* Its omission was a mere oversight, as it occurred in the living pro-
nunciation in the first syllable of such words as ay-icos, ty-xos.
f Sir John Herschel, in Richardson's Dictionary, 8vo., p. xix. This
quotation does not occur in the synoptical table of sounds, in a later volume
of " Essays, &c.," by Sir John Herschel.
J These, of course, occurred in the ancient living-pronunciation, in the
diphthongs vi and ta of such words as veK.vi-a and Ov-ias, though not in the
phonetic tableau of the grammarian.
referred to viz., a soft form of cA(-M), viz.,^7t, the most common
instance of a rough guttural in the European alphabet, has by
some mode of analysis been divided into two forms of a gentler
and a harsher degree, and, under the letters ^ an( i 7> mar-
shalled in common with the sibilants, under the head of
fricatives, as if because swallowed up by the majority, or " de-
mocratic test of number" in which the latter exceed them!
Nevertheless, we find h, the letter equivalent to the spiritus asper,
huddled up between them, as if tacitly to imply that they are
aspirates. If we seek an explanation of this apparent anomaly,
we find the latest writer on this system saying
" The essential distinction of the three fricative formations, s, s, and 0,
together with the corresponding soft sounds z, z and Q', from the guttural
. . . x consists in the friction of the breath being formed and heard
at the teeth." Standard Alphabet, p. 45.
But, to add to the confusion of nomenclature, at p. 33 of the
same work, h, which I have described as being huddled up between
the two gutturals in the above general tableau, is called a " frica-
tive basis."
The principle of this classification is thus explained by Dr.
Lepsius, its recent and most able expounder, before referred to.
After disposing of the subject of the common and generally
admitted organic divisions, he adds
" There is another essential difference in the pronunciation, in as far as
either the mouth at the above-mentioned places* is completely closed and
re-opened, or the passage of the breath is only narrowed, without its stream
being entirely interrupted by closing the organs. The consonants formed
by the first process we call explosive or divisible (dividuce), because the
moment of contact divides the sound into two parts ; the others fricative,
from their sound being -determined by friction, or continuous (continue),
because this friction is not interrupted by any closing of the organs."
S tmid ml Alphabet, p. 30.
Before placing before the reader some of the elements of
another classification founded on incontrovertible natural facts, it
* " In the throat, at the teeth, or with the lips." Ibid.
10
may perhaps not be regarded as presumptuous if I endeavour
to show, on physiological grounds, where the system just de-
scribed is probably at fault.
As the consonants k, t, p, and g, d, b, respectively, fortes and
lenes of the division of explodents, differ in no respect except
terminology from the tenues and mediae of the more ancient
arrangement of mutes, I shall make no reference to them ; for
whether viewed in the above binary order, or the ternary one,
according to the organs, they are, so far as they go, intact
and indisputable. I have mainly to do with the group of " pairs ;"
which, while they bear an organical relation to the three series
above, are all supposed to differ from them in the gradations of
breathing, and have been denominated continues or fricativa.
NOTE. As the gutturals which are included in these terms have only
apparently a different phonical basis from the rest, and it is chiefly in relation
to them that the terms fricative and aspirate have been confounded, they
will require another line of argument ; I, therefore, reserve a further con-
sideration of them for the section on gutturals in the following chapter.
By the former term is meant the non -interruption of a sound;
by the latter, that the sound is determined by friction. From the
fact of both terms serving to describe the same instances, it is
evident that partial interruption of the breath is implied in all.
More definiteness ought to be expected in the treatment of
philological subjects ; and, till we succeed in arriving at that, we
may as usual grope in the mazes of sophistication, and be tan-
talized by a play of words. One would think that, of all the
natural sciences, none ought to demand more accuracy in its
rudimental nomenclature than that of language, whether phonetic
or grammatic.
The word continues includes several elements not classed under
it by those who make use of the term. " Vowels," which I have
assumed to be entirely distinct in their nature from consonants,
" are," in the strictest sense of the word, t{ continued sounds, pro-
duced when the passage of the air through the fauces is unin-
11
terrupted, the fauces being only more or less narrowed"* Not
only the four " pairs" of sibilants i.e., s, z ; /*(-in), th(ls) ; sh,
zh ; and /, u; the principal examples classed under this term
(in the letters s, z ; 6, 2; s, z; f, v) but also I and r, which
have been placed under the head of ancipites, because they
appear to betray a little of the nature of explodents and even
the nasals m, n, and n (-ng) in certain modified forms can all
be proved to be continuous consonants. There can be little
doubt that it is the " indistinct vowel" element (whether by the
term be understood action of breath alone or voice j, easily assumed
by them all which renders them so, and has led to their being
frequently called semi-vowels ; at all events, it is very probable
that it is nothing else than their peculiar nature in this respect
which renders them liquid with all other consonants.
The term fricatives conveys the idea of the breath being par-
tially confined, as well as, that it may be almost wholly inter-
rupted ; but, like the above, it includes elements not admitted by
those who apply it exclusively to some consonants. " Each vowel
requires a different elevation of the tongue, or contraction of
the lips/'f by which different degrees of frication, however appa-
rently imperceptible, are produced. And it follows that all the
above consonants, which easily assume the "indistinct vowel"
element, must, where so modified, also be fricatives ; with (but
only apparently) the sole exception of the nasals, in the enun-
ciation of which the breath is withheld, and there is no faucal
passage to cause a frication.
The two terms are thus strictly compatible in respect to the
instances I have shown can be included under them both. The
nasals are apparently the only exceptions, being continuous and
fricative in their modified forms, but not faucally.
* Encyc. Britann., 7th Ed., article Physiology, p. 683. The italics arc
my own.
f Ibid.
12
I shall now endeavour to illustrate this position by confronting
the two following quotations, which will show where contradiction
and confusion exist in the application of these terms. Dr.
Lepsius, treating of the "indistinct vowel-sound" attached to
some consonants, writes as follows :
" This vowel is inherent in all soft* fricative consonants, as well as in
the first part of the nasal explosive sounds It assumes the
strongest resonance, as may be easily explained on physiological grounds,
in comhination with r and I, which, as is well known, appear in Sanscrit as
r and I, with all the qualities of the other vowels." Standard Alphabet, p. 27.
Again, as follows :
" It is a decided mistake to reckon m and n among the consonantes con-
tiniKB ; for in m and n it is only tVie VOwel element* inherent in the
first half, which may be continued at pleasure, whilst in all the continuous
consonants it is the consonantal element (the friction*) which must he
continued, as in/, v, s, z." Standard Alphabet, p. 30, note.
In what precedes, I have implied that the vowel-element and some
amount of friction are inseparable in all articulations partaking
of the former, inasmuch as the breath is the medium of the voice.
The learned Professor seems to have forgotten, (1) that the
consonants v and z in the latter paragraph were some of the
soft fricatives of his classification, alluded to in the former as
partaking of the "indistinct vowel sound;" (2) that it is as
much the "indistinct vowel" element in v, and z, which is con-
tinued, as in any forms of m and n ; (3) a fact amounting to a
postulate in the science of phonics, that the consonantal element
does not consist in the friction but in the contact, whether partial
or complete, of two organs. In short, the important principle
appears to have been lost of, that if we are to regard the teeth
and the palate as organs indispensable to the action of the lips
or the tongue, in forming articulations by interrupting the emission
of the breath by their contact, it follows the elements produced
by them are also " explodent," because the moment of contact (of
the tongue with either of them, or the lips with one of them)
* The bold letters are substituted by me, as italics already occur.
13
divides the sound into two parts : that they differ from the other
mutes or " explodents," in that the contact is partial, thus causing
a gentle frication between them, and prolonged if necessary,
whether in the form of breath or voice, therefore continuous;
but these are not reasons sufficient to warrant their exclusion
from the division of " explodents." Dr. Richardson, treating
of the consonants b, p,f, v ; c (k), g (y), d, t; I, m, n, r, x ; s, z ;
very concisely says
"Each and every of them requires, however, for its complete utterance,
a breathing (precedent), a closure or collision of some of the organs of
speech, and an apertion or separation of them, with a breathing (subse-
quent)." Richardson's Dictionary, 8vo., p. xiv.
Moreover, granting, what is implied in the preceding quo-
tation, that " the complete consonant is best perceived when
placed between two vowels,"* and that "the full pronunciation
of an explosive letter requires the closing and opening of
the organ,"f which are both very plain statements on the
part of those who sanction this classification, and tantamount
to saying that the formative process of all consonants is the same,
it follows that those which easily assume the "vowel-element"
are also " explodents ;" this accessory " element" having its
origin in the pliability and mobility of the tongue an organ
indispensable even in the formation of the pure vowels.
The above train of reasoning suggests that there is something
very unsatisfactory in this classification of elements ; and, con-
sequently, that any graphic system founded upon it must
also be liable to objection. In referring to the two terms
continuous and fricative, I have endeavoured to show, (1) that
they include a large number of instances (vowels) having no
essential or generic resemblance to those within the scope of
induction (consonants) ; (2) that though consonants may possess
a secondary attribute (semivocal), this ought not to exclude
them from classification under a more general attribute (" explo-
* Standard Alphabet, p. 30, note. f Ibid.
14
dent"), definitive of the nature of the generalizations arrived at
by a survey of all the points in which they differ from or re-
semble each other.
In conclusion, granting, what is generally admitted, that both
the vowels and the pure " explodent" consonants (k, t, p ; g, d, b } )
may be aspirated, it follows that the other " explodent" con-
sonants, which easily assume the " vowel-element," may also be
aspirated i.e., those usually called fricativce or continues.
I thus show that the aspirate "explodents" include some
fricatives, the rest of which, therefore, fall under the simple
" explodents." A very important question then arises, as to
whether the correspondency existing between s and z, th(m)
and f/((is), sh and zh, and / and v, (s, z ; 6, $ ; I, z ; and /, v,
of Lepsius,) is analogous to that between the mute ex-
plodents k and g, t and d, p and b. If I have succeeded in
raising a doubt in the mind of the reader, I only leave him in
a prepared state for the impartial consideration of a few simple
facts, the analysis of which, in the following chapter, will perhaps
result in a synthetic view of a far more satisfactory nature.
II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF A CLASSIFICATION SUGGESTED BY THE
MUTATION OF CONSONANTS IN THE SECHWANA* LANGUAGE.
" The transformation of sounds," says Dr. Bleek, " is the main
* There has been a good deal of speculation at work on the origin of the
name of the people speaking this interesting language. The common
opinion among Missionaries is, that the name is derived from tshudna (be
like each other). Another holds that it is derived from tshudna, "a little
white, or inclining to white, light coloured i.e., not black (probably in
opposition to the more dark-coloured tribes of the north), a diminutive form,
from tshueu, white." Sir O. Grey's Library, S. A. Lang., p. 184. Mr.
Fredoux, of the Paris Missionary Society, writes : " For our part, we are
inclined to give it another origin. In the idiom of the people of whom we
are speaking, we find the word Mochuana (plural, Bachuana) employed as a
kind of diminutive of Monchu, black, and signifying blackish, or inclining
15
characteristic of the Setshuana,"* and it is probable that in no
other existing language is this principle carried to such an ex-
tent. It appears surprising that, though so long before the
public, it should not have suggested to the attention of philologers
the probable existence of some fundamental phonical laws.
This peculiar commutationf of consonants occurs chiefly in
certain instances viz., the formation of verbal nouns, e.g., seeing,
&c.,and those cases in which the verb is immediately preceded by the
" object, -particles" self and me, as in the following examples:
Verb.
Verbal Noun.
Verb, with t:
\=self.
^ "^n'nT^m!
I 3 '" Mutation.
1. Bona
Ponot
Ipona
Mpona
b top
2. Cola
Cold
Icola
Ncola
c immutable
3. Ndaea
Nteo
dtot
4. Gorisa
Khorisho
Ikhorisa
Nkhorisa
g-kh
5. Heta
Pheto
Ipheta
Mpheta
h ph
6. Kana
Kano
Ikana
Nkana
k immutable
7. Khatla
Khatlo
Ikhatla
Nkhatla
kh
to black." Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic, de Paris, 4 Serie, t. xiv.,
p. 371.
The probability is, that Mr. F. has hit upon the correct derivation, upon
the following grounds. A black cow is called chwana, from nchu, black ;
in the same .manner as a red or black cow, with white back, is called
khwana, from nkliwe. Any little black thing would be called nchunyana ; a
little black person, monchunyana ; but the word being also used as a
diminutive of colour, a person with a dark brown complexion is invariably
called mochivana. Had the name been derived from chweu, or shweu,
white, it would have become bashdicdna, in the same manner as chdwdna,
a white cow, from chweu ; or kbchwdna, a grey cow, from Jcu-ebu, grey, in
which examples we becomes o. (In the above examples, tsk and ch are
homophones.)
Sir G. Grey's Library, S. A. L., p. 116.
f The language also contains other instances of interchanging consonants
which may appear to be irregular forms, but allow of classification under
euphonical or dialectical laws affecting the relations between the different
languages of the Bantu family. These will be noticed in the sequel.
I Used by the Missionaries as equivalent to ng.
The diacritical mark attached to o as o, will in every instance, for the
purposes of this work, indicate that vowel in the Italian perb, or the English
a in all.
C of the Missionaries=to&, or ch in Charles.
16
Verb.
Verbal Noun.
8.
Loma
Tomo
9.
Metsa
Meed
10.
Nama
Numb
LI.
$apa
Napd
19.
Pitla
Pitlb
]'!.
Phala
Phalo
14.
Eisa
Tisho
15.
Eata
Thato
16.
Sila
Tsilo
17.
Shbka
Cbkb
18.
Tena
Tend
1'J.
Thiba
Thibo
20.
Tlotla
Tlottt
21.
Tlhaba
Tlhabo
22.
Tsenya
Tsenyo
23.
lla
Kilo
"Object-particles," Mutation.
m, n, n = ?n.
Ntoma
1 to t
Mmetaa
m immutable
Nnama
n
Nnapa
n
Mpitla
P
Mphala
ph
Ntisa
r to t
Nthata
r to th
Ntsila
s to ts
Ncbka
sh to c
Ntena
t immutable
Nthiba
th
NtloOa
tl
Ntlhaba
tlh
Ntsenya
ts
Nkila
tok
Verb, with the
Itoma
Imetsa
Inama
Tnapa
Ipitla
Iphala
Itisa
Ithata
Itsila
Icbka
Itena
Ithiba
Itlotla
Itllutba
Itsenya
IkUa
The above are all the consonants found in the phonetic systems of the
Missionaries of different Societies. Additions could be made ; but I prefer
to reserve such for the analysis in the sequel, as they are based on my own
researches.
In the above list of twenty-three initials, ten are mutable, and
thirteen immutable. If there are excluded from it, for the pre-
sent, those words with the nasal initials m, n, n, and those
with compound letters, all of which are in italics, it will be ob-
served that the remaining instances* may be classified upon a few
apparent principles:
1. That the immutable elements t and p are those which have
generally been denominated fortes, and the mutable elements b
and d, lenes ; and that the language so far confirms the fact of the
existence of each in binary quantities, to which I have before
alluded. The reverse mutation in the above examples, from
fortis to lenis t never takes place. This holds good in all the
remaining instances; therefore the presumption upon which
I start, in proceeding to the analysis, is that the commutable
consonants are respectively fortes and lenes in all these other
cases not commonly admitted.
* All these are indicated in bold type.
17
2. It may be distinctly observed that some are aspvvite, and
the rest simple " explodents ;" that the aspirates have binary
quantities corresponding with those of the simple " explodents,"
and that instances of " fricativae or condnuse" fall under both
divisions. This decides my presumptive arrangement into
simple and aspirate " explodents," instead of into explosicce and
continues. It must be evident that we have thus suggested to us
the practicability of arriving at some of the fundamental laws of
a general phonic system, without having recourse exclusively to
either the physiology of the human voice, or to any " written
system fixed by literature," however elaborate and ancient.
The whole of these elements, though gathered from one bar-
barous language by strict attention to the " living traditional
pronunciation," will be found in the following analysis to admit
of a simple classification, corroborating partially, but in a striking
manner, the views now obtaining, and in other respects entirely
upsetting them. In the Sechwana language we have two series
of consonants, both possessing binary quantities,* each of which
is only in certain circumstances changeable to the other; but the
reverse mutation never takes place. Such normal facts are
of great importance, and where constancy is thus attributed to
their laws, these are rendered the more worthy of being regarded
as a basis upon which to plant further investigations.
* The reader, if dissatisfied with the above term, is at liberty to substitute
the word values, or characters, or natures, provided the same be used
throughout
CHAPTER II.
ANALYSIS OF SECHWANA CONSONANTS.
IN accordance with the views stated in the preceding chapter,
I have, in the following table, removed from the " European
Consonantal System" of Dr. Lepsius, the consonants to which I,
for the present, take exception, as not all belonging to the set
corresponding with the Simple " Explodents /' but have included
the few under the head of Ancipites.
TABLE OF COINCIDENT CONSONANTS.
1st Division.
2nd Division.
fortis. lenis.
fortis. lenis.
Nasals.
k
- 9(-9V
u(-ng)
t d
n
p b
m
Ancipites.
I. Gutturals .
II. Linguals...
III. Labials ...
Thus are presented the points of coincidence between a phonic
system based upon the physiology of the human voice, and
another arrived at by induction from particulars in the languag
of a barbarous people, " in a manner wholly concerning the ear."
It is now my purpose to explain and develops this natural system,
by treating of each horizontal (or organic) series separately, filling
it up according to the principles assumed, and thus completing
the vertical sets.
NOTE. By doing so, I am apparently admitting a division according to
the organs ; but my use of it is arbitrary, in order to make myself better
understood, by adhering as much as possible to the prevailing nomenclature
where no dispute exists. So far as regards the classification of the elements
of articulation, the views started in this treatise are discordant with those
C 2
20
generally held, principally upon tlie subject of the vertical divisions into
simple and aspirate " explodents" instead of mlo explodents and. fricatives ;
and the distinction of each of these into binary quantities, fortis and Ictiis,
in certain instances not usually admitted. On this account, I speak of 1st
and 2nd divisions at the commencement of the section in each series, to
avoid confusion in the above terms. At the close of each section, I give
the series as developed according to the Sechwana, in the most simple
characters that can be suggested.
I. THE GUTTURAL SERIES.
1st Division.
fortis. lenis.
k
2nd Ziitision.
fortis. lenis.
Nasals.
n(-ng)
The above Sechwana consonants, so far, happen to coincide,
as I have said, with the organic order generally admitted.
Under the First Division of the GUTTURAL SERIES, it will
be seen that the only exception is g, which is usually considered
the lenis form of k } and improperly called in English
turals, gives, besides his e.rplodents, two distinct sets of pairs,
Avhich he denominates fricatives and aspirates ;* but between
these divisions T must confess myself utterly at a loss to com-
prehend the difference in reference to the gutturals. I have, in
the preceding chapter, stated wherein it appears the classification
which he sanctions is at fault. It becomes me to bear out the
truth of my remarks on the details of each organic (or horizontal)
series. As this learned philologer has given a synoptical and
comparative view of the phonetic systems of several languages,
as reduced to his own graphic system, and also as represented
by the authors from whom he gathered his particulars, I cannot
do better than subjoin a compendious abstract of the gutturals
under those heads of fricative and aspirate, in order to enable
the reader to follow my inferences.
AFRICAN LANGUAGES.
1. Hottentot:
Wuras . ..
Fricat
fortis.
Ml
c
ch
-
r, r
kh
h
c
h
ive.
lenis.
ch
r
r
f j
h
Aspirate.
fortis. lenis.
Knudsen
2. Kafir:
Appleyard
3. Zulu:
Grout
4. Tsuana :
AppleyarA
5. Kua:
Prof. W. Peters
6. Swahili:
Krapf .. .
7. Herero :
C. Hugo Hahn ...
8. Mpougwe :
Am. Board on the Gabun.
* The latter, it must be remembered, are not included in his " general
tableau," but only in phonetic tables of the few languages in which they
are supposed to occur.
L'7
Fricative.
fortis. lenis.
Aspirate.
fortis. lenis.
0. Fernando Po :
John Clurkf h
10. Yorfiba:
S. Crowllicr h
11. Ofi:
H.N.Kiis
1:2. Susu:
/. W. G., Am. Board Mi
13. Maude :
Mucbruir ' h
14. Vei:
S. W. Koelle h r
15. O'lof:
Roger kh hr h
1C. Housa:
Sohon h y
17. Kanuri :
S. W. Koelle h
18. Nubisch:
Lepsius h
19. Koiigara:
Lepsius (h)
20. Galla:
Ch.Tutscheli
21. Hieroglyphic :
Lepsius x
22. Koptic :
Lepsius x
23. Bega:
Lepsiua
24. Abyssinian, Ge;ex .
Ludolph i k
25. Abyssinian, Amhara :
Isenberg ..' h ch
NOTE. By the above list it appears that of twenty-five African lan-
guages, nine are represented as having both quantities of fricatives, i.e.,
fortis and lenis; thirteen contain fricatives of only one quantity, and the
remaining three, neither fricatives nor aspirates ; but, among the whole
number, only three are said to contain aspirates, viz., the two Abyssinian
dialects, and the Koptic.
From the above, a rather sweeping inference may be drawn,
28
viz., that about seven-eighths of the African dialects have no
aspirated gutturals.
Fortunately for my purpose, the list contains, at the outset,
three or four South African languages, with the nature of which
I happen to be more or less acquainted viz., the Hottentot or
Naman, the Kafir and Zulu, and the Sechwana ; the phonic
system of the latter being the subject of my particular attention,
I have made it the basis of these investigations. To test the
propriety of the distinction between the terms fricative and
aspirate in the case of the gutturals, as well as to show the
confusion arising from a mere comparison of alphabets, 1 shall
consider each of these languages in succession.
(a) SECHWANA.
The pair of consonants in this language, which I have already
indicated by the letters kh and g (in use among the mission-
aries), and proved, upon a certain principle, to be aspirate-
" explodent" gutturals, are indicated in the list by the same
letters,* but without a knowledge of their nature, both pla'ced
under the head of fricatives by Dr. Lepsius, and, moreover, re-
presented by the ancient Greek letters ^ an( i 7> m his corres-
ponding graphic system. To say that the consonant thus
intended to be indicated by the Greek x and called a fricative,
is anything but a slight modification by a gentler aspiration
that is, differing only in an insignifioant degree, if at all, from
lenis aspirate g (-#/<) is, I think, carrying the habit of phonical
"hair-splitting" to an excess. The appropriateness of the letter
X, in any new graphic system, would consist in its being intro-
duced to indicate an element of articulation which bears the
closest approximation, if not absolute identity, to that which it
anciently indicated. In lexicons, x is represented as having been
" a strong guttural aspirate." Its former identity to k aspirate
* Mi-. Apployard. the authority cited, probably procured Ids informaliou
on the subject at second-hand, from Mr. Arch-bell.
29
seems to be generally admitted ;* at all events, I may avail
myself of an independent proof of this (especially as it will serve
to illustrate the Sechwana.), in the fact that the same Greek
particle ov, previously noticed as taking final K before initial
vowels, took x before the same vowels with the spiritus asper,
e.g., ov% vtrtfjTir, which could not of course mean the doubling
of an aspirate, but the coalescence of final K with the spiritus
asper of the following vowel. This is more distinctly shown in
the case of ^t/ca, combined with tiptpa, forming lf\i]p-^og. Whereas,
X is intended by Dr. Lepsius to indicate a continuous consonant
viz., ch in the German lachen, differing only in degree, if at all,
from that I am about to notice (g, -gh}-
This reference to the orthography of a dead language enables
me to explain exactly the nature of the consonant in Sechwana,
which I, for the present, call an aspirate " explodent." In this
language it is at times gently enunciated ; at others, forcibly ;
but the fact of an aspiration accompanying the simple " explodent"
k, is unmistakeable.
The other consonant g (-#A), which the genius of the Sechwana
proves to be a corresponding lenis form of the fortis kh, and
therefore also an aspirate, is more difficult of illustration. An
evidently very close approximation to it is that intended to be
indicated in Dr. Lepsius's system by the above letter ^ > and
classed as a fortis fricative. That the Greek letter y, adopted
by him, anciently indicated the same lenis consonant as that now
under consideration, is not at all borne out by Greek lexico-
graphers. In fact, the supposed identity of y, in the traditional
Greek pronunciation, with the Arabic , satisfies me that it
would only be applicable to a vocalised form of the German ch
in the above example, or to the Cape-Dutch g] in dagen (days).
* See " Standard Alphabet" note 2, p. 37.
f An articulation approximating to what is improperly called the
" guttural r" but only more gentle.
30
It must now be evident to the reader that the two letters
X and x' (y)j which the able linguist has adopted to represent
the elements ch in Germ, lachen, and the Arabic respectively,
are by him erroneously applied in the Sechwana to other two
elements, which, in his graphic system, ought to be written k' (or
M), and ^, respectively ; so that only one of the two is correctly
regarded as an equivalent, but merely misplaced as to quantity
viz., the latter.
These two consonants in the Sechwana are thus described by Dr.
Livingstone, in his " Analysis of the Language of the Bechuanas,"
(Section 1.)
" kh is the k strongly aspirated, as in khakala (far) ; as supposed by Dr. Lepsius,
equivalent to the Sechwana and Hottentot kh (A"), but simply the
former (lenis of Grout, Germ, ch, Sech. g), accompanied by a
decided lateral click, and that it was actually neither of the two
guttural elements of Dr. Lepsius, but a double consonant.
As in the preceding instance, I was gratified to observe that
my view of this articulation was in a measure corroborated by
Bishop Colenso's description of it.
" There is another sound occurring in a few Zulu words, which may be
pronounced either as a guttural from the bottom of the throat, or as a click
in a peculiar way. But the sound must be heard in order to be imitated.
We shall denote it by x ; and the student may get a native to sound it for
him." First Steps in Zulu Kafir, p. 2.
My own description differs from this only in being more de-
finitive. It is decidedly not a simple consonant, and Dr. Lepsius
has erred in classifying it as the equivalent of both the Sechwana
or Naman kh (k "), and the German ch, under the delusion that
the two latter digraphs indicated identical elements. Mr. Grout,
again, with the " living traditional pronunciation" of the Zulu
at his ear, has evidently never taken the trouble to ascertain the
real nature of both elements intended to be indicated by Dr.
Lepsius's letters x an ^ x' the former of which he has in fact
reversed as to quantity, and applied that with a diacritical mark
to a compound though cognate consonant.
I do not know whether the vocalised form of ch in lachen (that
is, the ^/izs-fricative-guttural ^' of Lepsius, Arabic ), which he
has confounded with the Sechwana g\ is to be found in Zulu ;
but have ascertained beyond a doubt that this language neverthe-
less contains the Sechwana or Naman kh (&}, which he has con-
founded with his x> and I have endeavoured to prove is properly
35
the fortis form of this ck (gutt.) At page 16 of his Grammar, Mr.
Grout says : " There is also a sound intermediate between that ofy
and k" On trying, by my own ear, so accustomed to Sechwana
aspirates, the two examples he refers to viz., ukuganda or kanda,
and utukela or utugela, I distinctly perceived that the former was
pronounced uku khanda, and the latter utukhela,* with k" in both.
I am afraid I have brought my reader into a phonetic labyrinth,
and would rather it had fallen to the lot of some other writer to
make an exposure of any imperfections in the graphic systems
of men labouring to arrive at uniformity ; but conceive it to be
* Lest, in the above statements, I should lay myself open to a charge of
obsequiousness and party-spirit, I append the following facts : In the course
of a short visit to Natal (August, 1861), I took the opportunity of riding
out about twenty miles or more from Durban, to the mission station of the
Rev. Mr. Rood (who was at the time absent). My object was to become
satisfied, before committing myself to print, of the true nature of the two
gutturals r~ and r of the American missionaries, or % an< i X f Lepsius. As
Mr. Grout's Grammar had just been published, I carefully went through his
letters of the alphabet with an intelligent native ; especially as I had my
doubts of the correctness of his descriptions of the Zulu elements ; for I had
on on 
