w b s, the.cEse of which-as almost entirely unknown in the
Semitic. In all 4hes,ó respects the Coptic stands distinguished
from the principal idioms, of Europe and^Asia.,
In the 'same parts of grammaticalstructure a mpsjt remarkable
accordance will be found to subsist between the Egyptian
language, aud the idioms of several other African nations.
In the Amharic, although the system of verbal. conj uga-
tion has been evidently modified by the long predominant
influence óf-the Gheez or Ethiopië, yet striking instances- remain
of the tendency to inflection by means of prefixed A’
similar observation is applicable to the grammatical forms of
the Berber language. Passive verbs are formed in the Amharic
by the syllabic ta merely prefixed to the whple verb, and two
foinasofactive conjugations are produced by the prefixes a ’ and
ase, which give the meaning “ to do orcausp to bedopf.”*
But the languages of Southern Africa are unaffected by any
influence derived from the Gheez, Arabic, or any other,
speech, and in these we trace more decidedly, the principles
of structure above alluded to.
Grandpre, Brusciotti and some other writers have- given
short and imperfect accounts of the grammatical ppnstructipn
of the idioms spoken in the empire of Kongo; from which
Professor Vater published extracts in the third volume of the
Mithridates. There is besides a grammar and dictionary of
the Banda dialect spoken in Cassanga, which is , pfarly related
to those of Kongo and Kakongo, compiled by a Catholic
missionary named Cannecattim, of the contents of whiph we
have some information from Mr. Bowdich. A tolerably
copious grammar of the Amakosah Kafir has likewise been
published at Graham’s Town by the Wesleyan missionaries
settled there; With the aid of these materials it would be no
difficult matter to institute a comparison of all the languages
here mentioned. I shall not attempt j to enter into a full examination
of this subject. A cursory survey of the materials
which are in my hands is sufficient to convince any person
that many essential characters óf affinity exist between the
most remote dialects of these nations, as, for example, be-
* Ludolfi Grammatica Linguae Amharic», quae vemacula est Habessinorum.
Frankfurt^ 1618, pp. 14 and 16. Mithridat. iii. 112. See a note on the Berber
verbs at the end of this book.
tween the’la'n^dage^ spoke®in ithe empire of Kongo and that
of'the Amahef iah, r them os hsouth em tribemf Kafirs. It is
Stated by; Cannecattim / that the principal characters of the
Banda language/the Jaglas’ dialect of the Kongo- speech, is
that the inflections " of nouns<!and verbs' in number, voice,
tense and person fare distinguished; by* prefixes instead of terminations
: it would- seem that the mutations „of words in
general affeCt their • begmningsuandideave the; Touts End endings
unaltered.* This- peculiaritykhelongs l td uther| dialects of
the same nro'ther-tongue, as mayjbey^eendn Vater’s remarks
on |h e idioms of.- Iipaaago1 and Kakongo, of Konfgo and Angola;*
It is remarkable that the same law of grammatical
construction prevails likewise in the Kafir language*; namely,
in the'dialect, of the Amakosah. This may be |spep in the
Specimen! jof »ay.Kafir conjugatiop- of verbs, given by Mr.
Thompson in an Appendix to bisTravels in South Africa, and
it isi pfeved by/fhe following general remarks, on the structure
of this language in the Kafir grainmar by the Wesleyan mis-
&'bnary, Mr. tPojcyJb
;:“ The Kafir language is distinguished bybbe peculiarity
which immediately strikes a student whoSe views- of!, language
have been formed upon the examples afforded by the
inflected languages of ancient and modern Europe. With the
exception o f a change of termination in -the ablative ease of
the noun, and five changes of which the verb*is susceptibly
in its principal tenses, the whole business of declension, conjugation,
&c. is carried on by prefixes,-End by the changes
which take place in the initial letters or syllables..of words
subjected to grammatical government.’’ f .
From what has been said in the preceding pages, the reader
may have perceived that these observations are applicable
nearly in the same extent to the Coptic qr Egyptian language.
The distinctions of gender and number and case in nouns,
are entirely produced by prefixes, the nouns themselves being
indeclinable and subject to no’ modification in their endings.
In like manner the inflections of verbs by mood and tense,
which are very numerous in the5 Coptic, are all effected by
* Mithridat. iii. p.212—220. i Kafir Grammar, p. 3.