This very extended family comprehends the Mandingo,
properly so termed, or better the M e n d ^ ,— the K a b u n g a ,
Mandingo dialect spoken in the land of Kabou, — &n&
several other dialects of the same language, such as the
T o r o n k a , dialect of Toro; the D c h a l u n k a , dialect of Fouta-
djalon; the K a n k a n k a , dialect of Kankan; the B am b a r a ,
the K o n o , talked westwards and northwards of the Kisi;
the V e i , in the country of this name situate to the east of
the Atlantic and north of Gbandi, which embraces several
dialects, viz: the T e n e , spoken in the land so hailed, that
has Souioekourou for its capital; the G b a n d i, spoken at the
north of Gula and at the west of Nieriwa; the L a n d o r o ,
talked west of Limla; the M e n d e , spread over the west
of Kono and the Kid, and east of Karo; the G b e s e ,
idiom of the borders of the river Nyua; the T om a , called
likewise B o u s e , spoken in the land of the same name
situated to the south of that of .the Gbese; and the Gio,
talked westward from Fa.
HI.—UPPER-GUINEAN-—that is, the languages of the Pepper,
Ivory, Gold and Slave, coasts, decompose themselves into
three groups, viz*:
1st.—The' Kroo tongues, comprising the D ew o i, spoken on
the hanks of the river Fe, or St. Paul’s ; the B a s s a , talked
in a portion of the Liberian territory; the E r a , or K r o o ,
spread south of the Bassa along the coast; the K r e b o ,
spoken in a neighboring canton; the G b e , or G b e i, whose
domain lies east of the Great Bassa.
2d.—The languages of Dahomey, of which the principal are
the D a h om e , or P o p o ; the M a h e , spoken eastward of the
Dahome; and the H w id a , talked in the country of that
name, located to the south of the Gelefe islands.
3d.— The languages Akou-Igala, embracing the numerous
dialects of the speech of the Akou, among which the
Y o z o u b a , spoken between Egba and the Eiger, — and the
I g a l a , language of the country of that name— are the most
important.23 We shall revert further on to the Y o z o u b a .
IV. — The languages of the north-west of UPPER SGODAN divide
themselves into four groups:
1st. — The group Guzen, represented chiefly by the idiom of
a very barbarian people, the Guzescha, who inhabit to the
west of Ton ;
28 The Yébou, of which M. D’Avezac has published the grammar (Mémoires de la Société
Ethnologique de Paris, II, part 2, pp. 106 seqq.), appertains to this group.
2d. — The group Legba, which embraces the L egba and the
K iamba ;
3 d . — The group Koama, to which belongs the B agbalan ;
4th. — And lastly, the group Kasm, spoken westward of the
land of the Guzescha.
V. — The tongues of the DELTA of the Niger are divided into three
groups:—the first represented by the Ibo dialects, — the
second by the Egbélé and several other idioms,—the third
by the dialect of Okouloma, the name of a maritime district
near the country of the Ibo and that of OutcJio.
VL — The NXJPE f am ily , o r l a n g u a g e s o f t h e basin o f th e Tchadda,
— a f am ily em b r a c in g n in e id iom s , o f w h ic h t h e p r in c ip a l
a r e t h e Y u p fi, o r T ayba, s p o k e n i n a c o u n tr y n e ig h b o r in g
Baba o n t h e M g e r ; a n d t h e G oali, o r G b a l i, t a lk e d to th e
e a s t o f t h e M ip é .
VII. — The family of CENTRAL-AFRICAN languages is composed
of two groups :
1st — The tongues of Bomou, which comprise also those of
the K anam, and the B udouma, spoken in the lake-isle of
that name. The main language of Bornou is the K anouri,
which attaches itself by close relationship to the three
tongues of Guinea, — the A sha n tee, the F a nt ee, and the
O d j i .
2d. — This group comprehends the P ik a , or F ik a , and the
B odé dialects spoken west of Bornou.
VUI. The WOLOF, or JIOLOF, spoken by the populations of
Senegambia, distinguishes itself, with sufficient sharpness,
from all the preceding tongues ; and offers a grammatical
system that has more than one trait in common with the
Semitic languages.
IX. In the same region, another family of tongues has the FOO-
LAH, or PEULE, for its type ; one dialect of which is
spoken by the Fellatahs, and very probably also by the
Ilausa, or Eaousans. The vocabulary of these divers idioms
and notably that of the Peule, has presented a remarkable
analogy with the Malayo-Polynesian34 languages, of which
we shall treat anon. It seems, therefore, that the Peule
family might not, perhaps, be attachable to African tongues.
The Wolof, although constituting a separate family, ap-
proaches in certain points the Y ozouba, spoken to the
part d<Tr fT ,. D (E,ÏCHT^AL’ Sut0,reet 0ri9in* desFoulahs ou FeUam, Paris, 1841 (Tirage à part de 1 Extmt des Mémoires de la Société Ethnologique).