=OBSERVATIONS= ON THE LANGUAGE OF SIWAH. BY WILLIAM MARSDEN, ESQ. F. R. S. * * * * * _To the Right Honourable Sir_ JOSEPH BANKS, _Bart_. DEAR SIR, My curiosity has been much gratified by your obliging communication of Mr. Horneman’s specimen of the language spoken at _Siwah_, or the Oasis of Ammon, in the Lybian Desert; and it will afford satisfaction to you in return, to be informed, that notwithstanding the accident to his papers, which we must all regret, and which might cause some doubt to attach to the correctness of a list subsequently formed, I am enabled to identify the words he has transmitted, amongst the dialects of Africa with which we are already acquainted, and thereby to increase the confidence we feel in the general accuracy of this zealous and enterprising traveller. Not having any previous knowledge of the extensive people whom he calls _Tuarick_, of whose language he was given to understand that this of _Siwah_ is a dialect, I directed my attention in the first instance to the numerous specimens I possess of the languages spoken by various tribes of Negros, in the northern part of the continent, but without being able to trace in any of them the slightest similitude. I then pursued my comparison through the Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, and the different branches of the Ethiopic; and although I thought some distant affinity perceptible, it was not such as could be insisted upon. I was next led to examine the language spoken by the inhabitants of Mount Atlas, known in Morocco by the names of _Shilha_ شلح, and _Breber_ or _Berber_ بربر, but in their own country by that of _Amazigh_ امزيغ; and here I had the satisfaction of ascertaining the object of my search. The following examples will, I doubt not, be judged sufficient evidence of the language of these countries of _Siwah_ and _Shilha_, distant from each other by the whole breadth of Africa, being one and the same; and I scarcely need to claim even that reasonable allowance which every candid person will make for the difference of orthography that unavoidably results from the different circumstances under which collections of this nature are formed. Siwah. Shilha. Head, _Achfé,_ _Eghf, Eaghph._ Eyes, _Taun,_ _Tet, Tetten, Azain._ Hand, _Fuss,_ _Efus, Aphoose._ Water, _Aman,_ _Aman._ Sun, _Itfuct,_ _Taffought, Tafogt._ Cow, _Ftunest,_ _Tefnast, Taphonest._ Mountain, _Iddrarn,_ _Adarar._ Dates, _Tena,_ _Tini, Teeny._