The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
H[=o]ma and Bañgminda through Major Paul Larkin and Captain White.
These are the chief features which, he believes, make the second
volume a valuable contribution.
In spite of the extensive investigation, however, the author still
finds a good deal about which he is not certain. About many of these
languages he knows little regarding their structure and grammar.
In other words they have been studied merely from the outside. In
spite of his extensive travels, moreover, he had so much to do and
apparently such a short time in which to accomplish his task that
this work, as valuable as it is, can be considered no more than an
introductory treatise going a little further into a field inadequately
explored. Already he says he finds that he has been reproached for not
bringing within the scope of these two volumes a group of languages
in the North-east Togoland and Kisi and the Limba tongues of Sierra
Leone. Yet although he finds that these have some Bantu features, they
were too mixed to justify their treatment here. He found resemblances
of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu families elsewhere but not closely enough
akin to require their treatment in connection with this work.
Beginning with a treatment of the enumeration and classification of
the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages, the work reviews the languages
illustrated in Volume I. Attention is directed to the Bantu in various
regions of the continent. The author then discusses the phonetics and
phonology of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages, prefixes, suffixes,
and concords connected with the noun in Bantu and Semi-Bantu,
adjectives, pronouns, numerals, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions,
the verbs and verb roots. The maps graphically show the probable
origins and lines of migration of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages
and their distribution in Central and South Africa.
On the whole, the world is indebted to Sir Harry H. Johnston for his
enumeration and classification of these tongues, although the work
merely marks the beginning of a neglected task. Until some scholar
with better opportunities to carry forward this research has produced
a more scientific treatise, the works of the author will be referred
to as interesting and valuable volumes.
NOTES
On February 20, 1923, there passed away in New York City a Negro
of no little distinction in his particular group. This was Horatio
P. Howard, the great grandson of Captain Paul Cuffe of African
colonization fame. Howard was the grandson of the Captain's daughter
Ruth, who married Alexander Howard, and the child of their son
Shadrach. Howard was born in New Bedford in 1854 and beginning in
1888 served as a clerk in the Custom House in New York City where he
accumulated considerable wealth which, inasmuch as he lived and died
a bachelor, he disposed of for philanthropic purposes. He bequeathed
$5000 to Hampton and the balance of his estate he gave to Tuskegee as
a fund to establish Captain Paul Cuffe scholarships.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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