Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, West -- Description and travel; Congo River -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Africa, West
Nothing can be more unpleasant than the Portuguese spoken by the
Congoman. He transposes the letters lacking the proper sounds in
his own tongue; for instance, "sinholo" (sinyolo) is "senhor;"
"munyele" or "minyele" is "mulher;" "O luo" stands in lieu of "O
rio," (the river); "rua" of "lua" (luna), and so forth. For to-
morrow you must use "cedo" as "manhaa" would not be understood,
and the prolixity of the native language is transferred to the
foreign idiom. For instance, if you ask, "What do you call this
thing?" the paraphrase to be intelligible would be, "The white
man calls this thing so-and-so; what does the Fiote call this
thing?" sixteen words for six. I have elsewhere remarked how
Englishmen make themselves unintelligible by transferring to
Hindostani and other Asiatic tongues the conciseness of their own
idiom, in which as much is understood as is expressed. We can
well understand the outraged feelings with which poor Father
Cannecattim heard his sermons travestied by the Abundo negroes do
Paiz or linguists, the effect of which was to make him compose
his laborious dictionary in Angolan, Latin, and Portuguese. His
wrath in reflecting upon "estos homems ou estos brutos" drives
the ecclesiastic to imitate the ill-conditioned layman who
habitually addresses his slave as "O bruto! O burro! O bicho! O
diabo!" when he does not apply the more injurious native terms as
"Konongwako" and "Vendengwandi." It is only fair to confess that
no race is harsher in its language and manners to its "black
brethren," than the liberated Africans of the English
settlements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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