Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
History
Zanzibar; city, island, and coast. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Africa, East -- Description and travel; Ethnology -- Tanzania -- Zanzibar; Zanzibar -- Description and travel
Dr Krapf (112, Missionary Travels) tells us ‘the Somali coast, from
Cape Guardafui southwards, is designated by the Arabs “Dar Ajam,” not
“Ajan” or “Azan,” as the maps wrongly have it, because no Arabic is
spoken in it.’ Dar Ajam is, I believe, a modern and incorrect phrase.
Footnote 28:
My learned and accomplished friend, Dr R. S. Charnoch (The Peoples of
Transylvania: London, Trübner, 1870, p. 28), agrees with D’Herbelot,
and from Zangi derives the racial gipsy names Czigány, It. Zingari,
Var. Cingani, Zingara, Cingari, Port. Ciganos, G. Zigeuner. But the
Zangi were and are negroes, Wasawahíli, whereas the gypsies never
were.
Footnote 29:
Foreigners—Arab, Persian, and Indian,—call them Sawáhili. They call
themselves Msawahíli in the singular, and Wasawahíli in the plural,
always accenting the penultimate syllable. In the Zangian tongues a
prefixed M is evidently an abbreviation of Mti, a tree, e. g. Názi, a
cocoa-nut, Mnázi, a cocoa-nut tree, or of Mtu, a man. Before a vowel
it is euphoniously exchanged to Mu, e. g. Muarábu, an Arab. The plural
form is Wa, a contraction of Watu, men. ‘Wá’ also is the sign of the
personal, or rather of the rational animate plural opposed to ‘Má,’
and must not be confounded with the possessive pronoun ‘Wá,’ of. Mr
Cooley (Memoir of the Lake Regions, &c., Reviewed, Stanford, 1864),
asserts that ‘Wa mtu,’ ‘of a man,’ becomes by rejection of the
singular prefix, ‘Watu,’ ‘men (des hommes):’ consequently it is an
error to call the coast people Wamrima and the mountaineers Wakilima.
If so, it is an error made by every Kisawahili-speaking man. There
are, however, tribes, for instance the Rabai and the Doruma, that do
not prefix the normal ‘Wá,’ to form a plural. A prefixed ‘Ki,’
possibly contracted from ‘kitu,’ a thing, denotes the language, e. g.
Kisawahili: it also acts diminutive, e. g. Kigito, a little mto, or
river; and it appears to have at times an adjectival sense. Opposed to
it is ‘Ji,’ an augmentative form, e. g. Jito, a big mto. U, possibly
derived from an obsolete root which survives in the Kinyika ‘Uatu’ (a
place), denotes the country, e. g. Uzaramo, Usagara, and Uzungu—Europe
the land of the Wazungu. Some names arbitrarily refuse this locative,
for instance, Khutu, Karagwah, Sanga, Bondei, and others: we never
hear Ukhutu, and so forth. ‘U’ is also a sign of abstract words, e. g.
Mzuri, a handsome man; Uzuri, beauty; Mtajíri, a merchant; Utajíri,
merchandise; Refu, long; Urefu, length. I may here remark that Captain
Speke’s analysis of Uzaramo and Usagara into U-za-ramo and U-sagara,
the country of Ramo and Gara, making them ‘obviously triple words,’ is
wholly inadmissible. The root of national and tribal names, whatever
it may be, is used only exceptionally amongst the Zangian races. Upon
this point I shall presently offer a few observations.
Footnote 30:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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