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
Footnote 115:
Mr Ross Browne has lately been engaged in writing a voluminous report
to the Government at Washington upon the mineral resources of the
Western States of the Union.
Footnote 116:
Messrs Monteiro and Gamitto (O Muata Cazembel, Appendix, 470) doubt
whether the Tete grammar can be reduced to an intelligible system of
verbs. I see no difficulty. Capt. Boteler, R. N. (Appendix, vol. i.
Voyage to Africa, Bentley, 1835) easily collected a ‘Delagoa
Vocabulary’ from George, his interpreter.
Footnote 117:
In Kisawahili reduplication sometimes seriously modifies the root
meaning, e. g. Mbhali means ‘far’ or ‘distant;’ Mbhali-Mbhali is
different or ‘several,’ meaning ‘distinct.’
Footnote 118:
The Tupys of the Brazil, according to the Portuguese, ignored both
sounds—I presume initiative.
Footnote 119:
These are
1. B—an emphatic and explosive perfect-mute, formed by compressing the
lips apparently to the observer’s eye.
2. D—which is half T, formed somewhat like the Arabic Ta (ط) by
touching the lower part of the central upper incisors with the
thickened tongue-tip. Strangers write indifferently Doruma and Toruma,
Taita and Daida.
3. G—harder and more guttural than ours, the tongue root being applied
thickened to the soft palate. An instance is _G_ombe, a large cow
(Gnombe), which Arabs and Europeans pronounce Gombe, meaning a shell.
Incrementation is also effected by simplifying the initial sound, as
Gu, a large foot, from Mgu; Dege, a large bird, from Kdege.
4. J—a semi-liquid: the J is expressed by applying the fore part of
the tongue to the palate, above the incisors closely followed by a
half-articulated Y. It is often confounded with D and Y, e. g. Unguja,
Unguya, and Ungudya, for Ungujya (not Ugúya, as Mr Cooley believes),
and Yambeho or Jambeho for Jyambeho. The sound is not ‘peculiarly
African;’ it exists in Sindi and other tongues, and a likeness to it
occurs at the junction of English words, as ‘pledge you’ Even the
Arabs distinguish it from their common Jim, and it is well worth the
conscientious student’s attention.
5. K—half G, a hardened sound whilst the mid tongue is still applied
to the palate. It might be taken for a corruption of the Arabic Kaf
(ق).
At Mombasah we shall remark other sounds mostly peculiar to the coast
Kisawahili. As a rule, however, the stranger will be understood even
before his tongue has mastered these minutiæ.
Footnote 120:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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