________________
AUGUST, 1907.)
RECORD OF THE LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES.
229
kôte kap
kap
kap
gud
ENGLISH BĒa. BALAWA. BOJIGYÂB. JŪWAI.
KÓL. armpit awa ökar korting
körteng kürteng eye dal dal kodak kôdag
kodak eyebrow punyür punu bein beakain
beakin forehead mügu
mugu mike miko
mike ear pūku puku bo bôko
boko nose chôronga chôronga kôte
kôte cheek ab
koab arm
gud kit kit
kit breast kâm koam kôme kôme
kôme spine gorob kategórob kinab
kurup
kurup leg chåg chag chok chok
chok buttocks dama doamo tome tome
tome anas tomur bang tomur
kôlang Pulled to picces, Andamanese words of any Group of the Languages seem to be practically the same, but this fact is not apparent in actual speech, when they are given in full with their appropriate affixes, thus :ENGLI8H. BEA. BALAWA. BOJIqYÂB.
JUWAI.
KÔL. head
otchētada ôtchekta otetada ôtotôlekile ôtetoiche knee ablõda ablo abluda
alulekile oluche forehead igmūguda idmugu irmikeda remikelekile ermikeche
Any one who has had practice in listening to a foreign and partially understood tongue knows how a small difference in pronunciation, or even in accentuation, will render unintelligible words philologically immediately recognisable on paper.
kôlang
III. - ETYMOLOGY.
8.- The Use of the Boots. As the Andamanese usually build up the full words of their sentences by the simple agglutination of affixes on to roots and stems, the word construction of their language would present no difficulties, were it not for one peculiarity, most interesting in itself and easy of general explanation, though difficult in the extreme to discover: experto crede.
The Andamanese suffixes perform the ordinary functions of their kind in all agglutinative languages, and the peculiarity of the infixed l' occurring in compound words depends on the prefixes, It is the prefixes and their use that demand an extended examination.
b. - Anthropomorphism colours the whole Linguistio System. To Andamanese instinct or feeling, words as original meanings, c.e., roots, divide themselves, roughly into Five Groups, denoting
(1) mankind and parts of his body (nouns): (2) other natural objects (nouns): (3) ideas relating to objects (adjectives, verbs): (4) reference to objects (pronouns):
(5) ideas relating to the ideas about objects (adverbs, connecting words, Proper Names). The instinct of the Andamanege next exhibits an intense anthropomorphism, as it leads them to differentiate the words in the First Group, i.e., those relating directly to themselves, from all others, by adding special prefixes through mere agglutination to their roots.