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242
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[August, 1887.
a lond acclamation that lier father the emperor "Do not you hear the sounds of the drums had tracked them at Inst! I have been thinking and pipes announcing a royal progress? Why about this for the last half ghatiku," said the should these sounds be heard in this street on princess. “Has the dream proved true ? I have this day alone? We have been living here for wished it, but still I very much for the wrath nearly a year and at no time have we heard of my father." So the princess, wringing her such sounds. It is this that makes me think hands, asked Sellam to explain what she meant. that our omperor is in search of us." "Does it require an explanation P" said Sellam.
(To be continued.)
SOMALI AS A WRITTEN LANGUAGE.
BY CAPTAIN J. S. KING, Bo.S.C. Owing to the British occupation of the guage, is a subject which I will not venture to Somali Coast, and the intimate relations enter upon. Possibly the trade connection thereby brought about with the natives of the between Western India and East Africa, dating country, an excellent opportunity has been from prehistoric times, may afford some exafforded of gaining an insight into their lan- planation." guage. The Government, recognising the im- The sounds p, v and do not exist in Somali portance of its study, has offered a reward to as separate sounds; consequently when foreign those who pass a colloquial test in Somali ; words containing them are introduced into the and has ordered all Assistant Political Officers | language, they are changed into their reciprounder the Aden Residency to pass the exami- | cals: p into b, v into b and z into s. The sounds nation within two years of their appointment. b and m also frequently interchange; and the
Independently of its practical importance, change of l into sh in certain cases, is a remarkthe study of Somali affords a wide field for the able phonetic peculiarity. speculations of the philologist; for at present The Somali language is wonderfully perfect very little is known regarding the origin of the in structure, but by no means easy to learn. langtage, or the early history of the nation What seemed to me the chief obstacle was the speaking it.
absence of any fixed system of orthography Dr. Cust, in his Modern Languages of Africa, which could be readily understood by teacher as classifies Somali, Galla and Dankali under well as pupil. Prof. Lepsius' "Standard the Ethiopio sub-group of the Hamitic family. Alphabet for reducing unwritten languages and This may be the original stock on which the foreign graphic systems to a uniform orthogralanguage mainly is founded; but the existence phy in European letters," however perfect in. of a pre-Hamitio element in it is not impro- itself, is difficult even for a European to learn ; bable. Various influxes from Hadhramaut and to attempt to teach it to Somalis would be and Yomon have added a Semitio element, a hopeless task. which now seems to predominate, and this To obviate this difficulty I have compiled the element is observable, not alone in individual following alphabetic system from the Hinduståni words, but also in the construction : notably in and Arabic alphabets. Only two new conthat of the pronouns.
sonants and three vowel marks require to The indigenous stook shows itself in charac- be invented. Every usual sound in the teristic sounds, such as the cerebral d (), as Somali language can be accurately expressed in the word 33 dadal, dream; the cerebral l 26 by these characters; and any intelligent Somali
accustomed to read and write Arabic can in W ay, move; the guttural nasal , as in
(much to his astonishment) easily be taught in ninka, the man; and the cerebral (), as in a few days to read and write his own language !
gar, justice : while the Semitio is represented Hereafter I shall attempt to show-by means by the 'ain, ghain and há, and also by the hamza. of colloquial sentences, with & vocabulary
How to account for the presence of these and grammatical analysis of each word-how cerebral sounds in an illiterate African lan-the study of Somali may be much facilitated.
Vide Mr. J. MacNabb Campbell's able summary of this subject in the Bombay Gaxetteer, Vol. XIII. Part II. Chap. VII. and Appendix A.
