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NOVEMBER, 1907.)
RECORD OF THE LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES.
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317
A PLAN FOR A UNIFORM SCIENTIFIC RECORD OF THE
LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES. Applied to the Languages of the Andamonese and Nicobarese.
BY SIR RICHARD O. TEMPLE. (Continued from p. 251.)
III.25 THE THEORY OF UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR APPLIED TO THE NICOBARESE LANGUAGE.
Prefatory Remarks, THE Nicobarese speak one Language in six Dialects so different as to be mutually unintelligible to the ear. These six Dialects are, from North to South, Car Nicobar, Chowra, Teressa, Ceutral, Southern, and Shom Pen (vide Map attached ).
The chief place of European residence has always been Nancowry Harbour, where the Central Dialect is spoken and hence that Dialect is by very far the best known. Therefore, except where otherwise specially stated, all examples and all vernacular words quoted are taken from that Dialect. Diacritical marks have not been used, except where unavoidable.
The works of Prof. Kuhn, Grünwedel, Vaughan Stevens, and Pater W. Schmidt were not available to me while writing this Grammar.
I. - GENERAL DESCRIPTION
&. -- History of the Study. The Nicobarese Language in the Central Dialect has been long since studied. Vocabularies, collections of sentences, and partial Grammars of this Dialect, have been made at intervals by various missionaries and others from 1711 onwards — the two Jesait Fathers Faure and Bonnet in 1711; Surgeon Fontana of the Austrian vessel Josef und Theresia in 1778 (published 1795); G. Hamilton in 1801; the Danish missionary Rosen in 1831-4 ; Fathers Chabord and Plaisant (in Teresga) in 1845 ; Fathers Barbe and Lacrampe in 1846 ; Dr. Rink in the Danish vessel Galathea in 1846 ; the Austrian Novara Expedition in 1857 (published in 1862), with additions by de Roepstorff and others under Colonel H. Man; Maurer in 1867 ; Mr. A. C. Man in 1869 ; comparative statement by V. Ball of all information np to 1869 ; Mr. E. H. Man in 1871 onwards ; F. A. de Roepstorff in 1876 onwards; Dr. Svoboda of the Austrian Aurora Expedition, 1886 (published 1892).
Ten Vocabularies and a translation into the Central Dialect of 27 Chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew were made by the Danish Moravian missionaries (Herrnhuter) in 1768–87. These are still preserved in manuscript at Herrnhut, and were partially embodied in de Roepstorff's posthumous Dictionary of the Nancowory (Central) Dialect, 1884 ; a capital book with valuable appendices, requiring, however, retransliteration for English readers.
b.- Man's Enquiries into the Central Dialect. But the latest and best attempt to reproduce this Dialect is Mr. E. H. Man's Dictionary of the Central Nicobarese Language, 1889. This contains also a brief and valuable attempt at the Grammar and a Comparative Vocabulary of all the Dialects. The system of transcription adopted is the rery competent one of the late Mr. A. J. Ellis. Mr. Man had the advantage of all the labours of his predecessors, together with a much longer residence in the islands than any of them and better means of locomotion. To these he has added the accuracy and care which distinguish all his work. In this Article, therefore, his book lias been followed for the facts of the language and the forms of its words, and all the examples given in it are called from the great number of sentences he has recorded. For the mode of presentation I am, however, responsible, as Mr. Man attempted in his Grammar to explain the language exclusively from the current English view of Grammar, rather than to present its character as a scientific study.
The other Dialects only find a place in Mr. Man's studies and are still but little known, no one with sufficient scholarly equipment or inclination having ever resided on any of the islands for the time necessary to study them to the extent that has been possible at Nancowry.
95 Largely roprinted with additions and many corrections from Chapter IV, Part II, of the Conue Reinet India, 1901, Vol. III.
