________________
DECEMBER, 1907.)
RECORD OF THE LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES.
353
A PLAN FOR A UNIFORM SCIENTIFIC RECORD OF THE
LANGUAGES OF SAVAGES. Applied to the Languages of the Andamanese and Nicobarese.
BY SIR RICHARD C, TEMPLE.
(Concluded from p. 347.) IV. -- PHONOLOGY.
A. - Mode of Speech. THE Nicobarese speak in a deep monotonous tone and with open lips, thus adding to the
1 many difficulties presented by their language by giving it an exceedingly indistinct sound. The pronunciation is guttural, nasal, drawled, and indeterminate : i. e., the Nicobarese speak slowly from the throat with the flat of the tongue and open lips. Final consonants are habitually slurred, especially labials, palatals, and gutturals. All this is the result of the habit of betel-chewing till the lips are parted, the teeth greatly encrasted and the gams distended, rendering the articulation of speech most imperfeot.
b. - Man's and de Böepstorff's Enquiries. Mr. Man was at very great pains to catoh the real sound of Nicobarese words, and his reproduction of them on Mr. A. J. Ellis's scheme may be taken as being as near to complete accuracy as one is likely to arrive at. Mr. de Roepstorff, who was a Dane, used in 1876 his national system of representation, which has been followed by Danish and German writers, but is entirely unsuited to English readers. E.g., he writes ; for y, and the usual Danish and German complications to represent ch and j and so on. He had also the common Danish and German difficulty in distinguishing surds from sonants, which has made his transliterations puzzling.
0.-Roduction of the Speech to Writing. There are a great number of vowel sounds in the language, which have been reproduced by Messrs. Man and Ellis as follows:
The Vowels in the Central Disleot. ENGLI8H. CENTRAL.
ENGLISH
CENTRAL. a idea, cut yuang (fruit)
o pot
omtom (all) ā cur 86 dāk (come)
8 asfal
lôe (cloth) à casa (Ital.) kakàtôk (a month) ö könig (Ger.) boi (far) â father kân (wife)
u influence puâ (catch) ä fathom leät (finished)
ū pool
duen (monkey) e bed, chaotio heng (sun)
ü über (Ger.) düe (canoe) ē pair loang (name)
ai bite
tanai (five) i lid kaling (foreigner)
au house
kareau (spirit-scarer) i police wi (make)
du haus (Ger.) oàu (vomit) o indolent koal (arm)
di boil
enldin (wallow) o pole
enlöin (axe) Almost every vowel is nasalised and the following are reproduced in the written form adopted :
Nasalised Vowels in the Central Dialect. an holian (epinster)
on kenhāna (pocket) än mian (spear)
òn bh (fuel) an ki (two)
môńhuyä (albumen) koydiwa (guava)
chyan (sweet) en enh (near)
sin mifainya (cload) aminh (rain)
· aun anhani (parboil) finha (hogshead)
din omhoin (tobacoo) on harońh (stalk game)
* With untrilled r. » The name of the first month of the North-East monsoon.
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