Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/569

 APPENDIX II. 405 subjoined list of a few common rord8 in tho Don^olawi of the Nile and in four Kordo- fan diolec'ta shows that tho voc-abulury also if) (>MMciitiully one : — BafUik ""Xt JcMKvro JtMSoiaiL JeMKate. MM Kaltto. Mouth. . •Rtl geJem ogl aul •Uo awol Foot. . kogodi kuddo ko«ido ke( Cow • . ti ti rh ti teh Fire . . . iff ik ek» ? ika One . . . weri her ben ber ber Two . . owl orre ora oia «n Three . . toaki toje tje tOJM Vju It is inpTodiblo that the speech of the Uaua Negroes and Kordofan Nubaa, if origi- nally the same, could have maintained its identity with such slight changes as these for a period of nearly 4,400 years — that is, from the time of Pepi (2500 b.c), when mention first occurs of the Uaua. It seems safe to conclude, that while the identity of tho Nile and Kordofan Nubos is established, neither branch has any obvious or necessary connection with the extinct Uaua of the Egyptian records. Independently of this consideration, tho Nubian language, first clearly elucidated by Lepsius, presents some points of interest both to the philologist and ethnologist. Its Negro character is shown in its phonologj', in the complete lack of grammatical gender, and in some structural peculiarities. Such is the infi.x j inserted between the verbal root and the plural pronominal object, as in at tokki-j-ir = I shake them. As in Bantu, the verbal conjugation is highly developed, presenting such a multiplicity of forms that in Lepsius' Grammar the complete paradigm of a single verb fills as many as 110 pages. The Nubian language never appears to have been cultivated, or even committed to writing.* Hence it is not likely to affonl tho key, as some have suggested, to the numerous undeciphered inscriptions occurring along tho banks of the Nile as far south as Senaar. It enables us, however, to dispose of the so-called " Nuba-Fulah " family, originally eonstitute<l of heterogeneous elements by Frederick Miiller, and generally accepted by anthropologisti) on the authority of that disting^iished ethnologist. Wo have already seen at the outset that the Fulahs are a non-Negro race, most probably allied to the western Ilamites of the Sahara. The Fulah speech, also, appears from Krause's Grammar to be a non-Negro language, betraying not the remotest resemblance to the Nuba. Thus the Nubas are of Negro stock and speech, and so the "Nuba-Fulah" family is dissolved, its diyecta membra finding each its place amongst its own kindred. Nuba Kargo Kulfan Tumali Fur Kutyara NVBAS PlluI'EU. Kordofan, chiefly in central utid ^out'.em districta, 11" — 13° N. WB8IER>r NCBAS. The dominant race in Dnr-Fur, to which country it gives ita name ; apeech appears to bo akin to Nuha. Dar-Fur and Kordnfao ; a brunch of the Fur, whoae language they ttill apeak. Nils NuB«a ("Nvnusts." "Daiubra"). From Aauan (Firat Cat iract) to Sebu and Wadi-el-Arab. ilattokki {Keniu). Haidoiii, Mahai, or Mariai From Korovko to Wady-Halfa (Second Cataract) notf^worthy, howcv<r, that Eutjchiua -( Alt'xandria (930) includes the " Nnbi " among the nx kindA of writing, wh ch he tella ua in a somewhat dnubtfal paaaage, were current amongat the llamitio poop'oa. 80— AP.
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