DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49263#0014
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Introduction
widely from the Hamitic, particularly in the total absence of all the fricative
consonants except f, and also the peculiar absence of initial 1, n, or r. Traces also
exist of the former existence of the Nilotic semi-vowels.
A common foreign influence, not identifiable with any living Hamitic language,
but in some ways resembling Kafa or Galla, seems to have affected both Nubian and
a group containing also Bari, Masai, Nandi, Turkana, Latuka, Suk, and kindred
languages of East Africa. To this we may ascribe the masculine and feminine
‘ articles ’ (of which the latter only can be traced in Nubian), the plural suffixes, the
extension of the meaning of the verbal stem by suffixes resembling -j and -r, together
with a considerable addition to the vocabulary. That the Bari Masai group, before
its permeation by this foreign influence, was of common origin with the Nilotics, or
Niloto-Sudanics such as Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk, has been thought probable by
myself and others.1 Meinhof, however, considers Masai as a Hamitic language
affected by Sudanic influences;2 and the Hamitic element so predominates in the
Bari-Masai vocabularies that I have here included this ‘ Niloto-Hamitic ’ group, the
Bari-Masai under the heading ham. in the comparative column of this dictionary.
A much larger extension of the vocabulary and more drastic alteration of the
grammar came at a later period, when the Nubian-speaking population, up to this
time probably negroes, came in contact and largely coalesced with an Agau-speaking
people, possibly on the Blue Nile. From this time on, the Hamitic character of the
language predominated and the present personal-endings to the verb and case-endings
to the noun were introduced.
The subsequent influences to which the language has been exposed are interesting
but of relatively little importance. They include a few remarkable borrowings from
Libyan (Hamitic) languages west of the Nile such as the words aman water, kiccad
gazelle, fill-e onion. These are perhaps a relic of the population formerly inhabiting
the present habitat of the Nubians in the Nile valley.
The numerous words with parallel forms in Ancient Egyptian and Coptic are
mostly to be accounted for as roots common to the majority of Hamitic languages,
or as late borrowings through Egyptian Arabic. Nubian can have had but little
direct contact with either Egyptian or Coptic, as Meroitic which seems unrelated to
Nubian, was the language of the district where Nubian is now spoken, almost down
to the period of the Arab invasion of Egypt.
Nubian was, however, the language of the early Christian Church of Nubia, and
1 The Nilotic Languages: a comparative essay (J. R. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 50). Westermann,
The Shilluk People, p. 33.
2 Die Sprachen der Hamiten, p. 4.
Introduction
widely from the Hamitic, particularly in the total absence of all the fricative
consonants except f, and also the peculiar absence of initial 1, n, or r. Traces also
exist of the former existence of the Nilotic semi-vowels.
A common foreign influence, not identifiable with any living Hamitic language,
but in some ways resembling Kafa or Galla, seems to have affected both Nubian and
a group containing also Bari, Masai, Nandi, Turkana, Latuka, Suk, and kindred
languages of East Africa. To this we may ascribe the masculine and feminine
‘ articles ’ (of which the latter only can be traced in Nubian), the plural suffixes, the
extension of the meaning of the verbal stem by suffixes resembling -j and -r, together
with a considerable addition to the vocabulary. That the Bari Masai group, before
its permeation by this foreign influence, was of common origin with the Nilotics, or
Niloto-Sudanics such as Dinka, Nuer, and Shilluk, has been thought probable by
myself and others.1 Meinhof, however, considers Masai as a Hamitic language
affected by Sudanic influences;2 and the Hamitic element so predominates in the
Bari-Masai vocabularies that I have here included this ‘ Niloto-Hamitic ’ group, the
Bari-Masai under the heading ham. in the comparative column of this dictionary.
A much larger extension of the vocabulary and more drastic alteration of the
grammar came at a later period, when the Nubian-speaking population, up to this
time probably negroes, came in contact and largely coalesced with an Agau-speaking
people, possibly on the Blue Nile. From this time on, the Hamitic character of the
language predominated and the present personal-endings to the verb and case-endings
to the noun were introduced.
The subsequent influences to which the language has been exposed are interesting
but of relatively little importance. They include a few remarkable borrowings from
Libyan (Hamitic) languages west of the Nile such as the words aman water, kiccad
gazelle, fill-e onion. These are perhaps a relic of the population formerly inhabiting
the present habitat of the Nubians in the Nile valley.
The numerous words with parallel forms in Ancient Egyptian and Coptic are
mostly to be accounted for as roots common to the majority of Hamitic languages,
or as late borrowings through Egyptian Arabic. Nubian can have had but little
direct contact with either Egyptian or Coptic, as Meroitic which seems unrelated to
Nubian, was the language of the district where Nubian is now spoken, almost down
to the period of the Arab invasion of Egypt.
Nubian was, however, the language of the early Christian Church of Nubia, and
1 The Nilotic Languages: a comparative essay (J. R. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 50). Westermann,
The Shilluk People, p. 33.
2 Die Sprachen der Hamiten, p. 4.