DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49263#0015
Introduction xi
a few remaining Greek words no doubt date back to this period, where the religious
manuscripts contained many such. Examples geledun, kisir, kisse, k8rgos, and
kirage from yeXtScoc, KL0dpa, eKKXyata, KpoKos, and KvpcaKT].
Semitic influence on Nubian has been both indirect and direct; in the former
case, due to percolation through the Hamitic channels mentioned above from the
Semitic languages of Abyssinia, and in the latter, the result of the present-day
contact with Arabic, which has flooded the language with loan-words, constituting
thirty per cent, of the vocabulary as spoken to-day. (Only a small proportion of these
appear in the present dictionary.) A few words like c^pnn, n^pm,
suggest Arabic influence on Old Nubian. See sorbod, farki, jimmil in dictionary.
It must be admitted here that, after all the above factors have been considered, and
the available literature ransacked for possible cognate forms, a very large unknown
residuum still remains, containing many of the commonest words. We do not yet
know the derivation of words like mug dog, man. or misi eye, or essi water.
One may here briefly recapitulate the published views of previous writers on
the subject, which have led to the adoption of the theory of Nubian relationships
outlined above. Lepsius1 was the first to include in one family, his ‘ ostliche
Mischnegersprachen’, all the groups which I here term Nilotic, viz. Nubian, Barea,
Kunama, Bari, Masai, Dinka, and Shilluk. As the problem of analysing their
composition developed, Reinisch2 advanced as his solution that Nubian with Barea
and Kunama formed connecting links between the Nilotic and his Hamito-Semitic
group, so that all the North African languages under consideration in the present
work would in that case have a common origin. The evidence, however, seems
insufficient for such a universal linking up, and it seems preferable to retain Barea
and Kunama, as Lepsius did, with the Nilotics. Meanwhile, Westermann3 claimed
that Nubian, Kunama, and Dinka were members of his Sudan language group, as
were also Ewe, Tsi, Efik, &c. To this he later added Shilluk.4 The evidence for
this is set forward in his Szidansprachen, and so eminent an authority as Meinhof has
accepted it.
There is a period in all languages, before the introduction of writing, when the
roots exist in a fluid state, and vary, within the usual limits of phonetic change,
from district to district, and even from village to village. Although for the sake of
a clear classification it is convenient to ignore this, and to restrict the term dialect to
those variants which exhibit definite signs of foreign influence, this tendency is
always present and must not be lost sight of. This applies not only to Nubian, but,
1 Kubische Grammatik. 2 Die spracliliche Stellung des Nuba. p. 169.
3 Die Sudansprachen. 4 The Shilluk People.
b 2
a few remaining Greek words no doubt date back to this period, where the religious
manuscripts contained many such. Examples geledun, kisir, kisse, k8rgos, and
kirage from yeXtScoc, KL0dpa, eKKXyata, KpoKos, and KvpcaKT].
Semitic influence on Nubian has been both indirect and direct; in the former
case, due to percolation through the Hamitic channels mentioned above from the
Semitic languages of Abyssinia, and in the latter, the result of the present-day
contact with Arabic, which has flooded the language with loan-words, constituting
thirty per cent, of the vocabulary as spoken to-day. (Only a small proportion of these
appear in the present dictionary.) A few words like c^pnn, n^pm,
suggest Arabic influence on Old Nubian. See sorbod, farki, jimmil in dictionary.
It must be admitted here that, after all the above factors have been considered, and
the available literature ransacked for possible cognate forms, a very large unknown
residuum still remains, containing many of the commonest words. We do not yet
know the derivation of words like mug dog, man. or misi eye, or essi water.
One may here briefly recapitulate the published views of previous writers on
the subject, which have led to the adoption of the theory of Nubian relationships
outlined above. Lepsius1 was the first to include in one family, his ‘ ostliche
Mischnegersprachen’, all the groups which I here term Nilotic, viz. Nubian, Barea,
Kunama, Bari, Masai, Dinka, and Shilluk. As the problem of analysing their
composition developed, Reinisch2 advanced as his solution that Nubian with Barea
and Kunama formed connecting links between the Nilotic and his Hamito-Semitic
group, so that all the North African languages under consideration in the present
work would in that case have a common origin. The evidence, however, seems
insufficient for such a universal linking up, and it seems preferable to retain Barea
and Kunama, as Lepsius did, with the Nilotics. Meanwhile, Westermann3 claimed
that Nubian, Kunama, and Dinka were members of his Sudan language group, as
were also Ewe, Tsi, Efik, &c. To this he later added Shilluk.4 The evidence for
this is set forward in his Szidansprachen, and so eminent an authority as Meinhof has
accepted it.
There is a period in all languages, before the introduction of writing, when the
roots exist in a fluid state, and vary, within the usual limits of phonetic change,
from district to district, and even from village to village. Although for the sake of
a clear classification it is convenient to ignore this, and to restrict the term dialect to
those variants which exhibit definite signs of foreign influence, this tendency is
always present and must not be lost sight of. This applies not only to Nubian, but,
1 Kubische Grammatik. 2 Die spracliliche Stellung des Nuba. p. 169.
3 Die Sudansprachen. 4 The Shilluk People.
b 2