SES UTU ET Y M ( )L( )G Y. 



Spkcimi-.n (Sesuto) Etymological Dictionary. 



By Rev. William Alfred Norton, B.A.. B.Litt. 



This paper does not profess to be a working dictionary for 

 beginners, it is submitted to the indulgent criticism: of Suto 

 scholars, and its method proposed to Bantuists as an apparatus 

 philologiciis for dealing with the several languages and dialects 

 (the former are said to number i8->. the latter 119), with a view 

 to comi)arison. The mere saving of space in reference would be 

 an enormous booiL similar to that ctmferred on classical criticism 

 by its now familiar apparatus. 



The main princi])les, then, of my scheme are as follows: — • 



1. The iieed of complete etymological arrangement, includ- 

 ing the derivative noinis. in .Suto. corrcs])onding to those of 

 Bryant and of KropF in Zulu-Kaffir respectively. This had been 

 done in (ierman by luidemann, l)ut not yet, so far as I. know, 

 in English. Endemann's great work has. of course, been in- 

 valuable, but he is not i)rimarily concerned with .South Suto. 

 with which 1 am most familiar. .\ly honoured friend, M. 

 Dieterlen. has most kindly allriwed me to make use of his labours 

 on this dialect, and 1 have also to thank the p;itience of a native 

 collea.uue (the Kev. X. Eeballo) and ])upi!s. 



2. The princijjle so admiral)l\- worked out by i^ndemann of 

 the significance, even in Bantu, of tone, wliicli 1 have exhibited 

 by acute and grave accents for u]) and down tone res])ectively. 

 The same phenomenon ap])eai-s, not only vn other African 

 groups, especially the West African, and (as is well known) 

 in Chinese, 1)Ut also in English, and indeed in nearly all language. 

 Thus a school teacher cries, "'.Stand!" but " Sil '." W'e say to 

 a dog. " (let U])!" but " Lie down!" .So i'li Suto aka is to hover, 

 but i)/i'(/, lo lie, in the still lower sense of deceit: ala is to spread 

 below, but apa is to spread above (ep.. '" .S])read it there," but 

 "He spreaderh out the Jiearens" (lo-api in Chwana). Ripa is 

 to hide, and Jipa to dig in the earth. Inn Epa is to call. So 

 hOka (with broad ()) is solemn praise — in alarming contrast, as 

 missionaries know to their cost, with boka [q.v.), often spelt 

 without difference. Bopa is to sulk or (g) lower; both, again, 

 in tone and vowel distinct, except in si)elling. irom bopa, to moiild. 

 Again, ana is solemnly to swear (rememl)er the " tone " of 

 Hamlet's father's ghost), and ellka is to betray, but eka (with 

 shut e) is to wave (brandish), and Ekela to add. To return to 

 homelier levels. Eta rei:)resents " foot-slog." the humdrum of 

 native tra\el (not the romance of our rapid " travel " dc luxe], 

 and bota, the dull if soothing job of smoothing mud-plaster. 1 

 venture to commend this parallelism between these Suto tones 

 and our English ones to the notice of general ]ihilology. I ha\e 

 stated elsewhere that Bantu ])hilology, in coming itself to light, 

 tends to throw light in turn on general philological problems. 

 This extraordinary ])sychological permanence of tone, and pre- 



