" DESCniPTIVE COMPLEMENT " IN SIKOXGA. 421 



Secondly, it would seem strange that, although the ideas 

 expressed are the same, and, as we shall see, the formation of the 

 descriptive complements in all the three languages is similar, yet 

 there seem to be no exact reproductions in one language of 

 descriptive complements found \n another of the languages 

 compared. 



In all three languages, real onomatopoeias seem to be, 

 relatively, very few. 



In the SeSotho list, mono.syllables fonn less than 10 per cent, 

 of the whole number. In the Zulu list, of 140 examples, the same 

 proportion is found. In my short SiRonga list above of about 70 

 examples, the proportion is much higher, reaching about 40 per 

 cent. 



In SiRonga, the descriptive complements are used, as we 

 have seen, with the verbs ku ku, hu II, ku fi. In SeSotho, they 

 appear, with only 10 exceptions in my list, with the verb ho re, 

 to emit a sound, to say, to do. Eight of my SeSotho examples 

 are used with ho etsa, to do; and two with ho ema, to stand {e.g., 

 re ema tsi, we remain perplexed) ; ho ema tsoe, to be perpen- 

 dicular. 



In the Zulu list, as far as it goes, all are used with uku ti, of 

 which Bryant (Diet. p. 108) sqys : " This verb is peculiar to the 

 Zulu and other Bantu languages, and cannot be exactly compared 

 with anything in English. Its uses are very extensive; but 

 mostly it is used in connection with some verbal particle, often 

 onomatopoetic. . . . The verb ti is conjugated in the regular 

 manner, the particular particle being simply placed after it and 

 standing independently." 



The question whether or not .some of these words, in all these 

 languages, have rightly been described as adverbs, will be dealt 

 with below. 



As to formation of disyllabic and polysyllabic descriptive 

 complements, the following may be here said. 



y AH three languages afford examples of reduplication, e.g., in 

 SiRonga: Sikisiki (shake), phatiphati (scintillate). In SeSotho:- 

 eke-eke (of water: become agitated); juku-juku (noise made by a 

 stick thrown, and striking the ground. In Zulu : heke bcke (undu- 

 late) ; bnda bada (stagger about). 



In SiRonga, humelelo presents an instance of the formation 

 of a descriptive complement by change in the final voxoel of a 

 verb, which is matched in Zulu by cupuluzi, idea of piercing; 

 cupaluza, to poke with the finger. 



SeSotho presents one peculiarity that does not appear in the 

 other lists; that of the combination of two descriptive comple- 

 ments; ho re tliu-soalala, to disperse in all directions. 



The same language has other interesting reduplications, e.g., 

 ho re morea-rea, to hesitate, in which partial reduplication occurs; 

 popololo, to diminish — a kind of double reduplication ; an 

 augmented reduplication in mjcnyc-nyeyiyene , to.make a distant 



