421 '■ DESCRIPTIVE COMPLEMENT '" IN SlRoNGA. 



Frcjiii Zulu, si)eciiiien examples have already been quoted of 

 descriptive complements which may have given rise to verbs. 



As far as my lists carry me, there is ground for believing that 

 in both SiRonga and SeSotho the descriptive complements have 

 given i-ise to nouns, verbs and other descriptive complements, 

 and in Zulu to verbs, at least. 



v. — The way i.s now open for some discussion of the name that 

 should be given to this class of words. 



It will, 1 think, be agreed that it is highly desirable that 

 JSantu grammarians should come to some agreement in the 

 matter of terminology. There is matter for an article on that 

 subject. One can ordy state the need here, and use the many 

 conflicting terms in use for this class of words to point the moral 



German writers call these words " sound -pictures " (Laut- 

 bilder), or " word-pictures " (Wortbilder). We may leave the 

 former for the present. The latter seems to be too indefinite. 

 Both, however, draw attention to the descriptive nature of these 

 vi'prds. 



Colenso, as stated above, in his First Steps in Zulu, says that 

 some " are probably imitations of the sounds referred to," i.e., 

 onomatopoeias. With this the late Snr. Torre do Valle, in his 

 Diccionarios Shironga-Portuguez e Portuguez-Shironga. agreed. 

 It appears that only a comparatively small number of these words 

 are really onomatopoeias. Further, this name only indicates 

 origin, and not function. 



The name " onomatopoetic adverbials," proposed by Dr. 

 Hetherwick (Yao and Kinyassa), denotes their function, but too 

 definitely, and also refers them all to onomatopoetic origin. 



"Onoryiatopoetic vocables," proposed by the late Mr. Staple- 

 ton (Congo), refers them all to a common origin. The word 

 " vocables " is too wide in meaning. 



.Torrend, as quoted by Mr. Junod. calls them " onomafo- 

 ])oetic substantives." We have seen that they have nothing in 

 common with the noun, no prefi.xes, etc., and only some of them 

 are onomatopoetic. The words cit-ed above, Section III , used 

 with the copula, have no prefixes. 



Mr Junod, reviewing previous opinions (Life of a South Afri- 

 can Tribe, Vol. II., p. 147), decides for the name " descriptive 

 adnerbs " : which he had previously used in his Grammaire et 

 Manuel de Conversation Ronga. He says that perhaps some may 

 be interjections but that as most of them follow the verbs hu 

 ku, ku li, JiU ti, they are adverbs rather than interjections He 

 notes that their meaning is greatly assisted by gesture and into- 

 nation, and that, while some are primitive, others are derivative, 

 e.g.. hvmelelo, the impression caused by someone who appears 

 suddenly, ccn»es from the verb hurnelcla. Thus, some are derived 

 from verbs, in his opinion. He goes on : " Some, placed between 

 the verb ku and the adverb, have a real transitive nature, and can 

 be preceded by a direct object, especially those which e.xpress 

 actions. He illustrates: A ku h' wuyuwuyu, he throws that awa^y-. 

 A ku mu vipsi, he makes him mpsi, he binds him . and gives an 

 example of the use of the verbal reflexive prefix ti used in this 



