THK ALPHABET. 5 



a. The negatives i, 6, and o, tioi^ are short ; as, enii u mo, / do not knoiv ■ ete 

 i m6 ete ni iko oi-ai] La ereke, lip not l:,eeping to Up Iriugs trouble to thejmvs. 



b. The initial 'i' of the infinitive mood is very short and slight; as, iwo \h ise, 

 thou canst do. 



c. The objective pronouns a, e, etc., arc so short as to be scarcely perceptible. 

 (See § 88, 2, b.) 



Tone of Vowels. 



§ 11. There are three primary tones, the Middle, the Acute, and the Grave; as, 

 l:)a, to meet j bd, with' and b^, to bend. The middle is the ordinary tone of 

 the voice without inflexion", the acute and grave tones are simply the rising and 

 falling inflexions of elocutionists. In the Yoruba language, however, they are 

 employed to distinguish words which are spelled alike, but have dififerent meanings. 

 Thus the two words obe, sauce., and obe, a hmfe., are quite dift'erent to the ear, 

 when uttered with the proper tones. The tones, though simple in theory, are 

 difficult for us to seize, and require close attention. 



The acute and grave tones will be denoted throughout this work by the acute 

 and grave accentual marks placed over the vowel, as in the examples just given. 



Assimilation of Vowels. 



§ 12. The principle of vocalic assimilation exhibited in the Yoruba language 

 consists in ch;mgiug a weak or unaccented ' o ' into some other vowel, so as to 

 assimilate it to the adjacent strongly accented vowel of a verb or preposition. 



§ 13. Assimilation is either Perfect or Imperfect. In j^erfect assimilation, the 

 unaccented ' o ' becomes identical with the accented vowel of the word to which it 

 is appended. 



1. a. The vowel 'o,' the shortened or simplified form of the objective pronoun 

 of the third person, is regularly exchanged for a vowel which is identical with that 

 of the governing verb, so that this pronoun assumes all the following forms : 



emi wo o, Hooked at Mm. emi kpe e, I called him. 



emi mi) 8, Ihiieio him. emi fe e, I loved him. 



emi 111 li, I siruch him. emi ri i, I saw him.* 



emi hsL ii, I met him. 

 b. The principle applies equally when the governing word is a preposition ; as, 

 bd a, with him.; si i, to him ; fii u,/w him. 



In all these cases the unchanged full form ' or) ' may be used ; as, emi fe or), Iloved 

 him ; fu orj,for him; but the assimilation, if employed at all, must be perfect. 



2. The preformative 'o' of nouns is perfectly assimilated, if at all, to the vowel 

 of the root ; as, oko, a farm, (from ko, to (/afher); oro, a word (from rd, to ntter., 

 relate, explabi); ata, J9fp^;e/' (from ta, to hurii) ; ere, goodness (from re, to he good) ; ese, 

 sin (from se, to sin). Frequently, however, no assimilation takes place. (See § 40.) 



§ 14. To understand the rule of imperfect assimilation, it is necessary in the fii'st 

 place to observe that the vowels are divided into thi-ec classes, which, in reference 



* No example of ' ri ' is given, ns no verli, nor indeed any otlier word in Yoniha, ends in that 

 vowel. 



