162 Essay towards a Grammar of the Berber Language. 



The Arabs have two letters for each of the two last j but in this respect 

 the Berber seems to agree more with the Hebrew. 



The letter £ we have adopted from the Arabic, as there is no European 

 substitute. It denotes an emphatic jerk of the voice, not unlike that which 

 a stuttering person often prefixes to his vowel sounds. 



It remains to express the English j and tch, which are really double 

 letters. Since indeed the characters are single in the foreign alphabet, it 

 would certainly be better to have peculiar substitutes ; and we should pre- 

 fer g and k, each with two dots above, as Egyptian G'lmel and Kaf?iVQ by 

 the Bedouins sounded Djimel and Tchaf. At present, however, we shall 

 use dj and tc, each consonant having its own sound as above explained. 



Concerning vowels, it is enough to say that they are to be sounded as in 

 Italian, and that the accent (') indicates their prolongation. In the Arabic 

 notation there is a deficiency of short vowels. 



The textual orthography abounds in duplicate letters (as in aggakkannij , 

 which appear generally to be euphonic. Where the Arabic sign of re- 

 duplication is placed over a solar letter, after the article El, we have 

 omitted it ; but where the translator seems to have used this mode of writ- 

 ing by mere error (which is very common), the pronunciation which he 

 indicates, has been expressed in our characters. 



The aspirates c, Q, as in Hebrew, so in Berber, refuse reduplication ; so 

 that cc, 69, are changed to dd, tt. Also nd seems uniformly to become nt, 

 as Entaklis for endaklls ; Entagnb for EnQagnh, &c. The distribution of 

 vowels and consonants is regulated nearly as in the Shemitic languages. 

 Yet three consonants are sometimes found together in the middle of a word. 

 The following consonants are occasionally confounded : j and tc ; j and g j 

 dj and g ; g and q ; y and q ; x and ^ ; o and s j c and d ; t and 0. Some- 

 times we cannot tell what allowance to make for possible errors of the 

 press. 



We proceed to exhibit the Lord's prayer, as it is found in the beginning 

 of Chapter XI. 



(1.) Aggakkanni natta etzalla aggamkan, akkanni if ok, ennayas 

 At-when he prayed at a place, when he finished, said-to- 



yiwan agQarba^Qes ; A Rabbi, ayayesen annazhl, akkanni 



him one from-his-dlsciples ; Oh Lord, us-tell (that) we pray, as 



iskon Yxixana Sayanni darba^des. 

 taught John also his-disciples. 



(2) Ennayas : Mahay alia dazzullam, enides : A Bhba, 



He-said-to-him : When ye-pray, say-ye-to-him : O Father, 



aliskar ismek nattaboB ; addusan el-malayk enek : (3) ayrom 

 let-become thy-name holy ; let-come the kingdom of thee : bread 



