SOUTHERN AFRICA. 



DURING our stay at Rio Janeiro, an opportunity offered of obtaining from the names <!' 

 Africa, who are to be found there, vocabularies of several languages spoken in the 

 southern part of that continent. Some of these were, from the circumstances under 

 which they were taken, necessarily brief and imperfect; others, for which we had better 

 advantages, were of considerable length. It was at first intended to publish them entire ; 

 but the necessity of compressing our materials, and the expectation that the labours of 

 the missionaries who arc now established in that quarter will shortly supersede all other 

 sources of information on this subject, have determined us to omit the greater portion, 

 and to give merely a comparative list of the principal words, sufficient to show the general 

 similarity which prevails among the languages of this region. 



From a comparison of our vocabularies with others already published, two inferences 

 may be deduced, one of which is already familiar to ethnographers, while the second has 

 not, so far as we are informed, been as yet distinctly stated. The first is, that from the 

 equator to latitude 30 south, the continent of Africa is occupied by a single people, 

 speaking dialects of one general language. Secondly, it appears that this general lan- 

 guage, or rather family of cognate languages, has two distinct subdivisions, which may 

 be entitled (1) the Congo- Makua, and (2) the Caffrarian, each including under it several 

 dialects, or minor divisions. 



Of the vocabularies which we give, all but the first belong to tribes living south of 

 the equator. The Eyo or Nago language is spoken by a numerous people, who inhabit 

 the coast of Guinea, in about latitude 5 north, not far from the mouth of the Quorra or 

 Niger. They probably border immediately upon the northernmost tribes of the South- 

 African stock, and the vocabulary of their language is valuable as showing the distinct- 

 ness of the two races. 



Of the remaining vocabularies, all but one belong to the Congo-Makua. branch of the 

 South-African family. The exception is the Nyamlxina, which is a Caffre dialect. We 

 proceed to give some explanation of the names here used. 



Under the term Congo, we include all the nations who inhabit what is sometimes called 



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