THE ALPHABET. 5 



a. The negatives i, 6, and 5, not^ are short ; as, emi o mo, / do not hioto / ete 

 i m6 ete ni ik6 oraq ba ereke, lip not heqnng to lip brings trouble to tliejaws. 



b. The initial 'i' of the infinitive mood is very short and slight; as, iwo 1^ i^e, 

 tli(m canst do. 



c. The objective pronouns a, G, &c., are so short as to be scarcely perceptible. 

 (See § 88, 2, i.) 



Tone of Vowels. 



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

 ba, to meet; 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 different meanings. 

 Thus the two words obe, sauce^ and obe, a hnife^ are quite different 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 t^ocalic assimilation exhibited in the Yoruba language 

 consists in changing 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 perfect 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 foi-ms : 



emi wo (3, / looked at him. emi kpe e, / called him. 



emi m5 8, / Tenew him. emi fe §, / loved him. 



emi lu ii, I struck him. emi ri i, I saw him.* 



emi ba S, / met him. 

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

 bd S, with him; si i, to him ; fii ii,./w him. 



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

 him; fa or^, 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 gather); 6ro, a word (from r^, to uttet% 

 relate., exptlmn); ata, pepper (from ta, to burn) ; ere, goodness (from re, to be good) ; ^6e, 

 sin (from ^e, 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 three classes, which, in reference 



* No example of 'a' is given, ns no verb, nor indeed any otljev word in Yoruha, ends in that 

 vowel. 



