PART SECOND. 



ETYMOLOGY AND SYNTAX. 



CHAPTEK I. 

 FORMATION OF WORDS. 



§ 30. In tlie former part of this Grammar we described the characters employed 

 to represent the sounds of the Yoruba hmguage, the nature of these sounds, and 

 the changes which they undergo. We now proceed to the consideration of sounds 

 as the representatives of ideas ; in doing which we will have to treat first of the 

 foj-mation of words, and then of their inflexions and the mode of combining them 

 into sentences. 



§ 31. The primitive words of the Yoruba language, amounting in all to about 

 five hundred, consist of the following classes : 



1. Personal and other pronouns. 



2. About one hundred and sixty verbs, several of which are obsolete. 



3. About two hundred and fifty nouns, including several which are clearly 

 exotics. 



4. A few particles, as adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. 

 The remainder of tlie language, amounting to at least fifteen thousand vocables, 



has been built up on this foundation, chiefly by prefixing personal pronouns to 

 verbs to form nouns, and by the union of nouns with vei'bs and prepositions. 



§ 32. 1. The primitive verbs are all monosyllables, and most of them are of the 

 simplest possible form, consisting of a single consonant simple or compound and a 

 vowel either pure or nasal; as, dd, to create; daq, to j)olisli ; d^e, to eat ; kpoq, to 

 he red. 



2. A few monosyllabic verbs begin with two consonants ; as, mbe, to^6/ nld, fo^e 

 large., &c. These, however, are secondary forms : mb^ is simply b^, to he., with the 

 auxiliary prefix 'm,' which is the sign of continuance or permanence; nhi is a 

 contraction of nild, to he great (lit. ni, to have., ila, greatness). 



3. The verbs of two syllables are all either derivatives or exotics. Thus, sufe, to 

 wlhistle., is composed of so, to eject wind., and ife, a blowing (from the root fe, to 

 hlow). Fe is now pronounced fe ; but its original form is detected not only in sufe, 

 bnt also in fere, astlima., ifere, a flute ^ and ifefe, a reed. Tuba, to rqyent., is a recent 

 importation from the Arabic. 



§ 33. The primitive nouns may be classified as follows : 

 1. Very few are monosyllables ; as, he, mali-gnant envy. 



