io NOTES ON WEST AFRICAN CATEGORIES 



we remember that the ancient missionaries 

 spelt Kabinda Capinda. 



No. 5. The Bavili place Li for Di, the plural being 

 the same. 



No. 6. No change. 



No. 7. No change. 



No. 8. No change. 



No. 9. The Bavili have Va singular and Mu plural. 

 The Va form, however, appears to me to be 

 anterior to Pa, the development. The Fjort 

 do not like saying Mva Mva and say Mpa 

 Mpa in its place. 1 Mr. Bentley tells us "Mp 

 is nearly always the result of a combination 

 of M and V, the V having become P 

 according to euphonic law. If M were under 



1 The Kongo people also object to the combination of F with A 

 or E in initial syllables, and in such cases U or W intervenes. 



A is often a contraction for la, as in the word Za for Zia. 



Fa, then, may be said to stand for Fia, and so Fia or Fa may 

 be written Fwa. 



The word Fwati (little), has just the opposite meaning to the 

 word Mpampa (much), so that in an indirect way we arrive at F as 

 the diminutive of V ; hence, perhaps, Mr. Bentley's Class 15 Fi he 

 calls a sign of the diminutive. 



The word Varna, plural Muma (Bavili, a place), is given by 

 Mr. Bentley as Vuma (Kongo) and means space, while Fulu has the 

 sense of an enclosed space and remains Fulu in the plural. Mpulu 

 again means the scrotum, while Mpuma has the meaning of a man 

 who is as free (as space) from all Xina (pi. Bina) or things for- 

 bidden. 



Thus we have the opposites : 



Vuma, space Mpuma, a man free, etc. 



Fulu, room Mpulu, the scrotum. 



The change caused by P taking the place of V or F in these 

 words then appears to be the giving of a finite and limited sense 

 to a word otherwise referring to the infinite or something greater. 



