886 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



*' and to ascertain, for instance, how the nominative and 

 " subjunctive words in a sentence are placed with respect 

 " to the verb ; how the adjective with regard to the sub- 

 " stantive ; how plurals and degrees of comparison are 

 " formed ; whetlier there is any kind of inflexion or varia- 

 " tion of syllables of the same Avord according to its posi- 

 " tion in the sentence and connection with other words ; 

 " whether the pronouns personal vary according to the 

 " rank or sex of the person addressing or person addressed ; 

 " and whether they are incorporated with the verb ; and to 

 " observe any other peculiarities of idiom, that the lan- 

 " guage may present ; noting the degree of softness, harsh- 

 " ness, indistinctness, intonation, guttural sounds, and the 

 " prevalence or deficiency of any particular letters of the 

 " alphabet, as we should term them, such as R and F. 

 " The extent of country, over which a language is under- 

 " stood to prevail, should also be a subject of investigation ; 

 " and, by what others it is bounded at every side. Also, 

 " whether there may not be a correct language of com- 

 " munication between nations, whose proper languages are 

 " distinct. 



" I observe that the name o^ Congo belongs to the coun- 

 " tr}'^ on the southern side of the Zaire; and that Loango, 

 " Kokongo, N'Goio, Tomba, and N'Teka, are the names 

 " of kingdoms or districts on the northern side. The spe- 

 " cimens I have of the language of Loango (apparently the 

 " most considerable of these) shews it to be radically the 

 " same with that of Congo, although, as dialects, they vary 

 " a great deal. It will probably be found, that this is the 



