1875.] J. Butler— Rough Notes on the Angami N~agas. 333 



Chapter IV. 

 Language and Grammar. 



It is perhaps needless for me to state that the Angamis have no 

 written language whatever. I have hence adopted the Roman character, and 

 the plan I have followed for designating the long sound of all vowels has 

 heen bj placing an accent immediately over the vowel ; thus a is to be 

 invariably pronounced like the English long a, as pronounced in such words 

 as " mast", " father", " ask", &c. ; e like the English a in " fate", or e in 

 " prey", " convey", &c. ; i in like manner as the French i, or English ee, as 

 in " peep", or i as it is pronounced in such words as "fatigue", "marine", 

 &c. ; 6 as the o in notice ; and finally u similarly to the English long o in 

 "move", "prove", &c, or oo as in "school", "tool", "fool", &c. This 

 system, I may also add, is the one I have followed in the spelling of all 

 proper names. 



I may here premise that laying no claims to philological lore of any 

 kind, but on the contrary aspiring only to the humble position of a worker 

 in the field, whose duty it is to collect and construct the bricks alone, so to 

 say, of that science, I shall not even hazard a guess as to what great family 

 of languages the Angami belongs, but prefer to leave that question for 

 abler pens to decide. I may, however, say that in common with the tongues 

 spoken by most, if not all, other nations in a similar state of civilization, or 

 rather barbarism, the Angami is slightly, though not altogether, monosylla- 

 bic and most simple in its structure, its root words undergoing very little 

 change except for the purpose of symphony. 



The gender of nouns is denoted by different words for the different 

 sexes, as : 



" Thepvoma" (often contracted into "themma" and " ma"), a man. 



" Thenuma", a woman. 



" Apo", father ; " A'zo", mother. 



"Nopvo", husband; " Kima", wife. 



Also by a change of termination, when the first syllable of the word is 

 dropped ; thus " mithu", a cow generally, whether male or female, " thudo" 

 a bull, " thukr", a cow (female) ; " tekhu," a tiger generally, whether 

 male or female, " khupvo" a tiger (male), " klu'ikr" a tigress ; and 

 often by the addition of the abbreviated forms of the terms " poshi", male, 

 or " pokr", female; thus " chushi" a male elephant, " chu-kr" a female 

 elephant. And sometimes by the addition of the terms " thepvoma", 

 man, and " thenuma", woman ; thus, " nuno" a cat, whether male or 

 female, becomes " nuno thepvoma" a male cat, and " nuno thenuma" a 

 female cat. 



The plural is obtained by simply adding the termination " ko" to the 



