§96 LANGUAGES 



Bantu stock, and although this race now speaks a language imposed on 

 it by Masai or Turkana conquerors, it is curious that in a few words, which 

 it seems to retain from an older dialect, it offers some slight approximation 

 to Bantu word-roots. The researches of Mr. Hobley and myself have 

 certainly shown that a great deal of Africa east and north-east of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, which until recently was thought to be entirely cut off 

 from the Bantu domain, is still inhabited by races speaking archaic Bantu 

 dialects. It would, therefore, seem that the races of Nandi, Masai, and 

 Nilotic speech who now dominate these countries politically are the remains 

 -of more or less recent invasions. It is quite possible that the former 

 inhabitants of the countries between the Victoria Nyanza and the south 

 ■end of Lake Rudolf spoke Bantu languages, and this theory is further 

 supported by an examination of the place-names, many of which still 

 remain remarkably Bantu in phonology. 



I will now briefly pass in review the Bantu languages illustrated in 

 my vocabularies, and touch on their leading characteristics. 



Kihira means " the language of the people of the forest," * and is 

 possibly an out'side name. It is, however, more or less adopted as the 

 universal designation of their different dialects by the somewhat degraded 

 forest agricultural Negroes who dwell between the Semliki Valley and 

 Albertine Eift on the east, and the Upper Congo on the west. Kibira 

 •dialects extend northwards until the Bantu languages become extinguished 

 by the southward migration of the Momfu. The dialect is an extremely 

 •degraded one, and most of the Bantu prefixes are lost or dispensed with. 

 No doubt the Babira are the result of a recent mingling between the Bantu 

 and Momfu invaders and the aboriginal Pygmy-Prognathous population. 

 A large section of the Congo Dwarfs between the Upper Congo and the 

 Albertine Eift Valley speak dialects of Kibira. The LibvanuvM and Lihuku 

 -are two Bantu languages in close proximity one to the other, but very 

 distinct in their features. 



Kuamba t is spoken by the Baamba who inhabit the eastern banks 

 •of the Lower Semliki and the northern and north-western flanks of the 



* " -bira " is a widespread root in the north-eastern Bantu tongues for " dense forest." 

 '" Ki-bira " would be " the forest language." 



t An interesting point in the study of the Bantu languages is the variability of the 

 jjrefix which may be told off to indicate language. Over the greater part of this group 

 the seventh or " Ki- "prefix is the one usually indicative of speech. Thus " i/swahili " 

 is a man of the coast-lands opposite Zanzibar, and " A'l'swahili " is the language he 

 speaks. But in a few groups the " Li- " (" Ndi- ") prefix is used to indicate language, 

 .as in Zibvanuma. In a few others the " Ku- " or fifteenth prefix (usually the infinitive 

 to verbs) is used for this purpose, as in A'w-amba, the language of the Ba-simha,. 

 Amongst all the other Bantu tongues clustering round the northern half of the 

 Victoria Nyanza the language prefix is " Ru- " or " Lu-." 



