20 SOME NOTES ON THE SAKAI DIALECTS. 



English. Sen-oi. Tem-be\ Blanja dialect. Slim dialect. 



8 A dog 



Cho' 



Chu-or 



Cho 5 



Cho' 



g A cloud ; the 



sky Ra-hu 



Ra-hu 



Su-i 



Ra-hu 



io To sleep 



Bet 



Se-log 



Bet 



Bet 



1 1 Clothes 



A-bat 



A-bat n 



A-bat 



A-bau 



12 A wife 



Ke-nah 



Ke-nah 



Ke-nah 



Ke-nah 



13 Water 



Te-u 



Org 



Te-u 



Te-u 



14 A river 



T£-u 



Te-u 



Te-u 



T< A. 



le-u 



15 Wood 



Je-hu 



Je-hu 



Je-hu 



Je-hu 



16 A fowl 



Puk 



xMa'-nuk 



Puk 



Puk 



17 The moon 



Ge-che' 



Ge-che' 



Ge-che' 



Bi-che' 



18 To see 



Neng 



Neh 



Neng 



Nen 



19 To fly 



Gi 



Guh 



Gi 



Gi 



20 Female 



Kre-dol 



Ba'-bo' 



Kre-dol 



Kre-dol 



The above examples will suffice for the purposes of illustra- 

 tion, and I may add that every dialect with which I have yet 

 come in contact shews an equal resemblance to one or other of 

 the two principal variations of the Sakai language — the Sen-oi 

 and Tem-be' dialects. Leaving the question of the connec- 

 tion which I maintain exists between the various Sakai dialects 

 and sub-dialects, I shall now turn to an examination of some 

 of the characteristics of the Sen-oi language, which I have 

 selected as being the form of Sakai with which I have the 

 more intimate acquaintance. 



This dialect is spoken by about 6,000 people who, as al- 

 ready stated, inhabit the lower portion of the Sakai coun- 

 try, and many of the isolated clans speak dialects which are 

 merely modifications of it. In its grammar, and in its range 

 of sound, it is merely a type of all Sakai dialects, and the 

 vowels and consonants necessary to transliterate it are com- 

 mon to all these jargons. 



A fact which strikes the observer as curious in the Sakai 

 dialects is that in so primitive a tongue so vast a variety of 

 sounds should be found. In Sen-oi there are the vowels a, e, 

 i, and u, each of which has four variations, viz., medium, 

 long ( A ), short ( v ), and abrupt (' ), with the exception of u 

 which has no abrupt tone. 



