16 Mr Cull on the recent Progress of Ethnology. 



his long and laborious sojourn in the pestilent marshes of 

 the west coast of Africa. 



The publication of a second edition of the Rev. Samuel 

 Crowther's Yoruba Vocabulary, now greatly extended, and 

 also a grammar of the language by the same, a native author, 

 supplies us with ample materials for the study of that beau- 

 tiful language : while the able introduction by the Bishop of 

 Sierra Leone is a valuable contribution to African philology. 



A characteristic of African languages is the euphonic con- 

 cord, which was first discovered by the Rev. W. Boyce, of 

 the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and published in his gram- 

 mar of the Kaffir language ; but its principles have been 

 since more fully laid clown by the Rev. John W. Appleyard, 

 in his more elaborate grammar of that language, in which 

 its extension to other South-African languages is exhibited. 



The Yoruba language, which is not a South-African one, 

 has its euphonic concords, and that between the verb and 

 the pronoun is worthy of attention. The pronouns are, 1st, 

 " emi ;" 2d, " iwo ;" 3d, " on," in the nominative case ; but 

 these nominatives have each two other forms, which depend 

 on the vowel of the verb. And the third personal pronoun 

 has seven forms dependent on the verb's vowel, when used 

 in the objective case. In this way the pronoun is always 

 subordinated to the verb. Now, although the existence of 

 euphonic concord connects as one link the Yoruba with other 

 African and chiefly South- African languages, yet at present 

 I confess I do not see the special links which will enable one 

 to say to what group it naturally belongs. At present, how- 

 ever, we know but little of African philology. I need 

 scarcely say in this society that euphonic concords are not 

 confined to African languages, as every one knows they are 

 found in the Keltic. 



The Rev. Dr Koelle of the Church Missionary Society, has 

 lately returned from Sierre Leone with MS. vocabularies of 

 150 languages, and with MS. grammars in an advanced state 

 of compilation of the Bornon, and the Vei, the former of 

 which, he informs me, has some features in common with the 

 L T gro-Tartarian languages and some with the Semetic, the 

 existence of which will modify our views of the Negro Ian- 



