the Hastern Side of the Basin of the Nile. 251 
notes... a country or region, as Uzaramo, the region of 
Zaramo ... The liquid m, or, before a vowel and an aspi- 
rated h, mu,.. . denotes the individual, Mzaramo, a man or 
woman of Zaramo.... The plural form of m and mu is wa 
... Itis used to signify the population, as Wazaramo, the 
people or tribe of Zaramo... Finally, the syllable A2— 
prefixed to the theoretical root—denotes anything appertain- 
ing to a country, as the terminating ish in the word English. 
It especially refers in popular usage to languages, as Kiza- 
ramo, the language of Uzaramo.”* 
Proceeding to Captain Burton’s derivation of the name 
U-Nyamwezi, we find that, seemingly forgetful of his own defi- 
nitions, he thus analyses the word: “ The initial U, the 
causal and locative prefix, denotes the land; nya, of; and 
mwezi (articulated m’ezi with semi-elision of the w) means 
the moon.” | Had he been guided by his own rule, he would 
have adopted ‘“‘ Nyamwezi,” and not ‘‘ Mwezi,” as the theo- 
retical root; and then applying to it the several prefixes, as 
in the case of ‘the people or tribe of Zaramo,” he would 
have said not merely that “the correct designation of the in- 
* Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc., vol. xxix. p. 48, note. The same traveller states 
further, that “it has been deemed advisable to retain these terse and concise 
distinctions, which, if abandoned, would necessitate a weary redundance of 
words.” An entirely different course is adopted by Mr Edwin Norris, who, in 
his edition of Dr Prichard’s ‘“ Natural History of Man,’”’ when speaking of Dr 
Krapf’s ‘‘ Vocabulary of Hast African Languages,” says (p. 400, note), “ The 
editor has taken the liberty to remove the Kafir prefix, which he thinks not only 
awkward but positively incorrect. Dr Krapf calls these languages Kisuaheli, 
Kipokomo, Kigalla, &. The fact is, that all the Kafir tongues have certain 
particles distinguishing singulars from plurals (and sometimes duals), adjec- 
tives from substantives, and one kind of substantive from another. Dr Krapf, 
in the narrative of his journeys into Sambara in 1852, speaks of the Kisambara 
language, spoken by the Wasambara, who live in Usambara; and now and 
then mentions a Masambara, one of a Kisambara family. Different dialects 
have different particles: in the language which the editor would wish to call 
Chuana, a native of the country is a Mochuana, two are Buchuana, the people 
generally are the Bichuana, and the language is Sichuana; and the latter 
words have become current in England, to the puzzlement of readers of Afri- 
can intelligence. Wherever the Kafir prefix has not become part and parcel 
of the English appellation, the editor omits it.” 
There are few persons, I think, who will not regard Mr Norris’s rule as the 
preferable one. 
f Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., vol. xxix. p. 167. 
