Or LANGUAGES. 



41 



aware of the existence of two parents it preserves the 

 original term, which loses its primitive application to a certain 

 individual, and being taught to affix to it the words denoting 

 male or female, distinguishes between the male parent 

 or father and the female parent or mother. This nomen- 

 clature prevails, e.g., among the Nancowry islanders, as 

 well as among the Hawaians and other kindred tribes. The 

 former call their father Tjia nkonje (parent male) and 

 mother Tjia enhana (parent female), the latter call the same 

 persons Malum Jcana and Makua vahina (parent male and. 

 parent female) respectively. 



We might here mention the well known fact, that in 

 consequence of modulation of voice, which effects a change in 

 the sound of the letter, a word may assume a different 

 meaning. Thus altered in pronunciation and sense it 

 becomes in course of time a separate term, and the former 

 identity of the two words is forgotten. 



The variation of sound is often produced by means of sex. 

 The same word is differently uttered by a man and a woman, 

 inasmuch as their voices vary. This vocal diversity does 

 not exercise any material influence in more highly cultivated 

 languages, but among uncivilized tribes the organs of sense 

 are keener : everything which attracts their attention is 

 instantly observed and made use of. 



The division of letters into hard and soft or into close and 

 open, and the application of this principle to speech, 

 is the foundation of the euphonic system met with 

 among so distant tribes as the Tungusians of Asia, the 

 Negroes of Africa, and the Redskins of America. 

 Distinct classes of vowels exist in the Yoruba dialect. 38 The 



(38) See : Introductory remarks on the Yoruba language to the " Yoruba 

 Grammar," compiled by the Rev. Samuel Crowther, page 8. " The vowels of 

 the Yoruba language are apparently made to form two separate classes, 

 according to the closeness or openness of their sound. In the Yoruba the 

 euphonic changes affect the vowel sound alone." 



