204 
REPORT— 1847‘ 
English knife. 
W. ^au karra. 
Ag. of Agaum kari. 
Gafat kansk. 
English 
Qamainyl 
Wolaitsa 
butter. 
erokoshi. 
okissa. 
karish. 
XVI. The Bisharye Language _The language between the Nile wd tie 
Red Sea is a separate and a peculiar language — the Beja, Bisharye, or Adare 
The northern part of the old so-called island of Meroe, the great curvatm 
of the NUe, and the sea-coast from Kosseir on the north to Abyssinia od toe 
south, form the Beja, Bisharye, or Adareb localities. The vocabularies are- 
1. The Bisharye of Salt.— Known to Vater. 
2. The Bisharye of Burckbardt. 
3. The Suaken of the Mithridates. 
Nouvelles Asmalesdes Voyages. Paris, 1820. , 
The sliort Suaken vocabulary of the Bisharye is shown in the Miomflat 
to have affinities with the Ai^ubba, a Tigre dialect of Abyssinia, as w 
to contain some Darfoor words. . t • .4 
The more probable affinities are with the Coptic, as stated i 
as shown in details, by ^\rA.‘-~Joumat of ilte Bombay Branch of Uie /lo 
Asiatic/Socie^for Juiy \Bi5. . 
Three groujw of African languages yet stand over for J 
the groups containing the languages of those parts of Africa w'here i 
tact with Asia introduces the question of their affinities with the langug 
of the world at large. Now, this last question is deferred as part and paw 
of the ethnographical philology of Asia. As to ^!f, 
they are the Coptic of Egypt, the Berber of Northern Atrica, and 
ferent languages of Abyssinia. This last division is convenient Tather 
scientific. I'he Abyssinian languages do not form an jj 
since some of them are, probably, more akin to the language of A 
general, than to those of Abyssinia. Nevertheless, they do form a geog 
phical class, and as such it is convenient to treat them. 
The first division is Abyssinian in the strictest sense of the 
languages that compose it are the languages of both the old and 
tals, they are the languages of the greatest part of the country, an 
are the original languages of it. , 
XVII. The Ethiopia Class of Languages.^^The ancient and 
capitals, Axum and Gondar, are the literary centres of the languages 
jEthiopic class. 
The Tigre is tlie most northern language of Abyssinia; and, of the do 
languages, tlie most western also. The Arkiko on the Red Sea is c 
niinous with the Sluho dialects of tlie Danakil. The Tigre itsell is, P 
bly, limited by the Bisharye. It has generally been considered to 
the greatest portion of the old .^thiopic or the Geez of Axum. 
The Amharic Is spoken to the south and west, and is the language© . 
dar. The Gafat language it is rapidly displacing; w’hilst on the sou 
itself displaced by the G^la. i; 
The Ilurrur is geographically disconnected with the language to^ 
is most closely allied, the Tlgrti. Probably, it is entirely a 
Galla and Danakil dialects; it is spoken in the soutb-ef^t jir 
the eastern parts of Efat. The tables of Beke sliow that its 
with the Tigris or Amharic, ratlicr than with the Galla. Orm" s” 
me two short Tigr^ vocabularies, of the Huasa ami Argubba di® ^ 
1 igrc, we have— 
1. The Tigre of Salt. 
2. The Arkiko of Salt. 
