LANGUAGES OF THE XILLMA-NJABO FIST BIOT. 455 
come together, unless one of them be a nasal or a 
liquid . The sounds represented in the language are 
these :— 
Vowels.—a, e, i, o, 6, u. (U is sometimes pronounced as a semi- 
diphthong, like “u” in the word “sure.”) 
Diphthongs.—ai, ae, ao, au; ea, ei, eo, eu; ia, ie, io, iu; oa, oe, oi, 
ou; ua, ue, ui, uo. 
Consonants.—(FTo aspirates ; neither h, h', nor x (kh) are repre¬ 
sented). Gutturals. —k, g. Palatals. —y, j (sounding both as French 
“ j ” and v “ dj ”), d' (“dy' ” an intermediate sound between “ d ” and 
“ j ”)• C ( Cj ^ i 11 church) is not present in Masai. Dentals. —d, t, s 
(no z), s (sh), z. Liquids. —1, r. Nasals. —n, h (ng'), ny. Labials. — 
m, b, p, w, v. (F and v are absent in Southern Masai.) 
It may be noted here that in Masai the hard and 
soft forms of the gutturals, dentals, and labials are 
easily interchangeable. It is difficult to know some¬ 
times whether to write D or T, K or G, B or P. In 
v V V 
the same way S, Z, and J are hardly distinguishable 
from one another. The word Zore, 66 friend,” is pro- 
V V 
nounced sometimes Sore, Jore, and even Dyore. Gudulc , 
“ mouth,” may be Kutulc , Gutuk, or Kudulc. 
The article in Masai 7 seems to be of three forms, 
viz. 61 , el 9 and en. The first may be taken as meaning 
“ strong, big, masculine,” and is probably related 
to ole, olewa , “ strong, male, manly.” Or it may 
be a compound between this sexual adjective and the 
second article el, which latter seems to be common in 
7 In Latuka the article is apparently 0 or ol, na, and el. 
In Bari the article is almost identical with the third personal 
pronouns, the demonstrative, and the gender prefix. It is as 
follows :— 
Masc. sing. Fern. sing. 
Lo , lu Na , nu 
As a demonstrative pronoun it is— 
Masc. sing. 
Common plur. 
ti, H, ku. 
Fern. sing. 
Lo 
Na. 
Masc. plur. 
Ci-lo , kulo 
v Fem. plur. 
Gi-ne , ku-ne. 
