and the Mpongwe. 
111 
which a Mpongwe radical verb may be made to 
express, with the aid of its auxiliary particles, 
augmentatives, and negatives—prefixes, infixes, 
and suffixes—is between twelve and fifteen hun¬ 
dred, worse than an Arabic triliteral. 
Liquid and eminently harmonious, concise and 
capable of contraction, the Mpongwe tongue does 
not deserve to die out. “ The genius of the lan¬ 
guage is such that new terms may be introduced 
in relation to ethics, metaphysics, and science; 
even to the great truths of the Christian religion.” 
The main defect is that of the South African 
languages generally—a deficiency of syntax, of 
gender and case; a want of vigour in sound; a 
too great precision of expression, rendering it 
clumsy and unwieldy; and an absence of excep¬ 
tions, which give beauty and variety to speech. 
The people have never invented any form of 
alphabet, yet the abundance of tale, legend, and 
proverb which their dialect contains might repay 
the trouble of acquiring it. 
