SISSANO WORDS. ) 2c 
suspect that the information was acquired when ‘“ Master Skuls did,”’ 
for that trader with the noble thirst, a Viking of the torrid zone, was 
credited with a certain familarity with Sissano speech. 
Before engaging with the inner content of these vocables of this 
new tongue we shall find it profitable to give some consideration to its 
form and phonetics. The alphabet appears to be as set forth in the 
following table: 
a 
e 0) vowels 
i u 
y Tal (w) semivowels 
ng n m ss nasals 
(h) | aspiration 
chat ie : T} sibilant 
sonant - - v(w) : 
surd kh ~ (f " spirant 
sonant g d b tins 
surd k . p bs 
palatal lingual labial 
series. series. series. 
Because we derive our material through a German source, yet with- 
out definite statement of the phonetic system employed by Neuhauss, 
it has seemed advisable to employ marks of parenthesis to indicate 
that there is uncertainty as to the spirant labials and the semivowel 
proximate to the labial tract. It is probable that we have v and f of 
the English value and that the semivowel w is missing. 
We see at once that we have to deal with a language of far richer 
phonetic development than any pertaining to the Polynesian family. 
It is comparable with many of the languages classed as Melanesian. 
It is markedly of the closed type. Whereas no Polynesian speech 
tolerates a word or syllable ending in a consonant, the Sissano employs 
the final consonant with the utmost freedom. To what extent the 
syllables in words of more than one syllable are closed we may not 
determine, for until we have a richer vocabulary and a wider acquaint- 
ance with the usages of the language we are not justified in attempting 
any study of the syllabification, except in such words as show the pro- 
cess of duplication. Dealing with the words of this list as units for 
consideration, we find but 27 open words. I have already pointed 
out in the consideration of the possessive mark that its removal brings 
into view several more openstems. These areindicated in the following 
list of open words by the use of italics. In the tables of this series refer- 
ence to the words is made through the serial number prefixed to each 
in the word list. The open stems are grouped by the final vowel. 
Me 42, (35,112 Oe 5. O7 m Tassos Ol aire tise O45, Gk, 
e weete 16, 39, 51, 85, 25, 30; 53> II4, 49, 59 
70, 104 uesoIr, 13, 58, 61, 63, 66, 79,117, 19, 
i nO 630, 50, 52, 60, 107; 44, 50, 64, 91, 98,113, 28,108 
89, 100 
