Note 85 — APPENDIX I. MASAI—COMPARATIVE VOCABULARY.
Reading edition
These are added for the purpose of comparison. The words given of Latuka are copied from Dr. Emin-Bey’s vocabularies, published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Berlin, 1882. Dr. Friedrich Müller is my chief authority for Bari. The following are among the languages occasionally cited in this vocabulary:—
Latuka and Bari, members of the Masai family.
Diṅka.
Šiluk Šiluk family.
Šuli
Lūr
Galla Ethiopic branch of Hamitic family.
Somali
Boni
Woratta
Latuka is spoken in a somewhat small district nearly 5° N. latitude, to the east of the White Nile.
Bari is the language of a slightly larger area on both banks of the White Nile round about Gondokoro. It borders on Latuka.
Diṅka is the name given to a large group of languages spoken about the junction of the White Nile and the Bahr al Ghazal, from 7° to 9° 30′ N.
Šiluk is the tongue of the negroes inhabiting the western bank of the White Nile from latitude 9° 30′ to 11° N. Šuli is really only a dialect of Šiluk, and is spoken by a small tribe to the south of Latuka, in latitude 4° N.
Lur is also only a variant of Šiluk. It is the language of the north-western bank of the Albert Nyanza, in 3° 30′ to 4° N. latitude. (A further extension of the Šiluk tongues is the speech of Kavirondo, spoken on the eastern shore of the Victoria Nyanza in 2° S. latitude, so that this closely-related group of languages—the Šiluk—extends its colonies from 11° N. latitude to 2° S. of the Equator.)
Galla, an important member of the Ethiopic branch of the Hamitic family of languages, is spoken with relatively little variation over an immense area, stretching from 12° N., in Abyssinia, to 4° S, in the vicinity of Mombasa, and up the Sabaki river to within sight of Kilima-njaro.
Somali, the dominant language of the eastern horn of Africa, closely related to Galla.
Boni is a form of Galla spoken by the Boni (Wa-boni, as the Swahilis call them), or San people, a helot race of hunters living on the banks of certain rivers in Southern Galla-land.
Woratta, an independent Ethiopic tongue, distantly allied to Galla, and spoken in Central Galla-land.