Note 119 — Chapter XI · COMPARATIVE ANTHROPOLOGY (ETHNOLOGY) OF ZANZIBAR—THE WASAWAHILI AND THE SLAVE RACES.

These are

1. B—an emphatic and explosive perfect-mute, formed by compressing the lips apparently to the observer’s eye.

2. D—which is half T, formed somewhat like the Arabic Ta (ط) by touching the lower part of the central upper incisors with the thickened tongue-tip. Strangers write indifferently Doruma and Toruma, Taita and Daida.

3. G—harder and more guttural than ours, the tongue root being applied thickened to the soft palate. An instance is Gombe, a large cow (Gnombe), which Arabs and Europeans pronounce Gombe, meaning a shell. Incrementation is also effected by simplifying the initial sound, as Gu, a large foot, from Mgu; Dege, a large bird, from Kdege.

4. J—a semi-liquid: the J is expressed by applying the fore part of the tongue to the palate, above the incisors closely followed by a half-articulated Y. It is often confounded with D and Y, e. g. Unguja, Unguya, and Ungudya, for Ungujya (not Ugúya, as Mr Cooley believes), and Yambeho or Jambeho for Jyambeho. The sound is not ‘peculiarly African;’ it exists in Sindi and other tongues, and a likeness to it occurs at the junction of English words, as ‘pledge you’ Even the Arabs distinguish it from their common Jim, and it is well worth the conscientious student’s attention.

5. K—half G, a hardened sound whilst the mid tongue is still applied to the palate. It might be taken for a corruption of the Arabic Kaf (ق).

At Mombasah we shall remark other sounds mostly peculiar to the coast Kisawahili. As a rule, however, the stranger will be understood even before his tongue has mastered these minutiæ.