A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Nupe Language |
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Common terms and phrases
atši babo Bagi ana bitši calabash canoe child cloth conj dède dedži dobo doko dokun doži dukia dukun dže džin džun edé edži Edži ana Egàn Egba ekun Enan enanko esan esun etsi Etsu etun ewun Eyan ana Eyigidi Eza ana eza nan father fula gaskia gbako gbin guba Guinea corn guwo Hausa Indian corn itakun kaba karatu kata knife kpata lafia lotun lugo mọ nankan ndotši nimi nini noun Nupe Nupe language nuwon person prep pron pronoun rubutu shea butter Šiba Šini šiši Soko stick sunsun takarda tetengi thing tree tše tši tšigbon tšin tukpa verb wangi wiwon wọ word wunkpa yeko yina yinkan yinzagi Yoruba
Popular passages
Page v - ... the mind. There is a great difference between a native speaking his own language and reading the mind of another in the same language in a book : in the first case the idea is his own, the sounds of the words he employs are present to his mind, from which they flow out spontaneously, and he therefore utters them with readiness ; but, in the other case, he can only see the mind of another by representations, and if those representations are not complete to his eye, he will hesitate for a while...
Page iii - ... into them so uncertain, as want of the knowledge of intonation, and the absence of marks to point them out. The reading of these translations will ever continue to be uncertain and incorrect without some marks to distinguish the tones, as would equally have been the case with the...
Page iii - Hausa translations and to my printed copy of the Ibo Primer, in both of which the acute accent only is employed, and the grave, to mark depressed tone, is entirely discarded. This is a very great mistake, from whatever cause it was done. The Yoruba language has often been remarked by the Missionaries as musical : this is perfectly correct ; so are also the Hausa, Nupe, and, in some degree, the Ibo. In Yoruba, Nupe, and...
Page v - dry corn stock," carry all the high tone of G, as in the fifth example: then, unless some intelligible marks be employed, as the grave accent, to represent the deep tone of C, the acute that of G, and the middle tone be left blank, or some other mode of distinction be adopted, it is my firm belief that difficulties in reading our African translatiofis will ever have to be struggled with.
Page iii - ... the same time rendering the reading easy and intelligible. On the other hand, a total absence of such marks, or the indiscriminate employment of only one kind to represent both high and low tones, gives rise to much difficulty and confusion in reading translations into African languages. This remark is applicable to the Hausa translations and to my printed copy...
Page iii - African languages represented by gb, kp, tsi, &c., if they had not been thus distinctly pointed out. Some marks of intonation are made in the Yoruba translations, which have been of material use both to foreigners and natives : a general rule may be laid down in course of time, so as to lessen the frequent and numerous employments of these marks, and simplify the letters, while at the same time rendering the reading easy and intelligible.
Page iv - As these three notes in the first example represent different sounds, so words in Yoruba, Nupe, and Hausa, though spelt alike, have their different tones and meanings. For example, lo in Yoruba, without any mark to distinguish it, may have any of the three sounds, and bear any one of the following meanings ; with the sound G, it means ' to twist ;' with the sound of E, it means ' to go ;' and with the sound of C, it means ' to grind,' as in the above first scale of notes.
Page vi - E will not be doubtful though left unmarked. Whatever marks be omitted, the mark for the tone of C must, at all events, be pointed out either by the grave accent, or by any other mark that may be preferred. For when a word is presented to the eye, the high tone G and middle tone E naturally present themselves to the mind much sooner than the deep tone C.
Page iv - If the difficulties of tones lay in these simple monosyllables only, they might be got over by the sense of the sentence of which they are members ; but when a polysyllable contains two or all these three tones, how is it to be known how to pronounce it without a guide, as in the Yoruba word agadagodo,