The Mafulu eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Mafulu.

The Mafulu eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 349 pages of information about The Mafulu.

Regarding the question raised in my introductory chapter as to the extension of the Fuyuge linguistic area so far south as Korona, it will be noticed that a large number of the words in the Mafulu and Korona columns are the same, or very similar.  Dr. Strong, in some unpublished MS. notes in Dr. Seligmann’s possession, to which I have had access, says as regards the Mafulu and Korona languages that “there is nothing to show that the two languages may not be for all practical purposes identical,” and Mr. Ray in his concluding notes classes Mafulu and Korona together as dialects of Fuyuge.  The village of Sikube, mentioned by Mr. Ray, is, I believe, on the Upper Vanapa river and north of Mt.  Lilley, and so is well within the Fuyuge-speaking area as defined by the Fathers.

Concerning the Kambisa (Upper Chirima valley) column, the similarity of many of the words contained in it to those in either the Mafulu or the Korona column is obvious; and it is curious that some of these words appear to resemble the Korona words more than they do those of Mafulu.  I also think I may say that the similarity between Kambisa words on the one hand, and those of either Mafulu or Korona on the other, is almost equal to the similarity between Mafulu and Korona; and Mr. Ray classes Kambisa along with Mafulu and Korona as dialects of Fuyuge.  So the statement in the introductory chapter that the valley of the Upper Chirima river is included in the Fuyuge area has, I think, stood the test of some detailed linguistic comparison.

The note by Dr. Strong upon what he calls the Kovio language and his Kovio vocabulary both relate to a district which is within the Fathers’ Oru-Lopiku linguistic area; and I venture to repeat the suggestion, made in my introductory chapter, that for the present should adopt the term Kovio for the two areas which the Fathers call Oru-Lopiku and Boboi, though eventually we may be able to distinguish between these two areas.

The Afoa or Tauata area is the Fathers’ Ambo area.  The Afoa column discloses a very few words which resemble the Fuyuge words; but it seems obvious that the Afoa language does not belong to the Fuyuge group, and this is the view taken of it by Mr. Ray.

There are two matters in Mr. Ray’s classification in the fifth appendix which I wish to mention.  It seems to have been already assumed that the Rev. James Chalmers’ Kabana language could not have been collected on Mt.  Victoria; and I would point out that this mountain is quite outside what now appears to be the Fuyuge area.  As regards the Afoa language the references by Dr. Strong to Mt.  Pizoko and Mt.  Davidson bring me back to my observations upon the point in my introductory chapter.  If the Fathers are right in putting Mt.  Pizoko within the Fuyuge area, it is hardly correct to say (see introductory chapter) that the Afoa language is spoken in the villages on Mt.  Pizoko; but it might well be, as quoted by Mr. Ray, that a Fuyuge native in a

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The Mafulu from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.