i!3'. «v J'^S ^' OUTLINES OFA GRAMMAR OF THE VEI LANGUAGE, TOGETHER WITH A VEI-ENGLISH VOCABULARY. AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY AND NATURE OF THE VEI MODE OF SYLLABIC WRITING. BY W. KOELLE, S. CHURCHMISSIONAUT. LONDON CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, SALISBURYSQUARE. 1854. Republished in association with the African Languages Review of Fourah Bay College ettoirjtrere e|evoqmjutaro^ iravedvo<;avOpioviov KOToiKeiv eTTtTravtoTrpoffwirovtjjs«y»)f. St. Paul^AcIs xvii.26. S. B. N. - GB: 576.11611.4 Republished in 1968 by Gregg International Publishers Limited 1 Westmead, Farnborough, Hants., England Printed in Germany CONTENTS. PAGE — Preface i vi CHAPTER I. §. 1. EthnologicalRelationshipof theVexLanguage, 1 I. Affinitywith Indo-European, Semitic, andAfri- can Roots 1 II. Languages belongingtothe Manden'ga Stock.. 10 III. Illustration ofpeculiaritiesoftheVeiLanguage. . 11 CHAPTER II. §. 2. SoundsandOrthography 14 CHAPTER III. Etymologyof the Partsof Speech. •^. 3. General 19 §. 4. Etymologyof Substantives 19 §. 5. Etymology of Pronouns 23 I. Personal and PossessivePronouns 23 II. Reflective Pronoun 24 III. Demonstrative Pronouns 24 IV. InterrogativePronouns 26 V. Reciprocal Pronoun 26 ^. 6. EtymologyofAdjkctives 26 ^. 7. Etymology of Numerals 27 CONTENTS. PAGE §. 8. Etymology ofVerbs 32 §. 9, EtymologyofAdverbs 35 §. 10. Etymologyof Postpositions 38 §. 11. EtymologyofConjunctions 39 §. 12. Etymology ofInterjections 40 CHAPTER IV. §. 13. Convertibilityof Words 40 CHAPTER V. §. 14. On the Accent 43 CHAPTER VI. The Law of Euphony. §. 15. Physical Law of Euphony 45 §. 16. Psychical Lawof Euphony 56 CHAPTER VII. On Composition and Decomposition. §. 17. Composition 58 §. 18. Decomposition 59 CHAPTER VIII. Figuresof Speech and Figurative Language. §. 19. Figuresof Speech 62 ^. 20. Figurative Language 64 CHAPTER IX. V- 21. On Propositions 73 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PAGE §. 22. Peculiar Suffixes 78 I. Ni 78 II. Wi 81 III. We 82 lY. Ke 83 V. Wa 85 '. VI. 0,u, ou 85 VII. I. 86 VIII. Affinitybetweensomeofthem 87 IX. Ro 88 X. Re 90 XL A,ra, da 91 XII. Na 93 CHAPTER XI. Syntax of the Partsof Speech. ^. 23. Syntax of Substantives 94 §. 24. SyntaxofPronouns 97 I. Personaland Possessive Pronouns 97 II. ReflectivePronouns 105 in. Demonstrative Pronouns 106 IV. Inten'ogative Pronouns 109 V. Reciprocal Pronoun 110 §. 25. Syntaxof Adjectives Ill §. 26. Syntaxof Numerals 112 §. 27. SyntaxofVerbs 116 §. 28. Syntaxof Adverbs 128 §.29. Syntaxof Postpositions 131 §. 30. Syntax ofConjunctions 133 §.31. Syntaxof Interjections 140 Vei-EnolishVocabulary 143