On the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands / by Edward Horace Man. With report of researches into the language of the South Andaman Islands by A. J. Ellis.

  • Man, Edward Horace.
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands / by Edward Horace Man. With report of researches into the language of the South Andaman Islands by A. J. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    All the papers mentioned above have been placed in my hands for the purpose of drawing up this report, and Mr. Man has also given me much personal instruction and looked over the whole of what I have written to guard against any error of fact or language. I have examined the grammar drawn up with such care and acuteness by Mr. Temple, and the vocabulary of Mr. Man, and I shall endeavour to give an account of the results at which they have arrived. The following, written by Mr. Temple in July, 1881, on finally returning the MSS. to Mr. Man, sums up his opinion of the nature of the South and other Andaman languages: “ The Andaman languages are one group. They are like, that is, connected with no other group. They have no affinities by which we might infer their connexion with any other known group. The word-construction (the ‘etymology’ of the old grammarians) is two-fold, that is, they have affixes ^ and prefixes to the root, of a grammatical nature. The general principle of word-construction is agglutination pure and simple. In adding their affixes, they follow the prin- ciples of the ordinary agglutinative tongues. In adding their prefixes, they follow the well-defined principles of the South African tongues. Hitherto, as far as I know, the two principles in full play have never been found together in any other language. Languages which are found to follow the one have the other in only a rudimentary form present in them. In Andamanese both are fully developed, so much so as to interfere with each other’s grammatical functions. The collocation of words (or ‘ syntax ’ to follow the old nomen- clature) is that of the agglutinative languages purely. The presence of the peculiar prefixes does not interfere with this. * Mr. Temple, following the usual un- etymological definition given in diction- aries, here uses affix in place of suffix. In what follows I shall adopt the prac- tice of Prof. S. S. Haldeman in his ‘ ‘Affixes in theirorigin andapplication, ’ ’ Philadelphia, 1865, p. 27. ^'Affixes are additions to roots, stems, and words, serving to modify their meaning and use. They are two kinds, prefixes, those at the beginning, and suffixes, those at the end of the word bases to which they are affi.xed. Several affixes occur in long words like in-com-pre-\ie'a-s-ib-il-U-y. which has three prefixes and five suffixes.” Affixes also include infixes (or, as Prof. Haldeman calls them, interfixes), where the modifying letter or syllable is intro- duced into the middle of the base, as in the Semitic and other languages.