the query:—"What is the nature, and if any, the advantage of the exchange, we have thus, in God's providence, been led to make?"
The only way in which, in a fit manner, I can answer this question is, by inquiring into the respective values of our native and our acquired tongue. Such a contrast will set before us the problem of "Loss and Gain" which is involved therein. The worth of our fathers' language will, in this way, stand out in distinct comparison with the Anglo-Saxon, our acquired speech. And first, let us speak of the African dialects. I refer now to that particular group of aborigines who dwell in "West Africa, from the Senegal to the Niger, and who have received the distinctive title of "Negro."
"Within this wide extent of territory are grouped a multitude of tribes and natives with various tongues and dialects, which, doubtless, had a common origin, but whose point of affiliation it would be difficult now to discover. But how great soever may be their differences, there are, nevertheless, definite marks of inferiority connected with them all, which place them at the widest distance from civilized languages. Of this whole class of languages, it may be said, in the aggregate that (a) "They are," to use the words of Dr. Leighton "Wilson, "harsh, abrupt, energetic, indistinct in enunciation, meagre in point of words, abound with inarticulate nasal and guttural sounds, possess but few inflections and grammatical forms, and are withal exceedingly difficult of acquisition."[1] This is
- ↑ Western Africa," &c. 456, by Rev. J. L. Wilson, D.D.
