An Elementary and Practical Grammar of the Galla or Oromo Language

Abstract

there is every reason why this desire to study the native language should be encouraged at our Universities and Oriental School. The necessary material is there in the notes which form a leading feature of vol. I, and is very fully dealt with. But its acquisition without adequate map or index is, to say the least, laborious and unsatisfying. Secondly, the time is fully ripe for a periodical in which African philology and its bearings on ethnology can be fully discussed. The difficulties are largely financial. The second volume of this Comparative Study has had to be printed by private subscription ; and the author freely admits several im? portant omissions. These should be printed. Again, new African versions of the Gospels reach the Bible Society on an average of one every two months, a great number being Bantu. Everywhere officials and missionaries are studying new dialects. Co-ordination is urgently needed, and could be given by systematic teaching. South Africa has set an example with its School for Bantu Studies and (it is to be hoped) the fairly regular appearance of a periodical. The home country has far greater opportunities to tackle the whole subject, with a consequent gain to our African possessions of incalculable value. W. A. C.