The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies

by R. G. Latham

In no more than nine or ten villages, lying within nine or ten miles of Fort St. James and Christiansborg, was the Akra language spoken in[64] the time of Protten (A.D. 1794), and of the Ghas thus speaking it each understood the Fanti.

This makes the Gha a decreasing, and, for practical purposes, an unimportant population. At the same time I should be glad to direct the attention of some investigator to their ethnology. Their exact relations to the Akvambu are uncertain. The only work known to me where specimens of the latter language are to be found is out of reach.[18]

Then as to the Adampi. Bowdich states that it radically differs from the Gha; the numerals, which agree, being borrowed from the one tongue into the other. But his collation rests on only seven words.

Again,—Adampi, Tembi, and Tambu are words so much alike as to pass for the same. Yet a Tembu vocabulary in the "Mithridates" differs from a Tambu one in the same work—

ENGLISH.	TEMBU.	TAMBU.
Sky	so	giom.
Sun	wis	pum.
Moon	igodi	horamb.
Man	naa	nyummu.
...	ibalu	numero.
Woman	alo	in.[65]
Head	knynoo	ii.
Foot	navorree	nandi.
One	kuddum	kaki.
Two	noalee	ennu.
Three	nodoso	ettee.

Again—the Tembu is related to the vocabulary of a language called Kouri, which the Tambu is not.

ENGLISH.	TEMBU.	KOURI.
Sun	wis	nosi.
Man	ibalu	abalu.
Woman	alo	alu.
One	kuddum	kotum.
Two	noalee	nalee.
Three	nodoso	natisu.

Thirdly, the Tjemba of Balbi's "Atlas Ethnologique" is called Kassenti.

Lastly, the Gha, as far as very short comparison goes, is neither Tambu nor Tembu: nor yet Kouri—though it has a few resemblances to all.

The author of the paper alluded to above is the Rev. Mr. Hanson—himself a Gha by birth. It was laid before the British Association in 1849. Two points characterize the theory that it exhibits; but as the publication of the paper in extenso, is contemplated, I merely state what they are.[66]