B.
Bab, see [Port Doreh].
Baba.
A dialect allied to Javanese, vernacular in an island called Babber by the Dutch; it is one of the Serawatty group, E. of Timor in the Indian Ocean. Small Vocabulary in Latham p. 303. See [Kissa].
Babuma.
A native dialect of Africa, vernacular on the Gaboon. See small Vocabulary in Latham, p. 563.
Babylonian.
A Semitic dialect spoken in Babylonia from the Assyrian conquest of the country, about B.C. 1300, to its occupation by the followers of Mohammed. It is closely allied to the Assyrian (which see), but is somewhat simpler. The language exists in numerous inscriptions found in the country which cover the interval from about B.C. 620 to B.C. 540, and also in the trilingual inscriptions of the Achæmenian Persian, where it is found regularly in the third column. The best account of the language, which is written in a cuneiform alphabet based on the Assyrian, will be found in Sir H. Rawlinson’s “Analysis of the third column of the Behistun Inscription”—Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1856. G. R.
Bachan, see [Batchian].
Bactrian.