A BIBLIA SAGRADA
NA LINGUA DOS INDIGENAS DA
CIRCUMSCRIPÇÀO DE MAPUTO,
AFRICA PORTUGUEZA ORIENTAL,
CHAMADA XI‐PUTHSU
FASCICULO CONTENDO O
EVANGELHO DE S. MATTHEUS
[THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW IN THE
SHI‐PUTHSU LANGUAGE]
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
LONDON: NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE. W. C.
1911
Preface
In reducing this Dialect to writing, the Principles of Lepsius’ Standard Alphabet have been followed as far as possible. The vowels are the open Italian vowels; H always represents the aspirate, BH, MH, PH. etc. are aspirated B, M, P, etc.: C and Q represent “click” sounds, of which two only are distinguished in this Dialect: J is used to represent a sound almost identical with that of the French J, or the English Z in “azure”: NG is used to represent the sound of NG in “single,” GN to represent the sound of NG in “singing”: HL represents a sound like that of the Welsh LL in “llan”: HS is used for a sound not heard in European languages, a palatal aspirated S: X has the same sound as in Portuguese, viz. that represented in English by SH in “shepherd”: WS represents a peculiar labial S, for which Lepsius makes no provision.
Lepsius’ characters have not been used for the above sounds owing to the extra cost of such printing.
In this book the initial letters of the stems of Nouns and Verbs are marked by the use of a Capital letter, for the convenience of those who are beginning to learn the language, which is a “prefixusing” language.
