![A Grammatical
OverView of Lingâla
MichaelMeeuwis
v]
SN
/
LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-5-320.jpg)
![LINGÁLA | 3
Abbreviations and symbols used
In the linguistic examples:
Corp.: examples culled from corpora of actual language use
Corp.; Elic.: features found in corpora and degrees of (non-)grammaticality
subsequently tested through examples elicited from native speakers
Elic.: examples elicited from native speakers
Ling.-constr.: examples constructed by the linguist [very exceptionally used]
In the glosses (largely based on Leipzig rules):
*: ungrammatical
1, 2, 3 used in glosses of verb forms and pronouns: first person, second person, third
person
1, 2, 3, 4 etc. used in glosses of nouns: noun class membership
AN: animate
APPL: applicative
CAUS: causative
COMP: complementizer
CONN: connective
COP: copula
DEM1: proximal demonstrative
DEM2: medial-distal demonstrative
DEM3: anaphoric-only demonstrative
DEM4: distal demonstrative
EXT: extensive
FOC: focalizer
FV: the expletive verb final vowel -a
GER: gerund
H: high tone
HAB: habitual
IMP: imperative
INAN: inanimate
INDF.SPEC: indefinite-specific
INF: infinitive](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-11-320.jpg)
![LINGÁLA | 15
1. THE LANGUAGE, ITS SPEAKERS, ITS HISTORY
1.1. Geographical and demographical situation
Lingála is a Bantu language, originally classified by Guthrie (1948) as C.26d, by
Margaret A. Bryan and later scholars as C36d (Bryan 1959: 38), and appearing as
C30B in Maho’s 2009 update of the Bantu classification (Maho 2009: 97).1
Maho’s use
of capital letters following decade group codes indicates a “new language [which] is
a pidgin, creole or mixed language. […] The group code is chosen so as to be
suggestive of the typological (and genetic?) affiliation of the language in question”
(Maho 2003: 640). Section 1.2 below explains that and how Lingála is indeed such a
“new language”, as the speech variety known by that name today, as well as related
ones known by resembling names, only came into existence in the 1880s in the
context of early colonial contact.
World-wide, Lingála – which can be spelled “Lingala” if one does not wish to mark
tone in language names – has a total of approximately 20 million native speakers and
another 20 to 25 million non-native lingua franca users.
Its area of diffusion can be described by making the following, threefold distinction.
First, it is spoken in the western and northern sections of the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC), including its capital Kinshasa, and in the central and northern
sections of the Republic of Congo. The urban centers in these regions as a rule host
native speakers of the language; almost the totality of the inhabitants of Kinshasa, for
instance, are Lingála monolinguals (in terms of knowledge of African languages). In
the rural parts, by contrast, Lingála is mostly a lingua franca (the dominant or only
one in these regions), used by native speakers of more locally restricted languages.
Secondly, Lingála is also used as an additional lingua franca in areas where
historically other languages of wider communication have been more dominant. This
is the case in a zone comprising the DRC’s southwestern Kongo-Central province,
northwest Angola, and the Republic of Congo’s capital Brazzaville as well as the zone
west of it up to Pointe Noire. In this entire transborder zone, Lingála appears as a
1
In the latest edition of the Routledge Bantu book, Hammarström (2019: 29) unfortunately
reverted back to the classification C36d. By April 2020, however, this was corrected on the
related Glottolog website: https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/boba1250.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-23-320.jpg)
![8
In the early twentieth century, confusion arose in the literature when mostly English and
American missionaries-linguists started using the names “Ngala” and “Bangala” as glossonyms
referring, not only to the lingua franca pidgin that had emerged out of Bobangi and had been
named after Bangala-Station and the alleged “Bangala”, but to the original, pre-colonial
languages of Iboko and its surroundings as well. In Stapleton (1903a), for instance, the
multiple “Ngala” entries have nothing to do with Bangala as the Bobangi pidgin, but are
Boloki data. Later on, influential comparative and classificatory studies such as Guthrie’s and
M.A. Bryan’s (Starr 1905, 1908; Guthrie 1948, 1967, 1970; Bryan 1959), reinforced the
established confusion.
Congo river in the 1880s and 1890s was military and political in nature. Together
The importance of Bangala-Station on the western and northwestern sections of the
Bobangi” was renamed “Bangala”.8
1913: 48-49). In sum, in the second half of the 1880s the “trade language” or “bad
language, and by that name it is now generally known on the Upper Congo.” (Weeks
their own tongue in which they were conversing, and thus called it the Bangala
natives of the neighborhood talking this lingo jumped to the conclusion that it was
communicating with the State soldiers and workmen; and the white men hearing the
[Bangala-Station] quickly learned this jargon, and used it more or less fluently when
by means of the ‘trade language’. The smartest of the natives in the towns adjacent to
two thousand soldiers, workmen, and women, held communication with each other
on the Upper Congo, and this heterogeneous mass of humanity, often numbering over
above Stanley Pool. A large number of natives were imported there from all the tribes
witness: “For a considerable time [...] Bangala[-Station], was the largest State station
category (Samarin 1989b; Meeuwis 2001b, 2006). To cite but one contemporaneous
7) that the pidgin soon came to be named after the Station and this new ethnic
with the Congolese categorized and labeled by the whites as “Bangala” (see footnote
The expanding Bobangi pidgin was so tightly associated with Bangala-Station and
prevailed.
important colonial state post on the upper Congo river, the variety developing there
languages spoken locally. But as Bangala-Station was at that time the most
pidgin also underwent such changes, under the influence of the respective native
introduced by the Europeans as they enlarged their zone of colonial control, the
(Motingea 1996b; Donzo 2015). To be sure, in other places where the pidgin was
2008), and languages from the Ngiri-basin between the Ubangi and Congo rivers
2008), Motembo (Motingea 1996b), Losengo varieties (Motingea 2004; Motingea
22 | LINGÁLA](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-30-320.jpg)
![1952b; Kazadi 1987b: 289; Ngalasso 1991).
largely incomprehensible, missionary-created variety (see also De Boeck
Lingála”, and “missionary Lingála” to refer to the corrected, and for them
Lingála”, “literary Lingála”, “Catholic Lingála”, “Church Lingála”, “De Boeck’s
whites alike came up with adjectival epithets such as “written Lingála”, “book
Yet, to maintain the possibility to distinguish between the two, Congolese and
north and west was generally accepted, by all whites and by (most of the) Congolese.
“Lingála” for both the Scheutists’ engineered variety and the spoken variety in the
his 1935 grammar (Guthrie 1935). By the late 1930s the use of the language name
and was now “difficult to change”, which is why he eventually accepted to use it for
language and the form designed by the Scheutists had become established practice
Guthrie in 1943 thus admitted that the labeling encompassing both the spoken
publications for some time, so that it would now be difficult to change it” (1943: 118).
opposed to the corrected, designed one], and in fact this name has been used in
Europeans to this language also [i.e. the actually spoken, uncorrected variety as
followers: “Confusion has arisen because the name Lingala has been given by
expressed how unfortunate he found the confusion created by the Scheutists and their
Missionary Societies (CMC 1911). The Baptist missionary Malcolm Guthrie’s
much enthusiasm, at the sixth general Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant
the newly suggested glossonym: it was only mentioned for the first time, and without
der Kerken 1944: 247). Protestant missionaries, too, at first were reluctant to adopt
1880s-1890s (e.g. de Lichtervelde 1912: 907-917; Liesenborghs 1941-42: 93-95; Van
retained for the uncorrected language as actually spoken by the Congolese since the
language form engineered by the Scheutists, and that the name “Bangala” would be
preferred that the use of the new name “Lingála” would be limited only to the new
this did not go overnight. A number of leading Belgian colonial officials at first
the new glossonym gained general acceptance in west and northwest Congo, even if
The new language name “Lingála” was a more successful intervention. With time,
perceived as highly marked.
capitalers’ speech habits in their homes and on the streets and were invariably
capital, such as the liturgy, printing, and some media, but this never affected the
imposing their language form in a few exceptional domains of language use in the
prescribing missionaries (Meeuwis 2009). The Scheut missionaries only succeeded in
LINGÁLA | 27](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-35-320.jpg)
![influence from Kikongo, a 5-vowel language (Mbiavanga 2008; Bostoen & Goes 2019)
to Leopoldville in the late 1880s (see 1.2.1), this 5-vowel system was reinforced under
in the 1880s (Meeuwis 2019a). After the Bobangi pidgin, renamed “Bangala”, went
reduction from 7 to 5 vowels probably occurred during the pidginization of Bobangi
2010) also distinguishes between the mentioned close-mid and open-mid vowels. The
Lingála’s lexifier Bobangi (Sims 1886; Whitehead 1899; MacBeath 1940; Motingea
and soaps, they insist on an emphatic pronunciation of the open-mid vowels.
imitate or mock northwesterners, as is sometimes done in popular televized theater
[e] and [ɛ] and [o] and [ɔ] in free variation. It is indicative that when they wish to
Some speakers of Kinshasa Lingála use only the phones [e] and [o], while others use
-kón- ‘sow’ vs -kɔn
́ - ‘crawl’
nzóto ‘body’ vs nzɔt
́ ɔ ‘constellation’
-bél- ‘become cooked (food)’ vs -bɛl
́ - ‘become ill’
Northwestern Lingála:
(1.) (Corp.)
/ɔ/), the distinction between the close-mid and open-mid vowels being contrastive.
(Bokamba & Bokamba 2004) is a 7-vowel language (/i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, /u/, /o/, and
/e/, /a/, /u/, and /o/. Lingála as it is spoken in the northwestern sections of the DRC
Kinshasa Lingála is a 5-vowel language, phonemically distinguishing between /i/,
a
e o
i u
2.1.1. Five vowel phonemes
2.1. Vowels
2. PHONOLOGY AND TONOLOGY
LINGÁLA | 35](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-43-320.jpg)
![38 | LINGÁLA
2.1.3. Length, orality
All vowels in Lingála are short and oral; lengthening and nasalization occur rarely
and are not phonemic.
(7.) (Corp.)
nyónso [ɲṍso] or [ɲṍnso] ‘all’
2.1.4. Remnants of vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is absent in Kinshasa Lingála. Bobangi, Lingála’s predecessor, as well
as Lingála’s other adstrates, observe harmony rules based on vowel height (Whitehead
1899: 29ff; MacBeath 1940: 17; Cambier 1891: 88; Motingea 2002: 290; Motingea
2010: 23). In Kinshasa Lingála, one of the only vestiges of this is found in forms of
the verb -kend- (‘go’): all post-radical instances of a (i.e., as final vowel, in TA
suffixes, etc.) may, but need not, change to e.
(8.) (Corp.)
ko-kend-a or ko-kend-e
INF-go-FV
‘to go’
na-kend-aka or na-kend-eke
1SG-go-HAB
‘I usually go’
na-kend-á or na-kend-é
1SG-go-PRS2
‘I have gone’
ná-kend-a or ná-kend-e
1SG.SBJV-go-FV
‘that I go’](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-46-320.jpg)
![LINGÁLA | 41
Second
vowel in
the
hiatus
First
vowel
in the
hiatus
i e a o u
i degemina-
tion to i
devocaliza-
tion to y or
unresolved
devocaliza-
tion to y or
unresolved
devocaliza-
tion to y
devocaliza-
tion to y
e [unattested] [unattested] [unattested] [unattested] unresolved
a elision of a unresolved degemination
to a or
unresolved
unresolved unresolved
o devocaliza-
tion to w
devocaliza-
tion to w
devocaliza-
tion to w
[unattested] unresolved
u idem o idem o idem o idem o idem o
(11.) (Corp.)
i + i : degemination
li-íno (class 5) > líno ‘tooth’
li-íso (class 5) > líso ‘eye’
i + e : devocalization of i to form the glide y, or remaining unresolved
ko-lí-a > kolyá
INF-eat-FV
‘to eat’
unresolved:
e-denda (class 7) ‘person walking proudly’
ki-e-denda (prefix stacking with ki-) > kiedenda ‘manner of walking like a
proud person’](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-49-320.jpg)
![LINGÁLA | 45
2.2. Consonants and semi-consonants
Lingála makes use of the following consonant phonemes.
bilabial labial-dental alveolar velar
plosive p / b t / d k / g
fricative f / v s / z
lateral
approximant
l
nasal m n
To these are added two semi-consonants, i.e. the labial-velar and palatal glides w and
j (the latter in practical spelling written as <y>). For the use of these glides in vowel
hiatus resolution, see section 2.1.5 above.
The obstruents p, b, t, d, k, g, (v), s, and z also appear in prenasalized form.
Prenasalization is always homorganic: the consonant is introduced by a short nasal
sound produced at the same place of articulation, thus: [m
p] [m
b] [n
t] [n
d] [ŋ
k] [ŋ
g]
[m
v] [n
s] [n
z].
(12.) (Corp.)
kimpútu ‘tick’
mbóka ‘village’
mbóngo ‘money’
likambo ‘affair’, ‘matter’
-túntuk- ‘be in trance’
-band- ‘begin’
ndonge ‘ant’
kúnki ‘humpback’
libánki ‘grasshopper’
-longw- ‘leave’
lopángo ‘compound’
kinsékwa ‘true bug’
nyónso ‘all’](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-53-320.jpg)
![46 | LINGÁLA
nyóka ‘snake’
-nyat- ‘step on’, ‘trample’
linyuká ‘dishcloth’
nzóto ‘body’
The only attested case of [m
v] is in the word mvúla, which is the Brazzaville variant
of mbúla ‘year’, ‘rain’.
Voiced consonants are much more commonly prenasalized than unvoiced ones. In
word-initial position this limitation is strict: a distinctive feature of Kinshasa Lingála
is that words that in other regions begin with a prenasalized unvoiced consonant are
pronounced without the prenasalization.
(13.) (Corp.)
sósó ‘chicken’ (northwestern Lingála: nsósó)
pási ‘pain’ (northwest: mpási)
tína ‘reason’ (northwest: ntína)
This being said, in Kinshasa Lingála, too, some nouns, especially regionally marked
ones or words pertaining to a more formal register, are known and at times used in
either of the two variants: kósi or nkósi ‘lion’, paka or mpaka ‘elderly person’, kó or
nkó ‘malice’, tókí or ntókí ‘art’.
Affrication may occur when t is followed by i or y and another vowel, and
palatalization when n is followed by the palatal glide.
(14.) (Corp.)
kotyá [kotjá] or [kotʃá] ‘to put’
kotyéla [kotjéla] or [kotʃéla] ‘to put for’
kotyóla [kotjóla] or [kotʃóla] ‘to float downstream’
nyama [ɲama] ‘animal’
nyónso [ɲṍso] or [ɲṍnso] ‘all’](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-54-320.jpg)
![This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.
Title: The Factors of Organic Evolution
Author: Herbert Spencer
Release date: August 14, 2016 [eBook #52801]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Richard Tonsing, Adrian Mastronardi and
the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FACTORS OF
ORGANIC EVOLUTION ***](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-60-320.jpg)
![modifications are inheritable, then the mental associations habitually
produced in individuals by experiences of the relations between
actions and their consequences, pleasurable or painful, may, in the
successions of individuals, generate innate tendencies to like or
dislike such actions. But if not, the genesis of such tendencies is, as
we shall see, not satisfactorily explicable.
That our sociological beliefs must also be profoundly affected by the
conclusions we draw on this point, is obvious. If a nation is modified
en masse by transmission of the effects produced on the natures of
its members by those modes of daily activity which its institutions
and circumstances involve; then we must infer that such institutions
and circumstances mould its members far more rapidly and
comprehensively than they can do if the sole cause of adaptation to
them is the more frequent survival of individuals who happen to
have varied in favourable ways.
I will add only that, considering the width and depth of the effects
which acceptance of one or other of these hypotheses must have on
our views of Life, Mind, Morals, and Politics, the question—Which of
them is true? demands, beyond all other questions whatever, the
attention of scientific men.
Brighton, January, 1887.
THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC
EVOLUTION.
[April and May, 1886]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-64-320.jpg)
![as we see in the human race, that diminution in the jaws has not
been accompanied by corresponding diminution in the teeth. In the
catalogue of the College of Surgeons Museum, there is appended to
the entry which identifies a Blenheim Spaniel's skull, the words—“the
teeth are closely crowded together,” and to the entry concerning the
skull of a King Charles's Spaniel the words—“the teeth are closely
packed, p. 3, is placed quite transversely to the axis of the skull.” It
is further noteworthy that in a case where there is no diminished use
of the jaws, but where they have been shortened by selection, a like
want of concomitant variation is manifested: the case being that of
the bull-dog, in the upper jaw of which also, “the premolars ... are
excessively crowded, and placed obliquely or even transversely to
the long axis of the skull.”[1]
If, then, in cases where we can test it, we find no concomitant
variation in co-operative parts that are near together—if we do not
find it in parts which, though belonging to different tissues, are so
closely united as teeth and jaws—if we do not find it even when the
co-operative parts are not only closely united, but are formed out of
the same tissue, like the crab's eye and its peduncle; what shall we
say of co-operative parts which, besides being composed of different
tissues, are remote from one another? Not only are we forbidden to
assume that they vary together, but we are warranted in asserting
that they can have no tendency to vary together. And what are the
implications in cases where increase of a structure can be of no
service unless there is concomitant increase in many distant
structures, which have to join it in performing the action for which it
is useful?
As far back as 1864 (Principles of Biology, § 166) I named in
illustration an animal carrying heavy horns—the extinct Irish elk; and
indicated the many changes in bones, muscles, blood-vessels,
nerves, composing the fore-part of the body, which would be
required to make an increment of size in such horns advantageous.
Here let me take another instance—that of the giraffe: an instance
which I take partly because, in the sixth edition of the Origin of
Species, issued in 1872, Mr. Darwin has referred to this animal when](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/23553791-250512110133-09ada451/85/A-Grammatical-Overview-Of-Lingla-Revised-And-Extended-Edition-Lincom-Studies-In-African-Linguistics-Revised-Extended-Michael-Meeuwis-76-320.jpg)
A Grammatical Overview Of Lingla Revised And Extended Edition Lincom Studies In African Linguistics Revised Extended Michael Meeuwis
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- 7. A Grammatical OverView of Lingâla Revised and Extended Edition MichaelMeeuwis ^Lj O O 2020 LINCOM GmbH
- 8. ISBN 978 3 96939 004 7
- 9. LINGÁLA | 1 particular but not only those who have made this project possible. possible. Above all my indebtedness goes to all the native speakers of Lingála, in grammatical structure and every sociohistorical particularity in as precise terms as express my gratitude to my students, who continue to force me to explain every Lingála scholars for the stimulating exchanges we have had. I particularly wish to I wish to thank all my colleagues in Bantu and wider linguistics and all my fellow discovered sources. necessary revise, my description of the history of the language on the basis of newly sociohistorical background of Lingála, allowing me to significantly expand, and where Over these past ten years, I have also been able to further my investigations into the edition, and, forthatmatter, much more examples culled from corpora. grammatical features and to buttress the analyses than was the case in the first Also, this new and enlarged edition offers more examples to illustrate the clause combinations, and codeswitching constraints. quantifiers, properties of the verbal morphosyntax, the syntax of single clauses and morphology, some issues of form and use of the demonstratives, relativizers, and included in the analyses. Among these are specific features of Lingála’s nominal differently, and that features and structures that I had left uncovered needed to be Linguistics 81), I discovered that a good number of items deserved to be treated Lincom in 2010 (A Grammatical Overview of Lingála, Lincom Studies in African In the years following the publication of the first edition of my Lingála grammar with Preface
- 10. 2 | LINGÁLA
- 11. LINGÁLA | 3 Abbreviations and symbols used In the linguistic examples: Corp.: examples culled from corpora of actual language use Corp.; Elic.: features found in corpora and degrees of (non-)grammaticality subsequently tested through examples elicited from native speakers Elic.: examples elicited from native speakers Ling.-constr.: examples constructed by the linguist [very exceptionally used] In the glosses (largely based on Leipzig rules): *: ungrammatical 1, 2, 3 used in glosses of verb forms and pronouns: first person, second person, third person 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. used in glosses of nouns: noun class membership AN: animate APPL: applicative CAUS: causative COMP: complementizer CONN: connective COP: copula DEM1: proximal demonstrative DEM2: medial-distal demonstrative DEM3: anaphoric-only demonstrative DEM4: distal demonstrative EXT: extensive FOC: focalizer FV: the expletive verb final vowel -a GER: gerund H: high tone HAB: habitual IMP: imperative INAN: inanimate INDF.SPEC: indefinite-specific INF: infinitive
- 12. 4 | LINGÁLA INTERR: interrogative INTR: intransitive L: low tone NEUT: neuter NP: noun phrase NREL: nominal-relative (a.k.a. “demonstrative-relative”) PASS: passive PST: past PST1: past 1 PST2: past 2 PL: plural PRO: pronominalization of noun phrase head (5.4.2.1, among others) PROGR: progressive PRS: present PRS1: present 1 PRS2: present 2 PRS.PROGR: present progressive R: root, i.e. the most basic, unanalyzable, verbal bound morpheme expressing lexical meaning REC: reciprocal REFL: reflexive REL: relative REV: reversive SBJV: subjunctive SG: singular SM: subject marker Stem: verbal base followed by a TAM suffix or the final vowel TA: tense-aspect TAM: tense-aspect-modality TR: transitive V: vowel VB: verbal base, i.e. a root followed by one or more extensions. A verbal base followed by a TAM suffix or the final vowel is called “stem”. VP: verb phrase
- 13. LINGÁLA | 5 C O N T E N T S ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS USED 3 1. THE LANGUAGE, ITS SPEAKERS, ITS HISTORY 15 1.1. Geographical and demographical situation 15 1.2. Historical background and ensuing sociolinguistic variation 18 1.2.1. 1881 - 1900 18 1.2.2. 1900 - 1960 24 1.2.2.1. Bangala splitting into Lingála and Bangala 24 1.2.2.2. Lingála during the rest of Belgian colonization 29 1.2.3. 1960 - today 30 2. PHONOLOGY AND TONOLOGY 35 2.1. Vowels 35 2.1.1. Five vowel phonemes 35 2.1.2. u for o 36 2.1.3. Length, orality 38 2.1.4. Remnants of vowel harmony 38 2.1.5. Sequences of vowels: diphthongs, hiatus, and hiatus resolution 39 2.2. Consonants and semi-consonants 45 2.3. Phonotactic constraints 47 2.4. Tones 48 2.4.1. H and L 48 2.4.2. Anticipatory (“leftward”) tone spreading 49 2.4.3. Tone stability 50 2.4.4. Downstep 51 2.4.5. Tonal processes in reduplicated stems 51
- 14. 6 | LINGÁLA 2.5. Issues of Lingála orthography 52 3. NOUN 55 3.1. Noun class system 55 3.2. Some noun classes and their prefixes in detail 58 3.2.1. Variations in prefix form 58 3.2.2. Classes 1 and 1a: About animacy, humans, animals 58 3.2.3. Class 3: Homophony with class 1 60 3.2.4. Class 6: Non-count mass nouns 60 3.2.5. Class 7a: Loanwords, glossonyms, manners 60 3.2.6. Class 8: Frequentatives 62 3.2.7. Classes 9 and 10: Ø- and ba- 63 3.2.8. Class 11: Count nouns and non-count abstract nouns 64 3.2.9. Class 14: Non-count abstract nouns, non-count event nouns, gerunds 65 3.2.10. Class 15: Infinitives and verb nominalization 66 3.3. Plural formation 68 3.3.1. Plural formation by class transfer 68 3.3.2. Plural formation with ba- in prefix stacking 68 3.3.2.1. Manifestation 68 3.3.2.2. ba- with count nouns 69 3.3.2.3. ba- with non-count mass nouns 70 3.3.2.4. ba- with non-count abstract nouns 72 3.3.2.5. A future for ba- as generalized plural marker? 72 3.3.3. Associative plural and simulative plural 73 3.3.4. Pluralization avoidance for measurement nouns 74 3.4. Noun derivation 77 3.4.1. Deverbal derivation 77 3.4.1.1. Formal characteristics 77 3.4.1.2. Deverbative nouns followed by objects 79 3.4.2. Denominal derivation 80 3.4.2.1. Class transfer through prefix substitution 80 3.4.2.2. Prefix stacking with ki- 80
- 15. LINGÁLA | 7 3.4.2.3. Prefix stacking with bo- 81 3.4.2.4. Reduplication 82 3.4.2.5. Compound nouns and the relational noun moyi- 82 3.5. Tonal profiles of nouns 86 4. THE NOUN PHRASE 89 4.1. Noun phrase negation: té 89 4.2. Agreement of modifiers 90 4.3. Constituent order in the noun phrase 92 4.3.1. Head-initial constituent order 92 4.3.2. Order of modifiers 93 5. OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH THAN NOUNS AND VERBS 97 5.1. The connective 97 5.1.1. Possessive constructions 97 5.1.2. Noun qualification 101 5.1.2.1. Adnominal 101 5.1.2.2. Predicative 104 5.1.2.3. Summary of noun qualification and use of the connective 106 5.1.3. Hyponymic constructions 108 5.1.4. Inverse qualification constructions 108 5.1.5. Ordinal quantification 109 5.2. Adjectives 110 5.2.1. The reality of a category of adjectives in Lingála 110 5.2.2. Number-inflected adjectives 111 5.3. Personal pronouns 113 5.3.1. Personal pronouns, substitutives 113 5.3.2. Simulative plural 116 5.3.3. Anticipatory (or “inclusory”) plural 116
- 16. 8 | LINGÁLA 5.3.4. Personal pronouns as identical conjuncts 117 5.3.5. Personal pronouns as subject-bound intensifiers 118 5.4. Demonstratives 120 5.4.1. Adnominal 120 5.4.1.1. Four adnominal demonstratives 120 5.4.1.2. Situational and discourse-referential usage types 121 5.4.1.3. Demonstratives determining personal pronouns 124 5.4.2. Pronominal 125 5.4.2.1. Contrastive 125 5.4.2.2. Non-contrastive 127 5.4.3. Adverbial 128 5.5. Relativizers 129 5.5.1. Zero, óyo, and óyo wâná 129 5.5.2. Óyo and óyo wâná as nominal-relatives (“demonstrative-relatives”) in headless relative clauses 130 5.6. mosúsu ‘other’ 132 5.6.1. Rationale for separate discussion 132 5.6.2. Adnominal 132 5.6.3. Pronominal 133 5.7. Numerals 134 5.7.1. Cardinals 134 5.7.2. Ordinals 136 5.8. Quantifiers 138 5.8.1. Indefinite quantifiers 138 5.8.2. Indefinite-specific quantifiers 140 5.8.3. Universal quantifiers 141 5.8.3.1. The positive universal 141 5.8.3.2. The negative universal 142 5.9. Interrogatives 144
- 17. LINGÁLA | 9 6. VERB 147 6.1. The formation of verb forms 147 6.2. Verb roots 149 6.3. The subject marker 150 6.3.1. The markers 150 6.3.2. Semantic (“notional”) vs mechanical (“formal”) agreement 152 6.3.3. Complex subjects 153 6.3.4. Anticipatory plural in comitative constructions 153 6.4. The reflexive anaphor -mí-/-mi- as only object marker 155 6.5. The final vowel -a 156 6.6. Non-finite verb forms 157 6.6.1. Infinitive (INF): ko–R/VB–a 157 6.6.2. Gerund (GER) in prepositional phrases: na bo–R/VB–áká 159 6.7. Moods 161 6.7.1. Indicative: SM–R/VB–TA or SM–TA–R/VB–a 161 6.7.2. Imperative (IMP): R/VB–á 161 6.7.3. Subjunctive (SBJV): SM(high)–R/VB–a 163 6.8. Tense-Aspect-Modality 169 6.8.1. Future (FUT): SM–ko–R/VB–a 169 6.8.2. Alethic: SM–R/VB–a 171 6.8.3. Present 1 (PRS1): SM–R/VB–í 174 6.8.4. Present 2 (PRS2): SM–R/VB–á 178 6.8.5. Past 1 (PST1): SM–R/VB–ákí 180 6.8.6. Past 2 (PST2): SM–R/VB–áká 182 6.8.7. Habitual indicative (HAB): SM–R/VB–aka 184 6.8.8. Habitual imperative, subjunctive, infinitive 187 6.8.8.1. Habitual imperative: R/VB–áká 187 6.8.8.2. Habitual infinitive: ko–R/VB–aka/áká 188 6.8.8.3. Habitual subjunctive: SM(high)–R/VB–aka 189
- 18. 10 | LINGÁLA 6.8.9. Progressive (PROGR): Auxiliary construction with -zal- (‘be’) and contraction to SM–zô–R/VB–a 190 6.8.10. Other auxiliary verb constructions 193 6.8.10.1. -sengel-: Dynamic participant-imposed and deontic necessity 195 6.8.10.2. ifó: Dynamic participant-imposed, deontic, and epistemic necessity 196 6.8.10.3. -yéb- (‘know’): Dynamic participant-inherent possibility 196 6.8.10.4. -kok- (‘be able’): Dynamic participant-imposed, deontic, and epistemic possibility 197 6.8.10.5. -út- (‘come from’): Immediate anteriority 198 6.8.10.6. -yá- (‘come’): New event or state 199 6.8.10.7. -kóm- (‘arrive’): New habit 199 6.8.10.8. -ling- (‘want’): Proximative 200 6.8.10.9. -tík- (‘leave behind’) : Egressive 201 6.8.10.10. -síl- (‘end’): Iamitive 202 6.8.11. Auxiliary verb constructions with more than two verbs 203 6.9. Verb derivation 204 6.9.1. Stem reduplication 204 6.9.2. Root extensions 208 6.9.2.1. General observations 208 6.9.2.2. -el- : Applicative 210 6.9.2.3. -is- : Causative 216 6.9.2.4. -an- : Neuter/Reciprocal 222 6.9.2.5. -am- : Passive 224 6.9.2.6. -w- : Separative/Reversive 227 6.9.2.7. -ol- : Separative/Reversive/Causative 227 6.9.2.8. -uk- and -us- : Neuter and Causative 229 6.9.2.9. -ik- : Impositive-intensive 231 6.9.2.10. -al- : Extensive 231 6.9.2.11. -at- -ot- -ut- : Contactive 232 6.9.2.12. -ang-an-, -eng-an-, -ing-an-, -ung-an- : Repetitive plus reciprocal 232 6.9.2.13. Sequences of root extensions 233 1. Double applicatives (-elel-) 233
- 19. LINGÁLA | 11 2. Double causatives (-isis-) 234 3. Double neuters/reciprocals (-anan-) 237 4. Double passives (unattested) 238 5. Applicative + causative (-elis-) 238 6. Causative + applicative (-isel-) 239 7. Applicative + neuter/reciprocal (-elan-) 240 8. Neuter/reciprocal + applicative (-anel-) 241 9. Applicative + passive (-elam-) 242 10. Passive + applicative (-amel-) 242 11. Causative + neuter/reciprocal (-isan-) 243 12. Neuter/reciprocal + causative (-anis-) 244 13. Causative + passive (-isam-) 245 14. Passive + causative (-amis-) 246 15. Neuter/reciprocal + passive (-anam-) 246 16. Passive + neuter/reciprocal (unattested) 247 17. More than two 247 7. THE VERB PHRASE AND THE SINGLE CLAUSE 249 7.1. Verb phrase negation: té 249 7.2. Constituent order 251 7.2.1. Declarative clauses 251 7.2.2. Interrogative clauses 254 7.2.3. Subject inversion constructions 256 7.2.3.1. Subject-patient inversion 256 7.2.3.2. Semantic locative inversion 257 7.3. Comparative and superlative clauses 259 8. CLAUSE COMBINATIONS 263 8.1. Complement clauses 263 8.1.1. Non-interrogative 263 8.1.2. Polar interrogative 264
- 20. 12 | LINGÁLA 8.1.3. Content interrogative 264 8.2. Relative clauses 265 8.3. Embedded TA categories in non-conditional clause combinations 268 8.4. TA categories in conditional clause combinations 270 8.4.1. Table 270 8.4.2. Factual conditional constructions 271 8.4.2.1. Zero factual conditional constructions 271 8.4.2.2. Non-zero factual conditional constructions 272 8.4.3. Counterfactual conditional constructions 274 9. SOME FOCUS CONSTRUCTIONS 277 9.1. Verb focus: Doubling the verb outside the verb phrase 277 9.2. Subject focus with ndé as focalizer 278 9.2.1. Ndé as adverb 278 9.2.2. Ndé as subject-focalizing copula 278 9.3. Subject and object focus by means of other focalizers 279 9.3.1. Non-interrogative focus constructions 280 9.3.2. Interrogative focus constructions 281 10. LINGÁLA-FRENCH CODESWITCHING: SOME GRAMMATICAL REGULARITIES 283 10.1. The noun 284 10.2. The noun phrase 286 10.3. The verb 287 10.3.1. Infinitive (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.6) 287 10.3.2. Future (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8) 288 10.3.3. Present 1 (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.3) 288
- 21. LINGÁLA | 13 10.3.4. Present Progressive (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.9) 289 10.3.5. Subjunctive (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.7.3) 289 10.3.6. Habitual (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.7) 290 10.3.7. Present 2 (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.4) 291 10.3.8. Past 1 (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.5) 291 10.3.9. Past 2 (grammatical meanings and functions as in 6.8.6) 292 10.3.10. Reflexive 292 11. SAMPLE TEXT 295 REFERENCES 297
- 22. 14 | LINGÁLA
- 23. LINGÁLA | 15 1. THE LANGUAGE, ITS SPEAKERS, ITS HISTORY 1.1. Geographical and demographical situation Lingála is a Bantu language, originally classified by Guthrie (1948) as C.26d, by Margaret A. Bryan and later scholars as C36d (Bryan 1959: 38), and appearing as C30B in Maho’s 2009 update of the Bantu classification (Maho 2009: 97).1 Maho’s use of capital letters following decade group codes indicates a “new language [which] is a pidgin, creole or mixed language. […] The group code is chosen so as to be suggestive of the typological (and genetic?) affiliation of the language in question” (Maho 2003: 640). Section 1.2 below explains that and how Lingála is indeed such a “new language”, as the speech variety known by that name today, as well as related ones known by resembling names, only came into existence in the 1880s in the context of early colonial contact. World-wide, Lingála – which can be spelled “Lingala” if one does not wish to mark tone in language names – has a total of approximately 20 million native speakers and another 20 to 25 million non-native lingua franca users. Its area of diffusion can be described by making the following, threefold distinction. First, it is spoken in the western and northern sections of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including its capital Kinshasa, and in the central and northern sections of the Republic of Congo. The urban centers in these regions as a rule host native speakers of the language; almost the totality of the inhabitants of Kinshasa, for instance, are Lingála monolinguals (in terms of knowledge of African languages). In the rural parts, by contrast, Lingála is mostly a lingua franca (the dominant or only one in these regions), used by native speakers of more locally restricted languages. Secondly, Lingála is also used as an additional lingua franca in areas where historically other languages of wider communication have been more dominant. This is the case in a zone comprising the DRC’s southwestern Kongo-Central province, northwest Angola, and the Republic of Congo’s capital Brazzaville as well as the zone west of it up to Pointe Noire. In this entire transborder zone, Lingála appears as a 1 In the latest edition of the Routledge Bantu book, Hammarström (2019: 29) unfortunately reverted back to the classification C36d. By April 2020, however, this was corrected on the related Glottolog website: https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/boba1250.
- 24. 2 Also known as “Fiote”, “Kikongo ya Leta”, “Munukutuba”, “Kileta”, “Ikeleve”, “Kibula-matari” and other glossonyms (Mufwene 2009; Mfoutou 2009; Samarin 2013). For the sake of recognition, I leave all glossonyms other than “Lingála”, as well as all ethnonyms and toponyms, unmarked for tone. 3 Also spelled “Ciluba” and, with tone marking, “Cilubà”. many of them functions as a strong emblem of Congolese identity. these diaspora communities, including in their social media communication, and for 2019). Lingála is indeed the main language of communication among members of 2005, 2008a, b; Mavungu 2007; Schoonvaere 2010; Demart et al. 2017; Bokamba Europe, Canada, the US, and South Africa (Meeuwis 2002; Amisi 2005; Vigouroux speakers in the Congolese diaspora communities outside Central Africa, such as in Thirdly, Lingála also has a large number of lingua franca users as well as native franca. wars in 2002 and where Lingála continues to be their mother tongue or main lingua communities of Kinshasa-born Angolans returned after the end of the Angolan civil Also to be mentioned in this context is the Angolan capital Luanda, to which large is increasinglylearned, spoken, and used in addition to Swahili and Tshiluba. Lubumbashi, Mbuji-Mayi, Goma, and Bukavu, to name but these, where Lingála 1.2.2.2 and 1.2.3. It is especially noticeable in towns and cities, such as of political and cultural developments in the history of the country, spelled out in Mutombo 1991; Goyvaerts 1995; Büscher et al. 2013). This is the result of a number and the central provinces (Tshiluba) (Ngalasso 1986; Sesep 1986; Boguo 1988; Tshiluba3 are of old the main lingua francas, i.e., east and southeast DRC (Swahili) Lingála has also found entrance into regions of the DRC where Swahili and 1999; Leitch & Ndamba 2006). of Kikongo-Kituba have an additional knowledge of Lingála than vice-versa (Woods Khabirov 2012; Nzoimbengene 2016: 168). In Brazzaville in particular, more speakers Makokila 1992; Nyembwe et al. 1992; Woods 1999; Massoumou 2001; Ndonga 2011; speakers, Lingála is in fact preferred to Kikongo-Kituba (Samba 1950; Nyembwe & Matadi, Boma, and even Kikwit more to the northeast, and especially among younger lingua franca alongside Kikongo-Kituba.2 In towns and cities in this zone, such as 16 | LINGÁLA
- 25. LINGÁLA | 17 Lingála’s degree of vitality is high. First, the language continues to acquire new lingua franca users as well as native speakers, both in Central Africa and in the diaspora. In the diaspora, many adult newcomers learn it for the first time, realizing knowledge of it is indispensable to function in the Congolese community, and many parents also pass it on to their locally born children (for Europe see Meeuwis 2002, Verlot & Delrue 2004, Akinci & de Ruiter 2004, and Dombrowsky-Hahn 2019; for South Africa see Vigouroux 2008a, b, 2010, 2014 and Vigouroux 2019; for North America see Bokamba 2019). Changes in Lingála’s diglossic relationship with French are a second mark of its vitality. As Nyembwe & Matabishi (2012) and Sene Mongaba (2013a) describe, the collapsing school education system in the DRC over the last decades has resulted in a significant decrease in knowledge of French. As a result, Lingála is making increasing headway in usage domains that used to be reserved for French, such as the oral communication in administrative contexts, high schools and colleges, and the media. The most recent constitutions of both the DRC and the Republic of Congo name French as their “official language”. In the DRC’s constitution, Lingála is recognized as one of its “national languages”, alongside Kikongo, Swahili, and Tshiluba. In the Republic of Congo it is recognized as one of the country’s two “national vehicular languages” together with “Kituba” (Kikongo-Kituba).
- 26. 18 | LINGÁLA 1.2. Historical background and ensuing sociolinguistic variation No language by the name “Lingála” appeared in any of the published or archive-held testimonies made by the first English, Belgian, Danish, French, German, Italian and other European pioneers of the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s in the relevant region. Although these first European travelers mentioned scores of languages, which at times included very local ones and which were named to them by the Congolese they met on their way, not one of them observed a language named “Lingála” in that period. By contrast, the language name “Bangala” is omnipresent in these pre-1900 sources, as is “Bobangi”. 1.2.1. 1881 - 1900 Prior to the first European exploration of the Congo river in 1876-77, a community of traders known as “the Bobangi”4 controlled the riverine commerce on the part of the river roughly comprised by the equator line in the north and the mouth of the Kwa river in the south (Hanssens 1884; Kund 1885: 386; Comber 1885; Whitehead 1899; Harms 1981; Vansina 1990; Petit 1996; Motingea 2010). Both upstream and downstream of this zone, members of other, non-Bobangi communities also knew and occasionally used the Bobangi language as a medium of wider communication (Sims 1886; Coquilhat 1885, 1888; Oram 1891; Lemaire 1895). 4 Various labels and glossonyms appear in the literature to refer to the Bobangi and their language. In the earliest years of colonial exploration, they were also identified as “Bayansi” or “Bayanzi”, a label apparently used by Bakongo to refer to them (Johnston 1884; Hanssens 1884; Sims 1886; Comber 1885; Costermans 1895), and as “Bafuru” (Augouard 1894). Some sources identified them as “Babangi” (Comber 1885; Ward 1910), and referred to the language as “Lobangi” (Hulstaert 1937; Goyvaerts 1995), “Kibangi” (Sims 1886), and “Lo-bobangi” (Bentley 1900). In a letter to Alice Werner of 18 December 1917, the Bobangi specialist John Whitehead explained that originally “Bobangi” was only a toponym, neither an ethnonym nor a glossonym, and that there is no prefix bo- to detach from it on linguistic grounds (see also Meeussen 1955). Whitehead in his letter explained that the people from the town Bobangi called their language “lokota lo Bobangi”, i.e. ‘the language from the town of Bobangi’ (Whitehead 1917).
- 27. LINGÁLA | 19 In 1879, the Belgian King Leopold II instructed European army officers and explorers to start with the foundation of what in 1885 would become the Congo Free State. The foundation of state posts in the Bobangi-controlled zone of the Congo river in particular began in 1881-1882. The European officers and explorers brought with them troops of African, but non-Congolese, origins, who served as aides, soldiers, cooks, intermediaries, interpreters, porters, etc. (Maurice 1955; Samarin 1982a, b, 1984, 1989a; Cornelis 1991). They had recruited these workers (i) on the West African Guinea Gulf Coast and Upper Guinea Coast; (ii) in Zanzibar, the Comoros, and the Tanganyikan inland; (iii) and (a bit later) in the Lower-Congo area. The Europeans and this diversity of African workers immediately noticed the importance and widespread knowledge of the Bobangi language north of what is now Kinshasa (Kund 1885: 386; Sims 1886; Coquilhat 1885; Oram 1891; Lemaire 1895; Harms 1981; Vansina 1990; Petit 1996). They, i.e. the Europeans and their African aides alike, acquired only a partial knowledge of it, in the process strongly restructuring and mixing, viz. pidginizing, it (i.a., de Lichtervelde 1912; Samarin 1982b, 1986, 1989b, c, 1990; Whitehead 1940s; Hulstaert 1946, 1953, 1989; Hulstaert & De Boeck 1940; Tanghe et al. 1940; Mufwene 1989, 2003, 2013; Mbulamoko 1991; Meeuwis 2001a, b, 2006, 2013b, 2019a).5 The languages of the workers from the West African coasts included Hausa, Bambara, Igbo, Yoruba, and others, as well as English-, French- and Portuguese-based pidgins and creoles (Samarin 1982b: 417; Samarin 1989a; Cornelis 1991; Meeuwis 2013b, 2019a). The workers recruited in East Africa were speakers of Swahili, either as a mother tongue or as a second language. The workers recruited in the Lower-Congo area spoke varieties of Kikongo, including the previously pidginized variety Kikongo-Kituba (Mufwene 2009, 2013; Mfoutou 2009; Samarin 2013). The Europeans were speakers of French, English, Dutch, and/or Portuguese, and some also 5 I use “pidginization”, “restructuration”, and others as interchangeable terms. As has been argued amply (i.a., DeGraff 1999: 11; Ansalado & Matthews 2007; Webb 2013: 317; Wansbrough 1996: 250; Mufwene 2003: 196-197; 2018; Michaelis et al. 2013), scrutiny of “pidgins/creoles” documented in the literature leaves no structurally motivated grounds to distinguish them from other cases of rapid language change through contact. The distinction appears to be gradational, if not one of convenient labeling, based on sociocultural and racial stereotyping (DeGraff 2005: 576; Mufwene 2018: 40-42) more than on clearly identifiable linguistic features.
- 28. 20 | LINGÁLA knew pidgin and creole varieties of these; others, who had had experience in East Africa, had varying notions of Swahili. The linguistic features of this imperfectly acquired, pidginized Bobangi have been described in detail in Meeuwis (2019a) on the basis of data culled from historical sources. To summarize, in terms of the lexicon, the bulk of the vocabulary of the pidgin came from the lexifier Bobangi – a reality corroborated by linguistic comparisons such as Carrington (1954), Knappert (1958, 1979), Hulstaert (1959, 1989), De Rop (1960), Bokula (1983), Sesep (1986), and Roelandt’s vast comparative study (1988). Many Bobangi parts of speech underwent semantic and categorial generalization (“polysemization” or “multifunctionalization”). In addition, the new variety received loans from Swahili, Arabic, Kikongo varieties,6 Portuguese, English, as well as from the West African languages and pidgins/creoles. Grammatically, the process of restructuration/pidginization included the erosion of Bobangi’s typical Bantu system of class prefix concordance in the noun phrase; erosion of plural formation of nouns; generalization of the infinitive, the imperative, or the third person singular for all grammatical persons; generalization of the infinitive or the PRES1 for all temporal inflections (i.e., loss of TAM distinctions); loss of the prodrop rule; and an overall loss of morphological agglutination in favor of analyticity (“debonding” or “deinflectionalization”). In the first years, i.e. until 1884, this pidgin of Bobangi was variably referred to as “the trade language”, “the language of the river”, “the commercial language”, “the state language”, “bad Bobangi”, and other names (Samarin 1989b, 1990; Meeuwis 2019a). The Bobangi people continued to use original Bobangi among themselves, but in contexts where they, or non-Bobangi Congolese with prior knowledge of Bobangi, communicated with the whites and their African helpers, the newly emerging pidgin took over. One of the important places where this took place was the colonial state post Bangala-Station (renamed “Nouvelle-Anvers” in 1890). Bangala-Station was founded in 1884 in Iboko (now “Makanza”), a non-Bobangi village situated north of the 6 To be sure, many other Kikongo loans in present-day Lingála date from a later stage in the development of the language, namely from the period after 1940 when Leopoldville received a massive influx of immigrants from the Lower-Congo region (Luyckfasseel & Meeuwis 2018).
- 29. 7 The Europeans chose the name “Bangala-Station” on the basis of what they believed to be the name (“Bangala”) of the people living in Iboko and its wider surroundings. The origins of the ethnonym are a matter of dispute. All historiographers agree that the first white to have used it was H.M. Stanley, while traveling down the Congo river in 1876-7 (see Stanley 1878: 287). Hulstaert (1961, 1974) maintains that the term was already known and used by Africans in the region as the name of an extant community before Stanley’s passage, while Mumbanza (1973: 473), Tanghe (1930a: 343-344), Van Bulck (1954), Van Bulck & Hackett (1956: 76), Burssens (1954, 1958), Mbulamoko (1991), and Samarin (1989a) argue that the label was inadvertently coined by Stanley when he misunderstood the locals of Upoto referring, indistinctly, to communities living further west. Either way, after Stanley’s first mention of the term as an ethnonym it was generally adopted in that usage by colonizers, missionaries, and ethnologists to come after him (e.g., De Jonghe 1908; van Overbergh & De Jonghe 1907). It went through many shifts in denotation throughout the 20th century (see Burssens 1954, 1958; Hulstaert 1961, 1974; Mumbanza 1973, 1974, 1995, 2008; Samarin 1989a: chapter 4, 1989c; Mbulamoko 1991; Young 1965, 1976; Luyckfasseel & Meeuwis 2018). 1996a), Libinza (Van Leynseele 1977), Boloki (Motingea 2002; Motingea & Bonzoi Liboko (Cambier 1891; Meeuwis & Vinck 2003), Mabale (Tanghe 1930b, c; Motingea highly diverse languages of the newcomers. The most important input languages were the influence of the local languages of the station and its surroundings and of the Nouvelle-Anvers, the lexicon and structures of the Bobangi pidgin expanded under In this context, i.e. during the late 1880s and the 1890s at Bangala-Station – 1989; Vinck 1994; Mumbanza 1995: 371). 1898; Buls 1899: 158-161; Weeks 1913: 49; Hulstaert & De Boeck 1940; Hulstaert and, on the other, the Congolese locals and immigrants (Coquilhat 1888; Thonner used in this station between, on the one hand, themselves and their foreign workers Europeans applied and imposed the emerging Bobangi pidgin as the language to be activities. So, from the first years of their settlement in Bangala-Station in 1884, the some locals of Iboko already knew some Bobangi from their pre-colonial trade The recently emerged Bobangi pidgin was the natural candidate for this function, as 1988). Such a heterogeneous center heightened the need for a colonial lingua franca. station, its mission, and its school (Dieu 1946; Mumbanza 1971, 1995; Bontinck children and confiscated slaves, were deported there by the colonizers to populate the them voluntarily moved to the new center to try their luck; many others, especially immediately attracted migrants from other, at times very remote, districts. Some of original Bobangi area, i.e. in the more northern bend of the Congo river.7 It LINGÁLA | 21
- 30. 8 In the early twentieth century, confusion arose in the literature when mostly English and American missionaries-linguists started using the names “Ngala” and “Bangala” as glossonyms referring, not only to the lingua franca pidgin that had emerged out of Bobangi and had been named after Bangala-Station and the alleged “Bangala”, but to the original, pre-colonial languages of Iboko and its surroundings as well. In Stapleton (1903a), for instance, the multiple “Ngala” entries have nothing to do with Bangala as the Bobangi pidgin, but are Boloki data. Later on, influential comparative and classificatory studies such as Guthrie’s and M.A. Bryan’s (Starr 1905, 1908; Guthrie 1948, 1967, 1970; Bryan 1959), reinforced the established confusion. Congo river in the 1880s and 1890s was military and political in nature. Together The importance of Bangala-Station on the western and northwestern sections of the Bobangi” was renamed “Bangala”.8 1913: 48-49). In sum, in the second half of the 1880s the “trade language” or “bad language, and by that name it is now generally known on the Upper Congo.” (Weeks their own tongue in which they were conversing, and thus called it the Bangala natives of the neighborhood talking this lingo jumped to the conclusion that it was communicating with the State soldiers and workmen; and the white men hearing the [Bangala-Station] quickly learned this jargon, and used it more or less fluently when by means of the ‘trade language’. The smartest of the natives in the towns adjacent to two thousand soldiers, workmen, and women, held communication with each other on the Upper Congo, and this heterogeneous mass of humanity, often numbering over above Stanley Pool. A large number of natives were imported there from all the tribes witness: “For a considerable time [...] Bangala[-Station], was the largest State station category (Samarin 1989b; Meeuwis 2001b, 2006). To cite but one contemporaneous 7) that the pidgin soon came to be named after the Station and this new ethnic with the Congolese categorized and labeled by the whites as “Bangala” (see footnote The expanding Bobangi pidgin was so tightly associated with Bangala-Station and prevailed. important colonial state post on the upper Congo river, the variety developing there languages spoken locally. But as Bangala-Station was at that time the most pidgin also underwent such changes, under the influence of the respective native introduced by the Europeans as they enlarged their zone of colonial control, the (Motingea 1996b; Donzo 2015). To be sure, in other places where the pidgin was 2008), and languages from the Ngiri-basin between the Ubangi and Congo rivers 2008), Motembo (Motingea 1996b), Losengo varieties (Motingea 2004; Motingea 22 | LINGÁLA
- 31. LINGÁLA | 23 with the state post of Boma in the Lower Congo, Bangala-Station played an important role in the birth of the colonial army, the Force Publique. Recruits were trained at Bangala-Station and subsequently sent out to man other, newly founded colonial state posts (Flament 1952; Harms 1981; Meeuwis 2006). As this training was conducted in Bangala, the language followed the army where it went. Leopoldville (capital of the Belgian Congo from 1923-1929 onward, now “Kinshasa”) is a case in point. Situated south of the original Bobangi zone, it had already been founded in 1881 but in the earliest years always remained smaller than and dependent on Bangala-Station. Troops of Congolese soldiers and workers trained at Bangala-Station were brought to Leopoldville for the first time in 1885-1886, and were soon followed by new units (Ward 1890; De Roo & Poortman 1953; Lejeune 1955a, b; Mumbanza 1971: 196). With them came along the Bangala language as it was expanding at Bangala-Station, the language in which the soldiers and workers were trained (L.B. De Boeck 1952a, 1953; De Rop 1953; Van Wing 1953). This period, viz. the second half of the 1880s, indeed counts as the beginning of the inclusion of Leopoldville into the area of diffusion of Lingála (then still called “Bangala”). From Bangala-Station, Bangala did not only spread southward to Leopoldville and along the river between Bangala-Station and Leopoldville, but also in eastward and northeastward direction. Between 1888 and 1899, the Congo Free State authorities organized a number of military campaigns with the aim to stop the advance of Arab competitors who had been penetrating east Congo either from East Africa or from the Sudan (the so-called Mahdists) (Cambier 1948; Flament 1952; De Roo & Poortman 1953; Ceulemans 1959; Maréchal 1992). These eastward and northeastward “anti-Arab campaigns” were organized from Bangala-Station, with soldiers trained at Bangala-Station, and in the Bangala language. In these years, Bangala was spread: in southeastward direction to the Upper Lomami; in eastward direction to the present-day city of Kisangani; and in northeastward direction into the basin of the Uele and as far as the Rejaf-Lado enclave on the upper Nile9 (Wtterwulghe 1899; Lemaire 1894; Prémontrés 1901; Reynolds 1904; Mackenzie 1910; Bauwens 1913; De Boeck 1911b; Crabtree 1922; Czekanowski 1924: 114-163; De Jonghe 1933a, b; Van der Kerken 1944: 247; Meeuwis 2006; Abdelhay et al. 2016). 9 Rejaf-Lado is today in southern South Sudan and northwest Uganda. It was occupied by the Congo Free State between 1897 and 1910 (i.a., Stigand 1923).
- 32. 24 | LINGÁLA Bangala acquired its first native speakers in the late 1890s and early 1900s (e.g., Stapleton 1903c: g; Courboin 1908: viii). This took place in the towns and centers across the entire western, northern, and northeastern territory it had managed to cover until then, such as the towns and centers of Bangala-Station, Leopoldville, and others. The nativization of the language would amplify in the first decades of the 20th century and continue well beyond (Hulstaert 1939; Barney 1934; Carrington 1954; L.B. De Boeck 1949, 1952a, 1953; De Rop 1953; Mufwene 1989, Mufwene 2003). To summarize, three phases need to be distinguished in relation to the origins of Lingála before 1900: first, the restructuration/pidginization of Bobangi in the period 1881-1884; second, from 1884, the colonial application of the Bobangi pidgin in Bangala-Station and its lexical-structural expansion there on the basis of local and imported languages; third, its diffusion, under the new name “Bangala”, from Bangala-Station south to Leopoldville and east up to the Nile. 1.2.2. 1900 - 1960 1.2.2.1. Bangala splitting into Lingála and Bangala Around and shortly after 1901, a number of both Catholic and Protestant missionaries working in the western and northern Congo Free State, independently of one another but in strikingly parallel terms, judged that Bangala as it had developed out of Bobangi was too “pidgin-like”, “too poor” a language to function as a proper means of education and evangelization. Each of them set out on a program of massive corpus planning, aimed at actively “correcting” and “enlarging” Bangala from above (de Lichtervelde 1912; Liesenborghs 1941-42; Bolamba 1947; Samarin 1982b, 1986, 1989b, 1990; Whitehead 1940s; Hulstaert 1946, 1953, 1989; Guthrie 1935, 1943; Kazadi 1987b; Fabian 1986; Meeuwis 2001a, 2006, 2009, 2019a; Meeuwis & Vinck 1999; Ngalasso 1991). One of them was the Catholic missionary Egide De Boeck of the Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae (CICM, commonly known as “the Missionaries of Scheut” or “Scheutists”), who arrived in Bangala-Station – Nouvelle-Anvers in 1901. Another one was the Protestant missionary Walter H. Stapleton (Stapleton 1903b, c, d; Stapleton & Longland 1914; Stapleton & Millman
- 33. LINGÁLA | 25 1911a, b), and a third one the Catholic Léon Derikx of the Premonstratensian Fathers (Prémontrés 1901; Derikx 1904, 1909). By 1915, De Boeck’s endeavors had proven to be more influential than Stapleton’s, whose language-creative suggestions, as the Protestant missionaries’ conference of 1911 admitted, had never been truly implemented (CMC 1911: 75-78). Under the dominance of De Boeck’s work, Derikx’s discontinued his after less than 10 years (see Meeuwis 2006 for details). De Boeck’s corrective program, in the literature at times referred to as “the rebantuization of Lingála” (Hulstaert 1950: 46; De Rop 1960: 20; Liesenborghs 1941- 42), was enacted by the Scheutists in a wholesale production of Bibles and other religious texts, schoolbooks (Vinck 2000: 85), prescriptive grammars and lexicons, etc. In these texts as well as in his letters and personal notes, De Boeck repeatedly characterized his work as turning the “corrupt” Bangala language into one that would now be “efficient” and “truly Bantu” (e.g., De Boeck 1904a, b, 1911a, b, 1940; Tanghe et al. 1940; Meeuwis 2001a). De Boeck himself referred to the linguistic system he was putting together as “a Congolese Esperanto” (archival sources mentioned in Meeuwis 2006, 2009, 2019a), a label which indicates how well aware he was of the inventional and interventional nature of his endeavor. De Boeck’s language engineering also included changing the language name. He remarked that the use of “Bangala” as both an ethnonym and a glossonym was but one of the many “linguistic atrocities” characterizing the pidgin Bangala (De Boeck 1940: 125). In the languages of the region ba- was a prefix used to mark population names, not language names. He chose to suggest the prefix li-, which he noticed was used to indicate language names in some local languages around Bangala-Station, as in Liboko for instance. In others, as in Mabale, it is ma-, a fact he disregarded. Some of the speakers of these local languages may in fact, when conversing among themselves, have referred to Bangala by coining adhoc glossonyms such as “Lingala” or “Mangala” (around the turn of the century Johnston noted the use of “Mangala” as a glossonym to refer to the lingua franca (1902: 897, 946-956)), but they certainly used the name “Bangala” when mentioning the language in conversations with whites and other Congolese.10 10 Note that the prefix li- is not proper to Lingála itself: in Lingála, the marker for languages is the prefix ki-, its own name being the only exception (see also the section on noun prefixes, 3.2 below).
- 34. 26 | LINGÁLA As mentioned in 1.2, the glossonym “Lingála” appears in no source before 1900. Its first appearance is in the phrase “Eerste proeve van “Lingala” in de schoolkolonie te N. Antw. 1901 of 2”, which is Flemish for ‘First attempt at “Lingala” in the school colony of New Antwerp, 1901 or 2’. Egide De Boeck wrote this phrase by hand on top of his printed text Mpo ya Lazaru (‘About Lazarus’) (De Boeck 1901/2; see also Vinck 1992). His use of the word “attempt” referred to his language-engineering project, i.e. an “attempt” at making a new language, of which his translation of the tale of Lazarus was a first exercise. And he consciously put “Lingala” in quotation marks as this was his suggestion for a new name for Bangala. De Boeck and the congregation of Scheut only partly succeeded in their language-managerial ambitions: from the first decades of the 20th century, the populations in some northwestern pockets, i.e., in the towns Nouvelle-Anvers and Lisala, where Scheut strongly controlled the education and mission networks, did adopt approximations of the newly dictated variety (see L.B. De Boeck 1952b for a description of such internalizations). They can, in fact, still be heard to use it, or forms similar to it, in their habitual language today (Bokamba & Bokamba 2004). Everywhere else in west and north Congo, i.e. outside Nouvelle-Anvers and Lisala, however, the designed variety was not or hardly internalized (Bittremieux 1942; Bolamba 1947: 857; and later by Kazadi 1987b: 289). In the capital Leopoldville, for instance, where as mentioned Bangala had been imported since the second half of the 1880s, i.e. well before the Scheut missionaries’ language-corrective program, this program had much less impact on the daily language practices of the Congolese (Bittremieux 1942: 235-236; Hulstaert 1946; L.B. De Boeck 1953; De Rop 1953; Van Wing 1953; Meeuwis 2001b). Bangala, after some time called “Lingála” here as well (see below), followed its own path of linguistic development and expansion. The Congolese inhabitants of Leopoldville showed more linguistic resistance to the corrections from above. In this large urban context, the Scheut missions did not hold the same monopoly over formal education and Christianization, but instead had to work together with other missionary organizations, not all of which shared their linguistic convictions. Also, most state agents, traders, and other secular colonials, who were strongly represented in the urban centers, disregarded the Scheut missionaries’ language-prescriptive efforts. Thus, the vanguard Congolese inhabitants of Leopoldville were given leeway to defy the prescribed variety and to (re-)appropriate the language, steering it in other directions than intended by the
- 35. 1952b; Kazadi 1987b: 289; Ngalasso 1991). largely incomprehensible, missionary-created variety (see also De Boeck Lingála”, and “missionary Lingála” to refer to the corrected, and for them Lingála”, “literary Lingála”, “Catholic Lingála”, “Church Lingála”, “De Boeck’s whites alike came up with adjectival epithets such as “written Lingála”, “book Yet, to maintain the possibility to distinguish between the two, Congolese and north and west was generally accepted, by all whites and by (most of the) Congolese. “Lingála” for both the Scheutists’ engineered variety and the spoken variety in the his 1935 grammar (Guthrie 1935). By the late 1930s the use of the language name and was now “difficult to change”, which is why he eventually accepted to use it for language and the form designed by the Scheutists had become established practice Guthrie in 1943 thus admitted that the labeling encompassing both the spoken publications for some time, so that it would now be difficult to change it” (1943: 118). opposed to the corrected, designed one], and in fact this name has been used in Europeans to this language also [i.e. the actually spoken, uncorrected variety as followers: “Confusion has arisen because the name Lingala has been given by expressed how unfortunate he found the confusion created by the Scheutists and their Missionary Societies (CMC 1911). The Baptist missionary Malcolm Guthrie’s much enthusiasm, at the sixth general Conference of Missionaries of the Protestant the newly suggested glossonym: it was only mentioned for the first time, and without der Kerken 1944: 247). Protestant missionaries, too, at first were reluctant to adopt 1880s-1890s (e.g. de Lichtervelde 1912: 907-917; Liesenborghs 1941-42: 93-95; Van retained for the uncorrected language as actually spoken by the Congolese since the language form engineered by the Scheutists, and that the name “Bangala” would be preferred that the use of the new name “Lingála” would be limited only to the new this did not go overnight. A number of leading Belgian colonial officials at first the new glossonym gained general acceptance in west and northwest Congo, even if The new language name “Lingála” was a more successful intervention. With time, perceived as highly marked. capitalers’ speech habits in their homes and on the streets and were invariably capital, such as the liturgy, printing, and some media, but this never affected the imposing their language form in a few exceptional domains of language use in the prescribing missionaries (Meeuwis 2009). The Scheut missionaries only succeeded in LINGÁLA | 27
- 36. 11 Glottolog by made See also the correct distinction https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/ling1269 and https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/bang1353. Kinshasa, which had already arrived there in 1885-1886, is closer to pre-1900 printed language use. Therefore, the variety of the language spoken today in Leopoldville (Kinshasa), its effects largely remained limited to liturgical and towns such as Nouvelle-Anvers and Lisala, but everywhere else, such as in spoken language practices in the area around northwestern, Scheut-controlled, important. This intervention “from above” had a noticeable impact on actual language-interventionist programs of which that by the Scheutists was the most vernaculars it met on its way, and was the object of missionary after 1900 both went through organic developments under the influence of To sum up, Bangala, which had emerged out of the pidginization of Bobangi, s.d.) also refused to accept and impose it. the Dominicans (working in the Niangara area; Van Mol 1927; Dominicains 1962, populations saw no warranted use for it and because local missionary orders, such as in the northeast, too. But they failed because the majority of the Congolese 1937), tried to follow the Scheutists’ suggestion and impose “Lingála” as a new name Fathers and some Marist Friars working around Buta (i.a., Maristes 1917, 1925, decades of the century, some, such as the already mentioned Premonstratensian in its grammar than Lingála (see Meeuwis 2019b for a comparison). In the first distinct from Lingála (Maho 2009),11 indeed much more resembles pre-1900 Bangala 1984; Edema 1994) and is correctly classified by Maho under the code C30A as northeastern “Bangala”, as it is still called here today (Abdel-Rahman El-Rasheed the local languages, mostly of non-Bantu stock, in the northeast. Present-day Bangala than was the case in the northwest and west, due to the higher diversity of language change), too, the language moved much less far away from pre-1900 Carrington 1954). Organically (i.e., at the level of “natural”, non-consciously directed 114-163; Crabtree 1922; Elge 1926; Van Mol 1927; Barney 1934; Guthrie 1935: 205ff; mission stations or schools at all in these parts (Courboin 1908; Czekanowski 1924: Scheutists’ language-engineering affected pre-1900 Bangala even less, as they had no towards the Nile) is different from that in west and northwest Congo. Here, the The history in northeast Congo (the Uele basin, the Lomami area, and the area 28 | LINGÁLA
- 37. LINGÁLA | 29 Bangala than the corrected one spoken in the northwestern Nouvelle-Anvers and Lisala area. From 1885-1886 the language in Kinshasa followed its own line of development, under the influence of incoming languages in the capital. The language-interventionist program of 1901 and after, however, also involved a conscious colonial-missionary change of the language name, i.e. from “Bangala” to “Lingála”, which with time the Scheutists did manage to have generally accepted in the entire west and northwest, for both their corrected and the actually spoken variety. In the northeast, the label “Bangala” remained in use, and the language itself, too, underwent much less changes and therefore resembles pre-1900 Bangala even closer. 1.2.2.2. Lingála during the rest of Belgian colonization Three further observations have to be made before closing the discussion of Lingála during the colonial epoch. First of all, after 1940 the population of Leopoldville grew rapidly and exponentially (La Fontaine 1970; de Saint Moulin 2010: 163-181). In particular the influx of native speakers of varieties of Kikongo from the Lower Congo (including the Kikongo-Kituba variety), in the 1950s constituting the largest community in the capital (Comhaire-Sylvain 1950; Verhaegen & Tshimanga 2003), had an important influence on the development of Lingála in Leopoldville-Kinshasa in the second half of the century (Comhaire-Sylvain 1949; L.B. De Boeck 1953; De Rop 1953; Van Wing 1953). Secondly, the colonial authorities in the Belgian Congo always maintained a three-fold pyramidal arrangement of languages. French occupied the top of the pyramid as the colony’s official and administrative language. The belly was composed of four, since 1910 legally recognized, regional lingua francas (with growing numbers of native speakers in the towns), i.e. Swahili in east and southeast Congo, Lingála in the north and west, Tshiluba (“Cilubà”) in the central provinces, and Kikongo in the southwest. The base of the pyramid was made up of Congo’s more than 200 local, vernacular (a.k.a. “ethnic”) languages. Lingála always enjoyed colonial privileges among the four regional lingua francas: it succeeded its ancestor pre-1900 Bangala as the language used by the Force Publique across the entire Congolese territory, i.e. in the Swahili, Kikongo, and Tshiluba zones as well (Polomé 1968; Bokamba 1976); it was the principal language of the capital Leopoldville and as such benefited from multiplying indexicalities of new colonial
- 38. 30 | LINGÁLA metropolitanism; and it was the main language in which the urban Congolese music that emerged in Leopoldville in the 1940s and 1950s (Bemba 1984; Stewart 2000; White 2008; Trapido 2016) was produced. Third, in the first half of the 20th century, Lingála spilled over from the Belgian Congo to what is now the Republic of Congo (Samba 1950; Bittremieux 1942; Anon. 1951; Jacquot 1971; Mateene 1971 Massoumou 2001; Leitch 2005 Leitch & Ndamba 2006; Woods 1994, 1995, 1999). Even if the Congo river divided the Belgian and French territories politically, pre-colonial patterns of contact across the two banks were never affected to major extents. In 1931 already, the use of Lingála was so widely attested among the Mboshi in the northern half of the French Congo that a missionary deemed it useless to publish the Mboshi dictionary he had prepared.12 In addition to the long river border, the neighboring cities Leopoldville and Brazzaville also served as an expedient conduit for the language. Brazzaville always remained smaller in population and size than Leopoldville. During the colonial era and, in fact, until today, it continuously underwent cultural and linguistic influences from Leopoldville. This also applies to Lingála: there are mainly lexical and some phonological differences between the varieties as spoken in the two cities (e.g., Kukanda 1983), but by and large, the Brazzaville variety shows high convergence with the one from Kinshasa. 1.2.3. 1960 - today The Belgian Congo gained its independence on June 30, 1960. Post-colonial regimes, particularly that of President Mobutu Sese-Seko (1965-1997), deliberately or often inadvertently strengthened the sociolinguistic supremacy of Lingála inherited from the colonial epoch. First of all, Mobutu’s regime confirmed Lingála’s role as the language used in and by the national army across the entire country (Idumbo 1987; Sesep 1987). Secondly, Mobutu hailed from the northwestern region of the country, where he grew up using Lingála as a lingua franca. Thirdly, fearful of potential centrifugal ethnic forces, he opted for a strongly centralized state, concentrating almost the entire political-administrative apparatus of the country in the Lingála-speaking capital Kinshasa (Mpinga 1973; Vieux 1974). Quite naturally, the political elite of his Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution party adopted Lingála, next 12 Personal note from Egide De Boeck around 1940, archives of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, Borgerhout, Belgium.
- 39. LINGÁLA | 31 to French, as their political working language (Nyembwe 1987a, b; Ngalasso 1986, 1988; Kambaji 1987; Nsuka 1987; Mazala & Bwanga 1988; Sesep 1986; Mbulamoko 1987a, b). It was also used for the mobilization of the masses in political speeches, mass meetings, television and radio spots, and other forms of ideological consciousness raising. Fourth, the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s witnessed a booming popularity of the above-mentioned urban orchestra music, not only within the country but across the entire African continent (White 2008; Trapido 2016). Produced almost in its entirety in the capital (or in European metropoles), the music continued to be sung in Kinshasa Lingála as it had been since its birth in the 1940s-1950s. Because of all these four factors, in the decades after 1960 Lingála spread even more throughout the whole of Zaire (Congo’s name between 1971 and 1997) than had been the case before 1960. In 1997, in what has become known as the “First Congo War”, the Mobutu regime was expelled by rebel groups trained in Uganda, Rwanda, and eastern, Swahili-speaking Congo. At the onset of this new regime, English and Swahili were to some degree able to threaten the positions of French and Lingála, respectively (Bokamba 2008a, 2009). The political elite around the first president Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1997-2001) and later his son Joseph Kabila (2001-2019) spoke Swahili instead of Lingála in the presidential and governmental corridors. This was also the case for the presidential guard, and attempts were made to replace Lingála by Swahili across all levels of the armed forces. An analogous effort at Anglo-Swahilization was visible on the new currency: as soon as 1997 new banknotes were issued featuring English next to French, and using Swahili as the only African language, conspicuously leaving out Lingála, Kikongo, and Tshiluba (before 1997, on the Zairian banknotes, only French was used). The linguistic impact of the regime change was, however, not long-lived. The “Second Congo War”, which started in 1998, opposed Kabila’s regime to his previous Swahili- and English-speaking allies. Also, from the start and especially after 1998, Kinshasa’s politically and culturally influential population strongly held on to “their” Lingála. As a consequence, the early attempt to replace Lingála by Swahili in the armed forces from top to bottom, for instance, failed shortly after it was launched. Lingála is nowadays indeed still the main language of command and communication used in the armed forces and police, and this across the entire territory of the DRC. A few years after the 1997 banknotes were launched, new ones appeared, from which
- 40. distinction with the missionary-engineered variety used by the state media, deemed now use (i.a. Matumweni 2009; Frère 2011; Meeuwis 2013a), in order to mark the Lingala’) to refer to the language that is actually spoken in Kinshasa and which they corrected variety. These private media often use the term “Lingala facile” (‘easy ratings, are now conducted in Kinshasa Lingála rather than in the missionary- boomed since the 1990s and,interested in obtaining satisfactory viewing and listening of radio and television programs aired by the numerous and popular private stations, oyo” (‘Today’s Lingala’) (Alliance Biblique 2000). As for the media, the vast majority entire Bible was produced in Kinshasa Lingála, by its makers named “Lingala ya lelo more and more taking over these marginal functions, too. For instance, by 2000 an printed materials, and Christian liturgy. Yet, since a few decades, Kinshasa Lingála is was long used in exceptional domains of life in the capital as well, such as the media, history and because of its associations with written language, the missionary variety ground it did not yet cover before. As mentioned above, because of its missionary In addition, Kinshasa Lingála has progressively been reclaiming the little functional display linguistic accommodation to Kinshasa Lingála. more than the other way around. Speakers of non-capital regiolects increasingly vanguard capitalers has always appealed to speakers of the language in the provinces vice-versa (Ngalasso 1988; Bokamba 2008b, 2009). The speech of the socioculturally influenced the other ones, e.g. the one spoken in northwest Congo, more than and other historical factors mentioned above, since the 1960s the capital’s variety has political (Mobutu’s reign, the central role of Kinshasa), cultural (Congolese music), With regard to the different present-day regiolects of Lingála, because of the hostility (see also Büscher et al. 2013). continuously in need of being secured against the threat of Rwandan and Ugandan neighboring nationalities: it has become an emblem of national-territorial sovereignty than before acquired the indexical value of Congoleseness (Congolité) as opposed to Congolese as well, Lingála’s surely continued representing that, but it also and more identity as “capitalers”, i.e. of being Kinois. To them and in fact to many non-Kinois After 1998, Lingála’s status in Kinshasa grew beyond that of only a symbol of their Kikongo, and Tshiluba were added to Swahili. English was removed leaving French as the only exolect, and on which Lingála, 32 | LINGÁLA
- 41. LINGÁLA | 33 “difficult” and “incomprehensible”.13 The printed media in the capital as well have almost completely chosen for the Kinshasa variety of the language. On top and because of all this, Kinshasa Lingála is also the variety chosen by the members of the Central-African diaspora across the Global North for their ingroup communication and affirmation of national identity and origin (Meeuwis 2002; Vigouroux 2008a). In sum, a whole range of political, demographic, military, and cultural factors in the colonial and post-colonial history of Lingála have resulted in the significant spread and dominance of one variety of the language, i.e. the one spoken in Kinshasa. Consequently, this is the variety I choose to cover in the present grammatical overview. 13 The news broadcast on the state-owned Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise is indeed still in the missionary-corrected variety. Kinshasa inhabitants as a rule eschew these transmissions precisely because they do not understand them (see Kazadi 1987b: 289; Meeuwis 2013a: 39-42).
- 42. 34 | LINGÁLA
- 43. influence from Kikongo, a 5-vowel language (Mbiavanga 2008; Bostoen & Goes 2019) to Leopoldville in the late 1880s (see 1.2.1), this 5-vowel system was reinforced under in the 1880s (Meeuwis 2019a). After the Bobangi pidgin, renamed “Bangala”, went reduction from 7 to 5 vowels probably occurred during the pidginization of Bobangi 2010) also distinguishes between the mentioned close-mid and open-mid vowels. The Lingála’s lexifier Bobangi (Sims 1886; Whitehead 1899; MacBeath 1940; Motingea and soaps, they insist on an emphatic pronunciation of the open-mid vowels. imitate or mock northwesterners, as is sometimes done in popular televized theater [e] and [ɛ] and [o] and [ɔ] in free variation. It is indicative that when they wish to Some speakers of Kinshasa Lingála use only the phones [e] and [o], while others use -kón- ‘sow’ vs -kɔn ́ - ‘crawl’ nzóto ‘body’ vs nzɔt ́ ɔ ‘constellation’ -bél- ‘become cooked (food)’ vs -bɛl ́ - ‘become ill’ Northwestern Lingála: (1.) (Corp.) /ɔ/), the distinction between the close-mid and open-mid vowels being contrastive. (Bokamba & Bokamba 2004) is a 7-vowel language (/i/, /e/, /ɛ/, /a/, /u/, /o/, and /e/, /a/, /u/, and /o/. Lingála as it is spoken in the northwestern sections of the DRC Kinshasa Lingála is a 5-vowel language, phonemically distinguishing between /i/, a e o i u 2.1.1. Five vowel phonemes 2.1. Vowels 2. PHONOLOGY AND TONOLOGY LINGÁLA | 35
- 44. 36 | LINGÁLA and which especially after 1945 had important linguistic effects on Lingála in the capital. 2.1.2. u for o The vowels o and u stand in phonemic relation to one another. Examples of the (few) contrasting pairs in Kinshasa Lingála are: (2.) (Corp.) -kót- ‘enter’ vs -kút- ‘meet’ -kómb- ‘brush’ vs -kúmb- ‘drive’ -tungis- ‘disturb’ vs -tongis- ‘cause to build’ -kól- ‘grow up’ vs -kúl- ‘receive baptism’ Yet, one of the characteristic features of Kinshasa Lingála is the frequent substitution of u for o in the noun class prefixes mo- (for classes 1 and 3) and lo- (for class 11), as well as in the adjectival prefix mo-. This is probably a result of influence from Kikongo, where the corresponding prefixes are mu- and lu-. (3.) (Corp.) Nouns mo-kúmbi (class 1) or mu-kúmbi ‘driver’ mo-níngá (1) or mu-níngá ‘friend’ mo-kúwa (3) or mu-kúwa ‘bone’ mo-ndélé (3) or mu-ndélé ‘white person’ mo-lungé (3) or mu-lungé ‘heat’ mo-báli (3) or mu-báli ‘man’ mo-búlú (3) or mu-búlú ‘disorder’ lo-kutá (11) or lu-kutá ‘falsehood’ lo-kúmu (11) or lu-kúmu ‘honor’ Adjectives: mo-néne or mu-néne ‘big’ mo-bésu or mu-bésu ‘raw’ mo-kúsé or mu-kúsé ‘short’
- 45. LINGÁLA | 37 Counts in corpora (Dan Ponsford, personal communication) reveal that replacing o by u in the noun class prefix ko- (class 15, infinitives) is virtually unattested. Informants confirm this unacceptability. In bo-, the noun prefix of class 14, the substitution is equally unattested, save a very low number of exceptions, such as (4.) (Corp.; Elic.) bo-zoba (class 14) or bu-zóba ‘foolishness’ bo-soto (14) or bu-soto ‘impurity’ The substitution of u for o does not occur in the verb subject markers (o- for 2SG, to- for 1PL and bo- for 2PL, see 6.3.1). Also, it does not occur in verb roots, and only in a very low number of (irregular, i.e. CV) noun roots. (5.) (Corp.; Elic.) mo-to (class 1) or mu-tu (but not *motu) ‘person’ mo-tó (3) or mo-tú or mu-tú ‘head’ lí-so (5) or lí-su ‘eye’ lí-no (5) or lí-nu ‘tooth’ bísó or bísú ‘we’, ‘us’ bínó or bínú ‘you (PL)’ In noun derivation suffixes the substitution occurs also much less frequently than in the mo- and lo- prefixes. (6.) (Corp.; Elic.) mo-ndel-o (class 3) or mu-ndel-u ‘line’ ma-kamb-o (6) or ma-kamb-u ‘affair’, ‘problem’ Ø-ndák-o (9) or Ø-ndák-u ‘house’ mw-índ-o (3) or mw-índ-u ‘blackness’ Ø-fímb-o (9) or Ø-fímb-u ‘whip’ lo-páng-o (11) or lu-páng-u ‘plot of land’ mísát-o or mísát-u ‘three’ mítán-o or mítán-u ‘five’
- 46. 38 | LINGÁLA 2.1.3. Length, orality All vowels in Lingála are short and oral; lengthening and nasalization occur rarely and are not phonemic. (7.) (Corp.) nyónso [ɲṍso] or [ɲṍnso] ‘all’ 2.1.4. Remnants of vowel harmony Vowel harmony is absent in Kinshasa Lingála. Bobangi, Lingála’s predecessor, as well as Lingála’s other adstrates, observe harmony rules based on vowel height (Whitehead 1899: 29ff; MacBeath 1940: 17; Cambier 1891: 88; Motingea 2002: 290; Motingea 2010: 23). In Kinshasa Lingála, one of the only vestiges of this is found in forms of the verb -kend- (‘go’): all post-radical instances of a (i.e., as final vowel, in TA suffixes, etc.) may, but need not, change to e. (8.) (Corp.) ko-kend-a or ko-kend-e INF-go-FV ‘to go’ na-kend-aka or na-kend-eke 1SG-go-HAB ‘I usually go’ na-kend-á or na-kend-é 1SG-go-PRS2 ‘I have gone’ ná-kend-a or ná-kend-e 1SG.SBJV-go-FV ‘that I go’
- 47. 2.1.5. Sequences of vowels: diphthongs, hiatus, and hiatus resolution Diphthongs, i.e. the sequences of vowels within a syllable, do not occur in Lingála. Vowel hiatus, i.e. the sequence of vowels across syllables, is attested in word-final, word-initial, and word-internal position. In word-final position, it always involves V + i or í. (9.) (Corp.) ebei ‘flatbottom boat’ motéi ‘preacher’ ngáí ‘I’, ‘me’ mái ‘water’ mingai ‘myalgia’ sái ‘joy’ epái ‘place’ molaí ‘long’ ngaingai ‘sorrel’ litói ‘ear’ bomoi ‘life’ koi ‘leopard’ ndoí ‘namesake’ nzói ‘bee’ mói ‘sunshine’ 14 I use the term “(verbal) base” (VB) for a root (R) followed by one or more root extensions. “Stem” is a base followed by a (TA or other) suffix or the final vowel -a. neuter/reciprocal root extension is not -an- (see 6.9.2.4), but -en-. Another remnant is found in the lexicalized verbal base14 -kesen- (‘differ’), where the ‘go!’ go-IMP kend-á or kend-é LINGÁLA | 39
- 48. 40 | LINGÁLA In these cases glide epenthesis may be used for pragmatic purposes, such as disambiguation or emphasis, as below. The pronunciation without the glide epenthesis is the most common one in fluent speech. (10.) (Elic.) Na-ling-í ko-mel-a mái; o-yók-í 1SG-want-PRS1 INF-drink-FV 6.water 2SG-hear-PRS1 ngáí té? Máyi! 1SG NEG 6.water ending in a (see 6.9.2.3). only attested in cases where the causative extension -is- is suffigated to a CV root coalescence, i.e. the two vowels merging into a third one sharing qualities of both, is elision of one the vowels; or (iv) resolved by means of vowel degemination. Vowel devocalization of one of the vowels (glide formation); (iii) resolved by means of word-internal position is (i) left unresolved; (ii) resolved by means of the Depending on the vowels in sequence (see table below), hiatus in word-initial and affixation of root extensions, but postpone this to section 6.9.2.) others. (In what follows, I will not discuss vowel hiatus in the context of the which are of the VC type); the phonological integration of loanwords; and subsections in 5.4); a vowel-final verb root is followed by a root extension (almost all of 3.4.2); ba- is prefixed to a vowel-initial word such as óyo (see several prefix is affixed to the prefix e- of noun class 7 through prefix stacking (see 3.3 and processes such as: a CV or V prefix is affixed to a vowel-initial verb or noun root; aCV noun In word-initial and word-internal position, vowel hiatus may occur as the result of ‘I want to drink water; haven’t you understood me? Water!’
- 49. LINGÁLA | 41 Second vowel in the hiatus First vowel in the hiatus i e a o u i degemina- tion to i devocaliza- tion to y or unresolved devocaliza- tion to y or unresolved devocaliza- tion to y devocaliza- tion to y e [unattested] [unattested] [unattested] [unattested] unresolved a elision of a unresolved degemination to a or unresolved unresolved unresolved o devocaliza- tion to w devocaliza- tion to w devocaliza- tion to w [unattested] unresolved u idem o idem o idem o idem o idem o (11.) (Corp.) i + i : degemination li-íno (class 5) > líno ‘tooth’ li-íso (class 5) > líso ‘eye’ i + e : devocalization of i to form the glide y, or remaining unresolved ko-lí-a > kolyá INF-eat-FV ‘to eat’ unresolved: e-denda (class 7) ‘person walking proudly’ ki-e-denda (prefix stacking with ki-) > kiedenda ‘manner of walking like a proud person’
- 50. 42 | LINGÁLA i + a : devocalization of i to form the glide y, or remaining unresolved Ø-diábulu (class 1a) > dyábulu ‘devil’ unresolved: Ø-alúlu (class 1a) ‘spider’ ki-Ø-alúlu (prefix stacking with ki-) > kialúlu ‘manner of a spider’ i + o : devocalization of i to form the glide y ko-tiol-a > kotyola INF-ridicule-FV ‘to deride’ i + u : devocalization of i to form the glide y li-niuká (class 5) > linyuká ‘dishcloth’ e + u : unresolved e-út-í > eútí 3SG.INAN-come_from-PRS1 ‘it has come from’ e-úmél-í > eúmélí 3SG.INAN-come_from-PRS1 ‘it has tarried’ a + i : elision of a ma-íno (class 6) > míno ‘teeth’ ma-íso (class 6)> míso ‘eyes’ a + e : unresolved e-lóko (class 7) ‘thing’ ba-e-lóko (prefix stacking with ba-) > baelóko ‘things’ a + a : degemination or unresolved ba-ána (class 2; singular is mo-ána class 1)> bána ‘children’ ba-Ø-alúlu (class 2; singular is Ø-alúlu class 1a) > baalúlu ‘spiders’
- 51. LINGÁLA | 43 a + o : unresolved ba-óyo > baóyo ‘these ones’ a + u : unresolved ba-úmbu (class 2) > baúmbu ‘slaves’ o + i : devocalization of o to form the glide w mo-índo (class 3) > mwíndo ‘blackness’ mo-índa (class 3) > mwínda ‘light’ o + e : devocalization of o to form the glide w mo-ésé (class 3) > mwésé ‘sun’ o + a : devocalization of o to form the glide w mo-ásí (class 1) > mwásí ‘woman’ mo-ána (class 1) > mwána ‘child’ bo-ányá (class 14) > bwányá ‘wisdom’ o + u : unresolved ko-úta > koúta INF-come_from-FV ‘to come from’ mo-úmbu (class 1) > moúmbu ‘slave’ bo-úmbu (class 14) > boúmbu ‘slavery’ u + i (as mentioned in 2.1.2, u sometimes replaces o in the noun prefixes): devocalization of u to form the glide w mu-índo (class 3) > mwíndo ‘blackness’ mu-índa (class 3) > mwínda ‘light’ u + e (as mentioned in 2.1.2, u sometimes replaces o in the noun prefixes): devocalization of u to form the glide w mu-ésé (class 3) > mwésé ‘sun’
- 52. 44 | LINGÁLA u + a (as mentioned in 2.1.2, u sometimes replaces o in the noun prefixes): devocalization of u to form the glide w mu-ásí (class 1) > mwásí ‘woman’ mu-ána (class 1) > mwána ‘child’ bu-ányá (class 14) > bwányá ‘wisdom’ u + u (as mentioned in 2.1.2, u sometimes replaces o in the noun prefixes): unresolved mu-úmbu (class 1) > muúmbu ‘slave’ bu-úmbu (class 14) > buúmbu ‘slavery’ Regarding the unattested combinations, it must be mentioned that many roots or bases beginning with i, e, o, or a in cognate languages or northwestern Lingála are always glide-initial in Kinshasa Lingála, for instance -yin- ‘hate’ (elsewhere -in-), -yíb- ‘steal’ (elsewhere -íb-), -yémb- ‘sing’ (elsewhere -émb-), -yanol- ‘answer’ (elsewhere -anol-), -yók- ‘hear’ (elsewhere -ok-). As a result, when a vowel-final morpheme is added to these roots or bases in Kinshasa Lingála, there is no underlying vowel hiatus.
- 53. LINGÁLA | 45 2.2. Consonants and semi-consonants Lingála makes use of the following consonant phonemes. bilabial labial-dental alveolar velar plosive p / b t / d k / g fricative f / v s / z lateral approximant l nasal m n To these are added two semi-consonants, i.e. the labial-velar and palatal glides w and j (the latter in practical spelling written as <y>). For the use of these glides in vowel hiatus resolution, see section 2.1.5 above. The obstruents p, b, t, d, k, g, (v), s, and z also appear in prenasalized form. Prenasalization is always homorganic: the consonant is introduced by a short nasal sound produced at the same place of articulation, thus: [m p] [m b] [n t] [n d] [ŋ k] [ŋ g] [m v] [n s] [n z]. (12.) (Corp.) kimpútu ‘tick’ mbóka ‘village’ mbóngo ‘money’ likambo ‘affair’, ‘matter’ -túntuk- ‘be in trance’ -band- ‘begin’ ndonge ‘ant’ kúnki ‘humpback’ libánki ‘grasshopper’ -longw- ‘leave’ lopángo ‘compound’ kinsékwa ‘true bug’ nyónso ‘all’
- 54. 46 | LINGÁLA nyóka ‘snake’ -nyat- ‘step on’, ‘trample’ linyuká ‘dishcloth’ nzóto ‘body’ The only attested case of [m v] is in the word mvúla, which is the Brazzaville variant of mbúla ‘year’, ‘rain’. Voiced consonants are much more commonly prenasalized than unvoiced ones. In word-initial position this limitation is strict: a distinctive feature of Kinshasa Lingála is that words that in other regions begin with a prenasalized unvoiced consonant are pronounced without the prenasalization. (13.) (Corp.) sósó ‘chicken’ (northwestern Lingála: nsósó) pási ‘pain’ (northwest: mpási) tína ‘reason’ (northwest: ntína) This being said, in Kinshasa Lingála, too, some nouns, especially regionally marked ones or words pertaining to a more formal register, are known and at times used in either of the two variants: kósi or nkósi ‘lion’, paka or mpaka ‘elderly person’, kó or nkó ‘malice’, tókí or ntókí ‘art’. Affrication may occur when t is followed by i or y and another vowel, and palatalization when n is followed by the palatal glide. (14.) (Corp.) kotyá [kotjá] or [kotʃá] ‘to put’ kotyéla [kotjéla] or [kotʃéla] ‘to put for’ kotyóla [kotjóla] or [kotʃóla] ‘to float downstream’ nyama [ɲama] ‘animal’ nyónso [ɲṍso] or [ɲṍnso] ‘all’
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- 59. The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Factors of Organic Evolution
- 60. This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Factors of Organic Evolution Author: Herbert Spencer Release date: August 14, 2016 [eBook #52801] Most recently updated: October 23, 2024 Language: English Credits: Produced by Richard Tonsing, Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION ***
- 62. THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. BY HERBERT SPENCER. REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1, 8, AND 5 BOND STREET. 1887.
- 63. PREFACE. The two parts of which this Essay consists, originally published in The Nineteenth Century for April and May 1886 respectively, now reappear with the assent of the proprietor and editor of that periodical, to whom my thanks are due for his courtesy in giving it. Some passages of considerable length which, with a view to needful brevity, were omitted when the articles first appeared, have been restored. Though the direct bearings of the arguments contained in this Essay are biological, the argument contained in its first half has indirect bearings upon Psychology, Ethics, and Sociology. My belief in the profound importance of these indirect bearings, was originally a chief prompter to set forth the argument; and it now prompts me to re-issue it in permanent form. Though mental phenomena of many kinds, and especially of the simpler kinds, are explicable only as resulting from the natural selection of favourable variations; yet there are, I believe, still more numerous mental phenomena, including all those of any considerable complexity, which cannot be explained otherwise than as results of the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications. What theory of psychological evolution is espoused, thus depends on acceptance or rejection of the doctrine that not only in the individual, but in the successions of individuals, use and disuse of parts produce respectively increase and decrease of them. Of course there are involved the conceptions we form of the genesis and nature of our higher emotions; and, by implication, the conceptions we form of our moral intuitions. If functionally-produced
- 64. modifications are inheritable, then the mental associations habitually produced in individuals by experiences of the relations between actions and their consequences, pleasurable or painful, may, in the successions of individuals, generate innate tendencies to like or dislike such actions. But if not, the genesis of such tendencies is, as we shall see, not satisfactorily explicable. That our sociological beliefs must also be profoundly affected by the conclusions we draw on this point, is obvious. If a nation is modified en masse by transmission of the effects produced on the natures of its members by those modes of daily activity which its institutions and circumstances involve; then we must infer that such institutions and circumstances mould its members far more rapidly and comprehensively than they can do if the sole cause of adaptation to them is the more frequent survival of individuals who happen to have varied in favourable ways. I will add only that, considering the width and depth of the effects which acceptance of one or other of these hypotheses must have on our views of Life, Mind, Morals, and Politics, the question—Which of them is true? demands, beyond all other questions whatever, the attention of scientific men. Brighton, January, 1887. THE FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. [April and May, 1886]
- 65. I. Within the recollection of men now in middle life, opinion concerning the derivation of animals and plants was in a chaotic state. Among the unthinking there was tacit belief in creation by miracle, which formed an essential part of the creed of Christendom; and among the thinking there were two parties, each of which held an indefensible hypothesis. Immensely the larger of these parties, including nearly all whose scientific culture gave weight to their judgments, though not accepting literally the theologically-orthodox doctrine, made a compromise between that doctrine and the doctrines which geologists had established; while opposed to them were some, mostly having no authority in science, who held a doctrine which was heterodox both theologically and scientifically. Professor Huxley, in his lecture on “The Coming of Age of the Origin of Species,” remarks concerning the first of these parties as follows: — “One-and-twenty years ago, in spite of the work commenced by Hutton and continued with rare skill and patience by Lyell, the dominant view of the past history of the earth was catastrophic. Great and sudden physical revolutions, wholesale creations and extinctions of living beings, were the ordinary machinery of the geological epic brought into fashion by the misapplied genius of Cuvier. It was gravely maintained and taught that the end of every geological epoch was signalised by a cataclysm, by which every living being on the globe was swept away, to be replaced by a brand-new creation when the world returned to quiescence. A scheme of nature which appeared to be modelled on the likeness of a succession of rubbers of whist, at the end of each of which the players upset the table and called for a new pack, did not seem to shock anybody. I may be wrong, but I doubt if, at the present time, there is a single responsible representative of these opinions left. The progress of scientific
- 66. geology has elevated the fundamental principle of uniformitarianism, that the explanation of the past is to be sought in the study of the present, into the position of an axiom; and the wild speculations of the catastrophists, to which we all listened with respect a quarter of a century ago, would hardly find a single patient hearer at the present day.” Of the party above referred to as not satisfied with this conception described by Professor Huxley, there were two classes. The great majority were admirers of the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation—a work which, while it sought to show that organic evolution has taken place, contended that the cause of organic evolution, is “an impulse” supernaturally “imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, ... through grades of organization.” Being nearly all very inadequately acquainted with the facts, those who accepted the view set forth in the Vestiges were ridiculed by the well-instructed for being satisfied with evidence, much of which was either invalid or easily cancelled by counter-evidence, and at the same time they exposed themselves to the ridicule of the more philosophical for being content with a supposed explanation which was in reality no explanation: the alleged “impulse” to advance giving us no more help in understanding the facts than does Nature's alleged “abhorrence of a vacuum” help us to understand the ascent of water in a pump. The remnant, forming the second of these classes, was very small. While rejecting this mere verbal solution, which both Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck had shadowed forth in other language, there were some few who, rejecting also the hypothesis indicated by both Dr. Darwin and Lamarck, that the promptings of desires or wants produced growths of the parts subserving them, accepted the single vera causa assigned by these writers—the modification of structures resulting from modification of functions. They recognized as the sole process in organic development, the adaptation of parts and powers consequent on the effects of use and disuse—that continual moulding and re-moulding of organisms to suit their circumstances, which is brought about by direct converse with such circumstances. But while this cause accepted by these few is a true cause, since unquestionably during the life of the individual organism changes of
- 67. function produce changes of structure; and while it is a tenable hypothesis that changes of structure so produced are inheritable; yet it was manifest to those not prepossessed, that this cause cannot with reason be assigned for the greater part of the facts. Though in plants there are some characters which may not irrationally be ascribed to the direct effects of modified functions consequent on modified circumstances, yet the majority of the traits presented by plants are not to be thus explained. It is impossible that the thorns by which a briar is in large measure defended against browsing animals, can have been developed and moulded by the continuous exercise of their protective actions; for in the first place, the great majority of the thorns are never touched at all, and, in the second place, we have no ground whatever for supposing that those which are touched are thereby made to grow, and to take those shapes which render them efficient. Plants which are rendered uneatable by the thick woolly coatings of their leaves, cannot have had these coatings produced by any process of reaction against the action of enemies; for there is no imaginable reason why, if one part of a plant is eaten, the rest should thereafter begin to develop the hairs on its surface. By what direct effect of function on structure, can the shell of a nut have been evolved? Or how can those seeds which contain essential oils, rendering them unpalatable to birds, have been made to secrete such essential oils by these actions of birds which they restrain? Or how can the delicate plumes borne by some seeds, and giving the wind power to waft them to new stations, be due to any immediate influences of surrounding conditions? Clearly in these and in countless other cases, change of structure cannot have been directly caused by change of function. So is it with animals to a large extent, if not to the same extent. Though we have proof that by rough usage the dermal layer may be so excited as to produce a greatly thickened epidermal layer, sometimes quite horny; and though it is a feasible hypothesis that an effect of this kind persistently produced may be inherited; yet no such cause can explain the carapace of the turtle, the armour of the armadillo, or the imbricated covering of the manis. The skins of these animals are no more exposed to habitual hard usage than are those of animals
- 68. covered by hair. The strange excrescences which distinguish the heads of the hornbills, cannot possibly have arisen from any reaction against the action of surrounding forces; for even were they clearly protective, there is no reason to suppose that the heads of these birds need protection more than the heads of other birds. If, led by the evidence that in animals the amount of covering is in some cases affected by the degree of exposure, it were admitted as imaginable that the development of feathers from preceding dermal growths had resulted from that extra nutrition caused by extra superficial circulation, we should still be without explanation of the structure of a feather. Nor should we have any clue to the specialities of feathers —the crests of various birds, the tails sometimes so enormous, the curiously placed plumes of the bird of paradise, &c., &c. Still more obviously impossible is it to explain as due to use or disuse the colours of animals. No direct adaptation to function could have produced the blue protuberances on a mandril's face, or the striped hide of a tiger, or the gorgeous plumage of a kingfisher, or the eyes in a peacock's tail, or the multitudinous patterns of insects' wings. One single case, that of a deer's horns, might alone have sufficed to show how insufficient was the assigned cause. During their growth, a deer's horns are not used at all; and when, having been cleared of the dead skin and dried-up blood-vessels covering them, they are ready for use, they are nerveless and non-vascular, and hence are incapable of undergoing any changes of structure consequent on changes of function. Of these few then, who rejected the belief described by Professor Huxley, and who, espousing the belief in a continuous evolution, had to account for this evolution, it must be said that though the cause assigned was a true cause, yet, even admitting that it operated through successive generations, it left unexplained the greater part of the facts. Having been myself one of these few, I look back with surprise at the way in which the facts which were congruous with the espoused view monopolized consciousness and kept out the facts which were incongruous with it—conspicuous though many of them were. The misjudgment was not unnatural. Finding it
- 69. impossible to accept any doctrine which implied a breach in the uniform course of natural causation, and, by implication, accepting as unquestionable the origin and development of all organic forms by accumulated modifications naturally caused, that which appeared to explain certain classes of these modifications, was supposed to be capable of explaining the rest: the tendency being to assume that these would eventually be similarly accounted for, though it was not clear how. Returning from this parenthetic remark, we are concerned here chiefly to remember that, as said at the outset, there existed thirty years ago, no tenable theory about the genesis of living things. Of the two alternative beliefs, neither would bear critical examination. Out of this dead lock we were released—in large measure, though not I believe entirely—by the Origin of Species. That work brought into view a further factor; or rather, such factor, recognized as in operation by here and there an observer (as pointed out by Mr. Darwin in his introduction to the second edition), was by him for the first time seen to have played so immense a part in the genesis of plants and animals. Though laying myself open to the charge of telling a thrice-told tale, I feel obliged here to indicate briefly the several great classes of facts which Mr. Darwin's hypothesis explains; because otherwise that which follows would scarcely be understood. And I feel the less hesitation in doing this because the hypothesis which it replaced, not very widely known at any time, has of late so completely dropped into the background, that the majority of readers are scarcely aware of its existence, and do not therefore understand the relation between Mr. Darwin's successful interpretation and the preceding unsuccessful attempt at interpretation. Of these classes of facts, four chief ones may be here distinguished. In the first place, such adjustments as those exemplified above are made comprehensible. Though it is inconceivable that a structure like that of the pitcher-plant could have been produced by
- 70. accumulated effects of function on structure; yet it is conceivable that successive selections of favourable variations might have produced it; and the like holds of the no less remarkable appliance of the Venus's Fly-trap, or the still more astonishing one of that water-plant by which infant-fish are captured. Though it is impossible to imagine how, by direct influence of increased use, such dermal appendages as a porcupine's quills could have been developed; yet, profiting as the members of a species otherwise defenceless might do by the stiffness of their hairs, rendering them unpleasant morsels to eat, it is a feasible supposition that from successive survivals of individuals thus defended in the greatest degrees, and the consequent growth in successive generations of hairs into bristles, bristles into spines, spines into quills (for all these are homologous), this change could have arisen. In like manner, the odd inflatable bag of the bladder-nosed seal, the curious fishing-rod with its worm-like appendage carried on the head of the lophius or angler, the spurs on the wings of certain birds, the weapons of the sword-fish and saw-fish, the wattles of fowls, and numberless such peculiar structures, though by no possibility explicable as due to effects of use or disuse, are explicable as resulting from natural selection operating in one or other way. In the second place, while showing us how there have arisen countless modifications in the forms, structures, and colours of each part, Mr. Darwin has shown us how, by the establishment of favourable variations, there may arise new parts. Though the first step in the production of horns on the heads of various herbivorous animals, may have been the growth of callosities consequent on the habit of butting—such callosities thus functionally initiated being afterwards developed in the most advantageous ways by selection; yet no explanation can be thus given of the sudden appearance of a duplicate set of horns, as occasionally happens in sheep: an addition which, where it proved beneficial, might readily be made a permanent trait by natural selection. Again, the modifications which follow use and disuse can by no possibility account for changes in the numbers of vertebræ; but after recognizing spontaneous, or
- 71. rather fortuitous, variation as a factor, we can see that where an additional vertebra hence resulting (as in some pigeons) proves beneficial, survival of the fittest may make it a constant character; and there may, by further like additions, be produced extremely long strings of vertebræ, such as snakes show us. Similarly with the mammary glands. It is not an unreasonable supposition that by the effects of greater or less function, inherited through successive generations, these may be enlarged or diminished in size; but it is out of the question to allege such a cause for changes in their numbers. There is no imaginable explanation of these save the establishment by inheritance of spontaneous variations, such as are known to occur in the human race. So too, in the third place, with certain alterations in the connections of parts. According to the greater or smaller demands made on this or that limb, the muscles moving it may be augmented or diminished in bulk; and, if there is inheritance of changes so wrought, the limb may, in course of generations, be rendered larger or smaller. But changes in the arrangements or attachments of muscles cannot be thus accounted for. It is found, especially at the extremities, that the relations of tendons to bones and to one another are not always the same. Variations in their modes of connection may occasionally prove advantageous, and may thus become established. Here again, then, we have a class of structural changes to which Mr. Darwin's hypothesis gives us the key, and to which there is no other key. Once more there are the phenomena of mimicry. Perhaps in a more striking way than any others, these show how traits which seem inexplicable are explicable as due to the more frequent survival of individuals that have varied in favorable ways. We are enabled to understand such marvelous simulations as those of the leaf-insect, those of beetles which “resemble glittering dew-drops upon the leaves;” those of caterpillars which, when asleep, stretch themselves out so as to look like twigs. And we are shown how there have arisen still more astonishing imitations—those of one insect by another. As Mr. Bates has proved, there are cases in which a species of butterfly, rendered so unpalatable to insectivorous birds by its
- 72. disagreeable taste that they will not catch it, is simulated in its colors and markings by a species which is structurally quite different—so simulated that even a practiced entomologist is liable to be deceived: the explanation being that an original slight resemblance, leading to occasional mistakes on the part of birds, was increased generation after generation by the more frequent escape of the most-like individuals, until the likeness became thus great. But now, recognizing in full this process brought into clear view by Mr. Darwin, and traced out by him with so much care and skill, can we conclude that, taken alone, it accounts for organic evolution? Has the natural selection of favourable variations been the sole factor? On critically examining the evidence, we shall find reason to think that it by no means explains all that has to be explained. Omitting for the present any consideration of a factor which may be distinguished as primordial, it may be contended that the above- named factor alleged by Dr. Erasmus Darwin and by Lamarck, must be recognized as a co-operator. Utterly inadequate to explain the major part of the facts as is the hypothesis of the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications, yet there is a minor part of the facts, very extensive though less, which must be ascribed to this cause. When discussing the question more than twenty years ago (Principles of Biology, § 166), I instanced the decreased size of the jaws in the civilized races of mankind, as a change not accounted for by the natural selection of favourable variations; since no one of the decrements by which, in thousands of years, this reduction has been effected, could have given to an individual in which it occurred, such advantage as would cause his survival, either through diminished cost of local nutrition or diminished weight to be carried. I did not then exclude, as I might have done, two other imaginable causes. It may be said that there is some organic correlation between increased size of brain and decreased size of jaw: Camper's doctrine of the facial angle being referred to in proof. But this argument may be met by pointing to the many examples of small-jawed people
- 73. who are also small-brained, and by citing not infrequent cases of individuals remarkable for their mental powers, and at the same time distinguished by jaws not less than the average but greater. Again, if sexual selection be named as a possible cause, there is the reply that, even supposing such slight diminution of jaw as took place in a single generation to have been an attraction, yet the other incentives to choice on the part of men have been too many and great to allow this one to weigh in an adequate degree; while, during the greater portion of the period, choice on the part of women has scarcely operated: in earlier times they were stolen or bought, and in later times mostly coerced by parents. Thus, reconsideration of the facts does not show me the invalidity of the conclusion drawn, that this decrease in size of jaw can have had no other cause than continued inheritance of those diminutions consequent on diminutions of function, implied by the use of selected and well-prepared food. Here, however, my chief purpose is to add an instance showing, even more clearly, the connexion between change of function and change of structure. This instance, allied in nature to the other, is presented by those varieties, or rather sub-varieties, of dogs, which, having been household pets, and habitually fed on soft food, have not been called on to use their jaws in tearing and crunching, and have been but rarely allowed to use them in catching prey and in fighting. No inference can be drawn from the sizes of the jaws themselves, which, in these dogs, have probably been shortened mainly by selection. To get direct proof of the decrease of the muscles concerned in closing the jaws or biting, would require a series of observations very difficult to make. But it is not difficult to get indirect proof of this decrease by looking at the bony structures with which these muscles are connected. Examination of the skulls of sundry indoor dogs contained in the Museum of the College of Surgeons, proves the relative smallness of such parts. The only pug-dog's skull is that of an individual not perfectly adult; and though its traits are quite to the point they cannot with safety be taken as evidence. The skull of a toy-terrier has much restricted areas of insertion for the temporal muscles; has weak zygomatic arches; and has extremely small attachments for
- 74. the masseter muscles. Still more significant is the evidence furnished by the skull of a King Charles's spaniel, which, if we allow three years to a generation, and bear in mind that the variety must have existed before Charles the Second's reign, we may assume belongs to something approaching to the hundredth generation of these household pets. The relative breadth between the outer surfaces of the zygomatic arches is conspicuously small; the narrowness of the temporal fossæ is also striking; the zygomata are very slender; the temporal muscles have left no marks whatever, either by limiting lines or by the character of the surfaces covered; and the places of attachment for the masseter muscles are very feebly developed. At the Museum of Natural History, among skulls of dogs there is one which, though unnamed, is shown by its small size and by its teeth, to have belonged to one variety or other of lap-dogs, and which has the same traits in an equal degree with the skull just described. Here, then, we have two if not three kinds of dogs which, similarly leading protected and pampered lives, show that in the course of generations the parts concerned in clenching the jaws have dwindled. To what cause must this decrease be ascribed? Certainly not to artificial selection; for most of the modifications named make no appreciable external signs: the width across the zygomata could alone be perceived. Neither can natural selection have had anything to do with it; for even were there any struggle for existence among such dogs, it cannot be contended that any advantage in the struggle could be gained by an individual in which a decrease took place. Economy of nutrition, too, is excluded. Abundantly fed as such dogs are, the constitutional tendency is to find places where excess of absorbed nutriment may be conveniently deposited, rather than to find places where some cutting down of the supplies is practicable. Nor again can there be alleged a possible correlation between these diminutions and that shortening of the jaws which has probably resulted from selection; for in the bull-dog, which has also relatively short jaws, these structures concerned in closing them are unusually large. Thus there remains as the only conceivable cause, the diminution of size which results from diminished use. The dwindling
- 75. of a little-exercised part has, by inheritance, been made more and more marked in successive generations. Difficulties of another class may next be exemplified—those which present themselves when we ask how there can be effected by the selection of favourable variations, such changes of structure as adapt an organism to some useful action in which many different parts co-operate. None can fail to see how a simple part may, in course of generations, be greatly enlarged, if each enlargement furthers, in some decided way, maintenance of the species. It is easy to understand, too, how a complex part, as an entire limb, may be increased as a whole by the simultaneous due increase of its co- operative parts; since if, while it is growing, the channels of supply bring to the limb an unusual quantity of blood, there will naturally result a proportionately greater size of all its components—bones, muscles, arteries, veins, &c. But though in cases like this, the co- operative parts forming some large complex part may be expected to vary together, nothing implies that they necessarily do so; and we have proof that in various cases, even when closely united, they do not do so. An example is furnished by those blind crabs named in the Origin of Species which inhabit certain dark caves of Kentucky, and which, though they have lost their eyes, have not lost the foot- stalks which carried their eyes. In describing the varieties which have been produced by pigeon-fanciers, Mr. Darwin notes the fact that along with changes in length of beak produced by selection, there have not gone proportionate changes in length of tongue. Take again the case of teeth and jaws. In mankind these have not varied together. During civilization the jaws have decreased, but the teeth have not decreased in proportion; and hence that prevalent crowding of them, often remedied in childhood by extraction of some, and in other cases causing that imperfect development which is followed by early decay. But the absence of proportionate variation in co-operative parts that are close together, and are even bound up in the same mass, is best seen in those varieties of dogs named above as illustrating the inherited effects of disuse. We see in them,
- 76. as we see in the human race, that diminution in the jaws has not been accompanied by corresponding diminution in the teeth. In the catalogue of the College of Surgeons Museum, there is appended to the entry which identifies a Blenheim Spaniel's skull, the words—“the teeth are closely crowded together,” and to the entry concerning the skull of a King Charles's Spaniel the words—“the teeth are closely packed, p. 3, is placed quite transversely to the axis of the skull.” It is further noteworthy that in a case where there is no diminished use of the jaws, but where they have been shortened by selection, a like want of concomitant variation is manifested: the case being that of the bull-dog, in the upper jaw of which also, “the premolars ... are excessively crowded, and placed obliquely or even transversely to the long axis of the skull.”[1] If, then, in cases where we can test it, we find no concomitant variation in co-operative parts that are near together—if we do not find it in parts which, though belonging to different tissues, are so closely united as teeth and jaws—if we do not find it even when the co-operative parts are not only closely united, but are formed out of the same tissue, like the crab's eye and its peduncle; what shall we say of co-operative parts which, besides being composed of different tissues, are remote from one another? Not only are we forbidden to assume that they vary together, but we are warranted in asserting that they can have no tendency to vary together. And what are the implications in cases where increase of a structure can be of no service unless there is concomitant increase in many distant structures, which have to join it in performing the action for which it is useful? As far back as 1864 (Principles of Biology, § 166) I named in illustration an animal carrying heavy horns—the extinct Irish elk; and indicated the many changes in bones, muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, composing the fore-part of the body, which would be required to make an increment of size in such horns advantageous. Here let me take another instance—that of the giraffe: an instance which I take partly because, in the sixth edition of the Origin of Species, issued in 1872, Mr. Darwin has referred to this animal when
- 77. effectually disposing of certain arguments urged against his hypothesis. He there says:— “In order that an animal should acquire some structure specially and largely developed, it is almost indispensable that several other parts should be modified and co-adapted. Although every part of the body varies slightly, it does not follow that the necessary parts should always vary in the right direction and to the right degree” (p. 179). And in the summary of the chapter, he remarks concerning the adjustments in the same quadruped, that “the prolonged use of all the parts together with inheritance will have aided in an important manner in their co-ordination” (p. 199): a remark probably having reference chiefly to the increased massiveness of the lower part of the neck; the increased size and strength of the thorax required to bear the additional burden; and the increased strength of the fore- legs required to carry the greater weight of both. But now I think that further consideration suggests the belief that the entailed modifications are much more numerous and remote than at first appears; and that the greater part of these are such as cannot be ascribed in any degree to the selection of favourable variations, but must be ascribed exclusively to the inherited effects of changed functions. Whoever has seen a giraffe gallop will long remember the sight as a ludicrous one. The reason for the strangeness of the motions is obvious. Though the fore limbs and the hind limbs differ so much in length, yet in galloping they have to keep pace—must take equal strides. The result is that at each stride, the angle which the hind limbs describe round their centre of motion is much larger than the angle described by the fore limbs. And beyond this, as an aid in equalizing the strides, the hind part of the back is at each stride bent very much downwards and forwards. Hence the hind- quarters appear to be doing nearly all the work. Now a moment's observation shows that the bones and muscles composing the hind- quarters of the giraffe, perform actions differing in one or other way and degree, from the actions performed by the homologous bones and muscles in a mammal of ordinary proportions, and from those in the ancestral mammal which gave origin to the giraffe. Each further stage of that growth which produced the large fore-quarters and
- 78. neck, entailed some adapted change in sundry of the numerous parts composing the hind-quarters; since any failure in the adjustment of their respective strengths would entail some defect in speed and consequent loss of life when chased. It needs but to remember how, when continuing to walk with a blistered foot, the taking of steps in such a modified way as to diminish pressure on the sore point, soon produces aching of muscles which are called into unusual action, to see that over-straining of any one of the muscles of the giraffe's hind-quarters might quickly incapacitate the animal when putting out all its powers to escape; and to be a few yards behind others would cause death. Hence if we are debarred from assuming that co-operative parts vary together even when adjacent and closely united—if we are still more debarred from assuming that with increased length of fore-legs or of neck, there will go an appropriate change in any one muscle or bone in the hind- quarters; how entirely out of the question it is to assume that there will simultaneously take place the appropriate changes in all those many components of the hind-quarters which severally require re- adjustment. It is useless to reply that an increment of length in the fore-legs or neck might be retained and transmitted to posterity, waiting an appropriate variation in a particular bone or muscle in the hind-quarters, which, being made, would allow of a further increment. For besides the fact that until this secondary variation occurred the primary variation would be a disadvantage often fatal; and besides the fact that before such an appropriate secondary variation might be expected in the course of generations to occur, the primary variation would have died out; there is the fact that the appropriate variation of one bone or muscle in the hind-quarters would be useless without appropriate variations of all the rest—some in this way and some in that—a number of appropriate variations which it is impossible to suppose. Nor is this all. Far more numerous appropriate variations would be indirectly necessitated. The immense change in the ratio of fore- quarters to hind-quarters would make requisite a corresponding change of ratio in the appliances carrying on the nutrition of the
- 79. two. The entire vascular system, arterial and veinous, would have to undergo successive unbuildings and rebuildings to make its channels everywhere adequate to the local requirements; since any want of adjustment in the blood-supply in this or that set of muscles, would entail incapacity, failure of speed, and loss of life. Moreover the nerves supplying the various sets of muscles would have to be proportionately changed; as well as the central nervous tracts from which they issued. Can we suppose that all these appropriate changes, too, would be step by step simultaneously made by fortunate spontaneous variations, occurring along with all the other fortunate spontaneous variations? Considering how immense must be the number of these required changes, added to the changes above enumerated, the chances against any adequate re- adjustments fortuitously arising must be infinity to one. If the effects of use and disuse of parts are inheritable, then any change in the fore parts of the giraffe which affects the action of the hind limbs and back, will simultaneously cause, by the greater or less exercise of it, a re-moulding of each component in the hind limbs and back in a way adapted to the new demands; and generation after generation the entire structure of the hind-quarters will be progressively fitted to the changed structure of the fore- quarters: all the appliances for nutrition and innervation being at the same time progressively fitted to both. But in the absence of this inheritance of functionally-produced modifications, there is no seeing how the required re-adjustments can be made. Yet a third class of difficulties stands in the way of the belief that the natural selection of useful variations is the sole factor of organic evolution. This class of difficulties, already pointed out in § 166 of the Principles of Biology, I cannot more clearly set forth than in the words there used. Hence I may perhaps be excused for here quoting them. “Where the life is comparatively simple, or where surrounding circumstances render some one function supremely important, the survival of the fittest may readily bring about the appropriate structural change, without any aid from
- 80. the transmission of functionally-acquired modifications. But in proportion as the life grows complex—in proportion as a healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by “the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.” As fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become possible for the several members of a species to have various kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger, another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus increased, the individuals not possessing more than average endowments of it, must be more frequently killed off than individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being, than most of the other attributes. If those members of the species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally possess; then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations. The probability seems rather to be, that by gamogenesis, this extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in posterity—just serving in the long run to compensate the deficient endowments of other individuals, whose special powers lie in other directions; and so to keep up the normal structure of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any one, and more on the combined action of all; so fast does the production of specialities of character by natural selection alone, become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind; and above all does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but minor shares in aiding the struggle for life—the æsthetic faculties, for example.” Dwelling for a moment on this last illustration of the class of difficulties described, let us ask how we are to interpret the development of the musical faculty. I will not enlarge on the family antecedents of the great composers. I will merely suggest the inquiry whether the greater powers possessed by Beethoven and
- 81. Mozart, by Weber and Rossini, than by their fathers, were not due in larger measure to the inherited effects of daily exercise of the musical faculty by their fathers, than to inheritance, with increase, of spontaneous variations; and whether the diffused musical powers of the Bach clan, culminating in those of Johann Sebastian, did not result in part from constant practice; but I will raise the more general question—How came there that endowment of musical faculty which characterizes modern Europeans at large, as compared with their remote ancestors. The monotonous chants of low savages cannot be said to show any melodic inspiration; and it is not evident that an individual savage who had a little more musical perception than the rest, would derive any such advantage in the maintenance of life as would secure the spread of his superiority by inheritance of the variation. And then what are we to say of harmony? We cannot suppose that the appreciation of this, which is relatively modern, can have arisen by descent from the men in whom successive variations increased the appreciation of it—the composers and musical performers; for on the whole, these have been men whose worldly prosperity was not such as enabled them to rear many children inheriting their special traits. Even if we count the illegitimate ones, the survivors of these added to the survivors of the legitimate ones, can hardly be held to have yielded more than average numbers of descendants; and those who inherited their special traits have not often been thereby so aided in the struggle for existence as to further the spread of such traits. Rather the tendency seems to have been the reverse. Since the above passage was written, I have found in the second volume of Animals and Plants under Domestication, a remark made by Mr. Darwin, practically implying that among creatures which depend for their lives on the efficiency of numerous powers, the increase of any one by the natural selection of a variation is necessarily difficult. Here it is. “Finally, as indefinite and almost illimitable variability is the usual result of domestication and cultivation, with the same part or organ varying in different individuals in different or even in directly opposite ways; and as the same
- 82. variation, if strongly pronounced, usually recurs only after long intervals of time, any particular variation would generally be lost by crossing, reversion, and the accidental destruction of the varying individuals, unless carefully preserved by man.”—Vol. ii, 292. Remembering that mankind, subject as they are to this domestication and cultivation, are not, like domesticated animals, under an agency which picks out and preserves particular variations; it results that there must usually be among them, under the influence of natural selection alone, a continual disappearance of any useful variations of particular faculties which may arise. Only in cases of variations which are specially preservative, as for example, great cunning during a relatively barbarous state, can we expect increase from natural selection alone. We cannot suppose that minor traits, exemplified among others by the æsthetic perceptions, can have been evolved by natural selection. But if there is inheritance of functionally-produced modifications of structure, evolution of such minor traits is no longer inexplicable. Two remarks made by Mr. Darwin have implications from which the same general conclusion must, I think, be drawn. Speaking of the variability of animals and plants under domestication, he says:— “Changes of any kind in the conditions of life, even extremely slight changes, often suffice to cause variability.... Animals and plants continue to be variable for an immense period after their first domestication; ... In the course of time they can be habituated to certain changes, so as to become less variable; ... There is good evidence that the power of changed conditions accumulates; so that two, three, or more generations must be exposed to new conditions before any effect is visible.... Some variations are induced by the direct action of the surrounding conditions on the whole organization, or on certain parts alone, and other variations are induced indirectly through the reproductive system being affected in the same manner as is so common with organic beings when removed from their natural conditions.”—(Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii, 270.) There are to be recognized two modes of this effect produced by changed conditions on the reproductive system, and consequently on offspring. Simple arrest of development is one. But beyond the
- 83. variations of offspring arising from imperfectly developed reproductive systems in parents—variations which must be ordinarily in the nature of imperfections—there are others due to a changed balance of functions caused by changed conditions. The fact noted by Mr. Darwin in the above passage, “that the power of changed conditions accumulates; so that two, three, or more generations must be exposed to new conditions before any effect is visible,” implies that during these generations there is going on some change of constitution consequent on the changed proportions and relations of the functions. I will not dwell on the implication, which seems tolerably clear, that this change must consist of such modifications of organs as adapt them to their changed functions; and that if the influence of changed conditions “accumulates,” it must be through the inheritance of such modifications. Nor will I press the question— What is the nature of the effect registered in the reproductive elements, and which is subsequently manifested by variations?—Is it an effect entirely irrelevant to the new requirements of the variety? —Or is it an effect which makes the variety less fit for the new requirements?—Or is it an effect which makes it more fit for the new requirements? But not pressing these questions, it suffices to point out the necessary implication that changed functions of organs do, in some way or other, register themselves in changed proclivities of the reproductive elements. In face of these facts it cannot be denied that the modified action of a part produces an inheritable effect—be the nature of that effect what it may. The second of the remarks above adverted to as made by Mr. Darwin, is contained in his sections dealing with correlated variations. In the Origin of Species, p. 114, he says— “The whole organization is so tied together during its growth and development, that when slight variations in any one part occur, and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts become modified.” And a parallel statement contained in Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. ii, p. 320, runs thus— “Correlated variation is an important subject for us; for when one part is modified through continued selection, either by man or under nature, other
- 84. parts of the organization will be unavoidably modified. From this correlation it apparently follows that, with our domesticated animals and plants, varieties rarely or never differ from each other by some single character alone.” By what process does a changed part modify other parts? By modifying their functions in some way or degree, seems the necessary answer. It is indeed, imaginable, that where the part changed is some dermal appendage which, becoming larger, has abstracted more of the needful material from the general stock, the effect may consist simply in diminishing the amount of this material available for other dermal appendages, leading to diminution of some or all of them, and may fail to affect in appreciable ways the rest of the organism: save perhaps the blood-vessels near the enlarged appendage. But where the part is an active one—a limb, or viscus, or any organ which constantly demands blood, produces waste matter, secretes, or absorbs—then all the other active organs become implicated in the change. The functions performed by them have to constitute a moving equilibrium; and the function of one cannot, by alteration of the structure performing it, be modified in degree or kind, without modifying the functions of the rest—some appreciably and others inappreciably, according to the directness or indirectness of their relations. Of such inter-dependent changes, the normal ones are naturally inconspicuous; but those which are partially or completely abnormal, sufficiently carry home the general truth. Thus, unusual cerebral excitement affects the excretion through the kidneys in quantity or quality or both. Strong emotions of disagreeable kinds check or arrest the flow of bile. A considerable obstacle to the circulation offered by some important structure in a diseased or disordered state, throwing more strain upon the heart, causes hypertrophy of its muscular walls; and this change which is, so far as concerns the primary evil, a remedial one, often entails mischiefs in other organs. “Apoplexy and palsy, in a scarcely credible number of cases, are directly dependent on hypertrophic enlargement of the heart.” And in other cases, asthma, dropsy, and epilepsy are caused. Now if a result of this inter-dependence as seen in the individual organism, is that a local modification of one part produces, by changing their functions, correlative modifications of
- 85. other parts, then the question here to be put is—Are these correlative modifications, when of a kind falling within normal limits, inheritable or not. If they are inheritable, then the fact stated by Mr. Darwin that “when one part is modified through continued selection,” “other parts of the organization will be unavoidably modified” is perfectly intelligible: these entailed secondary modifications are transmitted pari passu with the successive modifications produced by selection. But what if they are not inheritable? Then these secondary modifications caused in the individual, not being transmitted to descendants, the descendants must commence life with organizations out of balance, and with each increment of change in the part affected by selection, their organizations must get more out of balance—must have a larger and larger amounts of re-organization to be made during their lives. Hence the constitution of the variety must become more and more unworkable. The only imaginable alternative is that the re-adjustments are effected in course of time by natural selection. But, in the first place, as we find no proof of concomitant variation among directly co- operative parts which are closely united, there cannot be assumed any concomitant variation among parts which are both indirectly co- operative and far from one another. And, in the second place, before all the many required re-adjustments could be made, the variety would die out from defective constitution. Even were there no such difficulty, we should still have to entertain a strange group of propositions, which would stand as follows:—1. Change in one part entails, by reaction on the organism, changes, in other parts, the functions of which are necessarily changed. 2. Such changes worked in the individual, affect, in some way, the reproductive elements: these being found to evolve unusual structures when the constitutional balance has been continuously disturbed. 3. But the changes in the reproductive elements thus caused, are not such as represent these functionally-produced changes: the modifications conveyed to offspring are irrelevant to these various modifications functionally produced in the organs of the parents. 4. Nevertheless,
- 86. while the balance of functions cannot be re-established through inheritance of the effects of disturbed functions on structures, wrought throughout the individual organism; it can be re-established by the inheritance of fortuitous variations which occur in all the affected organs without reference to these changes of function. Now without saying that acceptance of this group of propositions is impossible, we may certainly say that it is not easy. “But where are the direct proofs that inheritance of functionally- produced modifications takes place?” is a question which will be put by those who have committed themselves to the current exclusive interpretation. “Grant that there are difficulties; still, before the transmitted effects of use and disuse can be legitimately assigned in explanation of them, we must have good evidence that the effects of use and disuse are transmitted.” Before dealing directly with this demurrer, let me deal with it indirectly, by pointing out that the lack of recognized evidence may be accounted for without assuming that there is not plenty of it. Inattention and reluctant attention lead to the ignoring of facts which really exist in abundance; as is well illustrated in the case of pre-historic implements. Biassed by the current belief that no traces of man were to be found on the Earth's surface, save in certain superficial formations of very recent date, geologists and anthropologists not only neglected to seek such traces, but for a long time continued to pooh-pooh those who said they had found them. When M. Boucher de Perthes at length succeeded in drawing the eyes of scientific men to the flint implements discovered by him in the quarternary deposits of the Somme valley; and when geologists and anthropologists had thus been convinced that evidences of human existence were to be found in formations of considerable age, and thereafter began to search for them; they found plenty of them all over the world. Or again, to take an instance closely germane to the matter, we may recall the fact that the contemptuous attitude towards the hypothesis of organic
- 87. evolution which naturalists in general maintained before the publication of Mr. Darwin's work, prevented them from seeing the multitudinous facts by which it is supported. Similarly, it is very possible that their alienation from the belief that there is a transmission of those changes of structure which are produced by changes of action, makes naturalists slight the evidence which supports that belief and refuse to occupy themselves in seeking further evidence. If it be asked how it happens that there have been recorded multitudinous instances of variations fortuitously arising and re- appearing in offspring, while there have not been recorded instances of the transmission of changes functionally produced, there are three replies. The first is that changes of the one class are many of them conspicuous, while those of the other class are nearly all inconspicuous. If a child is born with six fingers, the anomaly is not simply obvious but so startling as to attract much notice; and if this child, growing up, has six-fingered descendants, everybody in the locality hears of it. A pigeon with specially-coloured feathers, or one distinguished by a broadened and upraised tail, or by a protuberance of the neck, draws attention by its oddness; and if in its young the trait is repeated, occasionally with increase, the fact is remarked, and there follows the thought of establishing the peculiarity by selection. A lamb disabled from leaping by the shortness of its legs, could not fail to be observed; and the fact that its offspring were similarly short-legged, and had a consequent inability to get over fences, would inevitably become widely known. Similarly with plants. That this flower had an extra number of petals, that that was unusually symmetrical, and that another differed considerably in colour from the average of its kind, would be easily seen by an observant gardener; and the suspicion that such anomalies are inheritable having arisen, experiments leading to further proofs that they are so, would frequently be made. But it is not thus with functionally-produced modifications. The seats of these are in nearly all cases the muscular, osseous, and nervous systems, and the viscera—parts which are either entirely hidden or greatly obscured.
- 88. Modification in a nervous centre is inaccessible to vision; bones may be considerably altered in size or shape without attention being drawn to them; and, covered with thick coats as are most of the animals open to continuous observation, the increases or decreases in muscles must be great before they become externally perceptible. A further important difference between the two inquiries is that to ascertain whether a fortuitous variation is inheritable, needs merely a little attention to the selection of individuals and the observation of offspring; while to ascertain whether there is inheritance of a functionally-produced modification, it is requisite to make arrangements which demand the greater or smaller exercise of some part or parts; and it is difficult in many cases to find such arrangements, troublesome to maintain them even for one generation, and still more through successive generations. Nor is this all. There exist stimuli to inquiry in the one case which do not exist in the other. The money-interest and the interest of the fancier, acting now separately and now together, have prompted multitudinous individuals to make experiments which have brought out clear evidence that fortuitous variations are inherited. The cattle- breeders who profit by producing certain shapes and qualities; the keepers of pet animals who take pride in the perfections of those they have bred; the florists, professional and amateur, who obtain new varieties and take prizes; form a body of men who furnish naturalists with countless of the required proofs. But there is no such body of men, led either by pecuniary interest or the interest of a hobby, to ascertain by experiments whether the effects of use and disuse are inheritable. Thus, then, there are amply sufficient reasons why there is a great deal of direct evidence in the one case and but little in the other: such little being that which comes out incidentally. Let us look at what there is of it. Considerable weight attaches to a fact which Brown-Séquard discovered, quite by accident, in the course of his researches. He
- 89. found that certain artificially-produced lesions of the nervous system, so small even as a section of the sciatic nerve, left, after healing, an increasing excitability which ended in liability to epilepsy; and there afterwards came out the unlooked-for result that the offspring of guinea-pigs which had thus acquired an epileptic habit such that a pinch on the neck would produce a fit, inherited an epileptic habit of like kind. It has, indeed, been since alleged that guinea pigs tend to epilepsy, and that phenomena of the kind described, occur where there have been no antecedents like those in Brown-Séquard's case. But considering the improbability that the phenomena observed by him happened to be nothing more than phenomena which occasionally arise naturally, we may, until there is good proof to the contrary, assign some value to his results. Evidence not of this directly experimental kind, but nevertheless of considerable weight, is furnished by other nervous disorders. There is proof enough that insanity admits of being induced by circumstances which, in one or other way, derange the nervous functions—excesses of this or that kind; and no one questions the accepted belief that insanity is inheritable. Is it alleged that the insanity which is inheritable is that which spontaneously arises, and that the insanity which follows some chronic perversion of functions is not inheritable? This does not seem a very reasonable allegation; and until some warrant for it is forthcoming, we may fairly assume that there is here a further support for belief in the transmission of functionally-produced changes. Moreover, I find among physicians the belief that nervous disorders of a less severe kind are inheritable. Men who have prostrated their nervous systems by prolonged overwork or in some other way, have children more or less prone to nervousness. It matters not what may be the form of inheritance—whether it be of a brain in some way imperfect, or of a deficient blood-supply; it is in any case the inheritance of functionally-modified structures. Verification of the reasons above given for the paucity of this direct evidence, is yielded by contemplation of it; for it is observable that
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