CENTRAL AFRICAN GONG-LANGUAGES

OF SOME C E N T R A L A F R IC A N G O N G -LA N G U A G E S 67D ) Comparative linguistics.lu an earlier seclion (see p. 58) it was shown tha>tthouglithe gong-Ianguages of the Kele-speaking and someneighbouring tribes contain elements of language whicharc essentially the same as the corresponding spokenlanguages, yet diffei'ences do occur. In such cases it isclaimed that the gong language elements represent anarchaic form of language. Hence the gong-languagephrases are of the same interest for the comparative studyof modern African languages as are, for example, documentsembodying an old form of language in the study ofmodern written languages. H u l s t a e r t refers to languageelements of this kind when he writes of the Nkundó gonglanguage:Op taalgebied zijn de lokole-nam en en berichten zeerinteressant. Ze bevatten nl. een hoeveelheid specialew oorden, zelfs die niet in de gew on e spreektaal gebruiktw orden, en die dus etym ologisch zeer w aardevol zijn.V erder ook gram m aticale vorm en (41).In any comparative study involving the use of possiblyarchaic elements of the gong-language, it should beremembered however, that dialectic variations may occurover a wide area. Thus the gong-phrase representing :« son of » in Kele is a form of language never heard inthe ordinary spoken language of the tribe but occurs onlyon the gong. It is given by gong-beaters from variousparts of the Lokele area as :litlâqgé, liéko; litüâqgâ loéko; litllâqgâ liléko; itlwâqgâ loéko;all of which have the same tonal and rhythmic patternsbut show variations in phonetic structure. Sometimes adifferent word will be substituted for an element of thegong-language phrase the tonal and rhythmic patternsbeing kept constant. Thus some Lokele gong-beaters