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There is little doubt that some of the tongues conventionally enumerated as separate languages are in reality local variants of a common form of speech, and that the names by which they are known

are tribal rather than lmguistic. This may be held to apply to the names enumerated in our list under the headings of Bari, Latuko,

Madi, and no doubt others. In such cases it ought to be possible, though it may be difficult, to reduce the multiplicity of tongues by selecting one of the dialects as the basis of a literary medium for the whole group, and we should not be deterred from the attempt if we find that the divergences are at first sight very considerable. The analogy of the process by which the literary languages of modern

_ Europe came into being should afford guidance in this matter, as it

should also in connection with the problem of expanding and strengthening the resources of a primitive form of speech.

I now pass to the third stage in the recommendations of the Phelps- Stokes Commission, as this I think can be dismissed in a few words.

It is the policy of the Sudan Government that English should as soon as possible become the language of official correspondence in the Southern Sudan, and steps are being taken to put this into effect as circumstances permit. It therefore follows that English should be taught in the upper standards.

It is the second stage that is full of difficulties and gives much food for thought. Whereas Hast Africa has Swahili and West Africa Hausa, both languages with a respectable literary tradition and capable

of further development, the Southern Sudan has nothing ‘really corresponding to them, though practical necessities have led to the

increasing spread of pidgin Arabic, a jargon severely limited in its means of expression and therefore incapable in its present state of

fulfilling the functions of a language of intercommunication.

It is a matter for consideration whether it will fulfil these functions in the future, or whether any other language could take its place, or whether indeed there is any necessity in the Southern Sudan for the second stage at all, at any rate as far as our educational system is concerned. It is possible that the adoption of some of the larger group languages, which themselves.may be found closely akin to each other, and a more general use of English, may provide a sufficient means of intercommunication for the present ; and that in any case

with all the work which lies before us in the teaching of the vernaculars and of English it would be a mistake to attempt to introduce a third language in our schools. Time will show whether it will become necessary for the future. Solvitur ambulando. In any case I wish to remove a misapprehension which seems to pervade the correspondence which has taken place from time to time during the iast decade about a lingua franca for the Southern Sudan. Many seem to have thought that the adoption of a so-called lingua franca would prove a remedy for the existing confusion of tongues

and do away with the necessity of teaching and using the tribal vernaculars. The problem is not so simple of solution. A lingua franca or, as I should prefer to call it, a language of intercommunication