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new text-books which they could not easily meet. He desired to know whether Government would assist them.

THE CHAIRMAN asked for some estimate of the sums involved, and upon figures being quoted did not think they were very formidable.

The Conference then adopted a resolution on the subject of ortho- graphy, proposed by the CuarrMAN.

ARCHDEACON SuHaw: He, and the minority which he represented, though accepting the recommendations of the Conference for the sake of uniformity, would still like to record their lack of conviction as to the merits of the alphabets adopted.

THE CHArRMAN suggested that if he wished to do this, a minority

_ resolution might be appended to the main resolution.

ARCHDEACON SuHaw: Said he would consider this.

The following is a short record of the debate begun on the previous day on the problems connected with the introduction of foreign words into the vernaculars for the purpose of expressing ideas new to the Native. 7 English being the language of higher education in the Southern Sudan, it was obviously indicated as the source from which such terms should be derived, though a compromise might be necessary in the case of languages also spoken in Belgian and French territories, e.g. Zande.

There was also the problem whether words borrowed from English should be represented in the phonetic spelling of the Native language or whether they should retain their English forms. This point was also of importance in connection with the spelling of proper names, especially geographical.

Mr. Batstone: The Society to which he belonged had adopted the principle of borrowing words from whichever adequate African

_ language was nearest geographically ; this in the case of the Zande

of his area was Swahili.

BisHop Kircuine : In Uganda the practice of rendermg English words in vernacular phonetic. spelling was found to be unsatisfactory for more advanced terms and had to be abandoned. } It was further represented in the course of the debate that the principle of phonetic spelling was not easily applicable to geographical names on maps, and that the use of the English spellings would necessitate the employment of letters not found in the Native alphabets. In text-books the difficulty might be solved by using the Knglish spelling followed by a transcription into the vernacular.

The problem of forming the higher numerals in African languages was also discussed.

Various questions of detail affecting particular languages and special words arose, and it was the feeling of the Conference that the matter was not yet sufficiently advanced to make it possible for a general recommendation to. be made. At present the problem was confined to a few text-books, and experience would show what principles were most convenient in practice. |