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ASHANTEE, OR ODJII.
"THE Ashantee kingdom
comprises a considerable portion of the maritime district generally known
as
the Guinea Coast: including its dependencies, this kingdom extends over 70,000
square miles, and is
the area of at least six or seven different languages. The population
of Ashantee Proper, according to
Bowdich, amounts to 1,000,000, but the entire empire may be said to contain a
population of at least
3,000,000. Moh_mm_danism has made some
progress in this country, but the prevailing form of
superstition is Feticism, with which many sanguinary and revolting rites are
connected. The
immolation of human victims is practised on many public occasions; and when
the king dies,
Ashantee becomes one vast Aceldama. But the inhuman atrocities to
which this nation is addicted
have of late years been repressed by the efforts of the mies. stationed in
this benighted land.
The language distinguished as "Ashantee
Proper, or Odjii," is spoken in the south of Asánte
(Ashantee), in Fantee, in Akim, in Akwapim, and in Akwam. There are
trifling dialectic differences
in the language spoken in these several districts; but it may be considered,
nevertheless, one and the
same with the Akwapim or Odjii, the best cultivated of them all. Dr.
Beecham, who at one time
had an intelligent Fantee and two
Ashantees residing under his roof, observed that they could all
converse together with nearly as much ease as if they had been natives of the
same district; and it is
said that natives of Ashantee who occasionally visit the coast, and the
people in the neighbourhood of
Cape Coast Castle, have little difficulty in understanding each other.
The sounds of the Odjii language
are expressed by 26 letters. It has neither number nor case; and the
plural is formed by the addition
and alteration of initial syllables: e. g. popa, a palm branch, pl.
empopa; ata, turn, pl. enta, turns; bo,
stone, pl. abo, stones; ti, head, ati, heads;
vurow, a nail, aivurow, nails, etc. In verbs, the
conjugation
is formed not by final terminations, as in most European languages, but by
initial augments, thus:
mi-ko, I go, wo-ko, thou goest, o-ko, he goes, etc.
In 1846, the mies. of the Basle My. Society
commenced the preparation of a version
of the New Testament into Ashantee, and completed the Gospels of St. Matthew
and St. Luke. The
Rev. Mr. Riis, one of the translators, formerly stationed at Acropong (not
very distant from Accra),
subsequently prepared a grammar and lexicon of the Odjii language, embracing
eight dialects. More
recently, the Rev. Mr. Christaller (one of the
German mies. stationed at
Acropong, but who has
been compelled to return to Europe on account of his health) has prosecuted the task of Scripture
translation into the Odjii tongue, and as the work progresses, consecutive
portions will be printed at
Basle under his superintendence. The portions of the Odjii version
already printed comprehend the
Four Gospels and the Acts. The translation of the Psalms into Odjii
has been commenced by the
Rev. F. A. Mader, at present stationed at Acropong."--The Bible
of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info
only]
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