Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Chaymas Have Also The Castilian Adverbs Aqui And
Alla, Shades Of Difference Which Can Be Expressed Only By
Periphrasis, In The Idioms Of Germanic And Latin Origin.
Some Indians, who were acquainted with Spanish, assured us, that
zis signified not only the sun, but also the Deity.
This appeared
to me the more extraordinary, as among all other American nations
we find distinct words for God and the sun. The Carib does not
confound Tamoussicabo, the Ancient of Heaven, with veyou, the sun.
Even the Peruvian, though a worshipper of the sun, raises his mind
to the idea of a Being who regulates the movements of the stars.
The sun, in the language of the Incas, bears the name of inti,* (*
In the Quichua, or language of the Incas, the sun is inti; love,
munay; great, veypul; in Sanscrit, the sun, indre: love, manya;
great, vipulo. (Vater Mithridates tome 3 page 333.) These are the
only examples of analogy of sound, that have yet been noticed. The
grammatical character of the two languages is totally different.)
nearly the same as in Sanscrit; while God is called Vinay Huayna,
the eternally young.'* (* Vinay, always, or eternal; huayna, in the
flower of age.)
The arrangement of words in the Chayma is similar to that found in
all the languages of both continents, which have preserved a
certain primitive character. The object is placed before the verb,
the verb before the personal pronoun. The object, on which the
attention should be principally fixed, precedes all the
modifications of that object. The American would say, liberty
complete love we, instead of we love complete liberty; Thee with
happy am I, instead of I am happy with thee. There is something
direct, firm, demonstrative, in these turns, the simplicity of
which is augmented by the absence of the article. May it be
presumed that, with advancing civilization, these nations, left to
themselves, would have gradually changed the arrangement of their
phrases? We are led to adopt this idea, when we reflect on the
changes which the syntax of the Romans has undergone in the
precise, clear, but somewhat timid languages of Latin Europe.
The Chayma, like the Tamanac and most of the American languages, is
entirely destitute of certain letters, as f, b, and d. No word
begins with an l. The same observation has been made on the Mexican
tongue, though it is overcharged with the syllables tli, tla, and
itl, at the end or in the middle of words. The Chaymas substitute r
for l; a substitution that arises from a defect of pronunciation
common in every zone.* (* For example, the substitution of r for l,
characterizes the Bashmurie dialect of the Coptic language.) Thus,
the Caribbees of the Orinoco have been transformed into Galibi in
French Guiana by confounding r with l, and softening the c. The
Tamanac has made choraro and solalo of the Spanish word soldado
(soldier). The disappearance of the f and b in so many American
idioms arises out of that intimate connection between certain
sounds, which is manifested in all languages of the same origin.
The letters f, v, b, and p, are substituted one for the other; for
instance, in the Persian, peder, father (pater); burader,* (*
Whence the German bruder, with the same consonants.) brother
(frater); behar, spring (ver); in Greek, phorton (forton), a
burthen; pous (pous) a foot, (fuss, Germ.). In the same manner,
with the Americans, f and b become p; and d becomes t. The Chayma
pronounces patre, Tios, Atani, aracapucha, for padre, Dios, Adan,
and arcabuz (harquebuss).
In spite of the relations just pointed out, I do not think that the
Chayma language can be regarded as a dialect of the Tamanac, as the
Maitano, Cuchivero, and Crataima undoubtedly are.
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