Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 507 of 779 - First - Home
That
Which Is Common In The Intellectual Organization Of Man Is
Reflected In The General Structure Of Language; And Every Idiom,
However Barbarous It May Appear, Discloses A Regulating Principle
Which Has Presided At Its Formation.
The plural, in Tamanac, is indicated in seven different ways,
according to the termination of the substantive, or according as it
designates an animate or inanimate object.* (* Tamanacu, a Tamanac
(plur.
Tamanakemi): Pongheme, a Spaniard (properly a man clothed);
Pongamo, Spaniards, or men clothed. The plural in cne characterizes
inanimate objects: for example, cene, a thing; cenecne, things:
jeje, a tree; jejecne, trees.) In Chayma the plural is formed as in
Caribbee, in on; teure, himself; teurecon, themselves; tanorocon,
those here; montaonocon, those below, supposing that the
interlocutor is speaking of a place where he was himself present;
miyonocon, those below, supposing he speaks of a place where he was
not present. 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:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 507 of 779
Words from 137550 to 137840
of 211363