Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human RaceJohnes, Arthur James
History
Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race
Johnes, Arthur James
Ethnology; Human beings -- Origin; Language and languages; Monogenism and polygenism
of the third
person plural
of
Indo-European
Verbs._)(149)
We. Noo. Nee. Nōi (_Greek_),
Nou, Nc’hnou
(_Hebrew._)
No, or, There Megosh.(150) Nagoes, Nage.
is not.
Head. Pan. Pen.
The Great Maho peneta. Mawr(151)
Spirit. Penaether
Yysprid Mawr.
By some of our countrymen it has been sanguinely maintained that the
descendants of a body of Welsh, who left their country under Prince Madoc
in the twelfth century, may be still traced by affinities of language
among the North American Indian Tribes. Struck by the resemblances he has
detected, Mr. Catlin has been led to favour the same conclusion, and to
suggest that the Mandans may probably be shown to be the descendants of
the lost Cambrian Colony!
But the examples selected by this writer, however creditable to his
accuracy and research, do not tend, as he suggests, to prove the existence
of a specific connexion between the Welsh and the Mandans! This will be
evident from the words contained in the right-hand column (which have been
added by the author of this work). An examination of the whole comparison
will serve to show clearly, that though in most of the instances he has
noticed the resemblance displayed by the Mandan to the Welsh is a close
one, in many of them it displays an equally close affinity to the Latin
and Greek, &c., while in some—this North American Indian dialect totally
differs from the Welsh tongue, and at the same time agrees with—other
languages of the Old World. Many of those examples which precede the
Comparison are also illustrations of the principle that the Mandan, like
other North American Indian dialects, exhibits a general resemblance to
all, and not a specific relation to any one of the Asiatic and European
tongues. Thus Khe cush, “Bad,” which is identical with the Greek, but is
totally unlike the Welsh, is a Mandan word!
The prevalent theory, that there exists a group of Indo-European languages
and nations—peculiarly connected among themselves—peculiarly isolated from
others—will, I conceive, be found to be fallacious; and what is highly
remarkable, distinct proofs of its fallacy, as will presently be seen, are
derivable from the dialects of the North American Tribes!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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