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
From the following Analysis, it will be apparent that, originally, the
same words were in most instances applied to individuals of the human
race, whether male or female, indiscriminately. Subsequently, a portion of
the synonymes, thus indiscriminately applied in the first instance to the
_whole_ species, were _separately_ appropriated to each of the two sexes;
while another portion, as, for example, the Latin, “Homo,” and the German,
“Mensch,” continued to be used as general terms for an individual of the
species, _without reference to sex_.
As the appropriation of these words was purely conventional, the same
synonymes were very frequently appropriated, among different branches of
the human race, to different sexes: i.e. a word appropriated to “Man”
(Vir) by some tribes was appropriated to the “Female” sex (Fœmina) by
other tribes. It is also evident that the terms thus appropriated
consisted in some instances of simple, in others of compound, synonymes.
These principles, which are precisely analogous to the results which flow
from a comparison of the names of “The Heavenly Bodies” in the African
tongues and in the other languages of the globe, will be found to afford a
complete and consistent explanation of the phenomena displayed by the
following Analysis, viz.: As before suggested, we find the _words_ applied
to the _human race_ in the different tongues of the globe _the same_; it
is only in the _appropriation of those words_, as regards the two _sexes_,
that we find a wide diversity in the various languages of the human race.
_Words for __“__Man, Woman,__”__ &c._—CLASS I.
First Modification.
North Gour-ko, M., Gourk-o
Africa.—_Fulahs & Mahodo, M.
Phellatahs_
_Negro-land_ Gourr, H., Garr, H.,
Core, H. Gour-gne,
M., Kerim, F.
Europe.—_Welsh_ Gour, M. (A mighty
man, a hero.)
Gour-on, M.
Asia.—_Taraikai_ Guru, H
_Kamschatka_ K ur, H.
_Pelu_ K or, H.
_Negro-land_ (as Core. H.
above)
Second Modification.
South Urun, H. Orrang,
Africa.—_Madagascar_ M.(179)
Europe.—_Welsh_. Our, M., Ouron, M.
(Modifications of
“Gour and Gour-on,”
above.)
Asia.—_Malay_ Orang, M.
South Uar mi, F.
America.—_Quicuans_
_Negro-land_ (as Ker im, F.
above)
There is a very obvious connexion between the above words for Man and a
word for “The Hand,” of which the extreme antiquity is apparent from its
occurring in the languages of races so widely separated as the following,
in whose tongues this word exists in the subjoined forms, which cannot be
said essentially to differ from each other: Gara (_Mongol_), Kara
(_Sanscrit_), Keir (_Greek_), “The Hand.” [Compare the relation shown in
the following examples between Manus, “The Hand” (_Latin_), and Manus-zia
(_Sanscrit_), and Men-sch (_German_), i.e. Homo, a “Human Being.”]
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