The American Nations, Vol. I.: Or, Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South AmericaRafinesque, C. S. (Constantine Samuel)
History
The American Nations, Vol. I.: Or, Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South America
Rafinesque, C. S. (Constantine Samuel)
Indians; Indians -- Origin; Taino Indians; Taino language
1. _Ainu of Choka_ islands between Japan and _Kamchatka_, 22 comparable
words 4 alike in Haytian—Boat, house, no, drink—Mutual affinity only 21
per cent. No parentage.
2. _Singala_ of Ceylon, 50 comparable words, 16 analogies, with
Haytian—Mutual affinity 32 per cent. Very distant parentage.
3. _Guanch_ of the Canary island nearest to Hayti in the east, 32
comparable words, 14 akin. Mutual affinity 42 per cent. Distant
connection.
4. _Mandara._ Handsome black nation in the centre of Africa, 12 words
comparable, 6 akin,—one, water, man, king, mother, river—Mutual analogies
50 per cent. Nearer connection than with the Guanch, or separation less
remote.
5. _Pelagic_, or ancestors of the Greeks and Italians. Comparable words in
all the ancient and modern dialects nearly 200, whereof about 160 offer
more or less analogies!—Mutual affinity 80 per cent! Complete and near
connection.
_Therefore the Haytians are of Pelagic origin!_ No other group of
languages offer anything like as many. The nearest after, are the Atlantic
L. Lybian, Egyptian, Bask, Sanscrit, Persian &c. who are all connected
with the Pelagic nations. The analogies with the Tartars, Chinese,
Polynesians &c., are all less in amount.
In America the Haytian affinities are of course the greatest with the
_Aruac_ nations of South America; who are their brothers, and extend to
the Taos of Tucuman and the Tinguis or true Patagons of Pigafetta. Yet
they may have been divided long ago, or ever since their American
settlement: since out of two selected for comparisons, after the
vocabularies, the _Araguas_ had only 70 per cent of analogy, and the
_Cairi_ only 56 per cent. The nearest affinities after these, were with
the _Apalachis_, _Nachez_, _Cadoz_, _Huastecas_, _Mexican_, _Tarasca_,
_Maya_, _Chontal_ &c. of N. America, and the _Darien_, _Betoy_,
_Peruvian_, _Chili_, _Mbaya &c._ of South America.
Those with the nations of N. America of Asiatic origin, and the nations of
South America of African origin, such as the Linapis and Guaranis, were
much reduced. See the compared vocabularies.
The Haytian shall now become therefore one of the touchstones of other
American languages, to verify their eastern or Atlantic origin, and above
all the connection with the American Pelagians.
Let us now consider the forms and peculiarities of this interesting
language, and first its phonology.
It appears to have all the sounds of the Italic languages; but it lacks
the Greek TH, PS, the Cairi had _TH_. It has been written by Spaniards,
and their simple orthography applies well to it; but leaves a doubt
whether it had the Celtic and French û (unless it be y) Hebrew and English
SH, lacking in Spanish. Their CH is as in English, and the French TCH.—It
had the gutural X of the Greeks and Spanish, written X and J. Also the
Spanish LL, GN or Ñ, and TZ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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