1892.] ^y [Brinton. 



Banana, hondare and naja. — The former is the Pano hanara, panala, and 

 rtoja is the same word with the first syllable omitted ; hanara is but a 

 corruption of banana, an Arawak word. 



The color names appear to me irreducible, except that for 

 "green," which has been borrowed from the Aymara. 



White, pasana. 



Black, devena. 



Blue, danane. 



Red, derena. 



Yellow, tidnia. 



A few similarities to the Moseteiio, a language spoken by a 

 neighboring stock, may be noted : 



But these have little significance. 



Phonetics. 



All the Tacanan dialects are facile and agreeable in their sounds, 

 differing in this respect from the Aymara and Kechua, both of 

 which are harsh to the European ear and almost unpronounceable to 

 a foreigner. The Araona has no sound which is not capable of cor- 

 rect expression by the Spanish alphabet; but the Tacana has the 

 strong English th (as in this); a soft, scarcely audible aspirate, and 

 a sound intermediate between /, ^ and r (heard in dudu, brother; 

 tata, father, etc.), while the soft Spanish th (as in Span, ce, ci) is 

 absent. The / is not heard in any native Tacana word. 



The statement quoted by D'Orbigny, from a MS. of one of the 

 missionaries, to the effect that the Tacana is one of the most gut- 

 tural and harshest of languages, is quite incorrect and could not 

 have baen intended to apply to any of the dialects of this group. 



Pronouns. 



The paradigms of the Tacana pronouns are as follows : 



I, ema. We, ecnana. 



Of me or mine, quiema. Of us, our, ecuanasa. 



For me, quiemapuji. For us, ecicana puji. 



PROG. AMER. PHILOS. SCO. XXX. 137. G. PRINTED MARCH 8, 1893. 



