384 Dr Hodgkin on the 



Philological Comments by Dk Latham. 



Such evidences respectixig the origin of the Guanchees as was 

 to be drawn from their language, was known to the early 

 Spanish historian of the Canary Isles, and to his English 

 translator, Glas. It was also known that the language of the 

 islands of Fortaventura, Lanceroto, Ferro, Palma, and Go- 

 mera, were akin to the Canary Proper. The TenerifFe lan- 

 guage, however, was made an exception. This was stated to 

 stand alone. The six others were compared with one of the 

 languages of Northern Africa, viz., the Shillah dialect of the Ber- 

 ber ; and with this they were found to coincide to the amount 

 of about twenty words ovit of eighty, or one-fourth. Since then 

 the affinities between the Guanche languages on one side, and 

 the Berber on the other has been recognised by Horneraann, 

 Adelung, Bitter, Prichard. Quite lately, however, the author 

 of a paper in the Journal of the Geographical Transactions has 

 demurred to the received opinions. He brings much evidence 

 to prove that the languages of the different islands were mutu- 

 ally unintelligible. He also objects to treating the six lan- 

 guages as one, and making the comparison with them en 

 masse. 



Now languages may be mutually unintelligible and yet have 

 a close ethnographical relationship ; as is the case with the 

 English and German, the Dutch and Danish, &c. On the 

 other hand, the comparison of languages in groups is one of 

 the most legitimate processes in philology. Hence it is with 

 great truth that the editor of the journal in question dissents, 

 in a note appended to the article, from the objections of the 

 writer. 



The Berber language is the language of the whole of Northern 

 Africa with the exception of the Arabic. It is spoken on the 

 coast of the Atlantic, and on the confines of Egj-pt ; in the 

 Oasis of Siwah, in Fezzan, Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, and Mo- 

 rocco ; and it is known under the various names of Showiyah, 

 Amazirgh, Shillah, and Ertana. It is the mother-tongue of the 

 Algerine Cabyles. and of the Tuaricks of Sahara. It was the 

 ancient language of Numidia and Mauritania ; and was pro- 

 bably spoken in its older stages, by Jugurtha and Masinissa. 



