TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. /9iJ 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 21. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Ancient Language of the Natives of Tenerife. 

 By the Marqcess of Bute, K.T., Mayor of Cardiff. 



The author read a portion of a long paper, written by him, On the Ancient 

 Language of the Natives of Tenerife,' a language wliich must have become extinct 

 not earlier than ]65(). The paper was based upon the materials collected in the 

 second volume of the ' Estudios Ilistoricos, r'limatologicos y Patologicos de las 

 Islas Canai'ias,' by Dr. Gregory Chil y Naranjo, of Las Palmas, in Grand Canary, 

 published in 1889, with the addition of farther matter communicated by the 

 Rev. Claudio Marrero and Don JManuel de Ossuna, from their own researches, or 

 collected in the Canary Islands and elsewhere by Mr. De Gray Birch, of the British 

 Museum. 



The author mentioned the disputed point as to whether the Tenerifan language 

 was or was not cognate to those of the other islands of the Archipelago, and also 

 whether the inhabitants were of one or of several races. He confined himself 

 exclusively to the Tenerifan language, and explained the difficulties besetting the 

 study owing to the imperfect manner in which the existing remains have been 

 transmitted to us in a variety of forms of phonetic spelling by different more or 

 less illiterate Spanish writers. 



Three separate opinions have been maintained as to the nature of the Tenerifan 

 language, some holding it to be of an American family, some a Berber or African 

 dialect, and some Teutonic. 



The author discussed at length a set of about seventy words which have known 

 meanings, comparing them with words of similar meaning in other languages, but 

 mentioned that a vast number of other words are known which are eitlier proper 

 names of places or the names of plants or other things generally peculiar to the 

 islands. He then analysed and discussed the nine complete sentences which are 

 known to exist and proceeded to give a summary of the results at which he had 

 arrived as to grammar. He considered it certain that there was a definite article 

 in t, to which, however, there was often given a modified sound like that of t in the 

 English termination -tion, and that among the nouns a regular feminine was 

 formed by the termination -ha. He considered it as in the highest degree probable 

 that a plural or dual of nouns was formed in -e?«, and that there existed a pre-form- 

 ative of greatness or holiness in hu-, and a post-formative of greatness in -to. Of 

 case endings nothing appeared clear, but the author considered it possible that a 

 possessive was formed for nouns, and personal terminations for verbs, by the addi- 

 tion of pronominal suffixes, that of the first person being -ec, of the second -t, and 

 of the third -th, and perhaps of the second person plural -era. He also thought 

 that the past tense may have been formed by prefixing ta- or tan-, and that there 

 may have been a conjunction ua. 



Entering upon the question of a Berber or African origin, the author made a 

 comparison from Basset's ' Manuel de Laugue Kabyle,' and, with regard to the 

 American theory, from Breton's ' Grammaire Caraibe ' and from Massi's ' Manual 

 del Idioma General del Perii.' 



The author concluded by expressing the hope that more matter may be yet 

 obtained, and greater results follow, from a deeper study of that which is known to 

 exist. He disclaimed the intention of propounding any dogmatic theory of his 

 own, but the general tendency of the paper was in favour of ascribing the 

 Tenerifan language to the Aryan family. 



' This paper has since been published in extenso by Meserst J. Masters & Co., 

 78 New Bond Street, London. 



