436 



THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA 



tinotly remembered that a generation op two back they had reached them from the mainland, and had found them 

 occupied by a peaceful race, whom they styled Ineri or Igneri. The males of this race they slow or drove, into tho 

 interior, but the women they seized for their own use. Hence arose a marked difference between the languages of 

 the island Caribs and their women. The fragments of the language of the latter show clearly that they were of 

 Arawack lineage, and that the so-called Igneri were members of that nation. It of course became more or less 

 corrupted by the introduction of Carib words and forms, so that in 1674 tho missionary De la Horde wrote, that 

 "although there is some difference between the dialects of the men and women, they readily understand each 

 other ;" " and Father Breton in his Carib Grammar (1005) gives the same forms for tho declensions and conjugations 

 of both. 



As the traces of the "island Arawack," as the tongue of fix; Igneri may be called, prove the extension of this 

 tribe over all Hie Lesser Antilles, it now remains to inquire whether they had pushed their conquests still further, and 

 bad possessed themselves of the Great Antilles, the Bahama islmids, and any part of the adjacent coasts of Yucatan 

 or Florida. 



All ancient writers agree that on the, Bahamas and Cuba the same speech prevailed, except Gomara, who avers 

 that on the Bahamas "great diversity of language " was found. 12 Hut as Gomara wrote nearly half a century after 

 these islands were depopulated, and lias exposed himself io just censure for carelessness in his statements regarding 

 Hie natives, 13 his expression has no weight. Columbus repeatedly states that all the islands had one language though 

 differing, more or less, in words. The natives he took with him from San Salvador understood the dialects in both 

 Cuba and Haiti. One of them on his second voyage served him as an interpreter on the southern shore of Cuba. 14 



In Haiti, there was a tongue current all over the Island, called by the, Spaniards la lengua universal and la 

 engva cortemna. This is distinctly said by all the historians to have been but very slightly different from that of 

 Cuba, a mere dialectic variation in accent being observed. 1 '' Many fragments of this tongue are preserved in tho 

 narratives of the early explorers, and it has been the theme for some strange and wild theorizing among would-be 

 philologists. Rafinesque christened it the "Talno " language, and discovered it to be closely akin to the " Pelasgie " of 

 Europe. 18 The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg will have itallied to the Maya, the old Norse or Scandinavian, the ancient 

 Coptic, and what not. Rafinesque and Jegor von Sivors" have made vocabularies of it, but the former in so uncritical, 

 and the latter in so superficial a manner, that they are worse than useless. 



Although it is said there were in Haiti two other tongues in the small contiguous provinces of Macorfx dc arriba 

 and Macorix de abajo, entirely dissimilar from the lengua universal and from each other, we are justified in assuming 

 that the prevalent tongue throughout the whole of the Great Antilles and the Bahamas, was (hat most common in 

 Haiti. 1 have, therefore, perused with care all the early authorities who throw any light upon the construction and 

 vocabulary of this language, and gathered from their pages Hie scattered information they contain. The most valu- 

 able of these authorities are Peter Martyr de Angleria, who speaks from conversations with natives brought to Spain 

 by Columbus, on his first voyage, 18 and who was himself, a fine linguist, and Bartolomede las Casas. Tho latter came as 

 a missionary to Haiti, a few years after its discovery, was earnestly interested in Hie natives, and to some extent 

 acquainted with their language. Besides a few printed works of small importance, Las Casas left two large and 

 valuable works in manuscript, the Ilistoria General de las Indias Occidentals, and the Hisloria Apologetica de las 

 Indias Occidentales. A copy of these, each in four large folio volumes, exists in the Library of Congress, where I 



11 Rtlati&n '/r POrifftm, ate., dei Curaibeg, p. 3<t (Parts, t674). 



i2'*H«vl« mas poltctaentre ellos[Ios LucayosJ i mucha dlversldad de Lenguas." BUt. it las Tndita, cap. 41. 



a Las Casas, in the Btitoria General de \at India) Occid, In,, in, cap. 27, criticizes liiin severely. 



" Coin minis says of the Bahamas and Cuba! " toda la lengna ei unay todos umlgos" (Navarrete, Viagee, Tomoi, i>. -in.) The natives or Guanahanl 

 conversed with i hose of Haiti "porque todos Ionian una lengua," (.ibid, p.8«.) In the Hay ol SamanaadlrTerenl dialect but the same language was found (p, 135). 



"Gomara says the language or Cuba is "algo dlversa," from i ha tot Eapanola. (Hiat.de lai tndtat, eaivii.) Qvtado says that though the natives on he two 

 Islands differ in many words, yet they readily understand each other. (BUt.de lae tndiae, lih.xvn, cap. t.) 



H The American Nations, chap. VII, (Philadelphia, ls.%.) 



i' Cuba, •tu: r,:rh: dm AnlMr.n, p. 72. (Leipzig, ISM.) The vocabulary contains .13 words, "am dm, CwaMttchm." Many arc Incorrect both In spelling and 

 pronunciation. 



is When Columbus returned from his first voyage, he brought with him ten natives from the Hay of Saluana In Ilaytl, and a few from Guanahanl. 





