IN ITS LINGUISTIC AND ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS. 



437 



consulted them. They contain a vast amount of information relating to the aborigines, especially the Historia 

 Apologetica, though much of the author's space is occupied with frivolous discussions and idle comparisons. 



In later times, the scholar who has most carefully examined the relics of this ancient tongue, is Senor Don 

 Estevan Riohardo, a, native of Haiti, hut who for many years resided in Cuba. His views are contained in the 

 preface to his Dicaionario Provincial casi-razonado de Voces Oubanas, (llabana, 2da ed, 184!)). lie has found very 

 many words of the ancient language retained in the provincial Spanish of the island, but of course in a corrupt form. 

 In the vocabulary which I have prepared for the purpose of comparison, I have omitted all such corrupted forms, and 

 nearly all names of plants and animals, as it is impossible to identify these with certainty, and in older to obtain 

 greater accuracy, have used, when possible, the first edition of tbe authors quoted, and inmost instances, given under 

 each word a reference to some original authority. 



From the various sources which I. have examined, the alphabet of the Ungua universal appears to have been as 

 follows: a, b, d, e, (rarely used at the commencement of a word), g, j, (an aspirated guttural like the Catalan j, or 

 as Peter Martyr says, like the Arabic oh), i (rare), 1 (rare), m, n, o (rare,) p, q, r, s, t, u, y. These letters, it will be 

 remembered, arc as in Spanish. 



The Spanish sounds z, ce, ci (English th,) 11, and v, were entirely unknown to tin- natives, and where they appear 

 in indigenous words, were falsely written for 1 and b. The Spaniards also frequently distorted the native names by 

 writing x for j, s, and z, by giving j the sound of flic Latin y, and by confounding h, j, and f, as the old writers fre- 

 quently employ the h to designate the spiritus asper, whereas in modern Spanish if is mute. 19 



Fetor Martyr found that ho could reduce all the words of their language to writing, by means of the Latin letters 

 without difficulty, exoept in the single instance of the guttural j. lie, and all others who heard it spoken, describe 

 it as "soft and not less liquid than the Latin," "rich in vowels and pleasant to the car," an idiom " simple, sweel, 

 and sonorous." 20 



In the following vocabulary 1 have not altered in the least the Spanish orthography of flic words, and so that the 

 analogy of many of them might at once be preceived, I have inserted the corresponding Arawack expression, which, 

 it must be borne in mind, is lo be pronounced by the German alphabet. 



VooAimi.AiiY ok the Ancient Language ov the Great Antilles. 



Aji, rod pepper. Arawack, acM, red pepper. 



Aon, dog (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, o. 120). Island Ar. dnli, dog. 



Aroabuco, a, wood, a, spot covered with trees (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. delas Indias, lib. VI, c, 8). Ar. arragkaragkadin 

 the swaying to and fro of trees. 



Areito, a, song chanted alternately by the priests and the people at their feasts. (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V, 0. 1.) 

 Ar. aririn to name, rehearse. 



Bagua, the sea,. Ar. bara, the sea,. 



Bajarnque, a largo house holding several hundred persons. From ibis comes Sp. barraca, Eng. barracks. Ar. 

 Inijii, a, bouse. 



Bajari, title applied to sub-ohiefs ruling villages, (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 130). Probably " house-ruler, " 

 from Ar. baju, house. 



Barbaooa, aloft for drying maize, (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. VII, cap. 1). from this the English barbaoue. Ar. 



barrabakoa, a place for storing provisions. 



'» See the remarks of Rtohardoln the Prologo I," liis Dteclonario Provincial. 



*t The remarks of Peter Martyr are ; "posse omnium lllarum llnguam nostrls Uteris Latlnla, sine alio dlscrlmlno, scrlbl compertum est," (Be Rebus 



Oeeanicia et Novo Orbc, Decades Tres, i>. 9.) " Advertendum est, nullam Inesse adsplratlonem vocabulls eorum, qua* i habeat effeotum llterae conson&ntls ; 



lmmo gravlus adsptratl m proferunt, quam nos f consonantem. Proferendumque est quloquld est adsplrati odum halltu quo f, sea mlntaoe admoto ad 



auperlores dentes Inferlore labello, ore aut aperto ha, he, hi, ho.hu, et oonousso pectore. Hebraeos etArablcos eodem modo suas proferre adspirattonei 

 vldes," (id- p\i.2sr>, 286.) 



AMERI. PIIILOSO. SOC VOL. XIV. — 110 



