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440 



THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA 



The following numerals are given by Las Oasas (Hist. Apol. oap. 204). 

 1. hequcti. Ar. hilrketai, that is one, from hiirkiin to be single or alone. 



2 yamosa. Ar. biama, two. 



3 oanoeum. Ar. kanniktin, many, a Large number, kannikukade, lie lias many things. 



4 yamoncobre, evidently formed from yamosa, as Ar. bibiti, four, from biama, two. 



The oilier numerals I. as Casas had unfortunately forgotten, but he says they counted by hands and feet, just as 

 the Arawacks do to this day. 



Various compound words and phrases are found in different writers, some of which are readily explained from 

 the Arawack. Thus tureigua hobin, which Peter Martyr translates "rex resplendons uti orichalcum," 23 in A.rawack 

 means '-shining like something red." Oviedo says that at marriages in Cuba it was customary for the bride to 

 bestow her favors on every man present of equal rank with her husband before the latter' s turn came. When all 

 had thus enjoyed her, she ran through the crowd of guests shouting manicato, manieato, "binding herself, meaning 

 that she was strong, and brave, and equal to much." 21 This is evidently the Ar. manikade, from mdn, manin, and 

 means I am unhurt, lam unoonquered. When the natives of Haiti were angry, says Las Casas, 25 they would not 

 strike each other, but apply such harmless epithets as bulicaco, you are blue-eyed (anda para zarco do los ojos), 

 xeyticaco, you are black-eyed (anda para negro de los ojos), or mahite, you have lost a, tooth, as the case might be. 

 The termination neo in the first two of these expressions is clearly the A r. aCOU, Or akusi, eyes, and the I ast men- 

 tioned is not unlike the Ar. mdrikata, you have no teeth ( ma negative, art tooth). The same writer gives for "I do 

 not know," the word ila, in Ar. daitta.® 



Some of the words and phrases I. have been unable to identify iii the Arawack. They are duiheyniquen, dives 

 lluvius, maguacochios vestiti homines, both in Peter Martyr, and the following conversation, which he says took 

 place between one of the Haitian eliicl'tians and his wife. 



She. Teitooa tcitoca. Tccheta cymito guameehyna. Guaibbil. 



He. Cynato machabuca guameehyna. 



These words he translated: teitoca be quiet, UcMta much, cynato angry, guameehyna the Lord, guaibba go, 

 machabuca what is it to me. But they are cither very incorrectly spelled, or are not Arawack. 



The proper mimes of localities in Cuba, llayfi and the Bahamas, furnish additional evidence that their original 

 Inhabitants were Arawaoks, Hayfi, 1 have already shown has now the same meaning in Arawack which Peter Martyr 

 ascribed to it at the discovery. Cubanacan, a province in flic interior of Cuba, is compounded of kuba and annakan, 

 in the center; 27 ISaracoa, the name of province on the coast, is from Ar. barn, sea,, koan to b(! there, " flu; sea is there;" 

 in Barajagua flu; barn, again appears ; Guaymaya is Ar. witi/a day, ■luara there is none; Marien is from Ar. martin, 

 to be small or poor ; Uuaniguanioo, a province on the narrow western extremity of the island, with the sea on either 



side, is probably Ar. wuini wuini koa, water, wafer is there. The names of tribes such as Biboneyes, Guantaneyes, 

 owe their termination to the island Arawack, eyerimen, in the modern dialect Maeru, captives, skives. The Biboneyes 

 are said by Las Casas, to have been the original inhabitants of Cuba. 28 The name is evidently from Ar. nihil,, rock, 

 eyeri m&n, "men of this rocks." The rocky shores of Cuba gave them this appellation. On the Other hand.the 



"■' l>, Utbun Oceanicis, p. 303. 



•>< siit. ,i; las indicts, lib. xvli. cap, I. Las Casas denies the story, ami says Oviedo told It In nnicrto prejudice people against Mm natives (fliit. San. delcu 

 in, run,, n i). in rail. xxiv). It is, however, probably true, 



■■"■ Uiatorid Apologetim, cap. 198. 



■"■ lie compares the signification of iia in Haytlan to Ua. in Latin, and translates tin', former ita by no set this Is plainly an error of the transcriber lory" 

 w (f/lsi. ApologeUca,Q8.Q.2iY). 



si Kuba in Arawack Is the sign ofpast time and is used as a prefix to nouns, as well as a smllx to verbs. Kubalcanan ancestors, those passed away, those 

 who lived in past limes. 



2«"Toda la masde la gente dequeestaba poblaba aquella lsla [Cuba] era passada y natural destaysla Espanola, puesto que la mas antlgua ynatural de 

 aquella ysla era como la He los Lucayos dequien ablamos en el prlmero ysegundo Ubroser como los seres que pareolano haber pecado nuestro padre Adan en 



el los, K en le shn|ilieissiina, bonissima, eareeieuto de tOdOS vieios, y beatissima. Estaera Is. no I oral y native de aquella ysla, y lla.ma.ba.ns.: ell su len ; ;ua, Cibon- 



eyes.ia penultlma sllaba luenga; y los destapor gradoo porfuerzase apodearon de aquella ysla y gente della, y los tenlan como slrvlentes suyos," (Las Oasas 

 llhl. I!,.n.,lc las In, lias, MSS. lib. iii, cap. 21). Kl.sc where (cap. 23) be says this occurred " mayormente " alter the Spaniards bad settled in Haiti. 





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