46 



ON THE COMPARATIVE ETYMOLOGY 



Lat., curtus. 



kata-kata, to scatter. 



ke, to cherish. Lat,, cams. 



kiri, about. Lat., circum. 



kolc, to make hills or beds of earth 



colo, collis. 

 kuru, to be short, 

 ni, in. Sans., ni. 

 niha, nikusa, near. 

 ore, a watch-tower, 

 oro, erect position, 

 oro, wealth. Lat., aurum 

 orurj, sky. Gr., ofy>aw$?. 



Lat. 



Sans., nicafa'. 

 (if., 6pdu). 



Lat., orior; Eg., ar. 



re, red. 



rudi, to bud. Lat., ruylimentum. 



san, to be in health. Lat., sanus. 



si, to be. Lat., esse. 



s'aferi, to seek. Gr., o&<ppw». 



s'ekc-s'eke, shack/ex. 



s'okaij, to agree. Lat., socius. 



tedo, to be patient. Lat., tedium. 



tere, to be slender. Lat., teres. 



toto, to be whole. Lat., totus. 



tu, to spit. Gr., mOm. 



wura, gold. Lat., aurum. 



49. Evidence of the antiquity of many of these forms, and of their derivation from 

 roots that are a common inheritance of the Aryan, Shemitic, and Turanian languages, 

 may be found in the following 



Comparative Vocabulary. 



50. Abetele. — A, is a formative prefix, attached to verbs to denote the actor, the recipi- 

 ent of an action, the action itself, or the abstract quality implied in the verb ; be, a verb, 

 signifying to beg, to entreat, to be imprudent, to jump ; tele, adv., previously, probably de- 

 rived from te, to spread out, to push, forward, and le, to exceed. If Skinner's derivation of 

 beg from bag, which Wcdgcwood adopts, is correct, the analogy may be still further ex- 

 tended in Yoruba, by the words ba, to bend, to plait, to meet, — bo, to cover, — bo, to insert, — 

 abo, a bag, a bundle, — laba, a leathern bag. Cfr. Lat., pcto ; Sans., bhicf ; Hob., J£>pD.* 



51. Am. — A formative, and bi. Among the many forms of the Yoruba substantive 

 verb, we find mbe, which "denotes existence, absolutely," and gbe, to abide, which "takes 

 the place of mbe in the imperative and subjunctive." Abi is defined as a prefix ; implying 

 being in a state of, having, an existence, a being. Erom these definitions it would appear 

 that bi had once the simple meaning of our English verb be, as well as its present causa- 

 tive meanings, to affect, to generate.^ The Latin est vnihi, = habeo, the use of the verbs to 

 be and to have, in the formation of preterites, in many languages, and the kindred forms 



* In these comparisons, I pay no regard to the Yoruba, accents, which I am satisfied were invented merely to 

 denote different modifications of the primitive radical meanings. The comparative words arc intended merely as 

 suggestive, without implying that they are necessarily cognate. 



f Wcdgcwood compares bo, with A. S. beon ; Ga., Leo, alive; Ir., bioth, life, the world; Or-, /3i'«c; and says, 

 "The Irish verb substantive is formed from a root hi, the W. from a root ba, bu." ISowen's (Irani., p. 17, ways 

 that Yor., bi, if, is "probably from the obsolete verb bi, to be, which is still retained in composition, c. g., abi, 

 the state of existence." 



