OF THE YORU15A LANGUAGE. 



57 



130. O, 9 j Iw8, /Ao'w: egyig, pyig, yow. By the aid of the particle of extension or dis- 

 tance, ti, from, of, by, who, which, that, we may form ti iwS = tuwo; Cfr. Sans., tva„ tva', 

 tava ; Lat., tu ; Gr., 06 (Dor., t6), the a being substituted for r, as in Sans, tad, now, sa«. 

 The wo appears in Lat. vos; the o, modified into u, in Gr. <V-^<?; the yi in Eng. ye, and 

 Dak. incorporated ya, ye; yi -t- iwo =yuwo in Sans, yuva', and the modified g in A. S. ge. 

 As ni = m = 5 (v. Emi, § 75), the g in yyiij, the p. in 6/j.s'cc, and Dak. ni, may all have 

 sprung from the same origin. 



131. O, 9 j 09) Og, he, she, it; aw5g, nw5g, wot), they. Cfr. Fr., on. In awa, we, our, us, 

 iwo, thou, thy, thee, aw5g, they, their, them, there is apparently an identical compound root, 

 which has been modified so as to distinguish its several applications. That compound is 

 probably a or i, that which,wix, is. With the demonstrative ta prefixed, it becomes tawa, 

 which is equivalent to Sans, tava, thy, "that which is" there, and to the Dakota possessive 

 tawa,, in mitawa, my: nitawa, thy: tawa, his: unkitawapi, our (Ger., unser); nitawapi, 

 your: tawapi, their. Perhaps the analogy between og and Fr. on, may be considered 

 more important, if we observe that 09 also signifies and,* as if the two things 

 connected were an-d, or one-d (Cfr. Ger., und; Dan., og; Du., en; Dak., ugkag). The 

 use of the same root for the substantive verb and for unity, may be observed in Dak. way, 

 a or an, wagda, one, ug, yagka, wagka, yukag, to be: Yor., ni (= g), one, to be: Eg., an, 

 to be, and (Cfr. Ger., audi) ; u, to collect: ua, one: 1111, to be (Cfr. D. ug; J. at., unus); Gr., 

 si-?, tl-ixt, eh-at (Cfr. Ger., ein). The da or ka in wagda wagka, may be identical in origin 

 with the similar sound in Yor. ka, Eg., s-ka, to collect: Sans., eca«, one: tfa, and, also: 

 tfi, to collect: Eng., each; Gr., xai; Dak., ka, tfa, and, tfi, with: Chin., y or yih, one, to 

 unite in one, also: Span. y. 



Wedgewood has happily developed Tooke's idea of the radical connection of and with 

 an if whether: Webster adopts the hypothesis of Skinner, that and is equivalent 

 to add, with an epenthetic n.f Tooke quotes also the conjectures of Casaubon and 

 Lye, the former tracing the word to tlra, and the last to fr«. I am not aware that any 

 one has suspected an affinity to the indefinite article an, or that any attempt has ewer been 

 made to reconcile these apparently conflicting hypotheses. 1 think this reconciliation can 

 be satisfactorily effected, through the three Yoruba words, abi, ani, ati, each of which is 

 employed to denote that which has anything. Abi and ani also signify that which is, and 

 are therefore exact synonymes with awa, the three words being derived in the same manner 

 from hi, ni, and wa, to be. Awa, ama, and aba, are so nearly alike, that we might reason- 

 ably suppose them all to have sprung from the same root. This supposition is confirmed 



* l?owon says, "09, and, appears to bo tlio pronoun on, he," (p.17), but ho docs not attempt to show the con- 

 nection between the two meanings. Bunsen compares Eg. au, with Ger. aueh and Dan. og-. 

 -|- Diversions of Purley, London ed. 1840, pp. 70, 117. 

 vol. xin. — 8 



