DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0197
122
J. Abercromby
The distribution of P-words in the different islands is far from uniform: —
Islands
Number of P-words
Lanzarote
3
F uerte ventura
5 or 6
Grand Canary
6
Tenerife
19 or 20
Gomera
20
Palma
1
Ferro
3 or 4
57 or 60
In Tenerife ten or twelve words of undoubted affinity with Berber are exhibited in
Class I. Espinosa, who lived for many years on the Island at Candelaria on the east coast,
where the native language was longest preserved, observed a difference in the appearance
of the natives in the north and south. In the south they were swarthy or brown, while in
the north they were white, and the women rosy and beautiful. But he never hints that
there was any difference of language between these two strongly marked sections of the
population.
All the P-words recorded are proper names or place names, the meaning of which is
unknown, except in four instances. These are guapil from Lanzarote, guapilete and puna-
pal from the Grand Canary, and anepa from Tenerife. The first means ‘a skin headdress
with three feathers’; the second, 1 a girdle of rushes worn at the waist’; the third, ‘eldest
son by the first wife of a noble’; the fourth, ‘a lance or pole, with a flag attached, carried
before the king’. In the eighth Tenerifan sentence (§13) the word pelut occurs, but its
meaning is unknown. These four terms of known meaning relate to the stone age civiliza-
tion of the natives and from their meaning might have disappeared in modern Berber.
In any written language with a sufficiently long history a sound may be observed to
have dropped out of use in a later stage without in the least affecting its genetic connection
with the earlier stage. For instance, in the earliest known Greek the digamma was
sounded, but by the classical period it had vanished. Therefore, if it is possible to connect
the P-language of Tenerife in some respects with Berber, the loss of a P-sound in the latter
language is no obstacle. It only means that in its earlier stages Berber used that sound, and
that a Tenerifan type of speech was its predecessor.
The material for showing the similarity is very scanty, but the points of agreement are
grammatical and not merely lexical. In (actygua-yerxeran, (ach)gua-ychafun (§8), where
in both cases the y can be read i, the verb begins with i and ends with n and so corresponds
exactly with the 3 sg. participial form in Berber when preceded by a relative such as gua.
And in chiraxi (§8) if t can be read for ch, we get the exact 3 sg. fem, of a Berber verb.
The four words belong to the P-language.
J. Abercromby
The distribution of P-words in the different islands is far from uniform: —
Islands
Number of P-words
Lanzarote
3
F uerte ventura
5 or 6
Grand Canary
6
Tenerife
19 or 20
Gomera
20
Palma
1
Ferro
3 or 4
57 or 60
In Tenerife ten or twelve words of undoubted affinity with Berber are exhibited in
Class I. Espinosa, who lived for many years on the Island at Candelaria on the east coast,
where the native language was longest preserved, observed a difference in the appearance
of the natives in the north and south. In the south they were swarthy or brown, while in
the north they were white, and the women rosy and beautiful. But he never hints that
there was any difference of language between these two strongly marked sections of the
population.
All the P-words recorded are proper names or place names, the meaning of which is
unknown, except in four instances. These are guapil from Lanzarote, guapilete and puna-
pal from the Grand Canary, and anepa from Tenerife. The first means ‘a skin headdress
with three feathers’; the second, 1 a girdle of rushes worn at the waist’; the third, ‘eldest
son by the first wife of a noble’; the fourth, ‘a lance or pole, with a flag attached, carried
before the king’. In the eighth Tenerifan sentence (§13) the word pelut occurs, but its
meaning is unknown. These four terms of known meaning relate to the stone age civiliza-
tion of the natives and from their meaning might have disappeared in modern Berber.
In any written language with a sufficiently long history a sound may be observed to
have dropped out of use in a later stage without in the least affecting its genetic connection
with the earlier stage. For instance, in the earliest known Greek the digamma was
sounded, but by the classical period it had vanished. Therefore, if it is possible to connect
the P-language of Tenerife in some respects with Berber, the loss of a P-sound in the latter
language is no obstacle. It only means that in its earlier stages Berber used that sound, and
that a Tenerifan type of speech was its predecessor.
The material for showing the similarity is very scanty, but the points of agreement are
grammatical and not merely lexical. In (actygua-yerxeran, (ach)gua-ychafun (§8), where
in both cases the y can be read i, the verb begins with i and ends with n and so corresponds
exactly with the 3 sg. participial form in Berber when preceded by a relative such as gua.
And in chiraxi (§8) if t can be read for ch, we get the exact 3 sg. fem, of a Berber verb.
The four words belong to the P-language.