DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0200
Canarian Speech
125
attributed in some measure to borrowing from natives of the opposite coast after the con-
quest of the Archipelago.
At any rate his arguments failed to convince the Marquis of Bute in 1891, or
Markham in 1907. The former, in a paper read before the British Association in 1891
confined his attention to the language of Tenerife, and based his study on Chil’s list of
Tenerifan words. He attacked the problem with an open mind, and was an advocate of no
previously formed theory. He was struck by what seemed to him Aryan elements in the
vocabulary. For instance aguere (§3), ‘a lake’, he would connect with (Lat.) aqua, and
(Eng.) weir; cel (§4), ‘moon’, with (Greek) cr€Xf|VT|; zonfa (§13) was suggestive of zone;
mencey (§3), 'king’ reminded him of eminence; reste (§13) 'defence, prop’, of (Eng.) rest in
the sense of ‘ a prop ’; sote in his opinion had something to do with (Lat.) subter, (Sp.)
soto; pelut or petut suggested to him the (Lat.) pater or (Eng.) ‘father’!
In the field of grammar he was convinced, as has been mentioned above, that achi, ac,
at, represented the definite article, though without indicating gender. He regarded it as
a modification of t, which in some way resembled the Coptic definite article t which may be
vocalized as et or ti. But the closest parallel to the Tenerifan article was obviously the
(Eng.) the. Comparing cuca, 'son’ with cucaha, 'daughter’, he concluded that -ha was a
regular feminine termination and that, as in Latin, a masculine noun might end in -a.
Some words ending in -o, -i, -y seemed to be genitives, e. g. quebehi Bencomo, 'the majesty
of Bencomo’, guayaxiraxi, 'the soul of the sky’.
In the verb, two examples of the 1 sg. pres, were to be seen in guayohec, 'I become, I
live ’ and in agonec, ‘ I swear’. The final -ec was to Lord Bute at once suggestive of the (Lat.)
ego. The variant agohey would relate this suffix to the Coptic and Semitic first persons,
to Latin first persons perfect in -i, and to the English pronoun I. For the 3 pers. sg.
he hazarded the conjecture that it ended in -th, and it was then hardly necessary to
point out the coincidence with (Lat.) -t and (Eng.) -th. In tanagaguayoch, 'he has died’,
tan- was probably a prefix indicating the past. In this word and in haya and fahet or sahec,
which look like parts of a verb, is to be noticed the a, which is the Coptic auxiliary in the
past tense. (This statement is difficult to understand, as the Coptic a, used in forming
the past tense, is a prefix.) The personal pronouns attached to nouns may have been
given, as in Coptic, by a suffix. In zahanat, 'thy slave’, the -I is the suffix of the 2 sg.
For the plural an example is found in quevihi-era, 'your highness’.
He concludes with these words: —
I am not unconscious that while I have suggested certain Aryan analogies, especially in the
vocabulary, certain grammatical forms which I have indicated as possible, such as a definite article in t,
feminines in a, and pronominal suffixes to nouns and verbs, might be interpreted as rather in the same
direction as Coptic and thus partially coinciding with the Berber theory, at least as regards its Hamitic
origin.
125
attributed in some measure to borrowing from natives of the opposite coast after the con-
quest of the Archipelago.
At any rate his arguments failed to convince the Marquis of Bute in 1891, or
Markham in 1907. The former, in a paper read before the British Association in 1891
confined his attention to the language of Tenerife, and based his study on Chil’s list of
Tenerifan words. He attacked the problem with an open mind, and was an advocate of no
previously formed theory. He was struck by what seemed to him Aryan elements in the
vocabulary. For instance aguere (§3), ‘a lake’, he would connect with (Lat.) aqua, and
(Eng.) weir; cel (§4), ‘moon’, with (Greek) cr€Xf|VT|; zonfa (§13) was suggestive of zone;
mencey (§3), 'king’ reminded him of eminence; reste (§13) 'defence, prop’, of (Eng.) rest in
the sense of ‘ a prop ’; sote in his opinion had something to do with (Lat.) subter, (Sp.)
soto; pelut or petut suggested to him the (Lat.) pater or (Eng.) ‘father’!
In the field of grammar he was convinced, as has been mentioned above, that achi, ac,
at, represented the definite article, though without indicating gender. He regarded it as
a modification of t, which in some way resembled the Coptic definite article t which may be
vocalized as et or ti. But the closest parallel to the Tenerifan article was obviously the
(Eng.) the. Comparing cuca, 'son’ with cucaha, 'daughter’, he concluded that -ha was a
regular feminine termination and that, as in Latin, a masculine noun might end in -a.
Some words ending in -o, -i, -y seemed to be genitives, e. g. quebehi Bencomo, 'the majesty
of Bencomo’, guayaxiraxi, 'the soul of the sky’.
In the verb, two examples of the 1 sg. pres, were to be seen in guayohec, 'I become, I
live ’ and in agonec, ‘ I swear’. The final -ec was to Lord Bute at once suggestive of the (Lat.)
ego. The variant agohey would relate this suffix to the Coptic and Semitic first persons,
to Latin first persons perfect in -i, and to the English pronoun I. For the 3 pers. sg.
he hazarded the conjecture that it ended in -th, and it was then hardly necessary to
point out the coincidence with (Lat.) -t and (Eng.) -th. In tanagaguayoch, 'he has died’,
tan- was probably a prefix indicating the past. In this word and in haya and fahet or sahec,
which look like parts of a verb, is to be noticed the a, which is the Coptic auxiliary in the
past tense. (This statement is difficult to understand, as the Coptic a, used in forming
the past tense, is a prefix.) The personal pronouns attached to nouns may have been
given, as in Coptic, by a suffix. In zahanat, 'thy slave’, the -I is the suffix of the 2 sg.
For the plural an example is found in quevihi-era, 'your highness’.
He concludes with these words: —
I am not unconscious that while I have suggested certain Aryan analogies, especially in the
vocabulary, certain grammatical forms which I have indicated as possible, such as a definite article in t,
feminines in a, and pronominal suffixes to nouns and verbs, might be interpreted as rather in the same
direction as Coptic and thus partially coinciding with the Berber theory, at least as regards its Hamitic
origin.