The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations

As it is thus rendered extremely probable that the Arawack is closely connected with the great linguistic families of South America, it becomes of prime importance to trace its extension northward, and to determine if it is in any way affined to the tongues spoken on the West India Islands, when these were first discovered.

The Arawacks of to-day when asked concerning their origin point to the north, and claim at some not very remote time to have lived at Kairi, an island, by which generic name they mean Trinidad. This tradition is in a measure proved correct by the narrative of Sir Walter Raleigh, who found them living there in 1595,[10 - The Discoverie of Guiana, p 4 (Hackluyt, Soc., London, 1842).] and by the Belgian explorers who in 1598 collected a short vocabulary of their tongue. This oldest monument of the language has sufficient interest to deserve copying and comparing with the modern dialect. It is as follows:

The syllables wa our, and da my, prefixed to the parts of the human body, will readily be recognized. When it is remembered that the dialect of Trinidad no doubt differed slightly from that on the mainland; that the modern orthography is German and that of De Lact’s list is Dutch; and that two centuries intervened between the first and second, it is really a matter of surprise to discover such a close similarity. Father and mother, the only two words which are not identical, are doubtless different expressions, relationship in this, as in most native tongues, being indicated with excessive minuteness.

The chain of islands which extend from Trinidad to Porto Rico were called, from their inhabitants, the Caribby islands. The Caribs, however, made no pretence to have occupied them for any great length of time. They distinctly remembered that a generation or two back they had reached them from the mainland, and had found them occupied by a peaceful race, whom they styled Ineri or Igneri. The males of this race they slew or drove into the interior, but the women they seized for their own use. Hence arose a marked difference between the languages of the island Caribs and their women. The fragments of the language of the latter show clearly that they were of Arawack lineage, and that the so-called Igneri were members of that nation. It of course became more or less corrupted by the introduction of Carib words and forms, so that in 1674 the missionary De la Borde wrote, that “although there is some difference between the dialects of the men and women, they readily understand each other;”[11 - Relation de l’Origine, etc., des Caraibes, p. 39 (Paris, 1674).] and Father Breton in his Carib Grammar (1665) gives the same forms for the declensions and conjugations of both.

As the traces of the “island Arawack,” as the tongue of the Igneri may be called, prove the extension of this tribe over all the Lesser Antilles, it now remains to inquire whether they had pushed their conquests still further, and had possessed themselves of the Great Antilles, the Bahama islands, and any part of the adjacent coasts of Yucatan or Florida.

All ancient writers agree that on the Bahamas and Cuba the same speech prevailed, except Gomara, who avers that on the Bahamas “great diversity of language” was found.[12 - “Havia mas policia entre ellos [los Lucayos,] i mucha diversidad de Lenguas.” Hist. de las Indias, cap. 41.] But as Gomara wrote nearly half a century after those islands were depopulated, and has exposed himself to just censure for carelessness in his statements regarding the natives,[13 - Las Casas, in the Historia General de las Indias Occid, lib. III, cap. 27, criticizes him severely.] his expression has no weight. Columbus repeatedly states that all the islands had one language though differing, more or less, in words. The natives he took with him from San Salvador understood the dialects in both Cuba and Haiti. One of them on his second voyage served him as an interpreter on the southern shore of Cuba.[14 - Columbus says of the Bahamas and Cuba: “toda la lengua es una y todos amigos” (Navarrete, Viages, Tomo I, p. 46.) The natives of Guanahani conversed with those of Haiti “porque todos tenian una lengua,” (ibid, p. 86.) In the Bay of Samana a different dialect but the same language was found (p. 135).]

In Haiti, there was a tongue current all over the island, called by the Spaniards la lengua universal and la lengua cortesana. This is distinctly said by all the historians to have been but very slightly different from that of Cuba, a mere dialectic variation in accent being observed.[15 - Gomara says the language of Cuba is “algo diversa,” from that of Espanola. (Hist. de las Indias, cap. 41.) Oviedo says that though the natives of the two islands differ in many words, yet they readily understand each other. (Hist. de las Indias, lib. XVII. cap. 4.)] Many fragments of this tongue are preserved in the narratives of the early explorers, and it has been the theme for some strange and wild theorizing among would-be philologists. Rafinesque christened it the “Taino” language, and discovered it to be closely akin to the “Pelasgic” of Europe.[16 - The American Nations, chap. VII, (Philadelphia, 1836.)] The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg will have it allied to the Maya, the old Norse or Scandinavian, the ancient Coptic, and what not. Rafinesque and Jegor von Sivors[17 - Cuba, die Perle der Antillen, p. 72. (Leipzig, 1831.) The vocabulary contains 33 words, “aus dem Cubanischen.” Many are incorrect both in spelling and pronunciation.] have made vocabularies of it, but the former in so uncritical, and the latter in so superficial a manner, that they are worse than useless.

Although it is said there were in Haiti two other tongues in the small contiguous provinces of Macorix de arriba and Macorix de abajo, entirely dissimilar from the lengua universal and from each other, we are justified in assuming that the prevalent tongue throughout the whole of the Great Antilles and the Bahamas, was that most common in Haiti. I have, therefore, perused with care all the early authorities who throw any light upon the construction and vocabulary of this language, and gathered from their pages the scattered information they contain. The most valuable of these authorities are Peter Martyr de Angleria, who speaks from conversations with natives brought to Spain by Columbus, on his first voyage,[18 - When Columbus returned from his first voyage, he brought with him ten natives from the Bay of Samana in Haiti, and a few from Guanahani.] and who was himself, a fine linguist, and Bartolomé de las Casas. The latter came as a missionary to Haiti, a few years after its discovery, was earnestly interested in the natives, and to some extent acquainted with their language. Besides a few printed works of small importance, Las Casas left two large and valuable works in manuscript, the Historia General de las Indias Occidentales, and the Historia Apologetica de las Indias Occidentals. A copy of these, each in four large folio volumes, exists in the Library of Congress, where I consulted them. They contain a vast amount of information relating to the aborigines, especially the Historia Apologetica, though much of the author’s space is occupied with frivolous discussions and idle comparisons.

In later times, the scholar who has most carefully examined the relics of this ancient tongue, is Señor Don Estevan Richardo, a native of Haiti, but who for many years resided in Cuba. His views are contained in the preface to his Diccionario Provincial casi-razonado de Voces Cubanas, (Habana, 2da ed, 1849). He has found very many words of the ancient language retained in the provincial Spanish of the island, but of course in a corrupt form. In the vocabulary which I have prepared for the purpose of comparison, I have omitted all such corrupted forms, and nearly all names of plants and animals, as it is impossible to identify these with certainty, and in order to obtain greater accuracy, have used, when possible, the first edition of the authors quoted, and in most instances, given under each word a reference to some original authority.

From the various sources which I have examined, the alphabet of the lengua universal appears to have been as follows: a, b, d, e, (rarely used at the commencement of a word), g, j, (an aspirated guttural like the Catalan j, or as Peter Martyr says, like the Arabic ch), i (rare), l (rare), m, n, o (rare,) p, q, r, s, t, u, y. These letters, it will be remembered, are as in Spanish.

The Spanish sounds z, ce, ci (English th,) ll, and v, were entirely unknown to the natives, and where they appear in indigenous words, were falsely written for l and b. The Spaniards also frequently distorted the native names by writing x for j, s, and z, by giving j the sound of the Latin y, and by confounding h, j, and f, as the old writers frequently employ the h to designate the spiritus asper, whereas in modern Spanish it is mute.[19 - See the remarks of Richardo in the Prologo to his Diccionario Provincial.]

Peter Martyr found that he could reduce all the words of their language to writing, by means of the Latin letters without difficulty, except in the single instance of the guttural j. He, and all others who heard it spoken, describe it as “soft and not less liquid than the Latin,” “rich in vowels and pleasant to the ear,” an idiom “simple, sweet, and sonorous.”[20 - The remarks of Peter Martyr are; “posse omnium illarum linguam nostris literis Latinis, sine ullo discrimine, scribi compertum est,” (De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe, Decades Tres, p. 9.) “Advertendum est, nullam inesse adspirationem vocabulis corum, quae non habeat effectum literae consonantis; immo gravius adspirationem proferunt, quam nos f consonantem. Proferendumque est quicquid est adspiratum eodum halitu quo f, sed minime admoto ad superiores dentes inferiore labello, ore aut aperto ha, he hi, ho, hu, et concusso pectore. Hebraeos et Arabicos eodem modo suas proferre adspirationes vides,” (id. pp. 285, 286.)]

In the following vocabulary I have not altered in the least the Spanish orthography of the words, and so that the analogy of many of them might at once be preceived, I have inserted the corresponding Arawack expression, which, it must be borne in mind, is to be pronounced by the German alphabet.

Vocabulary of the Ancient Language of the Great Antilles

Aji, red pepper. Arawack, achi, red pepper.

Aon, dog (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, c. 120). Island Ar. ánli, dog.

Arcabuco, a wood, a spot covered with trees (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las Indias, lib. VI, c, 8). Ar. arragkaragkadin the swaying to and fro of trees.

Areito, a song chanted alternately by the priests and the people at their feasts. (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V, c. 1.) Ar. aririn to name, rehearse.

Bagua, the sea. Ar. bara, the sea.

Bajaraque, a large house holding several hundred persons. From this comes Sp. barraca, Eng. barracks. Ar. bajü, a house.

Bajari, title applied to sub-chiefs ruling villages, (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 120). Probably “house-ruler,” from Ar. bajü, house.

Barbacoa, a loft for drying maize, (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. VII, cap. 1). From this the English barbacue. Ar. barrabakoa, a place for storing provisions.

Batay, a ball-ground; bates, the ball; batey, the game. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. c. 204). Ar. battatan, to be round, spherical.[21 - There was a ball-ground in every village. It was “tres veces mas luenga que ancha, cercada de unos lomillos de un palmo o dos de alto.” The ball was “como las de viento nuestras mas no cuanto al salto, que era mayor que seis de las de viento.” (Las Casas, Historia Apologetica, caps. 46, 204.) Perhaps the ball was of India rubber.]

Batea, a trough. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. c. 241.)

Bejique, a priest. Ar. piaye, a priest.

Bixa, an ointment. (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 241.)

Cai, cayo, or cayco, an island. From this the Sp. cayo, Eng. key, in the “Florida keys.” Ar. kairi, an island.

Caiman, an alligator, Ar. kaiman, an alligator, lit. to be strong.

Caona or cáuni, gold. (Pet. Martyr, Decad. p. 26, Ed. Colon, 1564). Ar. kaijaunan, to be precious, costly.

Caracol, a conch, a univalve shell. From this the Sp. caracol. (Richardo, Dicc. Provin. s. v). Probably from Galibi caracoulis, trifles, ornaments. (See Martius, Sprachenkunde, B. II, p. 332.)

Caney or cansi, a house of conical shape.

Canoa, a boat. From this Eng. canoe. Ar. kannoa, a boat.

Casique, a chief. This word was afterwards applied by Spanish writers to the native rulers throughout the New World. Ar. kassiquan (from ussequa, house), to have or own a house or houses; equivalent, therefore, to the Eng. landlord.

Cimu or simu, the front, forehead; a beginning. (Pet. Martyr, Decad. p. 302.) Ar. eme or uime, the mouth of a river, uimelian, to be new.

Coaibai, the abode of the dead.

Cohóba, the native name of tobacco.

Conuco, a cultivated field. (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. VII, cap. 2.)

Duhos or duohos, low seats (unas baxas sillas, Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, cap 96. Oviedo, Hist. Gen. lib. V. cap. 1. Richardo, sub voce, by a careless reading of Oviedo says it means images). Ar. dulluhu or durruhu, a seat, a bench.

Goeiz, the spirit of the living (Pane, p. 444); probably a corruption of Guayzas. Ar. akkuyaha, the spirit of a living animal.

Gua, a very frequent prefix: Peter Martyr says, “Est apud eos articulus et pauca sunt regum praecipue nominum quae non incipiant ab hoc articulo gua.” (Decad. p. 285.) Very many proper names in Cuba and Hayti still retain it. The modern Cubans pronounce it like the English w with the spiritus lenis. It is often written oa, ua, oua, and hua. It is not an article, but corresponds to the ah in the Maya, and the gue in the Tupi of Brazil, from which latter it is probably derived.[22 - “Gue ou Gui, signal de vocativo, mas so empregado pelos homems.” Dias Diccionario da Lingua Tupy chamada Lingua Geral dos Indigenas do Brazil, p. 60 (Lipsia, 1858).]

Guaca, a vault for storing provisions.

Guacabiua, provisions for a journey, supplies.

Guacamayo, a species of parrot, macrocercus tricolor.

Guanara, a retired stop. (Pane, p. 444); a species of dove, columba zenaida (Richardo, S. V.)

Guanin, an impure sort of gold.

Guaoxeri, a term applied to the lowest class of the inhabitants (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 197.) Ar. wakaijaru, worthless, dirty, wakaijatti lihi, a worthless fellow.

Guatiao, friend, companion (Richardo). Ar. ahati, companion, playmate.

Guayzas, masks or figures (Las Casas, Hist. Apol. cap. 61). Ar. akkuyaha, living beings.

Haba, a basket (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. III, cap. 21). Ar. habba, a basket.

Haiti, stony, rocky, rough (Pet. Martyr, Decades). Ar. aessi or aetti, a stone.