Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/132

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120
ON THE PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS.

warranted Dr. Latham in assigning the various languages of Africa to certain groups, in the way he has done. If it be objected that they are not found all of one particular African nation, it may be a sufficient answer that these languages are so nearly allied, as to convince us they are only dialectically different, and that four hundred years since they might have been less distinct from one another than they are at present. I believe I shall not have to quote any one African language which is radically different from the others, knowing that many African nations and languages are often designated by different names, when they are in reality identical. At any rate, the languages referred to are all of the western nations of Africa, taken from the vocabulary, so often mentioned, for the African words, and from Rochefort and Le Breton for the Carib. The modern Carib has full one half of the words different from those given by the French authors two hundred years since, and I find the adoption generally of the women's language mentioned by those authors, to which are there no sufficient analogies in the African to warrant my repeating them. Those which I think will prove my suppositions are as follows, premising, that as the Carib words are taken from French authors, they must have given them a French pronunciation; and also that my means of comparison are very limited, half the words in the Carib vocabularies being wanting in the African, and, vice versa.


English, Man. Carib, Ouekelli. Kongo, Iakela. Ako, Okori.

English, Father. Carib, Baba. Ako, Baba. Eulah, Baba.

English, Son. Carib, Inimou. Ako, Omb.

English, Younger Brother. Carib, Ibiri. Yoruba, Aburo.

English, Daughter.

Carib, lamouiri. Yoruba, Ommobiri,

English, Head. Carib, Ischic. Ibu, Ishi. Fanti, Mitshi.

English, Head. Carib, Boupou. Woloff, Bope.

English, Eye. Carib, Akou. Ako, Oyu.

English, Hair. Carib, Ion. Ako, Iru.

English, Tooth. Carib, Ari. Ako, Ehi.

Enghsh, Skin. Carib, Ora. Ako, Awor.

English,Shoulder. Carib, Eche. Ako, Ejika.

English, Blood. Carib, Itta. Ako, Eja.

English, Breast. Carib, Ouri.