Column 1: Word.
Column 2: In Guanche.
Column 3: In Berberic.
Heaven : Tigo : Tigot.
Milk : Aho : Acho.
Barley : Temasen : Tomzeen.
Basket : Carianas : Carian.
Water : Aenum : Anan.
I doubt whether this analogy is a proof of a common origin; but it
is an indication of the ancient connexion between the Guanches and
Berbers, a tribe of mountaineers, in which the ancient Numidians,
Getuli, and Garamanti are confounded, and who extend themselves
from the eastern extremity of Atlas by Harutsh and Fezzan, as far
as the oasis of Siwah and Augela. The natives of the Canary Islands
called themselves Guanches, from guan, man; as the Tonguese call
themselves bye, and tongui, which have the same signification as
guan. Besides the nations who speak the Berberic language are not
all of the same race; and the description which Scylax gives, in
his Periplus, of the inhabitants of Cerne, a shepherd people of
tall stature and long hair, reminds us of the features which
characterize the Canarian Guanches.)
The greater attention we direct to the study of languages in a
philosophical point of view, the more we must observe that no one
of them is entirely distinct. The language of the Guanches would
appear still less so, had we any data respecting its mechanism and
grammatical construction; two elements more important than the form
of words, and the identity of sounds. It is the same with certain
idioms, as with those organized beings that seem to shrink from all
classification in the series of natural families.
