Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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(Vater Mithridates tome 3 page 333.) These are the
only examples of analogy of sound, that have yet been noticed.
The
grammatical character of the two languages is totally different.)
nearly the same as in Sanscrit; while God is called Vinay Huayna,
the eternally young.'* (* Vinay, always, or eternal; huayna, in the
flower of age.)
The arrangement of words in the Chayma is similar to that found in
all the languages of both continents, which have preserved a
certain primitive character. The object is placed before the verb,
the verb before the personal pronoun. The object, on which the
attention should be principally fixed, precedes all the
modifications of that object. The American would say, liberty
complete love we, instead of we love complete liberty; Thee with
happy am I, instead of I am happy with thee. There is something
direct, firm, demonstrative, in these turns, the simplicity of
which is augmented by the absence of the article. May it be
presumed that, with advancing civilization, these nations, left to
themselves, would have gradually changed the arrangement of their
phrases? We are led to adopt this idea, when we reflect on the
changes which the syntax of the Romans has undergone in the
precise, clear, but somewhat timid languages of Latin Europe.
The Chayma, like the Tamanac and most of the American languages, is
entirely destitute of certain letters, as f, b, and d. No word
begins with an l. The same observation has been made on the Mexican
tongue, though it is overcharged with the syllables tli, tla, and
itl, at the end or in the middle of words.
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