Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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This comparison seems to prove that the analogies observed in the
roots of the Pareni and the Maypure tongues are not to be neglected;
they are, however, scarcely more frequent than those that have been
observed between the Maypure of the Upper Orinoco and the language of
the Moxos, which is spoken on the banks of the Marmora, from 15 to 20
degrees of south latitude. The Parenis have in their pronunciation the
English th, or tsa of the Arabians, as I clearly heard in the word
Amethami (devil, evil spirit). I need not again notice the origin of
the word camosi. Solitary resemblances of sounds are as little proof
of communication between nations as the dissimilitude of a few roots
furnishes evidence against the affiliation of the German from the
Persian and the Greek. It is remarkable, however, that the names of
the sun and moon are sometimes found to be identical in languages, the
grammatical construction of which is entirely different; I may cite as
examples the Guarany and the Omagua,* languages of nations formerly
very powerful. (* Sun and Moon, in Guarany, Quarasi and Jasi; in
Omagua, Huarassi and Jase. I shall give, farther on, these same words
in the principal languages of the old and new worlds. See note below.)
It may be conceived that, with the worship of the stars and of the
powers of nature, words which have a relation to these objects might
pass from one idiom to another. I showed the constellation of the
Southern Cross to a Pareni Indian, who covered the lantern while I was
taking the circum-meridian heights of the stars; and he called it
Bahumehi, a name which the caribe fish, or serra salme, also bears in
Pareni. He was ignorant of the name of the belt of Orion; but a
Poignave Indian,* who knew the constellations better, assured me that
in his tongue the belt of Orion bore the name of Fuebot; he called the
moon Zenquerot. (* At the Orinoco the Puignaves, or Poignaves, are
distinguished from the Guipunaves (Uipunavi). The latter, on account
of their language, are considered as belonging to the Maypure and
Cabre nations; yet water is called in Poignave, as well as in Maypure,
oueni.) These two words have a very peculiar character for words of
American origin. As the names of the constellations may have been
transmitted to immense distances from one nation to another, these
Poignave words have fixed the attention of the learned, who have
imagined they recognize the Phoenician and Moabite tongues in the word
camosi of the Pareni. Fuebot and zenquerot seem to remind us of the
Phoenician words mot (clay), ardod (oak-tree), ephod, etc. But what
can we conclude from simple terminations which are most frequently
foreign to the roots?
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