Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and Recent Origin of the Human Race

by Arthur James Johnes

Remarks.

The proofs involved in the previous Analysis of the original unity of the different languages of the globe are distinct and vivid. It will be observed that those irregularities of structure, which are to be found more or less in each individual language, viewed separately, disappear when the whole mass of human tongues are thus surveyed in combination as derivative branches of one original speech. Moreover, it will be seen that the greater the number of languages, and the wider the geographical surface of the globe comprised in the comparison, the more minutely may be traced the steps of the transition by which the languages of mankind branched off from their common Original. This evidence is in its nature demonstrative of the truths developed in these pages.

It will be apparent that the Heavenly Bodies were originally designated by numerous synonymes applied to the Sun, Moon, and Stars alike. In the course of time, a portion of these terms fell into disuse among each different branch of the human family; and as these various tribes did not, except in individual instances, preserve the same terms, these changes gave rise to differences, apparently fundamental. Moreover, in those instances in which the same terms were retained, time produced important conventional differences of application. For example, in order to distinguish the Sun, Moon, &c. from each other.

1. A portion of these synonymes, which were originally used for all the Heavenly Bodies alike, were exclusively appropriated to the Sun, while other synonymes were appropriated in like manner to the Moon, &c.; among different nations the same terms were frequently applied to different luminaries. Thus, in conformity to this principle, the English words “Sun” and “Moon” will be found to occur in the previous Analysis each applied, in other languages, to both those luminaries.

2. In some cases the different luminaries were distinguished from each other in a different manner, viz. two or more synonymes were united into one compound word, which was employed as the distinctive name of one of the Heavenly Bodies, as of the Sun, for example, while the “Moon” and the “Stars” continued to be known by their original names, consisting of simple synonymes; or received new names, formed by means of distinct compounds.

Examples of the second class abound in the dialects of the American continent. One example may suffice in this place, by way of illustration: “Tes-gessu” in some of these dialects means the Sun; in other dialects we find each of its component elements, “Tês” and “Gessu,” used separately as names of the same luminary. In common with many other important truths, the nature and origin of these compounds are, I conceive, rendered clearly apparent by an extended range of comparison, though they seem to have been a source of embarrassment to the philosophical mind of Du Ponceau, whose valuable inquiries were confined to a particular class of the dialects of North America.

When the results of the previous Analysis are compared with the previous collection of African synonymes, used as names of the Heavenly Bodies, &c., it will be found that nearly every one of these synonymes has been unequivocally connected with the languages of the other three great divisions of the globe. The exceptions are too insignificant to be in any respect deserving of attention, with reference to the objects of this investigation. The completeness of this explanation of the African terms may, in the first instance, form a subject of surprise. But, astonishing as the results of the previous comparison in this respect undoubtedly are, they are nevertheless precisely the same as we should be led à priori to expect, on the assumption that the African nations are descended from the same stock as the inhabitants of the other three continents.[178]

Words For “Man, Woman, Human Being.”

[In the following Analysis, the letter m. marks nouns masculine, (“Vir,” Latin, “Man,” English;) f. marks nouns feminine, (“Fœmina,” Latin, “Woman,” English;) h. marks terms applied to a “Human Being,” whether “male” or “female,” (“Homo,” Latin, “Mensch,” German;) there is no equivalent expression in the English language.]

From the following Analysis, it will be apparent that, originally, the same words were in most instances applied to individuals of the human race, whether male or female, indiscriminately. Subsequently, a portion of the synonymes, thus indiscriminately applied in the first instance to the whole species, were separately appropriated to each of the two sexes; while another portion, as, for example, the Latin, “Homo,” and the German, “Mensch,” continued to be used as general terms for an individual of the species, without reference to sex.