The American Nations, Vol. I. / Or, Outlines of a National History of the Ancient and Modern Nations of North and South America

by C. S. Rafinesque

4. Mandara. Handsome black nation in the centre of Africa, 12 words comparable, 6 akin,—one, water, man, king, mother, river—Mutual analogies 50 per cent. Nearer connection than with the Guanch, or separation less remote.

5. Pelagic, or ancestors of the Greeks and Italians. Comparable words in all the ancient and modern dialects nearly 200, whereof about 160 offer more or less analogies!—Mutual affinity 80 per cent! Complete and near connection.

Therefore the Haytians are of Pelagic origin! No other group of languages offer anything like as many. The nearest after, are the Atlantic L. Lybian, Egyptian, Bask, Sanscrit, Persian &c. who are all connected with the Pelagic nations. The analogies with the Tartars, Chinese, Polynesians &c., are all less in amount.

In America the Haytian affinities are of course the greatest with the Aruac nations of South America; who are their brothers, and extend to the Taos of Tucuman and the Tinguis or true Patagons of Pigafetta. Yet they may have been divided long ago, or ever since their American settlement: since out of two selected for comparisons, after the vocabularies, the Araguas had only 70 per cent of analogy, and the Cairi only 56 per cent. The nearest affinities after these, were with the Apalachis, Nachez, Cadoz, Huastecas, Mexican, Tarasca, Maya, Chontal &c. of N. America, [pg 220] and the Darien, Betoy, Peruvian, Chili, Mbaya &c. of South America.

Those with the nations of N. America of Asiatic origin, and the nations of South America of African origin, such as the Linapis and Guaranis, were much reduced. See the compared vocabularies.

The Haytian shall now become therefore one of the touchstones of other American languages, to verify their eastern or Atlantic origin, and above all the connection with the American Pelagians.

Let us now consider the forms and peculiarities of this interesting language, and first its phonology.

It appears to have all the sounds of the Italic languages; but it lacks the Greek TH, PS, the Cairi had TH. It has been written by Spaniards, and their simple orthography applies well to it; but leaves a doubt whether it had the Celtic and French û (unless it be y) Hebrew and English SH, lacking in Spanish. Their CH is as in English, and the French TCH.—It had the gutural X of the Greeks and Spanish, written X and J. Also the Spanish LL, GN or Ñ, and TZ.

It had few P being changed to B; few F often changed to V; few L changing to Y; few S changed to Z; few D changed to T.—It had no nasal sounds as in Italian, AN becoming Ana &c. Many dipthongs AO, OEI, IA, AI, UA, AU, EI &c. as in Italian, each vowel sounded. This made [pg 221] the language soft, pleasing and musical as in Italian and Polynesian. Dangleria says the accent was always on the last syllable, as in French.

On the grammar of it, nothing has been written; what Vater has said is quite loose and inaccurate. We have not even the Lord's Prayer in it, so as to serve as a model. Our only guides are a few translated phrases of Roman and Dangleria; but they enable us to perceive the main features of it.