Dear Sir,
My curiosity has been much gratified by your obliging communication of Mr. Horneman’s specimen of the language spoken at Siwah, or the Oasis of Ammon, in the Lybian Desert; and it will afford satisfaction to you in return, to be informed, that notwithstanding the accident to his papers, which we must all regret, and which might cause some doubt to attach to the correctness of a list subsequently formed, I am enabled to identify the words he has transmitted, amongst the dialects of Africa with which we are already acquainted, and thereby to increase the confidence we feel in the general accuracy of this zealous and enterprising traveller.
Not having any previous knowledge of the extensive people whom he calls Tuarick, of whose language he was given to understand that this of Siwah is a dialect, I directed my attention in the first instance to the numerous specimens I possess of the languages spoken by various tribes of Negros, in the northern part of the continent, but without being able to trace in any of them the slightest similitude. I then pursued my comparison through the Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldaic, and the different branches of the Ethiopic; and although I thought some distant affinity perceptible, it was not such as could be insisted upon. I was next led to examine the language spoken by the inhabitants of Mount Atlas, known in Morocco by the names of Shilha شلح, and Breber or Berber بربر, but in their own country by that of Amazigh امزيغ; and here I had the satisfaction of ascertaining the object of my search. The following examples will, I doubt not, be judged sufficient evidence of the language of these countries of Siwah and Shilha, distant from each other by the whole breadth of Africa, being one and the same; and I scarcely need to claim even that reasonable allowance which every candid person will make for the difference of orthography that unavoidably results from the different circumstances under which collections of this nature are formed.
| Siwah. | Shilha. | |
|---|---|---|
| Head, | Achfé, | Eghf, Eaghph. |
| Eyes, | Taun, | Tet, Tetten, Azain. |
| Hand, | Fuss, | Efus, Aphoose. |
| Water, | Aman, | Aman. |
| Sun, | Itfuct, | Taffought, Tafogt. |
| Cow, | Ftunest, | Tefnast, Taphonest. |
| Mountain, | Iddrarn, | Adarar. |
| Dates, | Tena, | Tini, Teeny. |
The earliest account of the Shilha language of which I am at present aware, is that given by Jezreel Jones, in a Latin epistle published at the end of Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica, in 1715. He says, “Lingua Shilhensis vel Tamazeght, præter planities Messæ, Hahhæ et provinciam Daræ vel Drâ, in plus viginti viget provinciis regni Sûs in Barbaria Meridionali. Diversæ linguæ hujus dantur dialecti in Barbaria, quæ ante Arabicam, primariam Mauritaniæ Tingitanæ et Cæsariensis provinciarum linguam ibi obtinuêre, et hodiernum inter Atlanticorum Sûs Dara et Reephean Montium incolas solum exercentur.” A specimen is added, consisting of about one hundred words. In the excellent account of Morocco published in Danish, by George Höst, in 1779, there is also a short vocabulary of this language, where the words are given with apparent accuracy, in the Arabic character.
Several years ago you were so kind as to transmit for me to Mr. Matra, His Majesty’s Consul at Morocco, (a gentleman whose exertions for the advancement of useful knowledge, and particularly of that which is the object of the African Association, deserve the highest praise,) a copy of an extensive alphabetical list of English words, which I printed and distributed with the view of facilitating the attainment of languages not to be met with in dictionaries, and in consequence of which I received from him, through your hands, a very valuable communication. “It is not, (he says in a letter dated in 1791, that accompanied it,) the printed copy Mr. Marsden sent me, but an exact duplicate. His copy, with the words translated into Arabic, is sent to Tombuctoo, I fear but with little chance of its returning.” That copy never did return; but the transcript I received contains a version of all the words into the Mauritanian dialect of Arabic, for the purpose of enabling a talb, or priest, from the Shilha country, to write opposite to each, in the same character, the corresponding terms in his language. I have been used to consider this as a very curious document, even when I believed it to apply only to the western coast of Africa, but its importance will be much increased, if we should find, as there is ground to presume, that the Shilha or Berber extends across the whole continent, in a direction between the Negro dialects on the southern side, and the Moorish or Arabic of the Mediterranean coasts, and that it was the general language of all Northern Africa before the period of the Mahometan conquests. Independently of the Arabic terms, which must ever accompany the progress of that religion, I think it exhibits some strong marks of affinity to that class of Oriental languages which the German writers have distinguished by the name of Shemitic; and if this should be established, (contrary, however, to the opinion of Höst,) it will not be unreasonable to suppose it the ancient Punic, corrupted by the influx of words successively introduced by the colonies or armies of Greeks, Romans, and Goths, and at length mixing again with a branch of the original stream, in its connection with the modern Arabic.
I am, Dear Sir, &c.
W. M.
Spring Garden, 1st May, 1800.
P. S. Since writing the foregoing, I have adverted to the chapter on the Oasis of Ammon, in the learned work of my friend Major Rennell, (the Geographical System of Herodotus examined,) and perceive from the extracts he has selected, (p. 589, 590) that Herodotus understood the Ammonians to be composed of Egyptians and Ethiopians, and their language to be formed from a mixture of both, which might have been true in his time; but that the Arabian geographers, Edrisi and Ibn Al Wardi, assert that Santariah (which the Major has proved to be the Oasis of Ammon, or Siwah) is inhabited by Berbers mixed with Arabs.