The American Nations Part 20

The Eyeri dialect forms many plurals in UM. _Eyeri_ man, _Eyerium_ men; _Inaru_ woman, _Inayum_ women.

The adjectives are put before or after the substantives, blending the two forms; and the prevailing form in compound words is doubtful, perhaps the regular as in Latin.

Examples of regular position.

_Hay-ti_ Land-high.

_Ana-caona_ Flower (of) gold.

_Buhui-tihu_ Priest high or eminent.

Examples of inverse positions.

_Bo-hito_ Old man or priest.

_Jaya-el_ Earth-son.

_N'abor-itas_ The working men.

The adjectives are chiefly formed from nouns, and often by a simple O added, thus _Ziba_ stone, _Zibao_ stony, _Zibayo_ mount.

_Turei_ heaven, _Tureigua_ heavenly or heaven-like.

_Duhos_ wealth, _Duihzi_ wealthy or wealth-is.

The superlatives are commonly formed by duplication. _Ua_ old, _Uaua_ very old. _Co_ fruitful, _Coco_ very fruitful, the coco nut.

Or else by the affix _Ma_ which amplifies every thing.

The p.r.o.nouns appear very simple.

MI, M' first person for I, me, my, mine; but _our_ is _Ahia_?

TI, T' Second person for thee, thou, thy, thine.

LI, L' Third person for he, she, his, her.

NI, N' Common like _It_ or rather _On_ of the French.

How their plurals are formed, is doubtful; but perhaps the inflexions alone formed them. These p.r.o.nouns are pure Italian! or rather primitive.

They were often dispensed with as in Italian.

Of the verbs we know little or nothing. By a few examples of the verb _to be_, it was quite irregular as with us.

_Ei_ To be-_Tei_ be thou-_Bei_ being.

_Beira_ a being-_Dacha_ I am.

_El_ he is-_Zi_ it is, this is.

In these _Ei_ appears the root, derives from _Eil_, and was then similar to _El_ son, as _Zi_ to _Izi_ eyes.

This verb joined to others was added to words. _Guarocoel_ we know he is, may be a.n.a.lyzed _Gua-roco-el_ such-know-he-is.

We have an example of negative verbs in _Macabuca_ I do not care, which is _Macabuca_ not-care, or never-mind; in French _n'importe_, in Italian _non curo_.

Of the syntax we may form an idea by the few preserved phrases; which I have a.n.a.lyzed as follow, and compared with the Italian.

1. _Teitoca_ thou be quiet. _Tacitu_ Italian.

_tocheta_ much. _molto._ _zinato_ angry. _irato._ _Guame-chyna_ this great G.o.d. _gran-Nume._

2. _Gua-ibba_ that go. _Vai_ It.

_zinato_ angry. _irato._ _macabuca_ not care. _non curo._

3. _Dios_ Spanish G.o.d. _Dio_ It.

_Aboria_ Servant. _Servo._ _dacha_ I am. _Sono._

This idiom or position of words is perfect in Italian which admits of many transpositions; but in English syntax and idiom these phrases mean

1. Be quiet, G.o.d will be very angry.

2. Begone, I do not care if he is angry.

3. I am the servant of the Spanish G.o.d.

The Haytian numbers have not been transmitted to us, and I could only collect the following secondary numbers-_Ata_ first, _Bem_ second, _Abem_ third: which however are primitive and indicate a binary numeration: although the language had probably the decimals.

By a careful a.n.a.lytical process I have been able to decompose the compound words, and even reach their monosyllabic roots. All the long words can be thus a.n.a.lyzed, and show that this compound form only arises, as usual in American languages, by the blunders of the Spanish writers, who wrote long words instead of short ones; blending articles and affixes. The Haytian thus a.n.a.lyzed and reduced is a very simple language, approximating to the primitive and oriental forms, wherein short monosyllables of generic import, formed the base of the speech, and became modified by union and relative position.

By these means the following essential roots of the language have been collected, and are given to help future similar investigations of American languages.

Examples of composition.

_Cazabi_ Bread. _Ca-za-bi_ soil-fruitful-life.

_Manati_ Sea cow. _Ma-na-ti_ great-thing-eminent.

_Turei_ Heaven. _T'ur-ei_ Thou-light-be.

_Furzidi_ Cloudy. _Fur-zi-di_ gloom-it-is-day. (or now) _Areiti_ Song, rites. _A-rei-ti_ of reality eminent.

_Nanichi_ Soul. _Na-ni-chi_ thing the active.

_Maroyo_ Moon. _Ma-ro-yo_ great lovely.

74 essential monosyllabic roots of this language or genera of ideas.

A, Of, as, like.

AC, Holy, sacred, religious.

AM, Water, root, plenty.

AN, Male thing, man, people, folk.

AT, One, alone, first, unic.

BA, Father, ancestor, dwelling.

BAL, Raft, floating, wave, sea.

BAN, Wind, air.

BAO, Music, lyre, instrument.

BAT, Beating, game, play, ball.

BEM, Second, double, twin, two, next.

BI, Life, wife, mother.

BOA, Habitation, house.

BOR, Labor, work, va.s.sal, service.