Guanche language
| Guanche | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Spain ( Afro-Asiatic (?)
|
Standard forms |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gnc |
gnc | |
| Glottolog | guan1277 |
Guanche is an
Classification
Guanche has not been classified with any certainty. Many
History
The name Guanche originally referred to a "man from
The first reliable account of the Guanche language was provided by the Genovese explorer
Numerals
Guanche numerals are attested from several sources, not always in good agreement (Barrios 1997). Some of the discrepancies may be due to copy errors, some to gender distinctions, and others to Arabic borrowings in later elicitations. Recco's early 1341 record notably uses Italian-influenced spelling.
| Number | Recco (1341) |
Cairasco (song, 1582) |
Cedeño (c. 1685) |
Marín de Cubas (1687, 1694) |
Sosa (copy of 1678) |
Abreu (attrib. to 1632) |
Reyes (1995 reconstruction) |
Proto-Berber
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | vait* | *be | ben, ven-ir- | becen~been, ben-ir- | ben, ben-ir- | been (ben?), ben-i- | *wên | *yiwan |
| 2 | smetti, smatta- | *smi | liin, lin-ir- | liin, sin-ir-~lin-ir- | lini (sijn) | lini, lini- | *sîn | *sin |
| 3 | amelotti, amierat- | *amat | amiet | amiet~amiat, am-ir- | amiat (amiet) | amiat | *amiat | *karaḍ |
| 4 | acodetti, acodat- | *aco | arba | arba | arba | arba | *akod | *hakkuẓ |
| 5 | simusetti, simusat- | *somus | canza~canse | canza | cansa | canza | *sumus | *sammus |
| 6 | sesetti, sesatti- | ? | sumus | sumui~sumus | sumus | smmous | *sed | *saḍis |
| 7 | satti | *set | sat | sat | sat (sá) | sat | *sa | *sah |
| 8 | tamatti | *tamo | set | set | set | set | *tam | *tam |
| 9 | alda-marava,
nait |
? | acet~acot | acot | acot | acot | *aldamoraw | *tiẓ(ẓ)ah~tuẓah |
| 10 | marava | *marago | marago | marago | marago | marago | *maraw~maragʷ | *maraw |
* Also nait,' an apparent copy error. Similarly with alda-morana for expected *alda-marava.
Later attestations of 11–19 were formed by linking the digit and ten with -ir: benirmarago, linirmarago, etc. 20–90 were similar, but contracted: linago, amiago, etc. 100 was maraguin, apparently 10 with the Berber plural -en. Recco only recorded 1–16; the combining forms for 11–16, which did not have this -ir-, are included as the hyphenated forms in the table above.
Spanish does not distinguish [b] and [v], so been is consistent with *veen. The Berber feminine ends in -t, as in Shilha 1: yan (m), yat (f); 2: sin (m), snat (f), and this may explain discrepancies such as been and vait for 'one'.
Cairasco is a misparsed counting song, besmia mat acosomuset tamobenir marago. Ses '6' may have got lost in the middle of somuset ( ← *somussesset).
Starting with Cedeño, new roots for '2' and '9' appear ('9' perhaps the old root for '4'), new roots for '4' and '5' (arba, kansa) appear to be Arabic borrowings, and old '5', '6', '7' offset to '6', '7', '8'.
Vocabulary
Below are selected Guanche vocabulary items from a 16th-century list by
Guanche English gloss adara lake afaro grain aguere lake ahof, aho milk ahoren barley meal roasted with butter amen sun ana sheep ara goat aran farm xaxo deceased; mummy banot spear cancha dog cel moon chafa lofty mountain ridge chafaña toasted grain chamato woman coran man coraja red owl e-c, e-g I (1st person) era, iera your guan; ben son (in reality "one of")[8] guañac people; state guaya spirit, life guijon, guyon ships (-n ‘plural’) guirre vulture ( Neophron percnopterus)hacichei beans, vetches hari multitude, people jarco mummy manse shore mayec mother n-amet bone o-che melted butter petut father? t thou, thy th they tabayba Euphorbia tabona obsidian knife tagasaste Cytisus proliferus (var.) taginaste Echium strictum tamarco coat of skins tara barley taraire, tagaire alternative name for Mt. Teid xerco shoe xerax sky zonfa navel
Below are some additional basic vocabulary words in various Guanche dialects, from Wölfel (1965):[9]
Guanche gloss dialect (island) guan, cotan man chamato woman hari people, multitude Tenerife doramas nostrils Gran Canaria adargoma shoulder Gran Canaria atacaicate heart Gran Canaria garuaic fist zonfa navel Tenerife agoñe bone Tenerife taber good La Palma tigotan sky La Palma Achamán sky, God Tenerife magec sun Tenerife, Gran Canaria? ahemon water Hierro aala(mon) water Gomera, Hierro ade water La Palma ide fire Tenerife tacande volcanic field La Palma cancha dog Gran Canaria, Tenerife garehagua dog La Palma
References
- ^ a b Maarten Kossmann, Berber subclassification (preliminary version), Leiden (2011)
- ^ Richard Hayward, 2000, "Afroasiatic", in Heine & Nurse eds, African Languages, Cambridge University Press
- ^ Andrew Dalby, Dictionary of Languages, 1998, p. 88 "Guanche, indigenous language of the Canary Islands, is generally thought to have been a Berber language."
- ^ Bynon J., "The contribution of linguistics to history in the field of Berber studies." In: Dalby D, (editor) Language and history in Africa New York: Africana Publishing Corporation, 1970, p 64-77.
- ^ a b Militarev, Alexander (2018). "Libyo-Berbers-Tuaregs-Canarians (Tamâhaq Tuaregs in the Canary Islands in the Context of Ethno-Linguistic Prehistory of Libyo-Berbers: Linguistic and Inscriptional Evidence)". Research Gate.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 650–651, line two.
....man of Teneriffe," corrupted, according to Nuñez de la Peña, by Spaniards into Guanchos
- ^
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Espinosa, Alonso de; Markham, Clements Robert (ed.). 1907. The Guanches of Tenerife, the holy image of Our Lady of Candelaria, and the Spanish conquest and settlement. (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, second series, 21.) London: Hakluyt Society. 229pp.
- ^ Reyes, Ignacio (2017-09-14). "Guan". DICCIONARIO ÍNSULOAMAZIQ (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-11-26.
- ^ Wölfel, Dominik Josef. 1965. Monumenta linguae Canariae: Die kanarischen Sprachdenkmäler. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.
Further reading
- Osorio Acevedo, Francisco. 2003. Gran diccionario guanche: el diccionario de la lengua de los aborígenes canarios. Tenerife: CajaCanarias. ISBN 9788479264253
- Villarroya, José Luis de Pando. 1996. Diccionario de voces guanches. Toledo: Pando Ediciones.
- Villarroya, José Luis de Pando. 1987. Diccionario de la lengua Guanche. Madrid: Pando Ediciones.
- Zyhlarz, Ernst. 1950. Das kanarische Berberisch in seinem sprachgeschichtlichen Milieu. Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft 100: 403-460.
- Esteban, José M. 2003. Vocabulario canario guanche. Autores científico-técnicos y académicos 30:119-129.
External links
- José Barrios: Sistemas de numeración y calendarios de las poblaciones bereberes de Gran Canaria y Tenerife en los siglos XIV-XV (PhD Dissertation, 1997)
- Gerhard Böhm: Monumentos de la Lengua Canaria e Inscripciones Líbicas (Department of African Studies, University of Vienna - Occasional Paper No. 4 / February 2006)
