The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations

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Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison) Brinton. The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations

THE ARAWACK LANGUAGE OF GUIANA IN ITS LINGUISTIC AND ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS. BY D. G. BRINTON, M. D

LANGUAGE

PHONETICS

NOUNS

PRONOUNS

ADJECTIVES

VERBS

COMPOSITION OF WORDS AND SENTENCES

AFFILIATIONS OF THE ARAWACK

Vocabulary of the Ancient Language of the Great Antilles

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The earliest specimen of their language under its present name is given by Johannes de Laet in his Novus Orbis, seu Descriptio Indiæ Occidentalis (Lugd. Bat. 1633). It was obtained in 1598. In 1738 the Moravian brethren founded several missionary stations in the country, but owing to various misfortunes, the last of their posts was given up in 1808. To them we owe the only valuable monuments of the language in existence.

Their first instructor was a mulatto boy, who assisted them in translating into the Arawack a life of Christ. I cannot learn that this is extant. Between 1748 and 1755 one of the missionaries, Theophilus Schumann, composed a dictionary, Deutsch-Arawakisches Wœrterbuch, and a grammar, Deutsch-Arawakische Sprachlehre, which have remained in manuscript in the library of the Moravian community at Paramaribo. Schumann died in 1760, and as he was the first to compose such works, the manuscript dictionary in the possession of Bishop Wullschlägel, erroneously referred by the late Professor von Martius to the first decade of the last century, is no doubt a copy of Schumann’s.

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There is no article, either definite or indefinite, and no declension of nouns.

To the question, How many at a time? the answer is:

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