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COMPARISON OF THE DRAVIDIAN *

 

AND GUANCHE LANGUAGES

[Contacts]

 

 

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Introduction     Guanche Toponyms & Theonyms     Nyland's Comments

 

 

Introduction

 

          In his book, Linguistic Archaeology, Edo Nyland compared the Dravidian language with that of Guanche.   He stated that, “Guanche is the name of the language which was spoken by the native population of the Canary Islands until the Spaniards came and massacred a large number of the inhabitants around 1,500 A.D. Mr. Arysio Nunes dos Santos discovered a relationship between Guanche and Dravidian, similar to what the eminent linguist Dr. N. Lahovary had described between Basque and Dravidian in his book: “Dravidian Origins and the West. What we are likely dealing with in these languages is remnants of the original language spoken in the Neolithic Sahara. This happened at the time of the disastrous desertification of that part of the world (see Climate), which had scattered the population to almost all ocean shores of the earth. That original language is not the same, of course, as the Basque spoken today, but a much earlier form of it, without the invented, formulaically enhanced VCV vocabulary added in. “

 

          Nyland also noted that a few linguists have identified a large number of languages which also belong to this group: Numidian, Tuareg, Western Berber (Zenaga), Northern Berber (Tamahac), Southern Berber (Tamazheq), Eastern Berber (Siwa, Awjila-Sokna, Ghadames), Atlas (Shilha, Tamazight), Kabyle, Zenati (19 dialects) several of them still spoken. To this Neolithic group must also be added the large group of Dravidian languages spoken in India by some 160 million people, the Ainu language of Northern Japan with 17,000 speakers and Ancient Egyptian (extinct), including Coptic, which is still spoken as a liturgical language. Even the Polynesian languages seem to fit in this group.

 

          Nyland found that Arysio Nunes collected as many Guanche words as possible and then compared them with Dravidian. Dravidian equivalents were obtained from “A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary” by T. Burrows and M.B. Emeneau (Oxford 1984). Arysio added that one should pay attention to the phonetic correspondences only, disregarding the actual spelling, because of the Dravidian alphabet being different from the Roman one adopted for the Guanche language. It must be assumed that he did his work well, because Nyland was unable to verify it.  The condition for using Arysio’s material is that the following address be cited:

 

 

Guanche

 

Meaning

 

Dravidian

 

Meaning

 

achaman

heaven

ox-am-an

the upper expanse

achano

year

ajja-no

time division

achicaxna

people

acchi-sagina

lowly crowd

achimencey

king’s relative

acchi-menka

king’s relatives

achit

long live, hail

akchi, agi-t

hail

achimayek

mother, grandmother

acchi-mayi-ek

Great Mother of God

achoron

earth

achurun

marshy land

ahico

leather shirt

ayi-kov

breast cover

ahof

milk

ay-ubi

breast food

amulan

lard

am-ullu

liquid fat

ahoren

barley bread

av-ari

baked-barley

añepa

royal staff

anne-pal

royal staff

ara

goat

ar

goat

armenine

grasslands

aram-meyni

grazing field

banot

javelin

ihpa-not

sharp-javelin

beñasmen

crop, harvest feast

panna-as-men

ripe fruit crop

bucio

conch trumpet

pucci

spurt of sound

cancha

dog

kunchi

red dog

ere

pond

eri

pond

ganigo

pot, jar

kann-iku

water vessel

gofio

bread

guvi-u

parched sweet cake

goro

corral

gor-o

sheep pen

guan

man

gand

hero, male

guanamene

prophet, seer

kan-amani

father seer

guanar-teme

king of the nation

gan(d)-ak-tempe

king of the nation

guañac

country, nation

gan(d)-ak

land of the heroes

guanil

loose cattle

kan-iyal

loose cattle

guayca

leather legging

kay-ka

leg protection

guayota

the devil

kay-ota

the fiery lord

gujon

ship

kuccham

mast

hachichey

peas, beans

a-chik-kay

edible beans

haña

sheep herd

ana, kana

flock, herd

irichen

wheat, grain

arichi

rice, grain

magec

god (the sun)

mangeh

bull = Shiva

mencey

king

menkay

king

mocan

type of fruit

manka

mango

quevehi

your highness

cevvai

your highness

sigoñe

captain, chief

cek-kon

head leader

tabone

knife

tarpuni

knife, blade

tagoror

council,

takkor

worthy persons

tajaraste

name of dance

takcha-arasati

royal dance

tamazanona

barley mixed with ground meat

tam-acchana-anna

food made of ground grain and ground meat

tamaragua

good morning

itam-eruka

promising morning

tamarco

goatskin dress

atta-makar

goat skin

tano, taro

barley, grain

(t)aru

grain, food

tenique

flexible mace

tanka, donik

mace

toya

fern

tai

tender edible sprouts

teme

king ?

tempe

chieftain

vacaguare

I prefer to die

vaka-k-ari

I choose to die

xerco

sandals

cherpu

sandals

xaco

mummy, corpse

chacchu

corpse

           

 

Guanche Toponyms and Theonyms (Interpretation in Dravidian)

 

“The Dravidian etymologies for these names are tentative and are offered as evidence of the explanatory power of that language.”

 

Guanche

Etymology or Place

Dravidian

Etymology or Place

 

Acentejo

falling waters

a-cem-tiyu

place of water fall

Aguare

Paradise (valley)

akar-e

celestial heights

Añaze

Name of beach

aniy-acha

beautiful beach

Anaga

kingdom in Tenerife

an-aka

supreme

Arautapola

city of Taoro kingdom

Arayata-poly

Royal City

Atidamane

Name of great queen

atti-tamman

mother of the people

Benahoare

my land

(M)ena-(kh)are

my country

Bimbache

people from Hierro

Vin-bach

land of the brave

Canarias

Island of the dogs

cham-ari

island of Cham

Chenech, Chinech

name on Tenerife

che-nek

pure land

Echeyde (Teyde)

the luminous one

Ecch-eyd

white, fiery mountain

Gomera

one of the Canaries

Gomeda

fat cattle

Guachimara

royal princess

kaci-mara

golden beauty

Guanche

purified by fire

Cham-che

the golden heroes

Guan-Chenech

of chenek, Guanches

gan(d)-che-nek

pure land

Hero

Hierro, Ferro

Hiera

holy

Magec

the sun as god

Machek

dark sun = Vishnu

Maxorata

Fuerta Venture

Macchu-irata

golden abode

Tacaronte

Guanche realm

ita-koruntu

land of fat cattle

Tamaran

Gran Canaria

ita-maram

land of the braves

Taoro

kingdom of Tenerife

ita-oru

land of union

Tenerife

white mountain

tin-eriv

shiny mountain

 

          Nyland continued that “A similar Guanche-Basque list could easily be made, e.g. achimencey (king’s relative) relates to atxikidura (family relation), achaman (heaven) comes close to akabu (death, supreme), ara (goat) and Basque aragi (meat), kara (goat) and Basque kara (in heat), Arautapola (capital of the Taoro kingdom) and Basque arautu (to legislate) etc. It looks to me like Guanche is derived from the original, unmanipulated Saharan language, just like Basque, Berber, Tuareg and Ainu.”

 

EDO NYLAND’S ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

 

          “Arysio Nunes dos Santos, the author of the above word comparisons, expresses amazement at the fact that Guanche and Dravidian, separated by such a huge gap in both time and space, still resemble each other so closely. He attributes this to the fact that both races were fairly well sheltered from alien contact and influence, the Dravidians down to the present, the Guanches down to the extinction of their culture at the end of the 15th century. He goes on to speak about the relationship to the Aryan languages, which is where he and I part ways. He is convinced that the Guanches were blond, blue-eyed people, just like the Aryans and that they came from Java or Sumatra in Indonesia. Having been in both these places, I can assure the reader that there are no blond, blue-eyed and tall tribes in Indonesia that even remotely resemble the blond people of Europe. “

 

         “ I find it very hard to believe that any of the original Guanches was blond and blue eyed. Virtually all blond people are Rh-positive. The Berbers from Morocco are Rh-negative and they have been sailing this part of the ocean for well over 12,000 years. The nearest blond people were the Shardana from Cyrenaica (Kirru-unai-ika) in eastern Libya and they concentrated their activities in the Black Sea, not the Atlantic ocean. There is no evidence of these two very different races mixing in the Canaries until the blond Spaniards arrived. It will take some convincing to believe that the original Guanches were blond. Until then it would be best to consider that they were dark-featured Berbers.”

 

 

==========================================

For further detail, please refer to:

 

          Nyland, Edo.  2001.  Linguistic Archaeology: An
               Introduction.   Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.

               ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p. [ see abstract & summary]

 

          Nyland, Edo.  2002.  Odysseus and the Sea Peoples: A

               Bronze Age History of Scotland  Trafford Publ., Victoria,

               B.C., Canada.  307 p.   [see abstract & summary].
 

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