304
RESEMBLANCE
OF SOUNDS.
PARENI TONGUE. Cacao Tobacco Pimento Mimosa inga Cecropia peltata Agaric
This
MAYPURE TONGUE.
Cacavua* Jеmа (Pumake) (Caraba) (Jocovi) (Cajuli) Puziana (Pagiana) Sinapa (Achinafe) Meteuba(Meuteufafa) Puriana vacavi Puriana vacavi uschanite Puriassima vacavi
comparison
seems to
prove
Jema
Papeta (Popetas) Avanume (Avanome) Apekiva Pejiiveji) (Jaliva
(Javiji)
that the analogies ob
served in the roots of the Pareni and the Maypure tongues are not frequent Maypure Moxos,
to
he neglected; they are, however, scarcely more
than of
those that
the Upper
have b een
Orinoco
which is spoken
from
15°
their
pronunciation
to
of
20°
on
south the
ob served
and
the
b anks
latitude.
English
th,
need
not
again
notice
the
The
origin
roots
b etween
furnishes
the
Parenis
the
little
against
the
have in
word
the
German from the Persian and the Greek.
camosi.
proof of com
nations as the dissimilitude
evidence
of
Marmora,
(devil, evil spirit).
of
Solitary resemb lances of sounds are as munication
of
or tsa of the Arab ians,
as I clearly heard in the word Amethami I
b etween t h e
the language
affiliation
a
of
of
few the
It is remarkab le,
however, that the names of the sun and moon are sometimes found
to b e identical
in
languages,
the
grammatical
con
depends. I may here mention, that the word Teo, or Teot, which in Aztec signifies God (Teotl, properly Teo, for tl is only a termination), is found in the language of the Betoï of the Rio Mela. The name of the moon, in this language so remarkab le for the complication of its gram matical structure, is Teo-ro. The name of the sun is Teo-umasoi. The particle ro designates a woman, umasoi a man. Among the Betoï, the Maypures, and so many other nations of b oth continents, the moon is believed to be the wife of the sun. But what is this root Teo? It appears to me very doub tful, that Teo-ro should signify God-woman, for Memelu is the name of the Allpowerful Being in the Betoï language. * Has this word b een introduced from a communication with Europeans? It is almost identical with the Mexican (Aztec) word cacava.