Re: [tied] Guanches in the Canary Islands

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001 23:23:50 -0000, dvj1uk@... wrote:

>Not really a linguistic question but one that I hope is of interest.
>When the Spanish conquered the Canary islands in the 15th century
>they described the population of the islands, the so called Guanches,
>as being tall,often fair haired and blue eyed. Their society was what
>we would call neolithic and they apparently had no seafaring skills.
>Their origin is wreathed in mystery. Amongst the suggestions that
>I've come across is that they were descendents of Cro-Magnon man,
>(surely not),

Surely yes (but so is everybody else in Europe, North-Africa and the
Near East).

>that they were related to the Berbers of North Africa,
>descendents of some Ibero-Celtic people,(unlikely?),and even that
>some Nordic tribe settled there,(the most unlikely of all, given the
>lack of navigational skills?).

The Berber theory is the most likely, as it is apparently confirmed by
what little linguistic data there is. (Lack of navigational skills is
irrelevant: they must have had them once in order to reach the
islands).

>I'm told that the name Guanche comes
>from their native language and means 'man'. Does anyone know any more
>about their language and does it give a clue as to their origin?

I don't know much about the language, merely the numerals as they are
given in Mark Rosenfelder's web page (www.zompist.com/numbers.shtml).
The following is my interpretation of them:

The numbers from Gran Canaria:
1. nait < ?
2. sm-etti ~ Berber *sin (?)
3. amelo-tti < ?
4. acod-etti ~ Berber *(o)kkuz.
5. simus-etti ~ Berber *semmus
6. ses-etti ~ Berber *sad.is
7. sa-tti ~ Berber *sa:
8. tama-tti ~ Berber *ta:m
9. alda marava ~ Berber *ad.d.aw meraw
10. marava ~ Berber meraw

The numbers from Tenerife:
1. ben ~ Berber *iwen > *iyen
2. lini ~ Berber *sin (< *s'in ?)
3. amia-t, cf. GC amelo-tti
4. arba < Sem. 'arba`-
5. cansa < Sem. xamsa-
6. sumus ~ Berber *semmus "5" ("and one" elided)
7. sà-t ~ Berber *sa:
8. se-t ~ Berber *kirad. > *s^rad. "3" ("five and" elided) (?)
9. aco-t ~ Berber *(o)kkuz. "4" ("five and" elided)
10. marago ~ Berber *meraw (< *maraGo ?)

For amelotti/amiat "3", cf. perhaps Egyptian */xamtaw/ "3".

>Finally, and I hope this isn't a daft question, could there be some
>environmental factor to explain their 'fair' appearance; for instance
>dietaty or chemical?

Genes. There are "fair haired, blue-eyed" Berbers in the Atlas
mountains of Morocco as well.


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...