The General Directorate of Culture and Cultural Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands is carrying out a comparative study between the ancient Canary languages, which disappeared after the conquest, and the Amazigh languages of the African continent, focusing on the toponymy of the latter.
Through this research, focused on Canary Amazigh toponymy in relation to human anatomical lexicon, the aim is to clarify the origin of the first settlement of the archipelago, the inter-island relations in aboriginal times, and the historical links with the Amazigh communities of North Africa, as detailed this Monday by the Executive in a statement.
The ancient Canary languages, which disappeared after the conquest between the 16th and 17th centuries, have been the subject of numerous scientific studies and social debates.
However, there are few systematic analyses that compare the linguistic legacy of the aboriginal society, mainly preserved in toponymy, with twenty of the continental Amazigh languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and Egypt, the note adds.
This pioneering study, led by linguist specializing in Amazigh languages Massinissa Garaoun, has analyzed more than a thousand place names of Amazigh origin in the islands of the archipelago, of which thirteen are related to the head and face.
These anatomical terms are documented in the chronicles of the conquest, historical documents, cadastral archives, ancient cartography of the Canary Islands, and oral tradition.
According to the Executive, this research focuses on the lexicon related to the anatomical structure of humans because these terms "are part of the basic vocabulary and are less likely to evolve or be borrowed from other languages," says Garaoun.
In this way, the aim is not only to "affirm the genetic affiliation of the ancient Canary languages with Amazigh, but also to classify the island and continental languages among themselves," he emphasizes.
For the General Director of Culture and Cultural Heritage, Miguel Ángel Clavijo, "the expansion of knowledge about the linguistic heritage of the archipelago reinforces identity and promotes historical memory."
In addition, with this type of project, "we promote greater awareness about the common history between North Africa and the Canary Islands," he claimed.
In this first phase, thirteen anatomical terms referring to neck, throat, chin, beard, nose, eyes, eyebrow, forehead, jaw, cheek, and head belonging to eleven different Amazigh roots have been documented.
The analysis concluded that the majority of the place names are present in at least two islands, although several of these "are sometimes identical in almost the entire archipelago," explains Garaoun, as is the case of "amar, tamart" which means "chin, beard."
Another striking example is the pan-Amazigh name "allen" which translates as "eye" and designates "source."
This semantic pair is in use in several contemporary Amazigh languages, especially Saharan ones, and in the case of the Canary Islands, this place name is documented in several places in La Palma, Tenerife, and El Hierro to refer to areas of springs or water sources.
In this sense, the results reveal that "the island Amazigh languages show a remarkable homogeneity between islands," says the linguist, but do not show affinity with the western (Mauritania and Niger) or eastern (Libya and Egypt) continental Amazigh languages, and also do not share the phonetic characteristics of the Zenata languages.
Proximity to communities in southern Morocco
In contrast, "various indications point to a genetic proximity with the languages of the Masmuda," Garaoun anticipates.
This is an Amazigh group currently represented by communities in southern Morocco such as the Chleuhs and the Ghomaras.
This connection with one of the oldest tribes in North Africa suggests that the first inhabitants of the archipelago could have migrated from this region of the Moroccan Atlantic coast.
The findings obtained not only represent a first step towards the recovery and classification of a part of the lexicon of the Amazigh languages that disappeared in the islands, but also raise new hypotheses about the first human settlement of the archipelago by determining the Amazigh linguistic family to which they belong, the note indicates.
The study, financed by the Government of the Canary Islands, has been developed by the specialized company Arqueometra with the participation of Rumén Sosa and Martín Dorta, for the work of linguistics and toponymy; Julie Campagne, for translation and revision; and the archaeologists José de León and Juan Francisco as scientific experts.
