eface to his _Diccionario Provincial casi-razonado de Voces
Cubanas_, (Habana, 2da ed, 1849). He has found very many words of the
ancient language retained in the provincial Spanish of the island, but
of course in a corrupt form. In the vocabulary which I have prepared for
the purpose of comparison, I have omitted all such corrupted forms, and
nearly all names of plants and animals, as it is impossible to identify
these with certainty, and in order to obtain greater accuracy, have
used, when possible, the first edition of the authors quoted, and in
most instances, given under each word a reference to some original
authority.

From the various sources which I have examined, the alphabet of the
_lengua universal_ appears to have been as follows: a, b, d, e, (rarely
used at the commencement of a word), g, j, (an aspirated guttural like
the Catalan j, or as Peter Martyr says, like the Arabic ch), i (rare), l
(rare), m, n, o (rare,) p, q, r, s, t, u, y. These letters, it will be
remembered, are as in Spanish.

The Spanish sounds z, ce, ci (English th,) ll, and v, were entirely
unknown to the natives, and where they appear in indigenous words, were
falsely written for l and b. The Spaniards also frequently distorted the
native names by writing x for j, s, and z, by giving j the sound of the
Latin y, and by confounding h, j, and f, as the old writers frequently
employ the h to designate the _spiritus asper_, whereas in modern
Spanish it is mute.[19]

Peter Martyr found that he could reduce all the words of their language
to writing, by means of the Latin letters without difficulty, except in
the single instance of the guttural j. He, and all others who heard it
spoken, describe it as "soft and not less liquid than the Latin," "rich
in vowels and pleasant to the ear," an idiom "simple, sweet, and
sonorous."[20]

In the following vocabulary I have not altered in the least the Spanish
orthography of the words, and so that the analogy of many of them might
at once be preceived,[TN-5] I have inserted the corresponding Arawack
expression, which, it must be borne in mind, is to be pronounced by the
German alphabet.

VOCABULARY OF THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF THE GREAT ANTILLES.

Aji, red pepper. Arawack, _achi_, red pepper.

Aon, dog (Las Casas, Hist. Gen. lib. I, c. 120). Island Ar. _anli_, dog.

Arcabuco, a wood, a spot covered with trees (Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las
Indias, lib. VI, c,[TN-6] 8). Ar. _arragkaragkadin_ the swayi