Examples of the second class abound in the dialects of the American continent. One example may suffice in this place, by way of illustration: “Tes-gessu” in some of these dialects means the Sun; in other dialects we find each of its component elements, “_Tês_” and “_Gessu_,” used _separately_ as names of the same luminary. In common with many other important truths, the nature and origin of these compounds are, I conceive, rendered clearly apparent by an extended range of comparison, though they seem to have been a source of embarrassment to the philosophical mind of Du Ponceau, whose valuable inquiries were confined to a particular class of the dialects of North America.
When the results of the previous Analysis are compared with the previous collection of African synonymes, used as names of the Heavenly Bodies, &c., it will be found that _nearly every one_ of these synonymes has been unequivocally connected with the languages of the other three great divisions of the globe. The exceptions are too insignificant to be in any respect deserving of attention, with reference to the objects of this investigation. The completeness of this explanation of the African terms may, in the first instance, form a subject of surprise. But, astonishing as the results of the previous comparison in this respect undoubtedly are, they are nevertheless precisely the same as we should be led _à priori_ to expect, on the assumption that the African nations are descended from the same stock as the inhabitants of the other three continents.(178)
[In the following Analysis, the letter M. marks nouns masculine, (“Vir,” _Latin_, “Man,” _English_;) F. marks nouns feminine, (“Fœmina,” _Latin_, “Woman,” _English_;) H. marks terms applied to a “Human Being,” whether “male” or “female,” (“Homo,” _Latin_, “Mensch,” _German_;) there is no equivalent expression in the English language.]
From the following Analysis, it will be apparent that, originally, the same words were in most instances applied to individuals of the human race, whether male or female, indiscriminately. Subsequently, a portion of the synonymes, thus indiscriminately applied in the first instance to the _whole_ species, were _separately_ appropriated to each of the two sexes; while another portion, as, for example, the Latin, “Homo,” and the German, “Mensch,” continued to be used as general terms for an individual of the species, _without reference to sex_.