Impaginato 5.p65 - Universitat Rovira i Virgili

EVIDENCE IN FAVOR OF THE PALAEOLITHIC CONTINUITY REFUGIUM THEORY (PCRT)
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and to a «butterfly». That same semantic linkage is found between other
phonological variants of hamalau, that is, connections between hamalau and
insects, particularly shape-shifting insects, as has been pointed out previously
in this investigation. Thus, that the same word has both of these meanings
makes the case even stronger: that inguma belongs to the same lineage, the
same word field as the other variants, and, therefore, that it derives ultimately
from hamalau.
Viewed from this perspective, the replicated version mahumahu gave rise to
a phonological variant in mahuma and then over time mahuma underwent further
reanalysis, producing inguma. As noted, the latter expression also refers to a
«butterfly», the «night visitor» as well as to the incubus-succubus phenomenon.
Obviously, if all one had to work with was the final phonological shape of inguma
it would not occur to a linguist to trace that word’s etymology back to hamalau.
Yet there is little doubt about the phonological track followed by the expression
inguma, as one earlier variant form after another underwent phonological
transformation, bringing about phonological and semantic reduction.
When I speak of «semantic reduction» I am referring to the loss of the original
meaning of the term hamalau; the fact that it is a number: that it originally
meant «fourteen». Indeed, it would appear that this meaning exists only at the
head of the semantic chain, i.e., occupying the top node of the etymological
lineage leading to the formation inguma, while the immediate ancestral forms
of inguma, i.e., mamu, mahuma, etc. would have already lost that basic numeric
meaning, leaving a more restricted semantic field in place here only the notions
of the «night visitor» and «insects» were operating. It is also quite possible that
these processes of change were influenced by dialectal variants repeatedly coming
into contact with each other, a process that would have contributed to the loss of
recognition of the underlying semantic contents of the expressions.
Finally, inguma was used not just a common noun, but also as a proper
name, concretely, a form of address used when talking to the mysteriouos being
itself. This fact further supports an indigenous evolution of the term and its
original derivation from hamalau: it reinforces the assumption that inguma
belongs to the same lineage. For example, this obviously ritualized bedtime
prayer addressed to Inguma is found in the Labourdin dialect:
Inguma, enauk bildur, Jingoa ta Andre Maria artzen tiat lagun; zeruan izar, lurrean
belar, kostan hare, hek guziak kondatu arte ehadiela nereganat ager (‘Inguma, I’m
not afraid of you, I take refuge in God and the Virgin Mary; stars in the sky, [blades
of] grass on the ground, [grains of] sand on the beach, until you have counted all of
these, don’t present yourself to me’.) (Azkue 1969, vol. 1: 443).