Toponimia prehispánica de Canarias: Posibilidades, perspectivas y limitaciones

Abstract

Those surviving place names from the ancient language spoken by the natives of the Canaries are revealed as a matter of special interest to be studied and facilitate the positive and effective approach to the old Canarian language but it is important to realize that we are facing an aspect of the linguistic research which demands, as a prioritary task, the working out of an exhaustive catalogue of all the prehispanic place names which have survived both in the tradition and in the texts and which at the same time claims a scientific view, a responsible treatment and the sincere and honest acceptance of the final conclusions which can be reached from the analysis of a scarce body of linguistic units that have been corrupted by means of oral and textual transmision and which belong to a language now lost and whose internal nature remains totally unknown to us.