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Archiver > Melungeon > 2000-11 > 0973866957


From: "Mike and Gloria Nassau" <>
Subject: [Melungeon] Arabic "Melun Jinn" and Portuguese "Melungo"
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 09:35:57 -0500


There seems to be someconfusion about the Arabic "Melun Jinn"
and the Portuguese "Melungo" meaning "shipmate". These are not
related and are contradictory claims.

The Turkish "Meluncan" is the Arabic "Melun Jinn" written in the
modern Romanized Turkish orthography (alphabet), this is the
same word, meaning "cursed soul" or "lost soul".

Melungo in Portuguese has a totally separate word, having its
origin in the Bantu languages of southern Africa. The original
Bantu was "Mulungu" meaning "white man". I have not been
able to definitely identify which Bantu language it was from,
but I believe it is the language called Tsonga in Mozambique
(the language of the capital, Maputo) and Shangaan in
South Africa and Zimbabwe. Mulungu would be southern
Bantu if from Mozambique (formerly Portuguese East Africa)
and southwestern Bantu if from Angola. In either case, it is
closely cognate with Muzungu in the Central Bantu languages
like Bemba and Msungu in Swahili (Musungu in other eastern
Bantu languages).

This is a class one noun (human), which takes the prefix mu-
in most Bantu languages. The plural is class two (humans)
which takes the prefix wa- in eastern Bantu, ba- in central
Bantu, va- in Shona, ma- in most southern Bantu (ama- in
Zulu). So in Tonga, muzungu is a white person and
bazungu is white people. The Bantu love vowel harmony
(having all the vowels in a word the same) and aliteration
(having all the words start with the same sound). Bantu
poetry doesn't rhyme, it aliterates. Loaning a word like
mulungu (where it was important to the Bantu to keep the
vowels the same) to Portuguese could well result in
Melungo, with the Portuguese prefering -o for a masculine
word.

Manuel Mira has pushed this as an origin for Melungeon.
I agree with Brent Kennedy that it is extremely unlikely,
for while the spelling is nearly the same, the pronunciation
is very different. I think we can discount this one completely.
I actually think that the French Melongene for eggplant is
more likely, since the sound is about the same, and I think
that eggplant is silly.

French "Melangien" for a person produced by a "Melange"
(mixing) or Arabic "Melun Jinn" both sound very much like
Melungeon and are linguisitically viable. As I said early in
"My linguist friend's answer is...... ", there are real
historical problems with the Arabic but not with French.
French "Melangien" could well have popped up, either
from traders coming up the rivers from the Nashville area
or Huguenot settlers coming from the Carolinas. Thank
you, Ingrid Albers, for you historical input into this
discussion. Thank you, Nancy, for your post "My linguist
friend's answer is...... ", saying that both "Melun Jinn" and
"Melangien" are linguisitcally feasible. I wish some of the
people posting on the Melungeon Family Genealogy
Forum were as civil and honest. For those of you who
missed it because the title didn't say it was about this
question of the origin of the word Melungeon, here is
my reply to Nancy repreated:

Both make sense linguistically, Melun Jinn or Melangien.
Melun Jinn is so much nicer, sort of romantic, the plaint
of the stranded Arabs, Berbers and Turks. I much prefer
it. I just don't believe it. First, I don't think the Muslims
freed from the Spanish were stranded, they were on
their way home and just stopped off for a few months
in Roanoke. Second, and most important, there is no
indication that the Melungeons ever used the term, it
was applied to them by outsiders. Most groups are
named by outsiders,actually. "Lost Soul" or
"Cursed Soul" in Arabic might well be applied to
captives held by the Spanish by their Muslim relatives
back home, but hardly by the English speaking
colonists in Virginia. Then, third, there is the big
problem of the time factor. The name does not
appear for two centuries after Drake's visit to
Roanoke. The timing is about right for French
traders from Louisiana to have named them and
totally wrong for freed Muslim prisoners from the
Spanish colonies. So my vote, regretfully, is for
the French Melangien as the origin.

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