Question - Linguistic Origin of Native Am
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Forum Name: Linguistics
Forum Discription: Discuss linguistics: the study of languages
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2320
Printed Date: 14-Jun-2024 at 18:26
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Topic: Question - Linguistic Origin of Native Am
Posted By: phoenix_bladen
Subject: Question - Linguistic Origin of Native Am
Date Posted: 04-Mar-2005 at 17:24
|
I always hear that european languages come from a huge family of indo-european and that chinese is from a huge family of sino-tibetan
how about native americans ? What and where do they originate from ? Are they also distantly related to languages in Asia? |
Replies:
Posted By: Capt. Lubber
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2005 at 02:13
I tried to read it off of the native american article on wikipedia, but that was one of the worst articles i have ever seen there 
My encyclopedia says that they originate from siberia and came over the bering-strait som 12.000 years ago. Many people object to this as they hav found 25.000 year old human remains in south america. Can't find if their languages is related to anyone outside of the americas, but there are several language groups inside america. And a few isolated languages who aren't connected to anyone ------------- Loke, Attila, the grete conqueror, Deyde in his sleep, with shame and dishonour, Bleedinge ay at the nose in dronkenesse, A captayin shoulde live in sobrenesse |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2005 at 07:59
|
It's unknown. The Eskimo (for the Polical Correct AE'ers: Inuit) and Na
Dene (oa Apache, Eyak, Tlingit) language families have been clearly
recognized. They are distint from all other Native American
(Amerindian) language families, probably because the Eskimos and Na
Dene arrived in the Americas later than the other Native Americas. Some
linguists lump all other Native American languages together in one big
Amerindian Language Family. However, the Amerindian Language Family is
far from generally accepted.
------------- |
Posted By: Feramez
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2005 at 14:06
| I've read that some, I don't know about all, Native American languages were old Turkish dialects from Siberia and areas around there. Over thousands of years being isolated from the people were they originated from, their languages evolved seperatly from eachother. Today there are still, but only a very small handfull, of words that survived the thousands of years. Two examples are Ana-mother and Ata-father. |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2005 at 14:10
The words ama/ana/mama and ata/tata/papa meaning mother and father are found in almost every language, simply because those are the first sounds a baby can make. It has nothing to do with linguistic relations ------------- |
Posted By: Feramez
Date Posted: 05-Mar-2005 at 15:19
| Ok that makes some sense but I didn't say ama/mama or tata/papa. I said Ana and Ata. How many languages use Ana and Ata for mother and father? |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: 06-Mar-2005 at 06:49
dozens, at least. I'd say almost every language that doesn't use ama or apa uses ana or ata (or some derived form) ------------- |
Posted By: Feramez
Date Posted: 06-Mar-2005 at 11:53
| Really? Damn I never heard of that. Can you show me a website that mentions this? |
Posted By: eaglecap
Date Posted: 16-Mar-2005 at 19:11
This is in the Couer d' Alene Indian dialect of Salish Father -Pipe' Mother- Nune Not even close but this is for mother and father so I do know how they would say mamma or pappa, could be different. |
Posted By: Feramez
Date Posted: 16-Mar-2005 at 19:53
| That's one language out of how many of the Native American languages? I forgot which languages use Ana and Ata but a few do. But those words for mother and father don't match up with what MixcoatlToltecahtecuhtli said. Would they be considered dialects of the same language or different languages? |
Posted By: Gubook Janggoon
Date Posted: 16-Mar-2005 at 21:03
They don't line up for all languages..but they generally do for most. ------------- |
Posted By: Tlaloc
Date Posted: 17-Mar-2005 at 23:32
|
What few people realize is that the diversity of North American Native languages far outpaces European. Linguist Edward Sapir confidently stated that [...]quite literally and safely, that in the state of California alone there are greater and more numerous linguistic extremes than can be illustrated in all the lenght of Europe "
Several common Native language peculiarities, such as switch-references (ex: Hopi Pam Pakit Pu' Pam Qatuptu = He came in and he sat down whereas Pam Pakiq Pu' Pam Qatuptu = He came in and he sat down, the bolded 'he' stating it is a different person, a differentiation not available in English or most other language types.) have been found in Polynesian languages of the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea, and Australian Aboriginie populations. Since the South East Asian languages are most likely though to have come from the original staging ground around Taiwan (Source: Diamond, Germs, Guns & Steel ), this would mean that the original speakers came from Asia via Alaska. The difficult part is that North America has many different language families, such as Athabaskan, or Uto-Aztecan (of which Nahuatl, Hopi, and O'odham are part), to other families like Algonquian, Siouan, Tanoan, Wakashan, and a dozen others spread over large areas. Some estimates place the number of seperate language families at an impressive 62, just in north mexico/north america. Adding central america, it jumps to 84 large groupings. Another aspect, that of Polysynthesis (the act of creating words that mean entire sentences, most familiar to everyday people in the long and complex words of Nahuatl) is shared by not only the North Americans, but the Ainu of Japan and Siberian dialects, further strenghtening the claim it was from an original North-eastern Asian language, perhaps from the Altaic family. Sources: Wikipedia, Encyclopedia of North American Indians , edited by Frederick E. Hoxie. |
Posted By: phoenix_bladen
Date Posted: 21-Mar-2005 at 00:38
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wow .....that's some really interesting information.... |
Posted By: eaglecap
Date Posted: 22-Mar-2005 at 19:42
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I will have to dig up the book but in California before the arrival of the Spanish they believe there was over 200 different dialects and languages spoken in that region. Amongst the list of languages and dialects was Uto-Aztecan and Hokan. Another book of mine buried in storage.
I know in Germania, during the time of Julius Caesar, there were many Germanic dialects spoken in that region, minus the Celtic dialects. |