Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First

[L. Coyote]

Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First
John Roach - National Geographic News - March 26, 2008
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080326-language-link.html


A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms.

The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the Americas were first settled, according to Edward Vajda, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Since at least 1923 researchers have suggested a connection exists between Asian and North American languages—but this is the first time a link has been demonstrated with established standards ........

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[semillama]

1. The take-away part of the article:

"Based on archaeological evidence of human migrations across the Bering land bridge, the language link may extend back at least 10,000 years.

If true, according to Vajda, this would be the oldest known demonstrated language link.

But more research is needed to determine when the languages originated and how they became a part of various cultures before such a claim will be accepted, according to UC Berkeley linguist Nichols.

"I don't think there is any reason to assume the connection is <10,000 years> old … this must surely be one late episode in a much longer and more complicated history of settlement," she said. "

I agree with the last quote - I think that human occupation of the Americas took place as a series of group movements over the last 20,000 years, and since the Na-Dene language is a northern group (with the exception of Navajo, who likely migrated to the southwest from Canada), the link with a Siberian language is pretty plausible. I'm betting the mother tongue of both languages was probably located in western Siberia, and it's the outlying regions where its descendants are still found.

[L. Coyote]

2. More readings:

The Paleoamericans:
Issues and Evidence Relating to the Peopling of the New World
http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleoamericans.html

The question of human antiquity in the Americas remains one of the great unanswered research problems of science and one of the most contentious and debated issues in American archaeology. First entry is an important question. Important theoretical issues hinge on the location, origin and timing of migrations to the Americas. Despite seventy years of archaeological research and several apparent resolutions to the problem, the timing and mechanisms by which the New World was peopled continues to be debated by specialists. Currently, no definitive evidence exists to establish when the first Americans arrived, or who they were, to the satisfaction of the many researchers in diverse scientific fields focused on the problem. Additionally, researchers are proposing very different answers to this important question.

In this paper I will outline the areas of consensus and of contention ............

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Paleoamerican Origins:
A Review of Hypotheses and Evidence Relating to the Origins
of the First Americans
http://jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleoamerican_origins.html

It is almost universally accepted that the first peopling of the Americas resulted from migrations before 11,200 B.P. from northeastern Asia via Beringia, the continental shelf between Asia and North America (Toth 1991:53). First peopling and Paleoamerican origins are important anthropological questions, with diverse theoretical models hinging on the location, origin and timing of migrations. Different and dissimilar hypotheses regarding Asian homelands, migration routes and migration timelines have been proposed. In this article, I will review first peopling hypotheses and evidence related to the question of possible Paleoamerican homelands. In particular, evidence from Siberia will be compared with North American evidence.

The evidence can be broadly divided into the paleoenvironmental and three anthropological subdisciplines; linguistics, physical anthropology and archaeology. .................