The Relationship Between The Basque And Ainu

High Speed Plus ^ | 1996 | Edo Nyland

[blam]

I found this article linked to a post I made a couple years ago. I have no idea who is Edo Nyland, consequently, I'm skeptical.

[blam]

The Samurai And The Ainu

[blam]

Ping.

[motife]

fascinating!!

Some think the Basque are an isolated remnant of Cro Magnon man in Europe.

[Polybius]

Some think the Basque are an isolated remnant of Cro Magnon man in Europe.

When mention that to my half-sister, whoser father has Basque roots, she is never amused. :-)

[siunevada]

I have no idea who is Edo Nyland, consequently, I'm skeptical.

I skimmed through his biography after Googling his home page. Interesting.

[blam]

"I skimmed through his biography after Googling his home page. Interesting."

Didn't think of that

Edo Nyland Home Page

[RightWhale]

Ainu and Aleut could be close. That wouldn't be a stretch at all, either in distance or time.

As to 'knocked up' that is taken as slang, but it could be cant and could be from much older street language, koine or prakrit.

[blam]

"These astute navigators of the Pacific must also have discovered the west coast of North America at a very early date. "

I once saw a DNA 'break-down' for Kennewick Man, at the top of the list of genetic comnections was: 1. Ainu 2. Polynesian (I can't remember the others)
The 9,300 year old Kennewick Man skeleton was found in Washington state.

Jomon (pre-Ainu in Japan) type cord-pottery has been found in Olmec ruins in Mexico

[blam]

"As to 'knocked up' that is taken as slang, but it could be cant and could be from much older street language, koine or prakrit."

One never knows.

All my life I have corrected my mother's word for 'hair.' She pronounces it as 'haar' and I always thought it was southern slang. During all this anthropology/archaeology learning I've done over the last few years I've learned that the Old English and Old High German word for hair is HAAR! I don't correct her anymore, lol. (Both sides of my family have English backgrounds)

[Fedora]

I'm skeptical, too, on methodological grounds. "Basque" is a cultural designation based largely on language, and our knowledge of the Basque language and the people who speak/spoke it is pretty recent, dating back no earlier than--I would infer--the Greco-Roman period. "Ainu" seems to be a more racial designation, but once we start talking about Ainu religion we're getting into a cultural definition based on fairly recent knowledge from the past millennia-plus or so; whereas this article makes statements about Ainu religion in 5000 BC, long before any written records in Japan, and it also makes inferences about Ainu migrations based on projecting backwards from current knowledge of the Ainu language to hypothetical migrations that supposedly may have taken place "millennia ago". This procedure seems very speculative to me. The linguistic argument also seems very weak--this type of linguistic argument from common-sounding words was common in the 19th century but has fallen out of favor because of problems with this method that have since been pointed out.

[RightWhale]

I believe there are many 'southern' accents. Furthermore, I believe they are descended from the various people of different ethnicity that originally settled the various regions. Probably the most manufactured American accent is the standard TV news accent. My ears began to open when a Carolinian gal complained how I spoke in diphthongs all the time as do all Yankees. It seems Yankees can't make a simple vowel sound, they always make it like two vowels together. All the time I thought she had a drawl when it is the other way around.

[blam]

"Some think the Basque are an isolated remnant of Cro Magnon man in Europe."

I read the same about the early people found on the Canary Islands. Cro-Magnon had a larger brain than all humans today. (Did they have a higher IQ?)

[blam]

"Archaeologists have determined that the Ainu have been living on many of Japan's islands, from Okinawa to Sakhalin, for 7,000 years and likely longer. Their Jomon pottery is found everywhere; it is characteristic although somewhat clumsy and can be dated from 5,000 B.C. until just before the Christian era."

The Jomon are usually shown as being distinct and earlier than the Ainu in Japan. The oldest Jomon skeleton ever found in Japan is 13,000 years old.

Jomon Culture

[SwedeCon]

Edo Nyland is famed nonsense non-scientist. But very entertaining. His methods are so far fetched that it is possible to prove the connection of any words in any language.

He has a homepage where you can see his method of analysing and reconstructing relationships between words and names. It is very entertaining for someone with enough brains and geeky enough. I'm not sure if the guy is serious and just plain crazy, or if he does it to annoy or mock serious "comparative linguists".
His homepage:
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~edonon/

[JimSEA]

I'm skeptical.

Even so it is a great post. As far as I am concerned, the past, like the present, was complex and development multifacited.

[Russian Sage]

If I remember the figure correctly, with any two unrelated languages, 40% of functional words will sound roughly alike

Also, I'm really underwhelmed with a lot of the the matches:

• to be bald vs. crested, plumed
• bald head vs. heads or tails
• to be deaf vs. old, ancient
• lips vs. breast

But thanks. I'm always interested in the stuff you post.

[blam]

"As far as I am concerned, the past, like the present, was complex and development multifacited."

I agree.

I've read that there is some linguistic relationship between the Basque language and at least one of the American Indian languages. Have you ever heard anything along that line?

[blam]

"If I remember the figure correctly, with any two unrelated languages, 40% of functional words will sound roughly alike."

Maybe all languages are related at some level. Huh? (also, how many different combination of sounds can a human make?)

[gonzo]

Thanks, pal! Always interested in anything to do with the Basque.

Their language is unique, and I believe their race is well over 20,000 years old. Interesting............FRegards